“I can do all of those things, but first, I need to ask you something.”
“Oh, can’t it wait? I haven’t seen you in forever.” He set me down and I tried to kiss him, but he grabbed my hands and trapped them above my head while leaning his forehead against mine, keeping my lips at bay.
“Baby?” Ovary clench. Every single time with that word. Damn.
“Yes?” Was it getting hot in here? I was still pressed against the hard brick wall, my body molded to his and I could kind of tell he was happy to see me. If he didn’t start to kiss me, I was going to combust.
He let go of one of my arms and reached into his pocket. Man, he was strong. Okay, I needed to have sex, badly. What in the hell was he doing?
“Keeva Murphy, look at me.”
My eyes flew to his at the tone in his voice. “Nixon? What’s wrong?”
He smiled and I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. “Eyes on me, baby.”
I went back to focus on him with a growing concern for our safety. Something really weird was going on. “Nixon, I think something’s off. There’s no one—"
He silenced me with a punishing kiss and I forgot what I was going to say again.
“Keeva,” he whispered against my lips.
“Yes?”
“Will you marry me?”
My eyes bulged out and my legs went loose. He pressed me hard against the wall, trapping me there. “Stay with me, Keev. I’ve got you.”
“Nixon, I—"
“I can see you’re panicking. Don’t. It’s going to be fine. We’ll take our time, really get to know each other. I know marrying me would come with its own set of issues, but I don’t want to be called out again and not know you’re going on with your life without my promise on your finger. I missed you so much and I was dying to just hold you again.” He brushed my hair aside, calming me with his touch. “You’re smart, caring, adventurous, gorgeous, spirited and independent. What more could I ask for?”
I was in shock. This was the last thing I had expected to happen to me today, let alone in my lifetime. I just always had thought I would find a partner in life and not feel the need to get a piece of paper that declared our commitment to each other, but suddenly the thought of never marrying this man holding me up right now was terrifying.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, Nixon Rivers, I’ll marry you.”
A huge cheer went up around us as he finally kissed me like I needed and had been waiting for. I wrapped my arms around him and hung on while watching a crowd grow behind us.
“You planned this!”
He finally set me down. “I did. And in only forty-eight hours no less. It would have been sooner, but it took Brennan and Sam a day to reorganize their schedule.”
At the mention of his name, my big brother surged forward and crushed me in one of his famous bear hugs, nearly breaking a couple of ribs in the process.
“Congrats, little one. We love you.”
“Thanks, Bren. Wouldn’t be here without you.”
I was enveloped into a giant, continuous group hug of family member after family member until finally the sea parted and my very best and only friend who I could call on when I needed her at any time or place, Gray stood there. Aiden stood beside her, holding their daughter, August. I grabbed a hold of Gray and hung on for dear life. As we separated and came face to face, we were both smiling through the copious tears flowing and I couldn’t believe we were both this incredibly happy.
We spent the better part of the day talking and drinking and eating the potatoes and carrots I had made into my favorite Irish stew, and I knew this place, this moment, these people were where I was destined to be. I threw up a quick hey to my mom and dad who had somehow worked their Murphy family magic from the other realm to get almost all of us kids together again.
Chapter 24
Nixon
After shaking enough hands to think politics could be in my future, I looked around to try to find my future wife. That had an alarming and exciting ring to it. I scanned the room and then moved position and scanned again. I just couldn’t see her. Maybe she had gone to the bathroom or behind the bar.
As I was making my way to the bathrooms I heard her familiar voice and followed the sound of it until I hit the jackpot. Two for one. I silently watched and waited while Keeva held August in her arms, quietly whispering to her in her brother’s office.
“Hey sweet girl. It looks like I’m going to get married. As my Godchild, do you approve?”
“Oh, yes, yes, I see, well, I’ll try not to steal your thunder for many months to come. You’re still everyone’s favorite. Although, little Max might be gaining on you. I think he might say dada pretty soon.”
I smiled and tried not to feel too guilty for eavesdropping, but yeah, I stayed silent as she carried on.
“So, yeah, I’ll tell you a secret. As the baby of my family, I’ve always wanted to prove something to my siblings and one of the things I wanted to prove to them was that I was able to be responsible and get shit done. Darn, I shouldn’t be swearing. Sorry. Anyway, the last time we chatted I didn’t even know Nixon knew me. Crazy huh? We met in a completely unconventional way and our romance kinda went into fast forward but look at how awesome he is. I’m growing my business too girl. You would not believe how many clients I have. I’m ready, Auggie. I’m ready for life’s next big adventure. What do you think?”
