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Considering the amount of money parents paid for their kids to attend Tommen, you would think they could have sprung for an actual hotel, but to find out they were charging us to dance around the P.E. hall? Well, that took the fecking biscuit.
Hurrying into Gerard’s room, I moved straight for his nightstand, deftly kicking a pair of my tights under his bed as I went. What Sadhbh didn’t see couldn’t hurt her.
The tickets weren’t on the nightstand like Gerard said, but they were on his bed, along with his phone, a lighter, a packet of chewing gum, and his wallet that I knew contained our emergency condoms. Opening my handbag, I scooped the lot inside and then bent down to retrieve a folded-up note that had fallen from the pile. Shrugging, I tossed that into my handbag with everything else before racing back outside.
“Got them,” I declared when I joined my friends in the limo once more.
“Woo!” Gerard cheered, pulling me onto his lap and smacking an affectionate kiss to my cheek. “Let’s get this show on the road!”
72
Save the Best for Last
GIBSIE
Feeling like Claire and I were somewhat back on track, I was determined to make sure that she had a good night. Maybe, with a bit of luck, I might end up wooing her to the point where she gave me a hall pass on my in-Dee-scretions.
Catching ahold of her hand the moment we got inside, I took my girl for a spin around the dance floor to the live band’s cover of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout,” not giving two shits if I was missing out on sacred time with the lads.
Tonight’s mission consisted of making my girlfriend happy. I’d seen the tears on Claire’s cheeks when I finally hauled my ass across the street tonight.
She looked genuinely surprised to see me.
Like she was prepared for me to let her down.
Not on my watch.
Now, it didn’t take a genius to know that I was, hands down, the best male dancer within a ten-mile radius of Ballylaggin, but I was only as good as my partner. The blond bombshell herself who taught me everything I knew.
I’d been dancing with Claire Biggs since I could put one foot in front of the other, and we moved together on the dance floor the same way we moved together under the sheets.
Effortlessly.
I didn’t know how she managed to do it, but she healed the broken pieces inside of me. She patched me up in such a way that I was a functioning man again. For her.
Only for her.
Happy to hand her off to her female bestie when she came looking for her, I continued to bop around to the band, quite content to be my own dance partner, because, in all honesty, my moves were wasted on the rest of them.
However, when the band kicked off their own haunting rendition of Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” I decided it was time for shots.
Squeezing past Katie, who was clinging to Hugh for dear life as they half danced, half hugged along to the poignant lyrics, I made a beeline for the lads’ changing room where I knew I would find my people.
The minute I stepped through the door, I was greeted with a chorus of cheers from my teammates and a bottle of tequila.
“Come to me, you beautiful devil, you,” I mused, gulping down as much as I could in one go without puking, which was surprisingly a lot more than most. See? There was a reason my mam called me special.
“Well, if it isn’t Mister Nine Lives himself.” Johnny chuckled, clapping my shoulder when I joined him at our usual spot on the bench. “I don’t know how you managed to put that smile on Claire’s face, lad, but keep that shit up.”
“It’s a gift,” I replied, necking back another swig from the bottle. “Fucking cheapskates really shafted us out of the ski trip for this poxy dance?” I gestured around us. “Bad form, lads.”
“Agreed,” my best friend said. “But the girls seem to be thrilled with it.”
“Speaking of girls.” Feely rose to his feet. “We better get back out there before they come looking.”
“We?” My brows shot up in surprise. “Who’d you bring, lad?”
He shifted in discomfort before saying, “Lizzie asked me to go with her.”
