Page 141 of Deceived Wrath

The problem is, I have no idea how to fix it without losing everything.

Chapter Thirty

CORMAC

Fiona is quiet this morning.Not the shy kind of quiet I’ve come to expect the morning after we’ve spent the night together. No, this is different. She’s distracted, almost… withdrawn.

I watch her pick at her toast like she’s trying to keep her hands busy.

The Friday morning sun spills across the dining table, making her hair shine like pale gold, but she barely looks up from her plate.

She hasn’t really looked at me since she sat down.

I give her another minute. Then another.

By the time I’ve finished half my coffee, I’ve had enough. “You’re distant. Why?”

Her head jerks up like she forgot I was sitting across from her. “Distant? I… I’m not distant.”

I level my gaze at her across the table. “Yes, you are. And you have been ever since we got back from the hotel. Did you not enjoy yourself?”

A faint flush creeps up her neck as she offers me a forced smile. “It’s not you. Really. I’m happy with…with how things are going.”

I hate that tiny stutter. Not because it bothers me, but because it’s so unlike her.

Fiona is confident and sharp. But today? She looks like someone who keeps forgetting how to breathe.

“You don’t need to worry about hurting my feelings. If the other night at the hotel was too much, if you want to slow things down?—”

“I don’t. Really, it’s not you.”

“Then what is it?”

She exhales as she pushes her plate away, her toast completely untouched.

“It’s my niece. She had surgery on Monday, and I have no idea how she’s doing. Joe, my brother-in-law, refuses to talk to me, and the hospital won’t give me any information because they claim I’m not immediate family.”

Her voice cracks on that last sentence. And even though she tries to hide it, I can see her trying to blink back the tears.

“Do you want me to make a call? I can get someone at the hospital to?—”

“No.”

The word leaves Fiona’s mouth so fast that even she looks startled by it.

I raise a brow. “No?”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she says, clearly flustered. “I appreciate the offer, I do. But it’s a violation of HIPAA to discuss a patient. I want an update, but I don’t want a doctor to lose their job because of it.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I have many strings I can pull.”

Fiona shakes her head. “It’s fine. Really. I’ll hear something soon. No news is good news, right?”

Her tear-filled eyes are full of hope as she looks at me, but before I can say anything else to comfort her, Scout comes barreling down the stairs, wearing his jumper on backwards and toothpaste smeared all over his face.

I hold back laughter. “I think you should go back upstairs and try again, bud.”

“You told me to get ready, and I did,” he says, stubbornly.