A flash of pain appeared momentarily in his eyes, replaced almost immediately by grim determination. Before he could say another word, however, Faith was before him, sitting on the edge of the couch. With him down on his knee, it put them at eye level. Her hands gently cupped his face, forcing his eyes to hers.
“I have a couple of demands of my own,” she said. “First, you will not take care of me. We will take care of each other. Secondly, I want to pick out my own car and my own phone. You can have a say in it, and you can have Sean check it out, but ultimately, it’s my choice. Third, I will continue to work, but I am willing to cut down my hours so we can have more family time together.”
She smirked at the look of total shock on his face. “How does that work for you?”
Kieran didn’t move for several long moments. He remained on the floor, with one knee down and the other bent at a ninety degree angle. His blue eyes darkened, then lightened to their perfect celestial blue again. And the corners of his mouth began to quirk.
“That’s a yes, then?”
Faith rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, too. “A bit slow this morning, are we?”
The quirk became a full-fledged grin. “Apparently.” He looked at Matt, whose face was twisted in that smug, cocky look only a teenager was capable of. “You heard her, too, right? She said she’d marry me.”
“She did.”
“She can’t back out now.”
“Nope.”
Kieran slipped the exquisitely cut diamond onto Faith’s waiting finger and captured her mouth in a possessive kiss.
“Ugh. If you guys keep that up I might just change my mind,” Matt grumbled.
Faith looked at her son over Kieran’s shoulder. “You were in on this?”
“Well, duh.”
––––––––
“I need to see my father.”
Faith blurted out the words in between bites of the buttery croissant. Her mother’s – or at least the woman she had believed was her mother all this time – words kept repeating in her head. As much as they shocked her, Faith sensed an underlying truth in them. It was as if some dark monster was hiding in the depths of her awareness, trying to avoid being dragged out into the light.
Kieran looked up from his plates of eggs, pancakes, home fries, ham, and, since they were in the South, grits. Matt had already polished his off and was taking his turn in the shower.
Kieran finished chewing and swallowed, wiping a napkin carefully across his mouth. “You sure?”
She drew in a breath. “Yes. I need to know.” She exhaled. “I want to put all this behind me so I can start enjoying my new life,” she said, touching Kieran’s hand. “I need closure.”
Kieran nodded, his concern evident in the darkening of his blue eyes, the serious set to his boyish features. He wasn’t happy about it, but he understood.
“You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to.”
His full, male lips thinned slightly; his eyes darkened further, a luminous midnight glow. He gave her a look of such possession that it made her heart stutter slightly, but then softened it with a smile.
“Have you already forgotten?” he chastised gently. “You will never have to face anything alone again.”
Faith beat down the feeble protest that tried to rise up out of habit, and allowed the wave of intense relief to carry it away. It would take a while for her to learn how to share her doubts and worries, and it wouldn’t always be easy, but for this man, she would do her best.
“Thank you,” she said sincerely. With Kieran by her side, Faith felt like she could face – and conquer – anything. “I don’t think Matt should go, though.”
“Agreed. Think he’ll be okay hanging out here?”
Faith took a look at the bank of digital electronics and chuckled. “Yeah, I think he’ll be okay roughing it for a few hours.”
*
Matt wasn’t entirely happy about being left behind, but it was a sure sign of his ever increasing maturity that he said he understood when Faith explained where they were going and why. Kieran knew he had no desire to meet his maternal grandparents, not after the scene he’d already witnessed. As part of their heart to heart the night before, Matt had confessed that if that was what his heritage was, he didn’t want to know any more.
Maybe that would change someday. If it did, Kieran would be there to help him through it.
At this point, though, it was probably for the best. Kieran wasn’t sure he would be able to completely suppress the urge to lay the man out for everything he’d made Faith suffer.
Kieran and Faith slipped quietly into the back of the church, taking their seats on the far end of the pew before the service began. The idea was to avoid as much interest as possible. Avoiding it completely wasn’t realistic; they were outsiders, after all, and a man like Kieran definitely stood out anywhere he went.