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“Anytime, blondie,” Tadhg replied before sauntering off.

“Oh, yeah,” Claire snickered. “Give him a couple of years, and he’sdefinitelygoing to be the man.”

“Who’s the man?” Gibsie asked, sidling up to us with Hughie and Feely in tow. He waggled his brows at Claire and grinned. “Are you talking about me again, Claire-Bear?”

“Nope,” Lizzie answered for her. “You have competition this year, Thor.”

“Oh, please.” Gibsie made apshhing sound and waved a hand in front of himself. “I’m the only competition around here.” Looking thoughtful, he added, “I’m basically my own competition.”

“Hey, blondie!” Tadhg called out from down the corridor, causing all of us to turn and look at him. “Nice legs.” Turning to Gibsie, he smirked. “You better up your game, lad. Because it’son.”

“Oh my god,” Helen and Shelly giggled. “He’s got spunk.”

“Too much of it,” I muttered under my breath.

“That little shit,” Gibsie hissed, stepping around us to hunt after my little brother. “You better keep your prepubescent eyes off my baby mama, fucker. Or you won’t have balls to drop!”

“I have bigger balls than you, fatty,” Tadhg called back, laughing his ass off. “Just ask your mother.”

“I’m notfat!” Gibsie roared. “And you leave my mother out of this!”

“I’m coming for your girl, Gibs,” Tadhg continued to taunt, thoroughly enjoying driving Gibsie crazy. “Fair warning.”

“I’m going to kick you all the way back to primary school,” Gibsie snarled. “Fair warning.”

“Simmer down, Gibs.” Feely laughed, dragging him back by the scruff of the neck. “He’s a first year.”

My phone started to ring in my pocket, distracting me from Gibsie’s comical outrage, and I hurried off to one side to answer it. “Hello?”

“Shannonlike the river,” Johnny’s familiar voice purred down the line, setting my pulse racing. “How’s my girl?”

Grinning, I bit down on my lip and swallowed a moan at the sound of his husky voice. “Hi, Johnny.”

“Hi, Shannon.” He chuckled softly down the line. “How’s your first day going?”

“Good, how’s yours?”

“Productive.”

I grinned. “Oh really?”

“Yeah,” he replied, and there was a teasing lilt to his voice. “See, I had this amazing dream last night about my sexy girlfriend.”

Leaning against the locker, I glanced around to make sure my friends weren’t listening before whispering, “Keep talking.”

“She tiptoed into my room in the middle of the night,” he continued. “And then she climbed under the covers…and when she took her clothes off, she started doing things to my body that made those pretty cheeks of hers turn pink.”

“Oh, wow.” Squirming, I blew out a shaky breath. “That sounds like a great dream.”

“It was the best.” A pair of arms came around me from behind, pulling me flush against a chest of hard muscle. “But it wasn’t a dream, was it?”

Smiling, I spun around and openly ogled my boyfriend in his Tommen uniform, looking like the best thing my eyes had ever seen. “No, it wasn’t.”

“These late-night visits are getting out of hand, Shan,” Johnny purred, stooping down to press a hot kiss to my lips. “I almost slept through my alarm for training, and Ma was watching me like a bleeding hawk when I came down for breakfast.” Grinning, he added, “I think she might be on to us.”

“Oh, you think?” I laughed.

“Hmm.” Nodding, he leaned down and kissed me again. “We’re going to have to get a little more inventive this year.”

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