Page 104 of After Indigo Irish Nights
He was glad for her, but it hurt that he didn’t know if he would be by her side to celebrate that victory. “That’s good. That’s everything.”
Brady set his hands on the ropes. “Why did you never tell me?”
He didn’t have to ask what his brother meant. “Knowing me as you do since we shared a womb, are you really surprised?”
“I suppose not, brother.” He put his arm around him again. “Come on. We’re all for the pub to celebrate your victory.”
All feelings of victory had drained out of him. “I need to go and talk to Kathleen.”
“I know you do, but Ellie has her.” His brother’s words suggested he knew something was wrong. “The village needs this.Youneed this. Come for twenty minutes. Please.”
The villagers were gathering around the ring, cheering his name. He wasn’t going to be getting out anytime soon. Maybe it would even boost his spirits for his talk with Kathleen. He nodded. “Twenty minutes at the pub.”
Of course, the celebration ran longer than twenty minutes. He only had one whiskey, and that was to toast his trainers, those tireless men who’d risen at five o’clock every morning and stayed late into the night, pushing him.
Before he made a break for it, he put the stone in Eoghan’s pocket, saying he’d forgotten something at the boxing club—which he hadn’t. The older man smiled at him and handed it back. “Keep it. Tell your children the story.”
Children. His chest grew tight. He wanted to have a family with Kathleen. Did she still want that?
He left the bar with a heavy heart, fearing the future he’d imagined was lost. He had to find Kathleen. She wasn’t at Summercrest. Neither was Ellie. He detoured to her cottage. The light was on and two cars were in the driveway.
As he left the car, Kathleen emerged from the house. “I plan to save my friend the discomfort of hearing what I have to say to her future brother-in-law.”
The whip of fear lanced his skin.
“Let me—”
“No, I’m talking.” Her voice was a near shout in the silence around them. “You didn’t trust me to tell me something as important as this. You didn’t say anything. Not one word! But that’s not the worst part.”
“Dammit, I didn’t tellanyoneabout Jimmy and Morag.”
“That isn’t the point,” she said in a hard tone. “No wonder you got all weird about the idea of me giving you money so you wouldn’t have to fight Jimmy.Nothingwould have stopped you from this fight. This was a grudge match. Straight down the line.”
“Hang on—”
“You proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you cared more about beating Jimmy for what he did to you with Morag than you do about us. Declan, you’re still stuck in the past, and that’s not where I want to be. Maybe that’s the real reason you wanted to keep our relationship a secret from everyone.”
“That is not why!” he said, striding closer.
“You weren’t ready to commit,” she continued in a hurt tone. “Despite what you said about marriage.”
He sucked in a breath at the blow. “That’s unfair. I love you and want to marry you. On that, I am resolute. My fear of Owen and Jimmy wasn’t a fantasy. Dammit, didn’t both of them come after me this very night and ruin my reputation? The only silver lining is that he didn’t go for you like he did Morag,mo chroí.”
Shock covered her pale face. “Wait! You thought thatassholecould seduce me?”
When he saw the tears in her eyes, he gripped her arms. “No, of course not. You would never do that— Never!”
She pulled her arms away and lifted her chin. “That’s something then.”
He touched her face, feeling the raw pain between them. “Tonight, after the fight, I thought you’d stepped back from me because you thought me a fool. Jimmy made me look like a fool and a lesser man once, and now everyone knows my shame.”
Her hand went to her forehead, which made him lower his hand. She was silent, gathering herself. “Oh, Declan. It hurts, hearing you’d ever believe that of me. Or yourself. Only a lesser man seduces someone’s fiancée to win a fight, and Morag was either a real bitch or fool to participate.”
His head throbbed like he had a fever. He had never thought of their actions in that vein. “Maybe I should have told you, but it was hard for me to even think about it. You can’t know how hard, feeling humiliated as I did. Better to bury it deep inside me. What you bury stays buried, the Irish say.”
This time her gentle hands cupped his jaw. “Declan, their actions don’t reflect on you. Not to me or anyone else who cares about you. Screw anyone who thinks otherwise. You lift your head up everywhere you go. You have nothing to feel humiliated about, okay?”
He kissed her palm, but she dropped her hands and stepped away. His heart thudded in his chest. “Then why are you stepping back now?”
