Lucky This Isn't Real: MacBride Brothers Series St. Patrick's Day Fake Fiance Romance by Jamie Knight (digital e reader .TXT) 📕

“Hold on a minute,” I said.

I slid my phone from the back pocket of my jeans. I tried to call Maggie but got no answer. I had just been over there, so I figured she was screening my calls.

I switched over to text. I typed out as heartfelt an apology as I could in the characters allowed.

It only took her a few seconds to respond. So few that there was no way she had actually read the message.

Thank you for helping me out as my fake fiancé, but I need real space. Don’t contact me again.

A gunshot to the heart would have hurt less.

Well, that was that, then.

As much as I wanted to keep trying, I also refused to be some kind of creepy stalker cliche. Besides which, I knew I should really be focusing on my family and career, rather than moping over the ending of my fake relationship. No matter how much I would have liked it to be real.

Part of me knew I would continue to do whatever it took to make her mine for real.

But not yet.

Maybe she was right– as she had so often been in the past– and that space was best for both of us.

I really had to deal with the issues that were confronting me.

I couldn’t run anymore.

“Everything okay?” Eoin asked me, a look of concern on his young face.

“Yeah. Well, kind of. Let’s go, little brother. We have a flight to catch.”

Chapter Fifteen – Gavin

The hospital was as depressing as it was when I’d been in there with my last knife wound. It wasn’t that it was dirty or anything. The NHS had really improved since the time of The Troubles. If anything, the place was a bit too sterile, not in the sense of cleanliness but overall.

Everything from the uniforms down to the wallpaper was devoid of any color or life. It was all done with a machine efficiency that was functional and effective, but not the sort of place you would want to spend a lot of time in. Although that could have partly been the point.

The doctor was pleasant enough. Her skirt suit matched her stark white lab coat, giving her the vague air of a super-villain. Her dark brown skin kept her from looking washed out.

“It’s a staph infection,” she explained as I looked through the glass partition and into my dad’s hospital room. “His immune system was already compromised, which left him even more vulnerable.”

“What are his chances?” I asked, more worried than I’d been in a while.

Eoin had been right, and I was glad he had come to find me. I regretted screening his calls, but I really had thought I was doing the right thing. At least I was here now, I reasoned, so as not to hate myself.

“Not sure, honestly. Though we can’t do anything without informed consent for extreme measures. He’s in no condition to sign, so it will need to be you. Without it, he will definitely die.”

“Right then,” I said, taking the clipboard she was holding and signing on the spot indicated.

“Oh, okay,” the doctor said, clearly surprised by my enthusiasm.

Eoin had apparently filled her in on my prior reluctance to come help.

“Do whatever’s needed,” I said, handing her back the clipboard.

That done, I went out to where Eoin was waiting. He looked worried and scared, which seemed to be his default state nowadays, the poor kid.

He might be eighteen, but to me, he would always be my baby brother.

“Buck up, little brother, it’s all in hand.”

“You signed?” he asked.

I sat down next to him.

“Of course I did. Was there ever any doubt?”

“Well—”

“Don’t answer that.”

“So, he’s gonna live?”

“Can’t tell,” I said with a shrug. “The doctor didn’t even know, but they couldn’t do anything without my consent, which they now have. I’ve cleared them to do anything they need to do.”

“Oh, thank St. Brigid!” he said, relief filling his face.

I nudged his shoulder with mine.

“No, thank me. Brigid might be a saint, but she wasn’t holding the pen.”

“You know what I meant! What changed your mind? I thought you were at the end of your rope with him.”

I rested my elbows on my knees.

“Maybe you showed me a better way. You were so ridiculously dedicated to saving him, it was hard for it not to rub off, at least a bit. Maybe there are some people worth not giving up on.”

I had been referring to my dad at that moment, but I also couldn’t help thinking of Maggie.

I was holding on pretty hard. I’d never done that before, even with real relationships, what few there had been, anyway, since I had always been more of a player than the commitment type.

It only went to further prove that Maggie was someone special. I loved her in a way I hadn’t loved anyone before.

“Well, if it isn’t the prodigal son!” someone shouted.

Eoin and I both looked up to see three of our brothers coming in through the meticulously cleaned sliding doors.

“Hey, fellas,” I said, getting up and hugging all of them in order of height, from Big Noel to Little Jim.

Medium Sean stood between them.

“You ready to get outta here?” Noel asked rhetorically, knowing full well how we all felt about hospitals.

“Hell yes!” I said.

There was a flurry of gasps from a cluster of nurses coming out of a nearby break room. When we were together, we tended to have that effect on women.

“Patrick couldn’t make it, hey?” I asked as we headed outside.

“Couldn’t get a flight,” Liam said.

“The rest of us are going to take you out on the town,” Noel said. “We’ll celebrate the big star you’re about