Page 31 of Sins of Innocence

"It's going to be hard enough faking a relationship for my mom and girls," I warn him. "But not knowing anything about you is going to make it impossible."

Even if by some miracle we convince my mom we've been secretly dating, there's no way she's going to believe I waited to introduce Kieran to her and the girls only a couple of days before we're supposed to get married.

My worries achieve what my self-admonishment didn't and the desire banks inside me. It doesn't disappear. No, that would be too easy, but stress supersedes it.

Should I tell my mom the truth? I've kept the truth about Troy from her, but that's more about not sharing what I know, not actively lying to her. I'm not a naturally dishonest person and this is my mom.

"Maybe I should tell mom what's going on." Being able to talk to her about it would be such a relief.

"No."

"Darn it, Kieran! Stop with the unilateral, single word answers or I swear I'm going to dose your breakfast with Ipecac syrup," I threaten.

A curious stillness comes over him. "You're going to make me breakfast?"

"After we're married. It's what a wife does." Among other things I'm absolutely not going to think about right now. Then an even more disturbing thought comes to me. "We are going to live together, right?"

No way will my girls believe the marriage is real if we don't. And if they don't, neither will Kenneth Shaughnessy or anyone else and poof there goes our protection.

"I don't expect you to cook for me," he says, answering my question in an oblique way.

"I make breakfast for mom, me and the girls, why wouldn't I include you? Though if you leave the house at some ungodly hour before dawn, consider the offer rescinded."

"Breakfast or the Ipecac syrup?" he asks, deadpan.

My laugh pops the bubble of tension pressing in on me. "Are you teasing me Kieran Lleshi?"

The right side of his mouth quirks a little. But true to form, he doesn't give a verbal answer.

I consider which unanswered question I want to address first, I go with the most immediately pressing. "Why can't I tell my mom what's going on?"

"It's not safe."

Wow. Three whole words. "For who?"

"Any of us."

Us. That word hits hard and I don't even know why. "But why though?"

His fingers flex on the steering wheel, but that's the only indication my questions are bothering him.

Too bad. If we're getting married, I'm not living like a mushroom like I did with Troy.

The manure that got dumped on me because I'd been living in the dark isn't something I ever want stinking up my life again.

So, I wait Kieran out.

After two solid minutes of silence, he says, "Every person who knows the truth increases the chance of it coming out."

"Thank you."

"For?"

"Making the effort to explain and not expecting me to read the shorthand of your monosyllabic replies."

He nods. "I'll try."

"By try, do you mean talking in full sentences."