Saving 6 (Boys of Tommen, #3)

by Chloe Walsh

“Yeah, that’s right, prick. Your girl over there made the first move.” “And let me guess… You weren’t interested?” Paul roared back at him. “Have you seen your girl?” Joey taunted. “Of course I was interested. In fact, I was very fucking interested. Still am.”

“Fine. How’s this for easy? I like you,” she came right out and declared, and fuck if my heart didn’t pound in my chest in response. “And before you start with all of your bullshit denials, I know you like me back,” she was quick to add. “It stands to reason that if we both like each other—which we both do…” She paused to narrow her eyes and pointed a warning finger in my face. “Then shouldn’t we, you know, continue liking each other on an exclusive basis?” Slowing my feet to a stop, I tilted my head to one side and watched her. “Are you propositioning me, Molloy?” Blowing out another shaky breath, she closed the space between us. “That depends.” “On what?” My tone was low and gruff, and when I felt her hand entwine with mine, I couldn’t stop the shiver that racked through me. “On what you do next,” she whispered, leaning up on her tiptoes to press a soft kiss to the curve of my jaw.

“Don’t worry,” she said in a soft tone as she reached up and stroked her thumb over my cheekbone. “It’ll be safe with me, Joe.” “What will?” “Your trust.” My survival instinct kicked into gear, demanding I ward this girl off because she was getting way too close to my weak spot. “You think I trust you?” “Maybe not yet.” She cupped my face between her hands, pressing me to look at her, and Jesus, she took the air clean out of my lungs with that move. “But you will.”

“I see you, Joey Lynch,” she continued, stroking her nose against mine. “Yeah,” I replied in a gruff tone. “I see you too, Molloy.”

“The quintessential lost boy.” Her lips grazed mine as she spoke. “Don’t worry, Peter Pan, I’ll be your Wendy.”

“You are worth it,” I roared back, shoving the front door open. “Of course you’re fucking worth it, Shannon. You’re worth a thousand of that piece of shit, and don’t you ever let him make you feel anything less!”

“Yes, try.” I nodded slowly. “Just try, Joe. For me. That’s all I’m asking for.” He was silent for so long that I thought he wasn’t going to answer me. But then he released a ragged breath and pulled me into his arms. “Okay, Molloy,” he whispered, wrapping me up in his arms. “I’ll try.”

“That’s yer man, isn’t it? The lad from that fancy rugby academy,” Podge offered, inclining his head to where a tall, dark-haired lad about our age was leaning against the bar, deep in conversation with the owner of Biddies. “What’s his name again?” “Johnny Kavanagh,” I filled in, having recognized him the minute he walked through the door earlier with his army of wealthy pals in tow.

“Those are some nice legs, blondie. When do they open?” one of the lads from the rugby table called out. “Way past your bedtime, little boy.”

“You look like a dream.” “Then go back to sleep,” Molloy called back as she waited at the bar with her friends while the barman prepared their drinks.

“Nice shirt.” “Nice legs.”

“All lies, was it?” Alec grinned as he watched me trail after the fucking fantastic blond. “Yeah, lad, I believe you.”

“You don’t get it, Molloy,” he growled as his lips claimed mine, hands moving straight to my hips as he dragged them roughly against his. “I’m broken in the head. I don’t work right. I get hooked. I get so fucking addicted, and if we keep this up I won’t let go. I won’t be able to.” If he intended to scare me, he’d failed. His words had the opposite effect. “Good,” I breathed. “Because I don’t want you to.”

“That girl is her own person, lad. Believe me. Nobody’s going to cage her.” “Except for you.” He chuckled. “No, lad,” I corrected, feeling my heart roar to life when she smiled across the room at me. “Especially not me.”

“Oh, Jesus.” “Not Jesus, just Joey.”

“But don’t ever think that I don’t have feelings,” he said, and then pressed a kiss to my mouth. “Because the only time that I allow myself to feel anything is when I’m with you.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing here.” I threw my hands up. “I really fucking don’t.” “You’re here for the same reason that I am, asshole.” She came right back and sucker punched me in the chest with that. “Because you’re in love with the person staring back at you, the same way I am.” “I’m not in love with you,” I warned her, tone shaky now. “I’m not, Molloy. I don’t love you.” “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, Joey.” She had the nerve to roll her eyes and say, “You love me so much that it makes you sick.” “You’re so fucking full of yourself,” I snapped, completely unnerved by the blond who was crawling over the console to sit on my lap. “You don’t know what’s in my head, Molloy.” “I’m in your head.” Straddling my hips, she reached for the hem of her school jumper and quickly yanked it off. “Then, now, always.”

“What have I gotten myself into?” “The best relationship of your life.” She wasn’t wrong there.

“I’m not your boyfriend, Molloy,” he was quick to deny. “I’m just your—” “Yes, you are, ya big eejit,” I snapped, irritated now. “It’s been seven months. You’re my boyfriend, I’m your girlfriend, and we love each other a lot.”

“Not your boyfriend,” he muttered, and then released a pained groan. “Oh my Jesus, I just realized something.” “What?” “My boss’s daughter is my girlfriend.” Laughing, I patted him on the shoulder. “That she is.”

This was all new territory to me. One minute I was twelve years old and locking eyes on her at the school gates, and the next I was seventeen, standing in her house, about to tell her father that she was mine.

