“I was just…checking.” Cheeks flushed, I sprang back from the tree, and then hastily set the present I was holding back down before smiling sheepishly up at my brother. “Edel wants to know if you need help with AJ before school?”
“Nah, it’s all good,” he replied, resuming his brushing of his teeth as he disappeared inside what I knew what his gigantic bedroom.
“Speak for yourself,” Aoife interjected, as she bolted past my brother, with my nephew on her hip, and only her school shirt covering her dignity. “Oh, look, AJ. It’s your aunty Shan.” Making a beeline for me, she hurried down the rustic-looking, spiral staircase that connected to the upper level of their little apartment. “Please take your nephew for a second so I can get dressed, will you?”
“Of course,” I crooned, snatching AJ up in my arms. He was all blond curls and big green eyes like his parents. “How’s my favorite nephew?”
“He’s your only nephew,” Aoife laughed, thundering back up the staircase like a woman on a mission.
“For now,” Joey taunted, blocking the bedroom doorway with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“If you even think about putting another baby in me after what that son of yours did to my fanny, then I hope you have the cash for genital corrective surgery.”
“It wasn’t that bad, Molloy,” he laughed, staggering out of the doorway when his girlfriend shoved him with her ass. “You healed up perfectly.”
“Not for me, asshole.” She reappeared in the bedroom doorway, dragging a Tommen school skirt up her hips. “For you. Because if you put that weapon of mass temptation anywhere near me without a condom, I’ll cut the damn thing off.”
“Sounds like foreplay, Molloy,” Joey purred, prowling after her when she raced back into the bedroom.
“Sounds like a stark warning, Lynch,” I heard her warn, moments before the screams of laughter filled my ears. “Mercy, mercy, ah, stop. Fuck, Joe – ah, that tickles!”
“Your mammy and daddy are crazy,” I cooed, blowing raspberries on his chubby little cheek. The move caused him to release a hearty chuckle and reveal a wide gummy smile. I knew I was biased, what with being his aunt and all, but AJ Lynch was, hands down, the most perfect baby in the world.
Yeah, my nephew was ridiculously adorable.
“How are you almost four months old already?” I mused, shaking my head in wonder.
So much had happened in such a short space of time, but it felt like an entire lifetime had passed since Joey returned from rehab. He’d barely been back two weeks when Aoife and AJ came for a sleepover. Clearly, it was an extended sleepover because they arrived in September and hadn’t left since – much to our delight.
Having AJ living next door was a huge treat for the rest of us, but it paled in comparison to how wonderful it was to see our big brother finally happy.
Joe had been through so much that there was a point in time where I thought we might not get him back. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, my brother was reborn the day his son took his first breath.
Joey was living for himself now.
For his little family.
And it gave me so much peace to know that he was finally at peace with himself.
When Aoife joined him at Tommen after Halloween break, it settled something inside of the both of them. I wasn’t sure about soulmates, but if they existed, then my nephew’s parents were a prime example. Joey Lynch and Aoife Molloy; both full of flaws and humanly imperfect and yet so undeniably perfect for one another.
I knew that my brother still struggled daily, and he probably always would, but he was so determined to get this right, to stay on track, that I didn’t have a doubt in my heart that his sobriety would continue to flourish.
When Joey and Aoife finally emerged from their bedroom ten minutes later, the flushed look on both of their faces, not to mention their rumpled school uniforms, assured me that while they had no immediate plans to extend their brood, they had no problem with practicing the art of making a baby.
“You’re disgusting,” I scolded, handing AJ off to my brother, and then smacking his shoulder when he continued to shamelessly ogle his girlfriend’s ass. “Seriously, Trish will be here any minute to collect AJ. What if she caught you two?”
“What if I caught those two doing what, Shannon love?” Aoife’s mother asked from behind me, as she set her handbag down on the kitchen counter. “Actually, on second thoughts, don’t tell me, pet. I think it’s safer I don’t know.”
When I stepped outside a little later, I had to blink several times before my brain accepted what my eyes were seeing.
The snow that was falling earlier. Well, it was heavier now. And it was sticking!
Bubbling with excitement at the prospect of a snow day, I bolted back towards the big house at full speed, relieved when I spied Bonnie and Cupcake back in their impressive run. Seriously, they had a doghouse bigger than my bedroom back in Elk’s Terrace.
I had almost made it inside the house when a huge snowball smacked me upside the head. Releasing the door handle, I staggered backwards from the force of the snowball before falling flat on my ass. “Ouch,” I choked out a pained laugh, feeling both startled and amused. “Tadhg, that hurt!”
“Ah shite,” a familiar voice called out. “Sorry, Shan. I thought you were Gibsie.”
Twisting sideways, I watched as a sheepish looking Johnny peeked over the bonnet of his mother’s Range Rover.
“Quick, baby,” he whisper-hissed, disappearing behind the jeep, only to reappear a moment later, tumble-rolling towards me like a ninja. “Get into the den,” Johnny instructed, tucking me under his arm as he pulled me back to where he had claimed sanctuary. “That bleeding assassin is on the loose with snowballs.”
“Who?” I laughed, eyeing up the impressive stack of snowballs he had stored up. “Tadhg?”
“Shan, get down!“ Throwing himself on top of me when a sliotar sized snowball came whizzing past my head, Johnny released a battle-cry growl. “You’re a dead man, Gibs!”
“You’ll have to face me to kill me, Cap!” I heard Gibsie call back as another snowball hurled past me and smashed into the side of Johnny’s face. “And we both know you’re too pussy-whipped to leave Little Shannon unprotected.”
“Put your balls anywhere near my girlfriend and I’ll kill ya,” Johnny snarled, launching a snowball of his own. “Do ya hear me, Gibs? I’ll take the bleeding face clean off ya!”
“I’m going to put my balls on her face.”
“Gibs.”
“My big wet balls all over her face – Jesus Christ, Johnny!” Appearing from behind the garage, Gibsie clutched his head. “There was a stone in that snowball.”
“I know,” Johnny shot back unapologetically. “I put it there.”
“That hurt.”
“Good!”
“I’m not playing anymore.” Shaking off the snow dusting his hair, Gibsie threw one last snowball at my boyfriend before stalking off in a huff in the direction of the house. “I’m telling Mammy K.”
“Who’s the pussy now?” Johnny called after him. “Ya little rat.”