Page 91 of The Celtic Resolution
Just be Saoirse.
A strange concept right now. I’ve been nothing but Liam’s mother since he was born and while my sense of identity didn’t feel important at the time when all that mattered was the health of my baby, being up here with Bruno under the stars suddenly highlights how easy it was to lose myself.
“Better?” Bruno sips his own glass while I breathe in the crisp, cool night air and nod.
“A little. I just feel like being away from him is a recipe for disaster. Like every bad thing I’m afraid of will happen when I’m not by his side.”
“He’s not alone. Cian is with him and he’s just as strong as you.”
“You’re only saying that because he broke your nose just after Halloween.”
Bruno scoffs softly. “Deserved, I would say. After what he went through, whateveryonewent through… I’m honestly surprised Cormac hasn’t killed me.”
“I’m not.” Leaning on the railing next to Bruno, I gaze down at the parking lot filled with a hundred cars connected to a hundred different stories within this hospital. “What happenedwith your father is… horrible for all of us, but Cormac recognizes what you did to help us and save us. I recognize that, too.”
Bruno doesn’t look like he believes me but he smiles softly. “Maybe.”
“Not maybe. It’s the truth.”
It wasn’t easy. After Bruno woke up and was able to talk about things, Cormac understandably had a lot of questions. Bruno hid nothing once he was reunited with his sister. The assurance that she was safe was all he needed to spill everything and anything he had gathered on his father while I was in captivity. Long nights were spent by Liam’s side just watching him breathe while we talked over the dismantling of the human trafficking operations, the harsh punishment of the Triad, and the search for the mysterious third investor.
Cian’s in charge of that. It’s been his fuel while healing from his terrible injuries and learning to walk again. While he’s not entirely all there, he is rocking a flame-painted cane and making it most of his personality, not that I blame him. I’m just happy he’s alive.
I’m happy everyone is alive.
“Look. It’s Thanksgiving in two days. And Ma invited you. What more proof do you need that no one is holding a grudge?”
Bruno drains his glass and pushes up from the railing. “I’m invited because you’re having Thanksgiving here at the hospital for Liam.”
“You’re not wrong. But you’re not entirely right, either.”
It’s been a hard month dealing with the complicated feelings tied to Bruno. Too many nights I woke up in terror thinking I was back in my cell, or back in the corridor with my brother dying under my hands. Bruno was always there to soothe me back to sleep and on the nights he couldn’t, rest never came. He was healing from his own injuries and insane personal turmoil.But he hasn’t complained. Not once. Guilt keeps him quiet, I think.
No one is punishing Bruno harder than himself.
“Hungry?” Bruno moves away from me toward the small picnic blanket he set up on the roof. It’s covered in a small spread of sandwiches and cakes from nearby bakeries, as well as some fruit and of course, the apple juice. When he invited me up here for dinner, I’d expected cafeteria food and he proved me wrong.
Just like he’s done with how attentive he’s been these past few weeks. He’s kept me fed and watered, helped me shower when the exhaustion was too much, been with me through every education baby class I’ve found here, and every test run on our impossibly small baby boy. He even fought with a doctor who kept telling me some of the pain I was feeling was lingering labor pains and it wasn’t until Bruno had him up against the wall, threatening to break his neck that they finally ran some tests and found a tear in the lining of abdominal wall that had been missed.
He’s become my strongest advocate and my greatest protector.
My feelings for him, as complicated as they are, never faded. In fact, the first time I saw him with Liam, they began to grow and they’ve been doing that with every gesture of kindness, every comforting word and every smile since.
The anger and hurt I felt from his betrayal has long faded. I can’t hold a grudge when he was manipulated, nor can I hate him for doing what he did to protect me. Without him, I’d be sold halfway across the world and Liam would be gone.
He sits next to me on the picnic blanket and lies backward with one resting lightly on his abdomen and the other tucked behind his head. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had a proper Thanksgiving before.”
“Really?” Pulling a grape from the vine, I pop it into my mouth and savor the burst of sweetness while studying Bruno’s relaxed face. “Not even when you were little?”
“Not that I can remember.”
“You’re in for a treat. Ma’s going all out this year. She’ll feed the entire hospital if they let her.”
“She sounds like a terrifying woman.”
“She is. But she’s also the sweetest thing to walk the earth. I find it funny that you slept through her last visit though.”
Bruno laughs softly. “I think I was subconsciously so terrified she’d kill me that I just stayed asleep.”
