More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
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!”
“Why would you say that to me?” “Because it’s the truth.” “Since when?” “Since I was twelve.”
She had my heart in knots and my head spinning. Never once taking her eyes off mine, she trailed her long red nails down my stomach to my belt buckle and tugged me closer.
Taking my hand in hers, she led me onto the dance floor, and like the habit of a lifetime, I followed after her, knowing that this girl was by far my greatest addiction.
something about this girl settled something deep inside of me. I couldn’t understand it, much less explain it, but when I was with her, I felt like I was drowning and breathing at once. I felt like I was riding this thrilling wave, and it didn’t matter if I fell or not because I could only land on softness.
Her lips crashed against mine, and it was in this very moment that I knew I would never be able to untangle myself from this girl.
Unlike me, Shannon didn’t need to alter her mind to survive the world we lived in. She thought she was the weakest link in the family chain, when it couldn’t be further from the truth. My sister was titanium.
All I knew was that I couldn’t live without her. It wasn’t an option.
The way he looked at me now was worlds apart from the way he used to. I could see the trust he had for me. He didn’t try to hide his feelings from me anymore, and seeing all of this in his eyes only made my stomach knot up tighter.
I could smell the bullshit a mile off every time she denied her very obvious feelings, and I smiled to myself as I listened to her ramble on about who I thought might be her very first crush.
pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “I love you.” This was the first time that Joey had ever openly admitted his feelings in front of another person, and I felt the gravity of his admission in the deepest part of my heart.
“You’re the hurler.” Johnny straightened his brick-shithouse shoulders. “Joey.” Smiling proudly to himself, he added, “Shannon like the river, and Joey the hurler.”
Joey had just pulled onto the road when he had to slam on the brakes when a big blond bastard all but threw himself on the bonnet of my car.
“Aren’t they funny, Joe?” “They’re something alright,” he muttered, shaking his head and letting me know that he was entirely unimpressed with his future bro-in-law’s antics.
“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.”
I listened to what he was telling me and had a feeling that, in Gibsie’s own fucked-up way, he was trying to let me know that I could trust his friend not to hurt my sister, and that no harm would come to Shannon when she was with Johnny.
I could smell her perfume on my skin, could feel her devastation all around me, as she looked into my eyes and ripped my heart out of my chest. This was exactly what I had tried to stop from happening. I didn’t want to fall in love with her and I did. I didn’t want to let her in and I did. Everything I never wanted to do, I did with her, for her, because I loved her. Because she refused to accept nothing less.
was just as reckless with my heart as I was with my body when it came to this girl. I was a fool for her, and we both knew it.
Resisting the urge to swing the door shut on her ass, I ground my teeth together and followed after the girl who had a firm hold on my heart—and my nuts.
Surprised by my words, my boyfriend turned to look at me, green eyes burning with unspoken emotion. It was almost like it hurt him to hear someone speak kindly of him. It was foreign to him, and it broke my heart.
“That spark of fire that makes you so incredibly you,” he replied, tightening his arm around me.
“Can I keep one of these?” he asked, holding up the long strip of sonogram images. “Of course,” I replied, my heart bucking wildly in my chest as I watched him carefully tear one off the strip and place it in his wallet. “It’s your baby, Joe.”
The clearest of my memories involved nights with her. The only nights I ever wanted to remember were the ones I spent with her.
“We’ll do it again,” I repeated, catching her chin with my hand and forcing her to look at me. “Yeah?” she whispered, tone hopeful. “Yeah,” I confirmed gruffly. “And you’ll be just as reckless.” Leaning in, I brushed a kiss to her lips. “And I’ll be slightly less high.”
I knew he was still in there, though. My Joey was still inside the person strung out next to me. And I loved him enough to keep fighting for him.
“Maybe someone has friends in the right places,” he offered, reaching across the table to cover my hand with his. “Maybe before they moved on, someone wanted to make sure his first love had a fighting chance with her first love.”
And then he opened his eyes and looked at me. And I was done. My heart no longer beat for me. For the rest of my days, it would beat entirely for the child in my arms.