“Joey!” Tony barked, and I quickly clamped my mouth shut. “I only have two questions for you.” Oh Jesus. “And take your time answering them,” he added. “Because I only want the truth, lad.” I nodded. “Okay.” “First.” He eyed me carefully and asked, “Do you love my daughter?” Heart thumping violently in my chest, I felt myself nod. “Entirely.” And then I heard myself say, “For about five years now.”

“You forget that I’ve known you since you were a small boy of twelve,” he reminded me as he steered us toward the back door. “I remember looking at this small scrap of a lad standing in the garage, down on his luck and with the weight of the world on his shoulders. That small boy asked me for a chance that day,” he added, voice thick with emotion. “I took a chance on that boy, and I’m glad that I did because the man that small boy turned into is a man who I am damn proud of.”

Joey: I don’t love you. x Molloy: I don’t love you back. <3

“Don’t hate me, Molloy,” Joey mumbled, falling into the passenger seat the moment I let him go to open the car door. “You’re all I have to wake up for in the morning.”

Resting against the velvet padding interior was a tiny silver locket with the date 30.08.99 on the front. “That date…” I blew out a shaky breath. “It’s—” “The first day of first year,” he explained quietly. “The first time I laid eyes on you, and the first time I understood what it meant to have my heart beating for someone outside of my family.”

“Why is this such a big deal for you?” I didn’t flinch or shy away when I said, “Because I want to look that bastard in the eyes and show him that you have someone ready and willing to go to war both with you and for you.”

“But I will stand beside you,” I told him, reaching up to wrap my arms around his neck. “I will do that, Joey, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop me.”

“You’re so strange.” He threw his head back and laughed. “I love it.” “You mean you love me,” I teased, grinning up at him. “Yeah, Molloy.” His eyes burned with sincerity when he said, “That’s exactly what I mean.”

Drunk as a skunk, Joey held me and mumbled along to the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” as we swayed against each other on the dance floor in the back lounge of Biddies. “My Granda Murphy was a big fan.” “Of the Beatles?” “Yeah, and of this song.” Pulling me close he pressed a kiss to the curve of my jaw and said, “When I was small, I used to ask him what the words of the song meant. He would always say that one day, when I found myself in love with a girl, I wouldn’t have to ask him what the words meant because I would already know.” His arms tightened around me. “Turns out he was right.”

“I still can’t understand how you lasted a whole year without running for the hills.” “I don’t run, remember?” I shot back, reaching across the table with my palm up. “And neither do you.” Joey stared at my outstretched hand for a long moment before placing his on top of it and entwining our fingers. “I guess we’re both too stubborn for running, huh, Molloy?” “Or too in love.” “Yeah,” he agreed, tone gruff, as he pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. “Or that.”

“You’re not good for me,” she whispered brokenly, clinging to the hand I had wrapped around her. “I get that now.” Her fingers dug into my forearm. “But it doesn’t stop my heart from loving you, or my head from wanting you.”

“You might be the addict in this relationship, but you’re also the habit that I need to kick,” she choked out, chest heaving as she turned in my arms to face me. “Because I feel like I’m dying when I’m with you, and I feel like I’m dead when I’m not.”

“And I can’t walk away, because I know that there’s still a little bit of you left in there,” she choked out. Placing her hand over the part of my chest that bore her name, she sniffled another sob and whispered, “Which means that I’m going to keep on loving you, Joey Lynch. So you might want to start thinking about how to stop breaking my heart.”

The harder I fought to take control of this piece-of-shit person I’d morphed into, the stronger the demon became.

“Listen, I want you to know something,” he said quietly, clenching my hip with his hand. “I want you to know that you’ve been the best part of my day every day since I was twelve years old.”

“My life has been a shitstorm from day dot, Molloy, and the whole goddamn town knows it. I’ve never had calm. But you?” His tear-filled eyes implored me to hear him. “You were like an island. Somewhere for me to go and escape. Somewhere safe. Someone to anchor me, if that even makes sense. And I took advantage of that when I had no right to. I was selfish when I dragged you into my world. Now, I need to put you first.”

I was officially eighteen years old. I could walk right out the front door, and nobody could stop me. I could leave. I could be free. But the four small faces staring expectantly up at me were so defenseless, so utterly dependent on my ability to provide for and protect them, that I knew in my heart that I would never leave this house until I could take them with me.

“I want you to know that you’ve been the best part of my day for every day since I was twelve years old.”

Darren might have been the academic son, but you’re the survivor.” She reached across the couch and squeezed my shoulder with her small hand. “Which is how I know that you are going to be okay.” She gave me a meaningful look and whispered the words, “I promise.”

“You want the words?” Roughly clearing my throat, I sucked in a sharp breath before saying, “Fine. I love you, Aoife Molloy.” “Don’t.” “I love you,” I reiterated, eyes locked on hers as I brushed away a tear from her cheek. “I love you more than I have ever loved another person in my life, and that’s not an exaggeration. That’s the god-honest truth.”

“And we’re going to see each other at school, and it’s not going to be fucked up and awkward because we both remember that before we were us, we were…” “Us,” she filled in softly. “Exactly. I’m not replacing you, Molloy.” I couldn’t. “I’m trying to fix me.” For you.