“Joe, please don’t,” I heard his sister say, pleading with him to block me out of their world.
“He was sent to a care home where things happened to him,” Joey continued, giving me his truth. “Things that aren’t supposed to happen to children.”
“Are you saying he was…”
He nodded.
I felt my hand shoot up to cover my mouth; a knee-jerk reaction to hearing something so incomprehensible. “Oh—”
“Don’t,” he warned, holding a shaky hand up. “It didn’t happen to me.”
“I know,” I choked out, reaching for his hand. “I just…it’s awful.”
“Anyway, when Mam’s health improved, she went to court and managed to get us back,” he explained, brushing my sympathy aside. “It all came out in court about what had happened in that care home to my brother, and because she’d voluntarily given us up, because of health problems, she was somehow re-awarded custody.”
“Oh my god.”
Joey shrugged. “Darren was never the same again, and neither was our father.” Brows furrowing, he scratched his chin before adding, “He actually wasn’t too bad of a guy before that. But after it all came out about Darren; the old man lost his fucking mind. He couldn’t get over it and turned to the drink worse than ever. Got this ridiculous fucking notion into his head that what happened to Darren had somehow turned him.” Joey shook his head. “Had he paid an ounce of attention to us growing up then he would have known better.”
Reeling.
I was completely reeling.
It all made sense now.
Jesus.
“I don’t know what to say,” I confessed.
“It’s not right what happens in this house,” he said, clearing his throat and drumming his fingers on the table. “But it’s better than what’s out there in some of those care homes. There’s no fucking way I’m letting my sister and brothers go into care. No goddamn way. At least when they’re here, they’re all in one place, and I can keep them somewhat safe.”
The irrational fear he had about the authorities finding out the truth wasn’t so irrational after all.
It was totally justified in his mind.
In all of their minds.
Because the Lynch children had been let down by both the state and their parents in all of the worst possible ways.
“Do you guys have someone you can call?” I heard myself ask. “A relative or family member?”
“Nanny is eighty-one,” Shannon explained. “She’s too old and fragile to—”
“Myself and Shannon have each other,” Joey cut her off, tone flat. “That’s it.”
“Not anymore,” I replied, squeezing his hand. “You have me.” I looked at his baby sister and smiled sadly. “All of you.”
They were both quiet for a long moment before Joey snatched my hand up. “Christ,” he muttered, 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.
“Okay.” Standing up before I collapsed in a heap and cried in sadness for them, I clapped my hands together and smiled brightly. “I am starving, and I know you both must be, too. So, I’m going to make a food run to the chipper and it will be my treat.”
“Aoife,” Joey began to say. “I told you—”
“My treat,” I warned, cutting him off, and casting him a warning glare. He could fight with me about everything else, but not this. “Now, are you coming with me?”
“Yeah, I’ll come,” he muttered, rising to his feet. “You’re not driving around town in the middle of the night by yourself.”
“Well, at least you’re finally eating again,” Joey noted, half an hour later, as we sat in one of the empty booths at the local chipper, scarfing down a monster-sized bag of chips. “You had me worried for a while there.”
“Believe me, Joe, taking into account the amount of crap going on in your life right now, my appetite is the least of your worries,” I assured him, dabbing a chip in mayonnaise before popping it into my mouth.
“Kev’s right,” he mused, eyeing me curiously. “This new-found love of mayonnaise is weird as fuck, baby.”
Cheeks flushing, I averted my eyes from his, both unwilling and unable to delve deeper into the origins of my new-found cravings.
That was a conversation for another day.
A day when your boyfriend’s life isn’t unraveling around him.
“Should we head back?” I asked, changing the subject. “To the kids?”
He shrugged. “Probably.”
“What?” I asked, eyeing him warily when he continued to stare at me, making no move to leave. “Have I got something on my face?”
He shook his head slowly. “I’m just thinking.”
Oh shit.
“About what?”
“How different you look.”
Oh, double shit.
“Different how?”
“I’m not sure,” he mused, tilting his head to one side, studying me with razor-sharp eyes. “But you do.”
“Is that a bad thing?” I chuckled nervously.
“Nothing about the way you look is ever bad, Molloy,” he replied, tone thoughtful. “You just look sort of shiny.”
I swallowed deeply. “Shiny?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Kind of like you’re glowing.”
That would be your baby.
“That would be my halo,” I joked, as I quickly stood up and grabbed all of our empty food wrappings. Walking over to the bin, I tossed our rubbish inside and quickly wiped my hands together. “It’s shinier than yours, remember?”
“It’s a good look,” he assured me, pulling me close to give my ass a squeeze, before leading us out the door. “Very sexy.”
“Joe.” I couldn’t repress the illicit shiver that rolled through me if I tried. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” he purred, pushing me up against the wall outside. “Don’t tell my girlfriend that I think she’s sexy as fuck?” Pinning me with his hips, he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me hard. “You drive me crazy,” he growled against my lips. “You twist me up in knots, queen.”
“Right back at you, stud,” I breathed, relinquishing all power over to him, as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
“How do you feel about getting naked tonight?” he said against my lips.
“Joe, I’m…“ I exhaled a ragged breath. “I’m—”
“Whatever it is, I don’t care,” he cut me off by saying. “I need in you so fucking bad, Molloy.”
“I don’t know who you bleeding are!” A nearby voice boomed, and we both turned our heads in unison to see an absolute giant of a boy slumped against the glass front of the chipper, talking at his phone, while he inhaled an abnormal number of burgers. “I don’t know any bleeding King Clit!”
“Well shit,” Joey mused, stepping back. “That’s him.”