“Yeah,” Ryder said. “You all have a sixth sense about shit like this so I’m just rolling with it.”
I snorted. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day.”
When my sister’s eyes landed on us, I jumped to my feet and rushed over to her. Her hand had a bandage on it, and the sight of it made me feel ill.
“Is it broken?” I asked, worried to hear her reply.
“No, just sprained it. I’ve to rest it for a couple of weeks. If the muscles don’t strengthen in two weeks, then I’ve to come back but until then, I’m grand,” Bronagh explained.
Ryder looked at Dominic after she spoke, shook his head at his bare chest and then focused on the cut above his eye. “How many stitches?” he asked.
“Eight,” Dominic replied and cut his eyes to me.
I held up my hands. “I’m not apologisin’ to you; me sister was hurt because of you tonight in more ways than one!”
Bronagh’s cheeks flushed. “Branna, it’s over and done with so just forget it.”
My earlier conversation with Ryder repeated in my head, and I decided to start letting Bronagh make her own decisions in life by keeping my mouth shut—for once.
“Come on,” I said. “I’m bringin’ you home in my car. Ryder is goin’ with Dominic in theirs.”
I saw Dominic’s hand to go to Bronagh’s back, and I knew he wanted to bring her home instead, and Bronagh noticed it too. “Talk to you tomorrow, okay?” she murmured to him.
He wasn’t happy about it, but he nodded and let her go without a fight—for once. He walked her to our car and I hung back for a few moments to let them say goodnight, and sneak a kiss if they wanted to. I leaned into Ryder when he blocked my view of the new couple by standing in front of me.
“I told you they were datin’,” I said, my voice low. “You can sense the change in them too, can’t you?
He nodded then shuddered, “It’s scary how you’re always right.”
He had no idea.
“I kept me mouth shut.” I smiled. “Did you see? I wanted to go on about what Dominic did, but Bronagh shut me down and I didn’t ignore that.”
“You done good, mama bear.”
I beamed. “Thanks, babe.”
“Can I ask you a question that has been on the tip of my tongue all day?”
I leaned back and nodded. “Shoot.”
“Will you marry me?”
I squinted my eyes after a few moments of silence. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that. I’ve misheard you.”
Ryder’s lips twitched. “I said—will you marry me?”
I rapidly blinked my eyes before I lifted my fingers to my ears and wiggled them about inside my ear canals before lowering my hands and saying, “Sorry, say it one more time.”
Ryder laughed. “Will. You. Marry. Me?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Ryder cut me off and said, “You aren’t mishearing me. I’m really asking you to marry me. I’d get down on my knee and do it the traditional way, but those two our there will probably have a heart attack if I do that.”
“Ryder,” I whispered. “What the fuck?”
He laughed, again. “Is that a no?”
“No it’s not a no,” I instantly replied. “If you’re serious it’s a hell fucking yes.”
A smile similar to the one he gave me the first time I told him I loved him stretched across his face.
“I’m serious as a heart attack, I want you to be my wife.”
“Oh, my God.”
“So you’ll marry me?” he asked, his voice low.
“Yes,” I gushed, lowering my voice too. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
We kissed then and broke apart when I began to jump up and down.
“I’m going to buy a ring tomorrow. I didn’t plan on doing this, it just happened. I was thinking about how much I love you, and I imagined you not being in my life and I couldn’t.”
“Sweetheart,” I breathed. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.”
I quickly snuck a glance at Bronagh and Dominic and saw they were too wrapped up in one another to spare us a moment.
“We’ll tell them when we have a ring, Bronagh won’t believe me otherwise.”
Ryder nodded. “It’s going to work out, darling.”
I smiled. “We’ll get there.”
“Yeah, sweetness, we will.” Ryder smiled as I wrapped my arms around him. “We’re a family, we can make it through anything.”
We’re a family, we can make it through anything.
If I had known then that over the next few years our families were going to be tested to the limit to see what we could survive, I’d have hugged Ryder a little longer and loved him a lot harder. As a matter of fact, I probably would have never let him go.
Present day…
“And he just walked out of the house? Just like that?”
I nodded even though my sister couldn’t see me.
“Yep,” I sighed, and adjusted my phone against my ear. “He told me that we weren’t broken up, and that we’d never be done.”
“Damn,” Bronagh murmured. “Ryder’s more possessive that I thought he was.”
You have no idea, little sister.
I grunted. “Lucky me.”
“Maybe this could be good,” my sister said, her voice raising an octave with her excitement. “He said he’d answer all of your questions in two days, right? Once he does that you can both work through everythin’.”
I felt my shoulders slump.
“It’s not that easy, Bee, he has ripped out me heart over and over. I’m a ghost of the person I used to be, and it’s because of my and Ryder’s relationship over the last year and a half. I don’t think I have the strength to try and piece back together what’s been broken. I’m tired.”
My sister was silent for a moment, and then she said, “If you think leavin’ ‘im is best for you, then I’m fully behind you. No questions asked.”
I licked my lower lip when it wobbled.
“Thanks, Bee.”
“No thanks necessary. You’re me sister and I always have your back.”
And I thanked God for that every single day.
“I’m so antsy sittin’ here,” I admitted. “I wish he would just come home so I can get this over and done with. It’s drivin’ me up the wall, I just want to get it out of the way so I can start the process of movin’ on.”
“It’s goin’ to be bad, Bran. You know that, right?”
I nodded again even though Bronagh still couldn’t see me.
“I know, Bee, but it’s somethin’ I have to do.”
“I understand.”
“Is Damien still at your house?” I asked.
It was after seven in the evening and was pitch black outside.
“He and Dominic left the house about twenty minutes ago,” my sister said. “Kane rang them and told them that he and Alec had spoken to you so they went out to help find Ryder.”
For some reason, I was worried about him when I should have remained angry with him for storming out on such an important conversation.
I swallowed. “I hope he is okay.”
“He’ll be fine,” Bronagh assured me. “Oh, Dominic told me he agrees with me idea of all of us sittin’ down and gettin’ this shit out into the open.”
“He did?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah, he said all of the brothers would force Ryder to tell you what he does every night and why he has changed so much over the last sixteen months if he refuses.”
That caused me to furrow my brows.
“They know what he does every night and why he has changed?”
Bronagh said, “Yeah.”
“And they never told me?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
“Trust me, I can’t believe it either. Dominic never let on to me that he knew what Ryder’s problem was and why he was being so weird. I couldn’t even look at ‘im when he told me.”