Damien (Slater Brothers #5)(17)

“What’d I do?”

“What’d you do?” She threw me an incredulous look. “You’ve been MIA for seven days!”

“I’ve been right ’ere, and ye’know that.”

“That’s beside the point ’cause I couldn’t get in to see you no matter how much I threatened the day and night guards,” she quipped. “You haven’t answered or returned any of our calls since that shitstorm with Damien last week. We’ve all been worried sick about you. I literally puke at the thought of you now.”

I cackled. “Thanks a lot.”

“I’m not jokin’. Everythin’ with Damien was so serious. Are you okay, babe?”

I clenched my teeth at the mention of him.

“I just needed some space, Bee.”

Seven days’ worth of it, and it still wasn’t enough.

Bronagh folded her arms across her chest and stared at me. I resisted the urge to tease her because I knew she wasn’t even close to finished with roasting my arse. If I poked the bear when she was angry, I’d most definitely lose a finger or two.

“So,” I said, “is Branna still pregnant?”

“Yeah, but if she wasn’t, you’d have missed the birth of the twins.”

I licked my lower lip. “I’d have come out of hibernation if she was in labour.”

“Sure you would.”

I ignored her tone.

“I thought she was meant to be induced by now?”

“The doctor made a change in plans.”

Her abrupt answers told me she was annoyed.

“Go on,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Spit out whatever else you came all this way to say.”

She inhaled deeply, and in one huge breath, she said, “You’re shaggin’ Dante Collins, and you never once thought to enlighten me with that juicy bit of information? You’re the worst best friend anyone on planet Earth has ever had, and ye’don’t even care.”

I tried and failed not to laugh, which prompted Bronagh to grab a throw pillow and lob it at me. I caught it with a smile and snuggled it against my stomach.

“Alannah,” Bronagh said, her face the picture of seriousness. “Talk to me.”

I lost my smile. “I don’t want to, Bronagh. I just wanna be on me own for a while and forget ...”

“And forget what?”

I looked down at the pillow, and ran my fingertips over it.

“And forget Damien exists.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and spluttered, “You don’t mean that.”

I looked her dead in the eye. “Trust me, I do.”

Her lips parted slightly.

“Alannah.”

I hurt her with my words, and my chest tightened because of it.

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “I know you’re really close with ’im, but I’m cuttin’ ’im out, Bronagh.”

“Cuttin’ ’im out of what?”

“Me life.”

Bronagh reared back as if I had slapped her. “What happened ... it was just a misunderstandin’.”

“It wasn’t. It was an argument based on years’ worth of tension that finally erupted.”

My friend shook her head. “Nothin’ would have erupted if you didn’t randomly drop the I’m-shaggin’-Dante bomb in the middle of Branna’s kitchen,” she countered. “I mean, fuckin’ hell, Alannah. Did you really have to out that you’ve been seein’ someone in front of everyone when you were tellin’ Damien? It was a cold thing to do.”

My stomach churned.

“I didn’t mean to say it then,” I stressed. “I didn’t plan to say it at all. I just ... I just felt like I owed it to Damien to be honest with ’im after he asked me out for lunch.”

“Well.” Bronagh frowned. “You were honest. Brutally honest.”

“I know.”

“I still can’t wrap me head around this, though,” Bronagh said with furrowed brows. “You’re sleepin’ with Dante Collins? He is so not your type and a lot older than you are. How the hell did it even happen?”

I gritted my teeth to stop myself from calling Bronagh on her shock that someone as hot as Dante would sleep with someone as homely as me, but I held back and exhaled a deep breath.

“It’s only been goin’ on a few months.” I shrugged. “D’ye remember when I got that flat tyre a while back? Aideen told me to go to ’er da’s garage, so I went, and Dante was the one who dealt with it for me. We chatted, and I don’t know, we just clicked.”

“I can buy that.” She nodded. “I can buy that you both clicked and became friends, but fuck buddies? That is not you at all, Lana.”

Alannah.

I shrugged once more. “He sent me a text one night to see what I was doin’. I was watchin’ Netflix and invited ’im over. He accepted, and we—”

“Netflix and chilled?”

“Precisely.”

She stared at me, and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

“You think I’m not actin’ like meself, don’t you?”

A blush stained her cheeks as she nodded.

I gnawed on my lower lip. “If I tell you this, please don’t tell Aideen.”