Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Ironic that she was looking for it here, of all places. Sloan had never felt a higher calling. She sank onto the pew three rows back and looked at the massive stained-glass window behind the altar. It was dark now, but with the morning light streaming through, it was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. She’d spent countless hours over the years tracing the patterns with her gaze while Father Joe gave his sermons. There was something comforting in always knowing what to expect, what the next motion would be. Mass was one of the few times in her life where she didn’t feel like she was spinning wildly out of control.
Since Father Joe often preached about giving up control to God and having faith in His processes, she was failing on multiple levels with her lack of trust. She sighed. What am I going to do?
“Sloan?”
She tensed for a long moment before she recognized the man who strode from the back of the church. Teague. “What are you doing here?” Ever since her brother had married Callie Sheridan, he spent all his time with her. Which is normal. It would be weird if he kept hanging around the house with a wife at home and a neighboring territory to run. But logic had no place in her head apparently, because every day he didn’t show up at the O’Malley town house felt like another betrayal to her.
“Same thing you are, I’d bet.” He sat next to her. “Sometimes it’s nice to come here and just be. Mass is fine, but it’s not quite the same thing.”
“I suppose.” She knew she sounded sharp, but couldn’t help it. It was too great a coincidence that he was here now, at the same time she was, and she’d stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago.
He smiled. “And Liam called me.”
She turned around to glare at the man, but he was nowhere to be seen. Not surprising. There were more shadows than light in the sanctuary right now. He could be anywhere. She shivered. “Why?”
“Because I asked him to.”
Now she turned in her seat to face him. “What’s going on?” He wasn’t there just so he could see her—he could come home any day of the week for that. That meant he had something he wanted to talk to her about that he couldn’t do in the O’Malley home.
“Relax.” He draped his arms over the back of the pew, looking for all the world like he was just in there for a friendly chat.
So why was her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest? She’d never feared her brothers before—though Aiden made her a little nervous these days—but the tang of bitterness on the back of her tongue was hard to ignore. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.” He drummed his fingers on the dark wood. “Have you given any thoughts to your future?”
She simultaneously wanted to laugh and cry. “What future? You know better than anyone that I don’t have a choice. Father hasn’t moved on any marriage prospects, but no doubt he has a little niche he’d like to shove me into when it suits his purposes.”
“And how do you feel about that?”
“It doesn’t matter how I feel about it, does it? There are no other options.”
He was silent for a long time, silent and still. Finally he said, “What if there were other options?”
Fear unlike anything she’d ever known rose up and clawed at her throat. It was so easy for him to offer her options, and to talk about defying their father when he’d danced to Seamus O’Malley’s tune. Despite his big talk while they were growing up, when push came to shove, he jumped when their father said jump. He hadn’t taken any risks. He had done exactly as their father wanted and married Callie Sheridan.
And now he was asking her to…what? She shoved to her feet. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to hear it. I’m not going to stick my neck out to make his guilt at leaving me behind more bearable.
But what if she did?
The thought brought her up short. She’d spent her entire life being tossed from one wave to the next, with about as much control as a rowboat in a hurricane. All she had to do was look around to see her siblings taking control of their futures in whatever way they could. Even if it was destructive, they were doing something, which was more than she could say for herself.
Sloan made herself sit back down and turn to face him, even though every muscle shook with the effort to keep still. “What other options?”
“What if…” He hesitated, searching her face. “What if I could get you out—really get you out? You could have that little house in a small town like you’ve always dreamed of. You could leave the politics and danger and Boston behind.”