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“You’re honestly trying to tell me that those two aren’t in love?” “I never said they weren’t in love.” Chuckling, she added, “Only that they’re not together.”
“Are you serious?” I took a step back, feeling like she had just knifed me in the gut. “You think I’m not hurting?” “I don’t know how you feel anymore.” “In love,” I bit out. “With you.” “Don’t…” “Nothing’s changed for me, Molloy,” I interrupted, needing her to know. “Nothing.”
“This is not protecting me, Joey. Waking away is not protecting me. Leaving me is not protecting me, dammit!” Furious, she blinked back her tears and glared up at me. “That is not how you treat the person you love, which goes to show that you never loved me the way I loved you.”
“Maybe I do it badly,” I choked out, as my heart splintered apart. “But I do love you.”
While the rest of his friends had long since abandoned their girlfriends and dates, Gibsie hadn’t taken more than three steps away from Claire all night.
Our eyes met, green on green, and he winked at me from across the room. And just like that, I was ruined.
“You can’t tell me what to do, Joe,” I growled, feeling a combination of drunk and dizzy. “You don’t own me.” “Well, that’s bad fucking luck on my account, because you sure as shit own me!” Drunk or not, his words hit me like a wrecking ball to the chest. Feeling the air whoosh from my lungs, I glared up at him, feeling a torrent of emotions crashing through me. “Why would you say that to me?” “Because it’s the truth.” “Since when?” “Since I was twelve.”
Because every part of me loved every part of her. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
“You’re an asshole.” “I know.” “You crushed me.” Pain. It hit me square in the chest. “I know.” “Bad boy.” Her breath was laced with alcohol and so fucking warm on my face when she whispered, “Tell me you’re sorry.” I gave in without a fight, too weary and too damn in love to fight my feelings. “I’m sorry.” “How sorry?” “Very sorry.” “Good boy.” Her tongue was on my ear then, her body pressed flushed against mine. “Now, tell me you love me.” “I love you.” The words flew off my tongue in record time. “Say it again.” “I love you.” “How much?” “A lot.”
“There’s no decision to make,” he blew my mind by saying, green eyes blazing with heat. “You already know it’s you.”
“It’s you, Molloy.” He tipped my chin up, forcing me to look at him. “It’s you.” “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.” “It’s you,” he repeated gruffly, fingers tightening on my waist. “I pick you. Every single time.”
“I’ll love you the right way this time,” he whispered, and his breath fanned my cheek. “If you’ll show me how.”
“I’m not your mother or your sister. I’m not another girl who needs something from you. I’m the girl who wholeheartedly wants you. I’m the girl who wholeheartedly loves you. The hurler. The mechanic. The boy. The protector. The asshole. The lover. The addict.”
“What do you see when I look at you?” He flinched. “That’s not the—” “What do you see, Joe?” “You,” he whispered brokenly. “I see you, Molloy.” “You see love,” I corrected softly, releasing his hand to cup his stubbly cheek. “You see acceptance.” He swallowed but didn’t reply. “We’re mirrors, Joe,” I told him, taking his hand and placing it on my cheek. “Everything you feel for me is reciprocated. It’s mirroring back at you.”
“God, I could have you inside me forever and it wouldn’t be long enough.”
“You call and I come running,” he told them in a gruff tone, but his eyes were locked on mine as he spoke. “Every time.”
“Get out of your head,” Joey grunted softly, nose brushing against mine as he pressed another kiss to my lips and pulled me back to the moment. To him. “Stay with me,” he instructed, green eyes locked on mine. “Be here with me.” “I am,” I whispered. “I’m with you, Joe.” With my eyes wide open and focused entirely on his, I forced my fears to the back of my mind, letting my body take over the thinking for me as I drowned in my feelings for him.
“If you want money, you can make that for yourself,” Mam replied. “You don’t need a man to do that for you.”
“I want you to love yourself enough to stop destroying yourself.”
“I’ve loved your daughter for six years,” Joey finally broke his silence by saying. “I can easily love her for another eighteen.”
