Saving 6 (Boys of Tommen, #3)

by Chloe Walsh

“Oh, I’ve been sold on you for a long time now, Joey Lynch.”

Tread carefully, the beating muscle in my chest commanded, because if you let her in, if you let yourself fall for this girl, you’ll never recover. Forget that shit, she’s already in. Keep her.

“Hey!” It was at that very moment that a small, blond-haired boy came bounding out of the Lynchs’ house and rounded the garden wall with a floor brush in hand. “Get off my brother!”

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

It didn’t stop me from thinking about Molloy, though. No, she lived rent-free in my head. Same as always.

I tilted my head to one side and watched her. “Are you propositioning me, Molloy?”

“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.”

“No.” Shaking her head, she shifted closer, pressing her body flush against mine. “I mean that I see you.”

My heart thundered wildly in my chest, though on the outside I didn’t move a muscle. “If you really saw me, the real me, you’d be running by now.”

A sad smile pulled at her lips. “You really believe ...

forcing my body to remain rigid and not fold into her like a huge part of me wanted to.

Baby boiiiii

No one had ever touched me with this level of affection before.

😣😖

I was the very worst person a girl like her could get tangled up with, and still she clung to me like I hung the goddamn moon.

Alec’s cheeks turned bright red. “Her,” he whispered to Podge. “She’s my favorite.”

She made me weak, this girl. It was insane, but I forgot about things when I was with her. Things like time, school, hurling, home. She even made me forget about him.

Shaking his head, he leaned in close and pressed a kiss to my lips. “We’ve got plenty of time.”

The blond lad chuckled with a wink.

Frickin Gibsie🤣🤣

Being with her made me want to keep a clear head because I wanted to remember her. I wanted to be in the moment with her and not just float through it.

“Because the only time that I allow myself to feel anything is when I’m with 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.”

“Gots no poos, Dada.”

Him calling Joey dada is killing me 😫😫😫😫

“O-wee dada.”

Aoife was written in italic script across the left side of his chest.

You’re my boyfriend, I’m your girlfriend, and we love each other a lot.”

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.

“I really fucking care about her, okay? This isn’t a fleeting notion, either. We didn’t get together on a whim. I put a hell of a lot of thought into this,” I added, blowing out a breath. “She’s my friend, Tony. My best friend—has been for a long time now. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I didn’t see it coming,

“She’s my friend, Tony. My best friend—has been for a long time now. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I didn’t see it coming,

“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.”

“A lad I would be happy to see look after my Aoife.”

“It’s not Mam,” Shannon said. “It’s—” “It’s okay,” a small voice said, and my legs gave way beneath me. “No.” “It’s okay, Joe.” No, no, no. “Really, I’m okay.” Please, God, no.

Completely fucking reeling, I felt my head grow light as memories from what felt like a lifetime ago bombarded me. “It’s okay, Dar,” I wheezed, leaning heavily over the toilet bowl as a mixture of vomit and blood continued to heave from my black-and-blue stomach. “I’m okay.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I wheezed as the pain of having my seven-year-old nose broken threatened to consume me. “I don’t care,” I continued to say over and over, hoping that if I said it enough times it might come true.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Tadhg tried to comfort me by saying, as he spat a mouthful of clotted blood into the toilet bowl. He pressed a fresh wad of tissue to his clearly broken nose as the skin under his eyes already started turning a yellowish brown. “Really, Joe, it doesn’t even hurt.”

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t here to protect you,” I heard myself whisper, numb to the bone as I watched him churn in pain. “I had…training.” “It doesn’t matter,” Tadhg replied, giving me a horrible taste of déjà vu. “I don’t care.”

STOP STABBING ME

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

Still, that didn’t stop me from wanting to snatch him away and keep him safe, from wanting to give him a safe place to fall, to stay, to rest and recover.

“Now.” Taking a firm stance in front of my boyfriend’s sister, I planted my hands on my hips and arched a brow. “Which one of you thick fuckers has a death wish?”

“Because I love your brother, and your brother loves you. Keeping you safe is important to him, which makes it important to me.” Smiling, I threw my arm over her skinny little shoulders and walked her into school. “And who knows? Maybe in time you’ll be coaxed out of that pretty little shell and we can be friends.”

“You’re all I have to wake up for in the morning.”

“We could get out of here,” she sobbed against my neck. “You and me. We could just load up the car and leave this shithole town behind us. I would go with you, Joe. I would. I love you.” She continued to sob, peppering kisses down my neck. “I love you. I love you. I love you so fucking much, it makes me want to die.”

“I can’t leave them, Molloy,” I whispered, tightening my arms around her when her body was racked with sobs. I’m not my brother. “I have to stay.”

And as I lay on my side, running my hand through his hair and watching him sleep, I made a mental vow that I wouldn’t allow him to lose himself to the world he teetered on the edge of. No matter what, I would be right beside him, ready to pull him back to safety. Even if it meant that I lost myself in the process.

“I absolutely don’t love you, Joey Lynch,” she breathed, fist knotting in my shirt as she tugged my face down to hers. “And I always won’t.”

“I do. I need you, too,” I choked out, holding on for dear life. “I need you to stay right here with me, because if you leave me now, I won’t be able to breathe until I see you again.”

“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.”

“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.”

stroking his nose with mine, desperate to give him comfort.

“Stay with me,” he told me as he kept a death grip on my hand. “I’ll keep you safe.”