Page 111 of Alfie: Part Two

After that, we stepped outside into the winter cold of southwest Ireland, where the winds were harsh and wet, except…not right now. It was kind of calm.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “Shan and Kellan are still inside.”

“I thought we could take a walk and enjoy a moment to ourselves.”

Awesome idea, despite the cold.

My eardrums needed a break.

I slipped my hand into his as we passed Finn and Emilia’s house, where dim lights glowed in the windows and a big wreath hung on the door. No front yard here. The door opened up right onto the sidewalk.

I couldn’t remember much from my brief visit here years ago, only that I loved the feel of the town. The old town center was like walking into the past. Each house had its own history, and the cobblestone streets had been walked on for hundreds of years.

Finn’s house was from the early 1800s.

“You were amazing on stage. I sent a video to Giulia—notincluding the war cry for the Sons of Munster.”

I smirked to myself and kissed his shoulder. West and I were…scheming.

Step one, start uploading more family photos on Instagram, an app Mom had downloaded—with assistance—in order to catch updates about Trip and Ellie. Not to mention her siblings’ children. Most recently, I’d uploaded a photo of Liam, Nessa, and me. Liam and I were flanking li’l Nessa outside the pub. In short, make Mom see how West and I viewed them. Not as mobsters but as family members.

Step two, wait for Mom’s resolve to shatter.

We’d already seen some results. Over Christmas, she’d asked about Finn and Emilia’s kids. Liam’s too. And she’d expressed wanting to see more of Colby, now that he was part of the family.

“Speaking of, how is the latest Son faring this fine evening?” West asked.

“He’s faring very well.” I squeezed his hand. “But you know it’s mostly you, right? For as happy as they make me, it’s getting back together with you that’s made me the luckiest bastard alive.”

He smiled and shook his head. “You don’t have to say that, baby. Unlike my family, the two you come from know how to make others feel welcome and included. And…when a family does that, the man who could’ve potentially worried he might become an outsider relaxes and begins to consider them family too.”

Fuck me, he always knew what to say. I stopped right there on the sidewalk and pulled him down for a hard kiss.

It was true, wasn’t it? He really did consider my family his as well. Both of them. After all, he was often the one proposing dinners and get-togethers. He was as social as I was; he was just replacing banquets and garden parties with pub nights and barbecues.

Now that it was too cold for him and Shan to play golf, they usually met up for lunch once or twice a week, and they never came home without an idea for something we could do together. A trip, an exhibit, some social function, trying a new restaurant, catching a concert.

I slowed down the kiss and nuzzled our noses together. “I love you. Wanna get a room at that hotel in the square?”

He smiled against my lips and shook his head minutely. “I have something better in mind.”

Better than sex?

I fucking doubted it.

He grabbed my hand again, and he ushered me around a corner, down a narrow side street where the cobblestones were more uneven than on the main road. The old streetlamps cast a burning glow on the low buildings, each one its own color. Rustic yellow, deep blue, muted red, moss green.

We passed a bike repair shop and a corner pub, both of which looked like they’d be out of business decades ago. But when the businesses bore the name O’Shea, it was safe to assume they had money coming in from elsewhere.

“It’s too cold for outdoor sex.” I threw that out there.

“We’re in agreement,” he confirmed.

Then he dug out a set of keys and stopped outside the blue building. It couldn’t be more than ten feet wide, two stories high, and it was smashed against two three-story buildings in green and red.

I scratched my forehead and tilted my head. “Did you rent a house?”

I didn’t know why else we’d be here, and he was literally unlocking the white-painted door. These houses wereold.

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