JOEY
MANIPULATED into driving miles out of the way on the insinuation that I might get my dick wet afterwards, had me driving through an impressive ten-foot cast-iron gate, and up a mile-long private country lane that led to a house straight out of the films.
Seriously, in any other circumstances, I would be shot on target for trespassing on a property like this.
In fact, I half expected to see a guard of some sort jump out of the bushes with a shot gun.
I had to steel my features when I pulled up outside what I could only describe as a stately fucking mansion.
This was where Kavanagh lived?
I looked to Molloy who was gaping at the house not unlike the way I was. “And I thought his friend’s house was a palace,” she mumbled, face
pressed against the window. “Holy crap, Joe.”
“I know, Molloy.”
These people owned acres of land and grounds. They were sprawled out everywhere.
Christ.
After helping Kav deposit his ward onto the couch in a living room that looked like it could have been a ballroom before it had had been renovated, I stopped at the front door, unable to walk away until I addressed the elephant in the room.
“Listen.” Rubbing the back of my neck, I turned to face him. “About Shannon.”
Kav seemed to straighten, as he stood in the entryway of his impressive as fuck house and inclined his chin for me to get this conversation over with. “What about Shannon?”
He didn’t back down or shy away.
Instead, he just braced himself for what I had to say. “She’s fragile,” I heard myself tell him. “Vulnerable.” “Yeah. I already guessed that.”
“What I’m trying to say here is that I appreciate you looking out for my sister. She’s had a hard few years, and Tommen seems like a good fit for her.”
He gave me a clipped nod. “It is.”
Reluctantly impressed, I gave him a hard look, taking his measure to see if he would slip or falter.
Blue eyes stared back at me, unyielding, and unwilling to bend an inch.
Well, shit.
This fucker was going to stand his ground.
Not wanting to meddle in whatever my sister had going on with this lad, but needing to let him know that I wasn’t going to sit back and let him fuck
her over, either, I said, “So, I guess I’m hoping that you continue keeping an eye out for her at school. You know, make sure that no one is giving her any hassle.”
He nodded once. “That’s no problem.”
“She seems to be settling in at Tommen, and she keeps telling me that the kids are nice to her, but I’m at BCS so I’ve no way to tell if she’s okay or not.” I shook my head and sighed. “And she never tells anyone what’s going on in that head of hers until it’s too late.”
“Too late?”
“Bitchy girl shit.” I hated the feeling that I was baring my neck to this lad, but I didn’t have any other hand to play. He was the one at school with my sister. He was the one with the ability to do what I couldn’t. He was the one going around handling her bullies. He had the upper hand in this situation. “My sister has had a target on her back since she was in nappies.”
“Jesus Christ.” Raw, unrestrained emotion flashed in his eyes then, and in his voice, letting me know that he wasn’t quite the robot he had been programed to be. “That’s pretty messed up.”
“Kids are cruel,” I offered, giving him the perfect opportunity to tell me about the altercation he and Shannon had at Biddies.
“They sure are,” was all he offered in return. No bragging.
No pissing contests. No explanation.
Just stoic silence.
Well, shit.
“Are you going to tell me about it?” Silence.
“Ciara Maloney’s boyfriend,” I mused, lips twitching when he made no
move to comply. “Some fella from Tommen beat the shit out of him in town yesterday.”
“Oh?” He shrugged noncommittally. “Is that so?” I smirked. “Yeah, it is.”
“Well, I hope he fucked him up,” he finally offered, folding his arms across his chest. “Heard his girlfriend’s a bitch.”
“I heard he was in a bad way,” I replied evenly. “Broken nose, and a few stitches.”
“How awful.” Kav’s tone was dripping with disdain, his eyes void of any empathy – or regret.
“Anyway, I just wanted you to know I appreciate that my sister has someone looking out for her when I can’t.”
“No problem.”
“A friend,” I said slowly, watching his reaction. “My sister needs a friend, Kavanagh. She doesn’t need to be getting her hopes up on a guy who’ll be gone come the summer.”
Or her heart broken.
“I won’t hurt her, Joey.”
The sincerity in his voice, and the vulnerable look in his eyes assured me that not only was my sister’s heart on the line here, but so was his.
Poor fucker had gone and caught himself some big old feelings.
For my sister, of all people.
Go figure.
 |
“I THINK you’re right about them,” I said when I climbed back into the driver’s seat.
“I usually am,” Molloy mused, as she looked through the stack of cd cases in her hands. “But indulge me anyway.”
“That big, overgrown fucker?” Fastening my seatbelt, I started the car, and turned to look at her. “Yeah, I’m fairly sure he’s banging my sister.”
“No way?” Throwing her head back, she laughed. “Go Shannon.” “She’s fifteen.”
“Oh please.” She rolled her eyes at me. “Like you’re in the position to throw stones.”
“Exactly,” I bit out, driving down the tree-lined lane towards the road. “We all know what a shit-show fifteen was for me. Shannon should be learning by my mistakes, not following in my footsteps.”
