On Dublin Street

“Joss, the taxi is waiting.” Ellie shooed me towards to the door.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “But if you let anything happen to yourself while we’re gone, I will kill you.”

“Noted.”

“Tell Adam the same goes for him.”

Ellie giggled at my faux wounded look and threw up her hands. “Guys, come on. It’s been a month. I’m fine. Adam’s practically living here and you have a plane to catch.”

I had been missing him. Bastard knew me too well. “Mmm,” I answered non-committedly.

“You were being really obstinate, Joss. I thought if I provoked your jealousy you’d get scared and go running off to get him back.” Her face was pale as she looked into Adam’s eyes. “It really backfired.”

“I can see that,” he murmured, trying not smile.

This was not funny!

“You are so lucky you just had brain surgery.”

Ellie winced. “Sorry, Joss.” Then her eyes turned hopeful. “I meant to tell you before the surgery but I was so scared that day I forgot. Now you know the truth though. You can just stop fighting and go get him back.”

It was my turn to sigh. “He’s mad at me now.”

“For not trusting him?”

“Something like that,” I mumbled, wondering what the hell I was going to do next.

“Am I forgiven?” Ellie asked quietly.

I rolled my eyes at the question. “Of course. Just… quit the matchmaking business. You suck at it.” I gave them a little forlorn wave and left the room, closing the door quietly behind them.

was just getting up to leave her and Adam alone when Ellie stopped me.

“What’s going on with you and Braden?”

“Ellie, I’m not dragging you into our drama when you’re still in recovery.”

“Is it about that tiny white lie I told you about Isla?”

I spun around, my eyebrow raised at Ellie’s shamefaced expression. “Yeah. I just found out about that.”

Ellie glanced at Adam who was frowning, clearly confused. “I did a bad thing.”

He nodded. “I’m getting that. What happened?”

“I told Joss that you and I had lunch with Isla and Braden and they were all over each other.”

Her boyfriend reared back just like Braden had. In fact I noticed the two of them had quite a lot of similar mannerisms. They spent far too much time together. “We never had lunch with them. We stopped in for two seconds at the club.”

“Results please?”

Ellie grinned. “Benign.”

I sagged in relief to hear confirmation of what Dr. Dunham had predicted. “That really should have been the opener.”

“Sorry.”

“Uh huh.” I quirked an eyebrow at Elodie. “P.S. I’m going to take good care of her.” My eyes flickered to Adam who had climbed on top of the covers on Ellie’s other side. “That’s if Lover Boy let’s me.”

Adam grimaced. “I’m too old to be called a Lover Boy.”

“I quite like it.” Ellie smiled mischievously.

“Then Lover Boy it is.”

“Lie down.”

Ellie groaned. “This is going to be fun.”

As Adam helped Ellie off with her shoes and into the bed, Elodie came over to me. “The doctor says you need to make sure her bandages don’t get wet when she’s showering.”

“She can take baths for now.”

“Good. And, she’s to rest. She’s allowed to walk about, but not constantly.”

“Got it.”

Ellie’s eyes widened as she walked into her room. She was standing with her arm wrapped around Adam’s waist, and Elodie, Clark and Braden were already in the room, smiling at everything. The kids were back at school so they’d missed out on ‘Joss goes overboard’. Ellie’s eyes swung to me. “You did all this?”

I shrugged, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. “It’s not much.”

Ellie laughed and came over to me slowly. “You’re a little bit awesome.”

“We’re going. We’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Adam grabbed a chair from the side of the room and put it beside her bed. “I’m staying.”

We nodded, not really wanting to argue with the determined clench of his jaw.

She was still tired. We shouldn’t stay long. I gently eased Hannah back so Braden and Adam could get in with Declan. Declan thought she looked cool of course. Once Braden said hello, Adam wouldn’t leave Ellie’s side.

Her eyes started to flutter closed

Ellie was still awake when I got home from work. She came out of her room and closed the door softly behind her. “Adam’s sleeping,” she whispered, following me into the sitting room.

I grinned at her over my shoulder. “No wonder. You must have worn that poor boy out.”

Ellie rolled her eyes at me and slumped down onto the couch beside me. “It’s not really like that. Well… kind of,” she blushed, her eyes bright with happiness. “Mostly we’re talking a lot. Sorting things out. All those misunderstandings. Apparently, he’s been in love with me for a while.”

“Oh you don’t say.”