“I can’t ask you to do that?—”
“You aren’t asking me!” Declan fiercely interrupted River’s protest. “Whether you’re my son or not, if we’re tested and found compatible, I’ll willingly give you one of my kidneys. Not because you’re my son but because you’re in need of one. You’re also the brother of the woman I love and want to marry.”
The younger man raised surprised brows. “That was quick work, sis,” he teased Fawn.
She gave him a cheeky smile, some of the color having returned to her cheeks. “When you know, you know.” She sobered before asking Declan, “Is there a reason why you also seemed to know stuff about kidney disease when we were talking about it before? I had absolutely no knowledge about any of the symptoms or the outcome until River was diagnosed.”
“My mother had it,” Declan explained. “Unfortunately, by the time they found a suitable donor for her, she was too ill to survive the operation. She told them not to even bother and to give it to someone who still had the rest of their lives to lead.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was.” He shrugged. “But it was her body, and so it was her decision.”
Fawn frowned. “We were told some forms of kidney disease are hereditary.”
“They can be, yes,” Declan agreed. “If it turns out that River is Connall, then we would need the doctors to tell us whether he inherited this disease from my mother or if it’s just a fluke. I would like for us to know that so we can safeguard any future children the two of us might have,” he told Fawn.
Fawn’s cheeks blushed a beautiful red. “You do want more children, then?”
“If you do?”
“I do,” she confirmed huskily.
They shared a smile of intimacy before Declan continued. “For now, we need to see if I’m a viable donor to give River one of my kidneys.”
Declan didn’t say so, but he knew those tests would also be able to tell them whether River really was the long-lost Connall.
But it made no difference to Declan whether he was or not; he was still sincere in his offer to give the younger man one of his kidneys, if it was possible for him to do so.
All he’d wanted to do from the moment he’d first looked across the kitchen and seen the man who looked like his fully grown son, Connall, was to pull the younger man into a fierce hug. To hold him tight and never let him out of his sight again.
At the same time, Declan recognized that all this must have come as a deep shock to River. Because, as far as he was concerned, until a few minutes ago, there had never been even a hint of a suggestion that he wasn’t exactly who he had thought he was all his life. Which was River Meadows, brother of Fawn Meadows and the son of the people who had brought him up.
Declan had thought his heart would stop when the younger man called himDain response to his calling him Connie. It had always been Connall’s name for him. Declan was hisDarather than his Dad.
If he was Connall.
Declan turned to Fawn. “You mentioned before that you have a lot of your parents’ papers stored away in a box in your apartment?”
Her eyes widened. “God, yes, there might be something in there to confirm or deny our suspicions. No birth certificates,” she said, confirming Linus’s previous information, “because they didn’t believe in ‘all that government oversight’ in their lives. But Mum occasionally wrote stuff down in journals. She said she was compiling research for a book she never got around to writing.” She gave another of those affectionate smiles.
Declan nodded. “We need to read them. As soon as possible.”
“I could take Fawn over to the apartment now if?—”
“Absolutely not,” Declan cut in on Danny’s offer. “I’ll be the one accompanying Fawn. But not until after we’ve all eaten the dinner we prepared.” He glanced at River. “A healthy and regular eating regimen is important for people with kidney disease.”
Some of the tension eased from River’s expression. “I think I might have just inherited another fusspot rather than a potential brother-in-law and Da,” he confided in Danny with a teasing glance at Declan.
“No reason why I can’t be all three,” Declan answered gruffly.
“Not at all,” the younger man agreed. “But, to get back to basics, I think the garlic bread is way over the five-second rule of still being edible after being dropped on the floor.”
Declan chuckled. “You’re lucky the garlic bread is the only casualty and that I didn’t keel over with a heart attack the moment I saw you.”
Fawn appreciatedthe three men as they kept up the lightly bantering conversation as the four of them ate dinner. It gave her time to think her own thoughts.
The first question being, how could River be Connall, as it seemed more and more likely he might be?
