Releasing 10 (Boys of Tommen, #6)

by Chloe Walsh

“See the blond over there, the one with the ponytail?” Feely gestured toward a group of girls sitting at the table opposite ours. “She full on grabbed my ass at the lockers this morning, and when I turned around, she didn’t even look away. She just stood there and winked at me.”

“I’m not looking, Liz,” he repeated, tone serious now. “You’re the only girl I’ve ever wanted, and I have zero plans of doing anything to mess that up.”

“Not everything,” he shot back with a flirty wink. “Some things I’ve set my heart on can’t be rushed.” My heart fluttered in my chest. “Is that so?” “Uh-huh.” He gripped my thighs and hoisted me closer. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

There were moments in time, back when I was a little girl, that I thought I could be happy. Back then, contentment felt attainable. But darkness had a way of sweeping innocence up in the riptide. That’s what happened to my innocence. To me.

“In my dreams, I’m on an airplane.” I expelled a frustrated breath. “We all are. The whole family. We’re flying somewhere and Caoimhe looks really happy about it, and I think I am, too.” Frowning, I added, “But the moment the plane lands, I wake up.”

Despite the meltdowns and mania, Hugh continued to wade into my world, like a brave knight, and shield me from the emotional shrapnel hell-bent on tearing me to shreds.

I was nowhere near good enough for this boy, nor did I deserve the patience he extended to me, but I desperately tried to be.

Claire had a unique kind of innocence about her. She saw the world through untainted eyes. Her heart was pure, and her mind was uncorrupted.

“Thanks for coming home, baby.”

“How am I home, Hugh?”

“And don’t call me Liz. Call me baby.” “Okay.” “Say it now.” “Baby.” “Call me baby again.” “Baby.”

“Mm,”

This playful side of Liz was a rare and glorious sight, because life had hardened my baby, but tonight she was basking in her youth. In this moment, she looked happy.

“There’s my baby,” a familiar voice whispered in my ear, and a deep, illicit shiver rippled through my body when his chest brushed against my back.

One of these days, I was going to go off like a bomb.

“If you knew what you do to me, Liz.” His eyes were darker than usual, with large, dilated pupils and a hungry glint. Palming my ass, he gripped me tightly and roughly pulled my body flush against his. “If you only knew.”

I needed this boy to finally claim my body as his. That was the only way I could make it all go away. His touch was the only thing that could erase the monster’s.

Feely’s communication skills had always been lukewarm at best. From as far back as I could remember, he’d never been one to express himself or demand attention from people. It wasn’t that he was particularly shy or lacking in confidence. He just seemed to withdraw socially. He played his cards close to his chest and was almost as allergic as Johnny was to the thought of being tied down.

She was my chosen field, my strongest subject, and I was sure no other heart could be a specialist in the field of Elizabeth Eleanor Young.

“I want your special medicine.” “I don’t have special medicine, Liz,”

“Guaranteed to numb all feeling.” I eyed him warily as he danced on the spot with the bottle cradled protectively to his chest. “Trust me, lad.” He clinked his glass against mine. “I’m the master concealer.”

🫨

“All I’m saying is Kav is interested in a grand total of three things: rugby, the labrador, and Gibs. Anything other than that and he’s not taking notes.”

His reaction caused a pang of secondary guilt inside of me. Contrary to how I felt about the rest of the world and the people in it, I would rather peel the skin from my bones than purposefully inflict pain on this boy. At least, that’s how I felt today. Tomorrow, who knew how I would feel. Certainly not me. But today, I loved him.

“Teenage girls don’t cry over boys like this when they’re not in love.”

Gibsie was a lot of things, but disloyal was not one of them. In my whole life, I had never met a more faithful human being. It didn’t matter if we were on the outs or not, he never breathed a word of my personal life to anyone—not even to Johnny and Claire.

It was Gibs who’d picked me up off the ground after the breakup, and he was the one who sat with me during my darkest days—and there had been some dark fucking days.

I could handle everything she threw at me, all her episodes and all her moods, but I would not tolerate infidelity.

“I do care,” I argued, feeling the familiar scald of tears. “I love you.” “And I love you,” he replied simply. “I wish I didn’t, but I do.”

“Oh, relax!” I sneered, full-on raging now. “You didn’t crawl into my bed in the middle of the night and fuck me like he did!”

“Why would you even want that?” I choked out, roughly shoving him away. “You said it yourself: being around me makes you miserable!” “Yeah,” he snarled, closing the space between us. “And not being around you makes me feel even worse!”

In fact, her eyes looked like they were close to spilling tears.

I had no clue what it was, but something about this girl’s eyes had me nodding slowly.

“Where the hell were you when I was screaming for you!” I tried to scream, only to end up laughing manically, as tears streamed down my cheeks. “You were never there! You never came when I needed you at night! Do you remember, Daddy? All the nights I screamed for you? Well, now I’m screaming again, and this time I’m screaming fuck you, you fucking hypocrite!”

“What happened with young Biggs?” “I hurt him,” I admitted, breathing through my nose, as I willed my heart to kick-start in my chest and prayed for a miracle to rewire my fucked-up mind. “And he broke up with me.” “Well, I can’t say I blame the lad.” Dad sighed. “You’ve certainly broken my heart and soul—and your mother’s, too.” Yeah, I understood that now.

My love for her had had nine years to deepen and grow, and the roots went deep. It wasn’t something that could be rooted out and tossed away.

“You’ll be there when I come home?” Pain. It scorched me.

“Of course.” A few minutes later, when they were gone and I was left alone with Catherine, I heard her say, “You lied to her, didn’t you?” Tears filled her eyes. “You won’t be there when she comes home.” Shaking my head, I roughly wiped my tears away. “I’m sorry.”

He was suffering the consequences of loving a person like me.

He was brave and honorable, and I had taken that away from him. I had taken his shiny halo and tarnished him beyond repair.

“You can’t be friends with the person you’re in love with.” Tears trickled down her cheeks. “And I’m always going to be in love with you, Hugh.”

“I’ll always love you, Hugh Biggs,” Liz said when she rounded the table and stopped in front of me. Inhaling a quivering breath, she leaned down and pressed a kiss to my cheek before whispering, “No matter what.” And then she was gone.