Her jaw falls open, and I watch the realization crawl across her face like a shadow. The color drains right back out of her.
“Y-you expect us to live together?”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. I lean forward and form my words slowly as though speaking to a child. “We. Are. Married. Yes, I expect us to live together.”
Her arms drop to her sides. She considers this for a long moment. “How far is your place from Saint Agatha's? I need to know the address."
I blink. "The church?"
"The daycare."
“Daycare,” I repeat.
“For my youngest,” she says slowly, in an exasperated voice.
“Your… Wait. You have kids?”
She closes her eyes for a second. Takes a breath. When she opens them again, they're steady, and there's steel underneath. “Yes, I have kids. Three of them. Where I go, they go. That's the deal. Nonnegotiable."
I struggle to digest this news.
“You’re nineteen. And you havethreekids?”
She ticks them off on her fingers. "Jamie is fourteen. Cara's nine. Oisin is three. They’re mysiblings. I’m their legal guardian."
Three kids.
Nobody mentioned three kids.
I must look like I’m about to demand an annulment because her thumb has already gone to her ring like she's ready to twist it off and hand it back right here on the sidewalk.
So that's it. That's why she looks like she needs a full month to catch up on sleep.
"Okay," I say.
Her thumb stills. "What?"
"I said okay." I shrug. "Three kids. Package deal. Got it."
She stares at me, waiting for the catch. When it doesn't come, suspicion floods back in. "They’refirstin my life. Before you. Before this arrangement. Before anything."
"Understood."
"And if you—" Her jaw sets. She steps closer, and for a girl who's five-foot-nothing and a hundred pounds soaking wet, she manages to look genuinely fierce. "If you ever lay a hand on any one of them." She holds my gaze without flinching. "I will kill you in your sleep. I mean it. I'll wait until you're snoring, slit your throat from ear to ear, and not feel a second of remorse."
I study her. Really study her.
This tiny, exhausted girl is threatening to murder a made man from the O'Rourke family in his own bed.
I bark a laugh. I can't help it. It bursts right out of me.
Her eyes flash. "I'm not joking."
"No," I say, still grinning. "I can see that."
"You're insane."
“Undoubtedly.” I offer her my hand, which she pointedly ignores. "You've got yourself a deal, Maeve. Nobody lays a hand on the kids. Anybody who tries goes through me first, and I promise you, no one will get through me.”
