Another thought that lived rent free in my head. I took the chocolate. Consumed most of it in two bites and held the last piece to Orla’s lips.
She ate it like a fuckin’ siren, but movement at the public door kept me from jumping her.
I blocked her, every sense on alert until I saw it was Saint, and he was locking the door behind him.
“Oi, buster.” Orla jabbed a glossy black nail at him. “We’re open for another hour.”
Saint shook his head. “We’re done.”
“Excuse me?”
Saint pulled a face he might’ve meant to be a smile, but it was a spectacular failure, and he clicked his teeth instead.
Orla sighed. “Fine. Do I at least get to know if this is you being a weirdo or something else?”
Saint said nothing.
Orla poked at him until he reached for his phone. Read the message he typed out and her exasperation faded. “Locke feels like that today too. Why don’t you stay here with us for a while?”
So Saint’s angst could meld with mine? I questioned the logic in that, but I also knew that if I’d been on my own right now, the burning, scratchy ache in my gut would feel a thousand times worse, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone I cared about.
And fuck me, I cared about Saint. This brother was one of the best men I’d ever met, and despite the words he didn’t speak, I’d learned that he was good company. Shrewd. Funny. He spoke a thousand words with an arch of his brow. In the oddest fuckin’ roundabout way, he reminded me of Logan.
I miss my brother.
An affliction I had grand plans to fix.
“Hey, queenie?”
Distracted by numbers, Orla glanced up from her computer screen. “What’s on your mind, handsome?”
“I’m taking the kids to see Logan next week. Come with us?”
Her frown melted into the biggest smile I’d seen from her in a while. “Really?”
I shrugged, as if that smile was all hers and this conversation didn’t mean the world to me. “Yeah. Really. I already asked Nash. He wasn’t sure about work, but he’ll come if he can.”
“Fuck work.” Orla shoved her chair back and climbed into my lap, coiling her arms around my neck. “We’re coming. Both of us. We’d fuckingloveto.”
She kissed me as if Saint wasn’t there.
I kissed her back for a blissful beat of my agitated heart. Then I felt bad,rude, and pulled away to catch his gaze. “You can come too?”
Saint eyed me over the tea mug he’d brought with him. “One day.”
Maybe he didn’t mean it to sound so fuckin’ cryptic. Or maybe he did. Either way, it bemused me enough to keep my dick in check.
Orla went back to work.
Eventually, so did I. Staying close but taking advantage of Saint’s presence to catch up on the diligence checks for the club’s health and safety paperwork. It was boring as hell, but necessary, and absorbing enough that I didn’t notice my phone dancing on the desk until Saint brought it to me.
Kara. I heaved a sigh. “Thanks.”
I expected him to back off.
He didn’t. Moral support? I couldn’t tell. Didn’t think about it much as I read Kara’s messages.
Kara:Is Willow with you?