Saving 6 (Boys of Tommen, #3)

by Chloe Walsh

“I’ll be seeing ya, Molloy.” “Yeah, Joey Lynch.” I blew out a shaky breath. “You will.”

And with those words, my mother cut me deeper and more viciously than my father ever had. Ever could.

“I don’t like you, asshole. I don’t like how you talk, I don’t like how you act, and I sure as shit don’t like how you treat your girlfriend. We might share a team and a classroom, but that’s it,” I added. “Don’t misconstrue my tolerance of your presence as an invitation to speak to me about anything other than hurling.”

The truth was that nothing about being with Joey was easy, and yet being with him felt so incredibly right. Like I was exactly where I was supposed to be, with exactly who I was supposed to be with.

A surge of sadness threatened to drown me as I took in the sight of fresh bruises. It hurt to look at him sometimes. To see the marks and bruises on his skin. It made me so utterly depressed to think about the life he lived when he wasn’t with me.

“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.”

I couldn’t walk away if I wanted to. “You’re all I have to wake up for in the morning.” That small slip of the tongue had cut me to the bone. 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.

“It’s nothing as flashy as you’re used to from Ricey,” he warned when he climbed back into bed and tossed a small black jewelry box on the mattress between us, along with a half-melted packet of Rolos.

Without her, I had nothing. Without her, I was nothing.

“And I have felt all of these things for you since I was twelve years old.” “Aoife.” “I have turned a blind eye to all of the shady things you do more times than I care to admit. I have thrown friendships away to be with you. I have walked into drug dens for you. I have covered for you, protected you, lied for you, and given my body to you.” “Aoife.” He groaned like I was causing him physical pain. “I—” “I couldn’t love you more if I tried, Joey Lynch,” I cried, giving up the fight against the tears that were flowing freely down my cheeks now. “I couldn’t.”

“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.”