“She’s sixteen tomorrow,” she reminded me.
“Worse still,” I groaned. “Sixteen was another train-wreck of a year for me.”
“Hey!” Molloy folded her arms across her chest and huffed out a breath. “I take offense to that statement.”
“Why?”
“Because I was in your life for both of those years.”
“Ah, but I didn’t get naked with you until seventeen,” I reminded her, winking. “Seventeen was a far more productive year for me.”
“No, you didn’t get naked with me until you were seventeen,” she agreed with a sudden bite to her tone. “Because, if I recall correctly, you were too busy sticking your dick in most of the girls in Ballylaggin and at least fifty percent of our friendship circle at school.”
“Funny. Because if I recall correctly, you were the in that four-year relationship with one of my teammates.”
“Three and a half years,” she corrected with a growl. “And that was totally different.”
“How?”
“Because I never slept with Paul. I’ve only ever been with you.”
“Yeah, and I never loved any of the girls I slept with, because I’ve only ever loved you.”
“So, I get your heart, while you get my heart and my virginity?” “Sounds about right.”
“That’s not a fair trade.”
“Tough shit.” “Joey!”
“What do you want me to say?” I demanded in exasperation. “I can’t go back in time and un-stick my dick in the first girl I slept with, Molloy.”
“How about just the first fifty?”
“Now, you’re being ridiculous,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. “I haven’t been with fifty girls. I don’t even know fifty girls to begin
with.”
“Well, I can name at least ten girls from school that know you on an intimate level,” she was quick to point out. “And those are only the girls from BCS, Joe.” She finally decided on a disc then, one of her older burner-CDs, labeled JL 4 AM 1999 in black sharpie ink, and popped it into the stereo.
A few seconds later, Joey from Concrete Blonde drifted from the speakers.
“Turn it off,” I warned. “I mean it.”
“No, I like it, and don’t change the subject,” she argued. “We were talking about the fact that you’ve made your way through half of the girls at school.”
“How did a conversation about Johnny Kavanagh’s sex life switch into a fight about our previous sex lives?”
“Your previous sex life, Joe,” she corrected hotly. “My entire sex life, past, present, and future starts and ends with you.”
“And my sex life, present and future starts and ends with you.” “But not your past.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Molloy.”
“How about the truth?”
“The truth about how your mood swings are on another fucking planet?” I bit out, jaw clenched. “Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you lately?”
“It was Danielle Long, wasn’t it?” she pushed, ignoring my very accurate assertion. “I know you slept with her. Multiple times. But she’s the one who took your virginity, isn’t she?”
“Why are we even talking about this?”
“Because I want to know.”
“What does it even matter?” I growled, knowing full well that whatever I said or didn’t say, could and would be used against me in the court of Aoife Molloy. This was a dangerous fucking conversation, one that I had deftly managed to avoid until now, and one I could never in a million years win. “The past is in the past for a reason.”
“Yeah, I know.” “Then drop it.” “Alright. Fine.”
“Well, alright then.” “Fine.”
“Good,” I replied, nodding. “Glad that’s settled.”
She shrugged. “You’re still a huge whore, but whatever.”
“Really, Aoif?” Fresh out of patience, I flicked my attention from the windscreen to her. “You want to get salty with me over something I can’t change?”
“Nope,” she replied all snippy, with her nose in the air. “Just stating facts.”
“You’re absolutely right; I do have a past,” I agreed, pissed off. “One that doesn’t include you. One where, yes, I did have sex with other girls. One where I’ve made some questionable decisions. I am no fucking angel. I’ve never pretended to be.”
“But was it her?” she asked, chewing on her lip, when we pulled onto Elk’s Terrace. “Danielle? Was she your first?”
I didn’t want to answer these questions. “Tell me, Joe.”
“No good can come from this conversation.”
“Please.”
“Yeah, she was my first,” I reluctantly admitted, as I pulled onto my street and parked up outside my house. “I was young and thick, and desperate for a bit of affection.” Killing the engine, I turned in my seat to look at her. “It meant nothing, and I remember even less about it.”
“So, she had you first.”
“Aoife.” I blew out a weary breath. “I can’t change my past.” “Who else?” she asked. “How many others?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not doing this.” “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to,” I snarled, losing my cool. “Because I don’t fucking remember. In case you forgot, I’ve spent most of secondary school off my goddamn head. So, I can’t give you a number, Molloy, and I can’t give you names, because I don’t fucking remember.” I blew out a harsh breath before adding, “I’m sorry about that, okay? I know that this must be a fucking horrible thing for you to have to hear, because if the shoe was on the other foot, and you were the one saying all of this to me, then it would shred me.” I shook my head, feeling at a loss. “But it’s the truth.”
“You were right, Joe.” Flinching, she exhaled a shaky breath, and clutched her stomach, looking physically sick. “No good can come from a conversation like this.”
