“No. The outside world was forbidden. They told us it would damn our souls.”
“And Ronan got you out.” Nora’s tone makes it clear she isn’t asking.
“He married me in the yard to take me away from—” I stop. The whipping post. The scars on my back. Father’s pale eyes. “—from a punishment. He stood between me and harm, and he married me so they could not stop him from taking me.”
Nora’s grip on my hand tightens. Her hazel eyes are bright and fierce.
“Cillian did something like that for me,” she says. “Different circumstances. But the same instinct. These men—” She glances across the room toward the bar where the brothers are clustered. “They’re hard on the outside, dangerous, but fiercely protective of us.”
“Do you miss it?” Saoirse asks. “Any of it?”
I think about this with care. “I miss knowing what each hour holds. Everything here is…large, loud, and unpredictable.” I lift my gaze to both of them. “But I do not miss the fear. I do not miss the pain. No, I do not miss it.”
Saoirse reaches across and covers my other hand so both of mine are held.
Lorcan returns with three cups of something steaming and sets them before us. “You three look like you’re plotting world domination. Fuel is required for that. This is my special recipe hot chocolate.”
“Thank you, Lorcan,” I say.
“Anytime, new sister.” He ruffles the top of my head the way one would a child’s and disappears back toward the bar.
I lift the cup and sip. The hot chocolate is warm and sweet and thick, and I want to drink an entire ocean of it.
“Oh.” I set the cup down so fast it sloshes. “I almost forgot. Can we FaceTime?”
Both women blink.
“I love FaceTiming,” I explain, pulling my phone from the small clutch bag Nicholas gave me. “Ronan taught me. You can see someone’s face even when they are far away and talk to them as though they are beside you. I FaceTime Ronan many times a day. Maybe too much, but he says I can FaceTime him forty times, and he would answer every single one.”
Saoirse’s mouth twitches. “That man is gone for you.”
“May we exchange numbers?” I press the phone toward them. “I would like very much to have others to FaceTime.”
Nora takes my phone and types her number in. Saoirse does the same, adding a tiny heart emoji beside her name.
“Tomorrow,” Nora says, handing the phone back, “I’m calling you and we’re going for coffee.”
“I know what coffee is.” I beam. “Ronan and I drink it every morning together.”
“Then you’ll love it even more when girlfriend gossip goes with it.”
Friends. I have friends.
Several of the guests in the private room have departed. I am warm from hot chocolate and conversation and the joy of my new friends.
I lift my head and find Ronan across the room.
He’s leaning against the bar with a glass of amber liquid in one hand, and he’s watching in a way that sends heat flooding through me—a heat I am learning not to suppress.
I smile at him.
He straightens from the bar, sets down his glass, and starts toward me.
“I think that’s our cue,” Saoirse murmurs, nudging Nora.
“Call me,” Nora says, squeezing my arm as she rises. “Or, FaceTime. Anytime. I mean it.”
Ronan arrives at my side and threads his fingers through mine. “Ready to go home?”
