Page 116 of Beneath the Quiet

My heart bleeds at the crack in her voice. I tighten my hand in hers once more.

“You listen to me, Maeve Gallagher, and you listen carefully, because you need to fucking hear me.”

Her mouth opens on a long exhale as she turns watery eyes towards me.

“It grates on my nerves that you’d for a single moment ever think that you aren’t enough,” I murmur hotly. “Do you hear me? No one makes you feel less than the grand, caring, beautiful person that you are. Not ever again.”

She wipes a tear off her cheeks, her lips tipping up at the corners. “I think I just needed someone to say that to me for once. Doesn’t that make me weak? That’s what I meant when I told you that I wasn’t very brave. I think there’s a small part of me that’s broken, Aidan. Maybe it won’t ever heal, because I’m not even sure why I feel it. I just know that something is missing.”

I turn on my side again to face her and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. I rest my hand on her neck, the slow beating of her pulse steadying me.

“We’re all a little broken. You’ll find your missing piece. You’re a fighter. A warrior. You’ll heal. And you want to know the best part?”

“What’s that?”

“That you’ll do it yourself. You don’t need someone else to do the healing for you. Not me, not the village…not even Mrs. McCarthy.”

Her giggle is the sweetest sound, and exactly the reaction I was trying to get out of her. I could listen to her laugh all night if I let myself.

But she might not even be aware that she’s still ill, and we both need our sleep.

I caress the side of her cheek for a few seconds longer, then force myself to let her go. I turn back and flip the light switch, leaving the room in the dim, early-morning light.

“Don’t worry so much, Mae. Let’s go back to sleep.”

I squeeze her hand and settle back on my side. I need to show her that I care for her, and that I’m here for her. I’m halfway off to sleep when she tightens her fingers around mine.

“Whatever’s broken inside you, Aidan?”

“Yeah?”

Hope jumps in my chest, pressing in so hard that I can scarcely breathe.

“I hope you find your missing piece, too. Thank you for staying with me,” she whispers.

She sounds so small that it tugs at my heartstrings. She’s not the self-assured, controlled woman I’ve gotten to know. The woman who’ll sit alone in a pub and do crosswords and have a chat with villagers, even when it takes so much energy out of her to talk with strangers.

“Don’t mention it.”

I push my right leg between hers, tucking her ankle under my foot, and wait for her to drift off to sleep. Soon after, her breaths even out again, and only then do I allow myself to follow her into a deep, dreamless sleep, holding our entwined hands against my chest.

Right over my heart.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Maeve

“Mae? Wake up.”

I groan at the voice and pull the duvet over my head. The low, manly chuckle sends warmth running down my back to settle in my tummy, but wait…why is there a man in my bedroom?

I feel a hand on my shoulder shaking me a little bit, and I flip the cover back and scrunch my nose.

“Go away.”

“You’re cute when you’re half-asleep.”

Wait, is that Aidan?