“It’s only been you,“ I heard myself tell her, even though I knew that no amount of damage control could repair tonight. “Since we’ve been together? Since the day you put your lips on mine? It’s only been you, Aoif.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been off your head for most of our relationship.” I watched as a tear trickled down her cheek. “And if you can’t remember the girls that you were with before me, then how can you be sure—”
“Because I am. Because I know.” Reaching across the car, I grabbed her hand in mine, flinching when I felt the tremor rolling through her. “Because I’m sure about you.”
“And I’m sure about you,” she strangled out. “But I’ve spent most of my life watching my mother forgive my father for countless affairs.” She shook her head when she said, “I won’t be that kind of person. I won’t become her. It’s a hard limit for me.”
“And you think I’d do that to you?” I demanded. “You think I’d risk our future for a cheap fuck?”
“No,” she admitted, sounding pained. “It’s just…”
“Listen to me.” Leaning in close, I tucked her hair behind her ear and said, “I’m not Tony, and you’re not Trish, okay? I would never do that to you,” I promised as I cupped the side of her face with my hand, and resisted the urge to shake this sudden onslaught of irrational fear and neediness out of her. “Do ya hear me? I would never cheat on you.”
She reached up and covered my hand with hers, as her green eyes searched mine for a reassurance that she’d never needed from me before.
“Because, you see this face?” Leaning in close, I rested my brow against hers and stroked her nose with mine. “Your face right here is the only face
I’ve been seeing since I was twelve. Because no matter how off my head I’ve been over the years, no matter how far from reality I’ve let my mind wander, I have never lost sight of this face.”
Shivering, she exhaled a shaky breath and grabbed my face between her hands. “Really?”
“The only face,” I confirmed with a small nod. “The only girl.”
“Future,” she whispered shakily, and then her lips were on mine. “You said future, Joe.”
“No,” I mumbled against her lips. “I said our future.”
She pulled back to look at me. “You want one of those?” I watched her carefully. “Don’t you?”
“With me?”
“Who else, Molloy?”
She looked genuinely stumped. “But you never talk about the future.” I shrugged. “Never used to think I had one.”
“And you do now?”
“You sound surprised.”
“Because I am.” Her eyes searched mine, as she continued to hold my face between her hands. “You want a future with me, Joe?”
“I know that I don’t want one without you, Molloy,” I replied, leaning in to brush my lips against hers. “So that narrows shit down, doesn’t it?”
“I guess it sort of does,” she breathed, thumbs tracing over my cheekbones. “So, do you have any idea what this future might look like?”
“Well, it won’t look like a mansion in the country.”
“I don’t care about that,” she whispered, eyes full of urgency. “Tell me, Joe.”
“I suppose it looks a bit like us finishing out school,” I offered with a shrug. “You’ll get into that hairdressing course in St. Johns, and I’ll take the apprenticeship at the garage with your dad.”
“Uh-huh.” Her eyes twinkled with excitement. “Keep going.”
Maybe the night could be saved after all.
“And then we’ll attempt to save up for a flat,” I said, amused by her sudden perkiness, and playing along to make her happy. “That I’ll end up paying for because you’ll blow every cent you earn on clothes and makeup – which is nothing new there.”
“For real?” she squealed, bad mood forgotten now, as she shimmied around in the passenger seat. “You see us moving in together?”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I warned. “On an apprentice’s wage, it’ll end up being a shitty one bed apartment at the end of Elk’s Terrace, with leaky pipes, and a mouse infestation problem.”
“Psssh.” She waved her hand like those details were unimportant. “That’s why plumbers and mouse traps were invented.” She grinned at me. “What else does this future of ours consist of?”
“Aside from all of the wild sex we’ll be having in our shitty flat?”
“The constant wild sex,” she agreed approvingly. “On every surface.” “Which we’ll soon run out of because it’s so small.”
“And mouse infested.”
“And damp.”
“And unbearable.” She smiled. “Keep going.” “After a while, we’ll upgrade to a two-bed.”
“A two-bed?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Somewhere for my sister and the boys to hide out. Otherwise, they’ll end up emotionally scarred from all of the wild sex we’ll be having.”
“Okay,” she laughed. “So, we’re adopting your siblings now, are we?” “What can I say?” I grinned. “It’s a matter of buy one and get four free.” “Maybe we should just permanently evict your parents and keep the
house,” she joked. “We’d save a fortune in subsidized rent from the council.”
“Don’t tempt me,” I groaned, reluctantly smiling. “So, now that we’ve established a future with me consists of slumming it up in a flat in Ballylaggin and becoming parents at eighteen.”
Her eyes widened. “Parents?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Buy me and get four kids free, remember?” “Your siblings.”
“Who else?”
“Right,” she laughed. “Good one.”
“So, any cold feet?” I mused, tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear. “Any changes you want to make to our future plans, or are we all set?”
“No cold feet,” she replied, burying her face in my neck, as she hugged me tightly. “I want that future with you.”
