“Seamus snores. Loudly.”
“I’ve already discovered that,” she countered. “He also hogs the covers.”
“None of this is bad, Emmy. I like having someone to eat breakfast and dinner with, someone to fight over the remote with at night, someone there keeping the bed warm when I get home after a late night here at the pub. I’ve lived alone the past three years. These past two weeks with you have been…God…really fucking good.”
Her cheeks flushed pink with pleasure. “They’ve been good for me too.”
“So why wait?”
Emmy shrugged, and he could see she wasn’t totally convinced. “Let me think about it?”
He nodded, tempted to push the issue, but Lochlan and Finn’s words drifted back to him, so he held his tongue. “Sure. Take some time,” he said.
Unfortunately, the second he agreed to wait, he felt a pressure on his chest…and he couldn’t shake the feeling that time wasn’t a luxury they had. The sand in the hourglass was flowing too quickly for his peace of mind.
Shit. His cousins were right. Logically, he knew they did have time—all the time in the world—but his head couldn’t convince his heart of that.
No matter how hard he tried.
10
Emmy smiled as Sunnie joined her at a booth in the pub. She’d asked her friend to meet her for a quick chat after her shift at the hospital. The two of them ordered iced teas, since Sunnie was pregnant and margaritas were typically reserved for girls’ night. Emmy needed some medical advice, and Sunnie, who worked as a nurse at Johns Hopkins, felt like the best person to talk to.
She had picked today because Padraig wasn’t manning the bar. His father, Tris, was. Padraig and a bunch of the Collins men were helping Oliver, Erin, and Gavin move some of their furniture back into the renovated apartment above the pub.
She’d wanted to have this conversation in private, her nervousness off the charts at the moment.
“Thanks so much for stopping by, especially after a shift. I’m sure you’re anxious to get home.”
Sunnie waved her off, insisting she was fine. Sunnie was always a bundle of energy and she glowed with her pregnancy. “I’m fine. If I time it right, I’ll be just late enough that Landon has to make dinner. Besides, I’d already told Mom I was stopping by to borrow a book.” Sunnie winked, making it clear she and Riley were swapping Emmy’s romance novels.
Emmy rolled her eyes. “I swear to God I’ve seen a spike in sales, and I’m convinced it’s solely because of your family. You know, I would give you all the books. You don’t have to buy them.”
“Don’t be silly. We love being able to support you, and your books rock. The whole family is hooked. Landon said Miguel has a bunch of guys at the precinct reading them now too.”
“Oh my God.”
Sunnie laughed. “Bubbles bought every single one of them in one fell swoop. She thinks they all need to be made into movies—she actually called Fiona last night to see who she needed to pitch them to in Hollywood—and, of course, she wants to play herself. I swear she’s found herself in at least ten of the books already.”
Emmy sighed. “She’s probably not wrong. Bubbles is just too funny not to include.”
“Yeah, well, be prepared the next time you see her because she’s got all sorts of plans for ‘her book,’ the one where she’s the heroine. Has decided she wants her story to be one of those reverse harem things where she’s got four men worshipping her. She’s actually started jotting down some notes.”
“Shit,” Emmy muttered, prompting Sunnie to laugh even harder.
“So what’s up? You said you needed advice.”
Emmy reached into her purse and pulled out the letter she’d received from the doctor’s office a couple of days earlier. The results of her pap smear had come back abnormal, and the doctor wanted to do a second test.
Sunnie scanned the letter, then mercifully shrugged, clearly unconcerned. Emmy had immediately done a bit of research online after reading the results, and she’d discovered that false positives were common. Sunnie’s casual response seemed to support that information.
“You’ve only had the one pap smear, right?” Sunnie asked.
Emmy nodded.
“Then go back for the second. And don’t worry yet. It’s waaaay too early to worry. It’s either a false positive or, if not, you could have a slight infection or something. The chance that it’s cancer is minimal. Like, seriously minimal.”
“Okay. That’s good to know.”
Sunnie studied her face for a moment. “But that’s not really what you wanted to know, is it? I mean, a quick Google search would have told you that.”
Emmy sighed. “That’s not all I wanted to talk about, no.”
“Did you tell Paddy about it?” Sunnie asked. “Oh my God. Did he freak out?”
Emmy hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I didn’t tell him. I wanted to wait until I got the results of the second pap smear.”
“I think that’s a good idea.”
Emmy breathed a sigh of relief. In addition to the medical information, she’d been hoping for Sunnie’s reassurance over not telling Padraig. She knew what he’d gone through with Mia, and there was no way in hell she wanted to cause him a minute of worry if she could spare him. Especially since there was a chance this abnormal pap smear result was a false positive.
“You do? Really?” Emmy pressed. She’d been stressed out the last two days, less about the results and more about Padraig’s reaction to the results.
“Yeah, I do. Waiting is prudent. I mean…after what Paddy went through with Mia.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Emmy said.
“When’s your second test?” Sunnie asked.
“Tomorrow.”
“Excellent. So you don’t have too long to worry about it. And if this one comes back negative…” Sunnie paused.
“You don’t think I should tell Paddy at all, do you?” Emmy asked, grateful for her friend’s advice.
Sunnie had been there during Padraig’s marriage to Mia. His cousin had an insight into Padraig that Emmy didn’t have. All Emmy knew of Padraig and Mia’s relationship was secondhand stories, from Padraig and from others. Hearing things after the fact was different from having a front-row seat, so she really didn’t know how this news might impact him. If he’d take it in stride or if he’d—as Sunnie said—freak out.
Sunnie shrugged. “I don’t think you should tell him. I mean, if it’s negative, then what is there to tell? If it had been a negative this time, would you have told him about it?”
Emmy shook her head. “No. I wouldn’t have even thought about it. It’s just a routine physical. But do you think this is lying through omission? This relationship between me and Paddy is new, and I don’t want to screw things up, Sunnie. So is it better to save him from the hurt and worry this might cause or come clean about all of it?”
Sunnie didn’t respond right away, taking her time to think, which Emmy respected. “Tell him after you get the results from the second test. Regardless of what they are. You need to be able to talk to him about stuff like this. It’s part of being a couple. I just want you to be prepared because I really don’t know how he’ll respond.”