Page 104 of The Voices are Back

When I got home, it was to Aodhan cooking dinner at the stove, with the phone to his ear.

“No,” I heard him say as I walked in. “Really? That’s hard to believe.”

I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his midsection, placing my face against the gap between his large, muscular shoulder blades.

He spoke some more to whomever he was on the phone with, but I listened to the vibration of his chest, and not his words.

By the time he was hanging up and turning in my arms, I was completely lost, hypnotized by the timbre of his voice.

“You okay?” he asked, running his fingers lightly along my neck.

“I’m fine,” I promised. “I haven’t had any lingering side effects all day. Who was that on the phone?”

He squeezed me lightly before letting me go to go back to whatever he was doing at the stove.

I moved to his side and leaned against the countertop, looking down into the many pots on the stove.

Beef tips and rice.

One of my favorites.

“That was Sunny, giving me an update,” he answered. “I hate to tell you this, but the call from your stepmother was true. Your dad had a heart attack while she was away at work. He died.”

I grimaced.

Was I sad? Not really.

You couldn’t be sad about someone dying that really wasn’t a part of your life.

The sadness was, in actuality, more about what I didn’t have, than what I did.

“That sucks,” I admitted. “Was my mother involved in any way?”

“No.” He paused. “At least not that she confessed. And Sunny is fairly sure that she would’ve confessed. She told us everything when it came to you.”

“Interesting,” I said. “What does that mean now? What will happen to her?”

“Sunny got with the police chief in your mom’s hometown, who got with your grandparents. They have medical power of attorney, and have once again checked her into a mental facility where she’ll be for at least another six months as they evaluate her.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Well, that’s interesting.”

Which was all it was.

Did it suck, her strangling me? Even if she did a shitty job at it? Yes.

Did I give a second thought to anything when it came to her? Nope.

“Will you marry me?” I asked him.

He blinked, turned, and stared down at me. “What?”

“Marry me,” I repeated. “Will you?”

His eyes twinkled as he said, “You know, I had all this planned out.”

I batted my eyelashes at him. “You did?”

“I did,” he paused. “But it’s better this way, I guess. I was freaking out because I was worried I might overly excite you, then you’d pass out, and then you’d be mad at me because that would be how you remember me asking you to marry me forever. So…yes. I’ll marry you.”

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