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“What’s her number?” I asked, taking the phone from him. “Call it out and I’ll dial it for you.”

“I warned her off you, you know,” he said, handing the phone back to me. “Told her you’d be leaving—told her not to get her hopes up on you.”

I shrugged, not one bit surprised given my current popularity status with his family. “What’s her number?”

He muttered a string of numbers before saying, “Don’t let her down. Whatever you’re doing, Kavanagh, don’t fuck my sister over.”

I tapped in the number and pressed call before handing it back to him and saying, “I won’t.”

With wary, mistrustful eyes, Joey placed the phone to his ear, body shaking and jolting violently. “Aoife?” he whispered a few seconds later. “It’s me.”

Whatever his girlfriend said in response caused Joey to shudder. Like visibly fuckingshudder.

“I know,” he whispered, clenching his eyes shut. “I know, okay? IknowI promised. I fucked up.” Turning his back to me, he ran a hand through his hair and choked out, “I’m so fucking sorry, baby.”

Feeling uncomfortable, I decided to go downstairs in search of the others and leave Joey Lynch to his phone call/groveling. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it anyway, not when my head was already bursting at the seams with more information than I could process.

Gibsie was shoveling coal into an already roaring fire when I walked into the sitting room, and the girls were curled up on the couch. Correction: Claire was curled up on the couch with her legs tucked beneath her. Shannon, on the other hand, was sitting as straight as a poker on the edge of the seat beside her friend. Gibsie had obviously dragged the couch over to the fire, something we always did when the weather was bad out, and I was grateful. I wanted her to be warm. Ineededthe peace of mind.

I cleared my throat before stepping inside, making a conscious effort not to startle her. She jumped clean out of her skin anyway and sprang off the couch, but the small smile she gave me assured me that I was a welcome surprise. “Is he okay?” she asked, wide-eyed and panicked.

Not even close.Nodding, I forced a smile.

“Oh, thank god.” Her small shoulders sagged and she pressed a hand to her chest. “Are you sure?”

No.

“He’s sure,” Gibsie answered for me. Placing the shovel back into the coal bucket, he stood up, stretched his arms over his head, and winked over at me. “All’s well in the world again.”

“See?” Claire added, giving her an encouraging smile. “I told you that you had nothing to worry about.”

Shannon didn’t look so convinced. Her gaze flicked between Gibs and Claire before returning to me. “Areyousure?” she asked, looking at me with those haunting blue eyes.

I opened my mouth to lie, to tell her what she needed to hear, that everything was okay and she had nothing to worry about, but the words “No, I’m not sure” came out instead. I fucked it even further by saying “He’s in a bad way, actually. A really bad way,” and then I topped it off with “I’m worried about him.”

Shannon’s face fell and both Claire and Gibsie groaned in unison.

“Nice one, Cap,” Gibsie muttered. “We only spent the last hour telling her different.”

“Yeah, very comforting, Johnny,” Claire added sulkily.

“Well, I’m not going tolieto her,” I snapped. Running a hand through my hair in frustration, I looked at Shannon. “I’m not going to do that, okay?”

Shannon nodded stiffly. “I should go check on him.” She hurried past me, only to pause in the doorway. “Is it okay if I go up and check—”

“Go,” I told her before she finished. “Don’t ask for my permission, Shannon. You don’t need it.”

She nodded once more before slipping out of the room.

“Maybe once in a while you could attempt to twist the truth,” Gibsie offered, waving a finger around aimlessly. “You know, romance a situation up a tad to spare feelings and unnecessarystress.”

“By lying to her?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yeah, lad, that sounds like real solid advice. Tell me how that’s going to work for me?”

Gibsie shrugged. “Fuck if I know, lad, but that girl is buckling under the weight of some pretty heavy issues right now, so I’m thinking a few white lies might be easier to take than the blunt truth.”

I opened my mouth to protest but stopped myself. “You’re right.”

“Yeah, I know,” Gibsie mused. “Contrary to popular belief—mostly my mother’s—it does happen sometimes.”

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