Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I managed a huff of laughter as bitterness swirled in my gut. Alannah Ryan was a lovely woman. My first meeting with her was at the small get-together in Aideen and Kane’s apartment hours after our paintball game a few weeks ago. She was so sweet and welcoming, and she never looked at Dante like he was anything more than a friend. He never looked at her like she was once special to him. Their past relationship really felt like a punch in the gut because it came out of nowhere.
“I had no idea about her. None. He never mentioned being with anyone else.”
“This is my view on it, so don’t take what I say for more than the words they are, but I believe he didn’t mention Alannah to you because ye met her and started to befriend her before ye both were involved and he probably thought it was best not to mention it after ye got together. A stupid move, but I can see his frame of thought at the time. Once ye were together, he likely assumed mentionin’ it at all would be a bad idea.”
I thought about this for a few minutes.
“Ye think he was tryin’ to save me from being uncomfortable around her and upset in general?”
“Yes,” Mr Collins answered. “I know me son, and he would never go out of his way to keep this from you, Ina. I guarantee he’s hardly thought of it as worth mentionin’, and that’s simply because Alannah means nothin’ more to him than a friend. Honey, my boy hasn’t seen another woman in the same light as you since the day he met ye, and I can say that with absolute certainty.”
“I love him.” My chest ached. “I love him so much.”
“But?”
“I don’t know how to process all of this. It makes me feel ill. Me insecurities could ruin me relationship with him.”
“When he comes home tonight, ye need to buckle up and speak to him. No skirtin’ around the issue. Ye need to sit your arses down and work this out. You’re insecure and jealous, and it’s understandable, but Date is the only person who can reassure ye right now.”
He was right. Talking to Mr Collins helped me feel a little better, but Dante was the person who I needed to speak to at length. I felt sick at the thought of that conversation going wrong, but I reminded myself that we loved one another. We weren’t just two people in an expendable relationship. We were committed to one another, and we would get through this bump in the road.
We had to.
“Relationships aren’t easy, lovely,” Mr Collins said as he drove. “There will be days when ye both argue until you’re blue in the face over somethin’ silly, but when your person is someone who makes ye feel at home when you’re with them, then it’s more than worth it.”
That was exactly what Dante was. He was my person.
I glanced at my boss. “Ye had somethin’ truly special with your wife, didn’t you?”
“I had somethin’ incredibly special with me wife.” I felt him glance at me a couple of times, so I turned my head and gave him my full attention. “I’m currently in another special relationship … with a different woman.”
I felt my eyes bulge at the sudden admission.
“Ye are? Do your kids know?”
“Nope, bein’ that I’m the last to know about their love lives, I figured keepin’ mine private was a-okay.”
That was fair.
“Is that why ye’ve been goin’ off to meetings that I have no knowledge about?”
He cut me a grin. “Yep.”
“I knew ye were up to somethin’. I could feel it in me bones.”
His deep laughter relaxed me as we drove.
“Her name is Amy, and she’s fifty-three, same age as me. She’s a widow and has two grown, married children and three grandchildren. I met her at bingo night down at the local pub. We’ve been spendin’ time together for the past six months.” He cleared his throat. “We, uh, took our relationship to the next stage last night, so we’re pretty serious.”
The next stage … was Mr Collins telling me he had sex last night?
“Oh!” I blushed fiercely. “Oh! That’s brilliant, sir. Congratulations.”
He looked at me and promptly burst into laughter. “Oh, sweetheart, I forget you’re a timid little thing. I didn’t mean to make ye uncomfortable.”
“Ye didn’t,” I assured him, urging my blush away. “I’m just happy you’re comfortable enough with me to tell me about your girlfriend.”
Mr Collins smiled sheepishly. “Been a long time since I’ve had me a girlfriend … been a long time since I’ve had a woman in general.”
“Ye didn’t have girlfriends after your wife’s passin’?”
“No. Her death shattered me, so I threw meself into raisin’ me kids instead of focusin’ on her bein’ gone. I’ve never … there’s never been another woman for me until Amy. Same goes for her. Her husband passed fifteen years ago due to cancer. I’m her first relationship since him.”