Vengeful Secret (The Burkes Mafia #3)

25. Sutton

25

SUTTON

I’m practically wringing my hands when Ciara comes out, but she’s grinning ear to ear.

“I think I have a Grandda,” she says.

“Oh, yeah?”

“He’s old,” she says flatly, and I can’t help but laugh.

“You didn’t tell him that, did you?”

She shakes her head. “I remember what you said about tack.”

I smile. “Tack” is Ciara’s word for “tact,” which is something I’ve been trying to teach her since she learned to talk.

She’s just such a forward little girl, never meets a stranger.

“How do you like your Grandda?”

“He’s nice,” she says, swaying back and forth. “Can I go play now?”

“Just a minute,” I tell her, and then Gray opens the door, gesturing for me to walk inside.

“Go check on the little one, boyo,” a gruff voice calls from the room.

Anxiety washes over me.

What if Gray’s father hates me? What if he yells at me for keeping Ciara a secret for so many years?

“It’s okay,” Gray says softly, his voice making all my fears wash away. “I’ll be right outside.”

I walk into the room, shutting the door softly behind me.

“Hello,” I say shyly, looking down at the man in his bed.

He has bags under his eyes, and his scoop neck T-shirt shows a zipper scar—open heart surgery.

I’ve never asked exactly what happened after Patrick’s surgery, but it must have been bad. He looks tired.

“Hello,” he says, looking at me curiously. “We haven’t been properly introduced, have we? I’m Patrick Burke.”

“Sutton McIntyre.”

My voice sounds small and weak.

“And you’re that little girl’s mother?”

I give him a weak smile. “That’s me.”

He chuckles. “You must have fire in your belly, too, because she certainly does.”

“She’s a sassy one, that’s for sure.”

I hope she didn’t say anything too crazy, but Patrick is smiling, so he must have had a good introduction.

“Aye, she is. Something tells me you are, too,” Patrick jokes, grinning up at me.

“Sometimes. A girl has to stand up for herself.” There’s an edge of defense in my voice.

“Aye.” He sounds almost proud. “Gray needs to be knocked down a peg every once in a while. He’s too in his own head.”

I’m not sure what to say to that, so I keep my mouth shut. Patrick continues, not minding my sudden silence.

“He’s the most sensitive of all my bairns , you know that?”

My eyes shoot to his where I’d been looking down at my hands.

“He is?”

Patrick nods. “He’s always taken things to heart. When he was a kid, he’d try to save frogs and lizards that came in the house. Once, we found a slew of them in his toy box, and he’d cry and cry when his Ma explained they have to live outside.”

I smile at the sweet story. “Well, he’s older, now. Wiser.”

Patrick chuckles. “Is he? Seems to be he’s still the big-hearted boy with the toy box full of frogs and lizards, to me.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You,” he says, looking up at me with a serious expression. “I take it that you and Gray were apart for a while. Most of that little girl’s life.”

I swallow hard, preparing myself. “Yes.”

“You kept her away.”

“I did.”

“To protect her?” he asks, and his face isn’t angry and neither is his tone, but I feel defensive nonetheless.

“Yes. I didn’t want her to get hurt. I didn’t want either of us to get hurt.”

Patrick nods. “I can understand that, a’stor . I really can. What made you change your mind, though? It’s not like things have been particularly quiet around here.”

I take a deep breath. “Gray’s different.” I pause. “ I’m different. And I can’t protect her from the world. I can’t protect her the way that he can.”

Patrick licks his lips before speaking again, and I have the feeling that this conversation is taking a lot out of him.

“You have to be careful with him, a’stor . He gets hurt so easily.”

I nod slowly. “I’ll take care of him, Patrick.”

I don’t tell him that Gray and I aren’t even officially back together, because that doesn’t seem to matter.

I will take care of Gray. I’m going to do everything I can to be with him for the rest of my life. No matter how Gray feels about me, I’m in love.

“Aye,” Patrick says quietly. “I think you will.”

“I should go. Let you rest.”

He nods tiredly. “Will you send Marisol in with my afternoon snack? I need to eat before resting a bit more.”

I nod quickly, and Patrick grabs my hand as I start to turn away.

“It’s nice to meet you, Sutton McIntyre.”

I smile. “You too, Patrick. Feel better soon.”

“Better every day,” he says, and smiles.

I walk out into the hallway, and Gray is holding Ciara on his hip. He raises an eyebrow at me.

“How did it go?”

I smile back. “Great. Your da is a great guy.”

Gray grins, relief evident on his face. “He is.”

Ciara wiggles in Gray’s arms. “I want to go to the pool, Daddy!”

Gray chuckles. “You’d live there if you had gills.”

Ciara makes a face like a fish, and I laugh.

“You guys go on, I need to ask Marisol to bring Patrick’s meal.”

Gray leans down to kiss my cheek and then heads off with Ciara.

I head downstairs, seeing Lara and Bree snacking at the table.

Marisol sits in Patrick’s seat, eating.

“When you get a moment, Patrick is asking for his next meal,” I tell her, and her eyes widen as she stands up immediately.

She rushes into the kitchen and back out, and then I look over at Lara and Bree.

“You’re not going to eat?” Lara asks.

I shake my head. “Not yet. Shouldn’t eat before swimming, right?”

“I think that’s an old wives’ tale,” Bree pipes up, and I chuckle.

“Maybe, but my daughter is out there playing mermaids, and I want to join her.”

As I walk out of the big house and toward the Olympic-sized swimming pool, I can’t stop thinking about what Patrick said.

That Gray was the most sensitive of his children. That he needed the most understanding.

Gray keeps so much inside, and I wonder if that’s because he feels things more deeply than other people.

Ciara’s laughter reaches me before I catch sight of her, flying through the air in her floaties.

I hurry down to the pool, and Gray turns to look at me sheepishly when I call his name.

“Gray Burke. What are you doing?”

Just then, Ciara pops up from the deep end, wearing her floaties and giggling as she dog-paddles back over to her dad.

“Again! Again!”

“I don’t think your mother likes it much,” he says, looking down at her, and Ciara sighs deeply, rolling over onto her back and floating around the pool.

“Mama worries too much.”

“I worry just enough, thank you,” I say curtly and walk over to the edge of the pool, putting my feet in and looking over at Gray.

He walks over to me in the water, putting himself between my bare legs.

I reach out and put my hands on his water-spattered shoulders.

“How’d it go?” he asks softly.

I shrug. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Gray frowns, and I can’t help but laugh.

“It went well,” I assure him. "I think he likes me okay."

“He didn’t yell at you or anything, did he?”

“Not at all. He was a gentleman. Just like you.”

Gray snorts. “I don’t think either of us have ever been called gentlemen.”

I smirk. “You can show me why a bit later, when we put Ciara to bed.”

“I'm not going to bed!” Ciara yells. “I’m playing mermaids!”

“Not without me, you’re not.” I dive into the pool in my sundress, flipping my legs like a fish to get to her, and Ciara squeals and laughs.

Gray laughs, too, coming after us and pretending to be a shark, and Ciara loves it.

I end up sitting on the edge of the pool, watching those two play and feeling better about everything.

There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.