Page 36 of Thanking Her Brother's Best Friends

"We should."

I turned my face to the side so I could look at him. He smiled and tilted my chin, leaving a lingering kiss on my mouth.

Chloe had told me to be careful. And we were. There was nothing between the lines here. I knew he wasn't in it for the long haul, and neither was I, because what was the long haul, anyway?

How would I know it wouldn't fizzle out and end the way it had with Dave? Who knew anything when it came to the future, except that each moment was infinitely precious and deserved to be lived as we had tonight?

"I'm going to dream about you tonight," he said as he hopped down. We got dressed slowly.

"That makes you sound like you're fourteen again," I replied snarkily.

He laughed. "Who knew, Selene Baker?" He hugged me before taking the exit first. "Come over to Harvest and Hearth tomorrow?"

"I will. I missed out on meeting Niall last time."

"You're going to love him," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Almost as much as you loved Dom."

"Oh, you're the worst," I replied, laughing. "Just checking—did that feel weird? Me—"

"No," he replied. "I don't think there's anything weird about sharing. It's always hotter when it's between friends."

With that sexual-promise-loaded riddle hanging in the air, Aiden went out the back exit. I followed half an hour later, making sure everything was clean and that my staff wouldn't have a collective heart attack after coming to work tomorrow.

The car was waiting for me. I closed up around one. I checked my phone to make sure Ollie was okay. The nanny had messaged saying he was fast asleep. And then, I leaned back in the car and closed my eyes.

Aiden had pretty much said he wanted me to explore.

The other part of the riddle...

Did that involve exploring with Dom and Niall?

11

NIALL

Words are the most powerful things in the entire world.

Of course, you could counter me by saying there are other, more immovable things that signify status.

A country could be deemed developed based on its penchant and prowess in education, economy, lifestyle, and trading systems. But to me, all of this came second to the human mind's ability to attach emotions to language and phonetics.

So, when the retired United States general spoke about his mother crying during beer commercials, I could relate to it.

He prefaced this by stating that the Irish are very emotionally moved. See, I got that. I got that because when I felt something, I felt it with my whole fucking heart.

My memories of my mother were as warm as a gentle summer day. I leaned on them as one would on the reminiscences of buttery yellow sunshine if they were to live in a land where a night lasted six months.

Regions in the far north actually experienced this.

In particular, I recalled some of her phrases most of all. She was an unusual woman.

She chose to maintain her brogue accent even though we were generations ahead of our ancestors who came to the Port of Boston during the Great Irish Famine.

Growing up in South Boston, I wanted to be Americanized as soon as possible. She, on the other hand, would always remind me that my blood and roots belonged somewhere else.

"Remember, Niall. The immigrant's heart follows two different rhythms. One belongs to the old homeland, and the other to the new. You have to bridge the two worlds so you can live comfortably in the new while also holding on to the best of the old."

Ironically, though, most of my people had lost touch with their Irish ways of living in a more nuanced sense.

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