I couldn’t stand still anymore. If anyone asked, I had something in my eye and that was the reason for the tears.
I opened my arms as I entered the tiny space and she flew into me, baby and all. “Keeva, I love you so much baby.” My glasses were fogging up and getting in the way. I threw them on the desk and swung around to place her between my legs while taking the baby in my arms. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“The rest of our lives.”
Epilogue
Nixon
“Do you think we ought to go in there? It looks like they could be needing some help.”
Brennan looked at me, raised an eyebrow and stroked his beard. “You could be right.” He leaned over, pushing me out of the way to get a better look.
“Guys, we’re not going in there. We’re going to Ryan’s. Pizza, beer and sports. It’s what men do. No kids. No wives. One glorious night to stick our hands down our pants, scratch our balls and no one to fucking care!”
I looked at Aiden and smiled. He was right. One night without Keeva wasn’t going to kill me and my man card was once again dangerously close to being revoked. I’d spent way too much time making wedding choices when I should have been spending way more time doing anything but.
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
I grabbed Brennan by the shoulder and tugged him after Aiden and me. We could walk to Ryan’s which was handy. We could always quickly sneak back to the pub for a look in later. Tonight was Keeva’s bachelorette party. It was sold to me as a glorified girls night out, but I wasn’t quite the nerd she made me out to be. Things were always a drink away from crossing a line with Keeva. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
BACK AT MURPHY’S...
Keeva
“Ladies! Ladies!” I was screaming at the top of my lungs but to no avail. There was no other option other than to Coyote Ugly it.
I ran behind the bar, cranked the music and swung up onto the bar top, clearing ten empties in the process.
“Shit, Bren’s gonna kill me.”
We were helping ourselves to the alcohol tonight. The pub was closed to the public and no staff were here. We were on our own, so I wasn’t much into caring about the chaos.
From up top of the bar, I danced, moved and performed a mean karaoke rendition of the current song that was playing. Finally, everyone had turned to look at me. Being the tiniest of all your friends and family was a real corker most of the time.
I looked out over the twenty or so friends and family members and nearly started to bawl. Gray, Chloe and Sam were arm
in arm, laughing hysterically about something. Probably their husbands, ‘cause everyone knew those guys were dufuses. I could see a pile of girlfriends from Galway and a couple of Brennan’s newest servers in for their initiation.
“Okay, listen up everyone! This is the only time any of us...” I dramatically swept my arms around the room and nearly teetered off the bar. “Any of us will ever be able to be wild and crazy inside these walls without the stern, bushy eyebrow of my brother’s narrowing down on you. So...” I paused for extra drama, “...let’s make the most of it. Who thinks we need to turn this party up a notch?”
Lots of cheers and hoots and hollers came after that question. “Well then—"
I stopped and froze. I had ordered some harmless male dancers and was expecting them any minute, but who had just walked through the doors was more a surprise than any of us were expecting.
“Jesus Christ! You’re here?”
I flew down off the bar in a jump that would have made Wonder Woman proud, right into the arms of my long lost brother, the mighty and elusive Quinn Murphy.
THE END
Copyright © 2017 By: Holly Mortimer
All Rights Reserved
Published By: Holly Mortimer
Print Edition
ISBN: 9781533777225
All Rights Reserved
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Did you love Hacked? Then you should read Freedom by Holly Mortimer!
His self-imposed exile is finally coming to an end. Quinn's finally coming home, but his path to redemption is far from easy.
I thought I had my priorities straight. Priority number one? Work, followed closely by women. Notice I said women. I'm a one and done kind of guy. Refer back to priority number one. Being a defense attorney doesn't leave me much time to explore relationships. Besides, I've been told relationships aren't my thing by enough women to know when to play to my strengths.
I was pretty solid in this belief, until my priorities got a rude awakening and a new number one took over. Now, I'm flying to Ireland to face the family that's pretended I don't exist for the past five years to try and fix all the things I've destroyed, including myself. What I didn't expect was that on my road to redemption, I'd suddenly find myself making Violet McGregor my singular priority. The problem is, she hates me just as much as my family does.
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Hacked Page 18