She ignored him. “That’s not me saying that. That’s Matthew and Kate. The one Finn Again dinner Hugo talked me into while you were gone? Those two showed up specifically to corner me and make sure I was good enough for you.”
He caught his breath. “I told them to behave around you.”
“Oh, they did. It was the most polite and invasively thorough interrogation I’ve ever experienced,” she mused. “They’re protective and I get why they would be. Despite your…alternative career choices, you managed to raise two very smart, determined and slightly intimidating twenty-somethings that probably aren’t serial killers. If it were me, I’d call that a win.”
Her teasing smile faded when she caught his expression. “But you don’t.”
He shrugged. “I tried to keep them away from all the shite I was up to my neck in, but Matthew was a nosy bugger and my sister’s nickname is Calamity for a reason. I’m not sure how things would have turned out if we hadn’t come here when we did. At least now they have a better chance.”
She squeezed his arm. “What about you? Have you thought about giving yourself that better chance? I know you’ve been behaving yourself in Baltimore, but I also recall having to patch you up once or twice before you came here. And I heard a few things from Younger.”
“I remember that patch job. It’s hard to forget a woman’s laugh when you’ve got your pants around your ankles.”
“That was a perfectly natural nervous reaction, but still rude.” She blinked at him innocently before glancing down at the sidewalk. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” And I love that about you.
“You’re right, I’m not,” came her instant reply. “Never propose to your nurse when you’re half naked and bleeding in the ER. It throws people off.”
She hadn’t seen him at his best, had she? But she was still talking. Still touching him. It gave him hope. “That won’t happen anymore. I told you before that marriage had me turning over a new leaf. I think I was a bit wary of my welcome into the family fold when I first arrived. Old habits and all that. Things are different now.”
“I thought it might be about that woman who broke your heart.”
He stopped walking. “The who that did what?”
Bronte patted his side soothingly. “Younger told me she’s the reason you wanted to come to the states in the first place. Believe me, I’d be pissed too if I found out someone I loved was married to someone else with a baby on the way.”
William pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck me. Is that what you’ve thought this whole time?”
Her hands dropped away from him and landed hard on her hips. “That’s what I know. Are you calling Younger a liar?”
“No, that would be me,” he said ruefully. He’d completely forgotten.
Shit.
He took a step back, ready for her anger. “Before you go off half-cocked, you should know that Owen and Seamus were strangers to me then. And when I met them, they were each wading hip-deep in romances of their own. Owen was on his damn honeymoon. So when I mentioned wanting to come for a visit, I thought love would be a reason they’d understand.”
Her mouth opened and closed several times as if she couldn’t remember how to speak.
Then she did. “You lied about why you wanted to come for a visit? To your family?”
He held out his hand as if to shake hers. “Pleased to meet you, distant relations I’ve never seen before. I’m from the poor, criminal branch of the family tree and I’ve flown across the ocean to sleep on your couch without any money, formal education or job prospects on the horizon. Would that have been a better introduction?”
When she continued to stare at him he swore under his breath. “I knocked the girl up and married her off as soon as they mentioned it again so I could put an end to it. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“She can’t be knocked up because she doesn’t exist. And that story manipulated them into feeling sorry for you. Made me think I was—no. No, it doesn’t count at all.”
Bronte started to turn away but he reached out and spun her around, his grip tight on her shoulders. “Made you think you were what? My rebound green card wife?”
If looks could kill, hers would set him on fire first to watch him suffer. “Yes.”
He wanted to shake her. “Was that something else you added to the list of reasons why we couldn’t fit? William’s too young, too much trouble, and still in love with somebody else?”
William saw the answer in her eyes. “I’m sorry for that. Sorry I let you think for one second that anyone was or could ever be competing with you for my attention. You have all of it. I don’t have room in my head or my heart for anyone but you.”