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“You’re lucky it didn’t get back to Dennehy,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, Gibs,” I grumbled. “I’m well aware of how close I came to screwing myself.”
Don’t need anyone else to tell me…
“And yesterday?” he asked. “At your house? What was that about?”
I shook my head and sank back in my chair. “Her ma had a miscarriage.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Is she okay?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged helplessly. “He took her away from me.”
“Who took her?”
“Joey the hurler.”
“Well, he is her brother, lad,” Gibsie offered. “He was obviously going to come back for her.”
“I don’t give a shite,” I snapped, thinking about her bruised face. “I didn’t want her to leave, Gibs, and he just took her away from me. And I let him!”
“You do know that you’re not allowed to keep humans as pets, don’t you?” he asked in a wry tone. “You know that’s just dogs and cats, right?”
“Fuck. Right. Off,” I growled.
“Relax,” he muttered. “I was messing with you.”
“Well, it’s not fucking funny, Gibs,” I shot back. “None of this is fun. It took everything in me to let her go with her brother last night. Fucking everything.”
“Well, lad,” Gibsie finally said, blowing out a breath. “On a bright note, at least you can finally admit that you like her.”
“But I don’t want to bleeding like her,” I bit out. “That’s the whole point. I don’t have time for liking her. I can’t have her taking up my headspace, Gibs. You know what’s at stake for me. I need to stay on track, and that girl makes my mind stray so far off the beaten track it’s ridiculous.”
I’m already in trouble.
“Well, obviously, you don’t have any control of that,” Gibsie responded in an oddly serious tone. “Can’t help who you like, Johnny. That’s life.”
“Not my life,” I argued weakly. “That’s not how I work.”
“That’s how we all work,” he corrected.
“Thing is, Shannon’s not just some random girl, Gibs,” I strangled out. “She’s different. She’s not a hookup, or a fuck and chuck, or a clinger looking for a leg up. I can’t fuck her out of my system. She doesn’t even know who I am, lad. She had no fucking clue. And it was genuine. She wasn’t putting it on. I’ve met enough of those clingers to last me a lifetime and I could tell she was clueless.” I shook my head and sagged against the leather. “And aside from all that, she’s fragile.”
“Fragile?”
“Fragile,” I confirmed, unwilling to give any more information.
“Is it because of whatever you read in that file?”
I glared at him, tensing.
“Relax,” he coaxed, holding his hands up. “I never read it. I just handed it back to Dee.”
I exhaled heavily and nodded. “Just believe me when I tell you that girl is a line I cannot cross.”
