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“Same as you, more like.”
He didn’t deny it.
“You’re a glutton for punishment, Biggs,” I called after him.
“Right back at you, Gibson,” he called back. “Now, hurry your ass up and get out of your bad mood. Mam’s setting the table for dinner.”
Instantly, my stomach was on high alert. “What’s on the menu?”
“Your favorite.”
“Bacon and cabbage?”
“With roast potatoes.”
Dammit.
19
Slumber Parties and Sex Talks
CLAIRE
“Bestie!” Tossing my overnight bag on the floor, I pounced onto the delectable queen-sized bed that housed my pint-sized friend and an aging Labrador. “Give me a hug.”
“No, no, no, don’t jump on me… Ahhh!” Tangled up in a heap of flailing limbs and rogue hair, Shannon stifled a laugh. “You’re in a good mood.”
“I am,” I agreed, rolling onto my side to give Sookie a belly rub. The old girl let out a contented groan and kicked out her legs. “You’re the sweetest baby in the world,” I cooed, feeling all squishy inside at the sight of her little gray beard around her snout. “She’s too much, Shan.”
“I know,” she agreed, closing the book she’d been reading. “She’s getting so stiff lately.” Worrying her lip, she flicked her gaze from the dog to me. “Let’s just hope she has another few years in her, huh?”
“Oh my god, can you imagine?” I shuddered in horror. Aside from the fact that I honestly didn’t think the Lynch siblings could take another death in the family, I dreaded to think about Johnny’s reaction on the day his faithful companion wasn’t here anymore.
Johnny was a careful person. He didn’t reveal a whole pile to anyone in our friendship circle that wasn’t named Shannon or Gerard, so it was hard to tell what he was thinking or feeling at times, but nobody could deny his undying love for the dog I was rubbing. I’d been over to his house several times a week since the Lynch kids moved in, and it was as plain as the nose on his face that he was just as besotted with his dog as he was his girlfriend.
His commitment to Sookie gave me comfort in a strange way. His mam had younger, more active, more complexional attractive dogs, but Johnny didn’t see Bonnie and Cupcake. He barely looked sideways at them. I thought that kind of devoted blind loyalty was an extremely beneficial trait.
In my mind, it meant that he wouldn’t be tempted to turn his head from the brunette in front of me, either. He had a level of dependability to him that none of the other boys in our friendship circle displayed. That’s how I knew they would be together forever.
What Johnny and Shannon had was permanent. They nurtured their relationship like it was of the greatest importance to both of them in equal measure. As sure as there was a cat in Cork, she would be the girl on his arm when he collected his Grand Slam medal, just as he would be the one in the crowd cheering her on when she collected her college degree.
They would do everything the right way, because that’s how Johnny was structured to behave, and Shannon thrived on his ability to balance life and do the right thing.
Their moral compasses were aimed in the same direction, and their hearts were set on each other. The trust they had in each other was faultless, and I imagined them many years into the future with a house in the countryside, similar to this one, with a pack of dogs roaming through the house and a bunch of children to nurture.
And if Johnny looked anything like his dad in thirty years, then Shannon was a lucky, lucky girl.
Yeah, Daddy K, or DILF, as Lizzie and I had labeled him, was a beautiful creation of a man. I wasn’t sure if it was the tailored suits he wore or the mild-mannered persona that masked the aura of a powerful man that did it, but all of us girls were sold.
Shannon’s new digs sure beat the heck out of looking at mine or Lizzie’s dads, that’s for sure. Or worse, Hugh. Ew.
Joey and Aoife were another couple that I knew in my heart were endgame, but it wasn’t the same. They had a fiery temperament to them, almost like a ticking time bomb. Two wildcards thrust together in a friendship fueled by affection, camaraderie, and let’s face it, some seriously hot sex. You didn’t have a baby together in secondary school unless the boy was a stallion. And by God was Joey Lynch a stallion. They had a volatile hue to their love that wasn’t present in Johnny and Shannon’s relationship, which made me long for Shannon’s situation just that little bit more. After all, they seemed innocent enough. Unlike Joey and Aoife. Their relationship was like fire and ice. I knew few people, if any, who could endure what they had and come out on top.
I was so proud of Joey for all he had come through, but it scared me daily that he might relapse, so I couldn’t imagine how it felt to be the mother of his child and have so much of my life invested and entwined with his. It must be really scary to live with a boy who was always tempted by drugs. I guess that’s what true love was, though. It wasn’t perfect. It didn’t come in the perfect gift-wrapped box. It was messy and raw and pushed you to your absolute limits.
Perhaps Joey and Aoife’s limits just happened to stretch a little further out of the comfort zone than Johnny and Shannon’s. Who knew? Certainly not me, the girl who had kissed a grand total of two boys in her entire lifetime.
One being Jamie Kelleher.
