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First, my mother was taking this incredibly well, given the circumstances, and I didn’t want to push my luck.

Second, her brother was watching me like he didn’t know if he wanted to trust me or throttle me.

When Shannon finally managed to get herself seated, I smiled down at her. She flushed bright pink and dropped her gaze to the counter, shoulders bunched together tightly. Christ, she was back to being jittery. It was like last night hadn’t happened, and if she wasn’t sitting right here beside me, I would have thought I conjured the whole thing up in my head.

Joey waited a solid minute longer before blowing out a breath and walking over to the island. Pulling out a stool beside his sister, he sank down and rested his elbows on the counter, shaking his head to himself and drumming his fingers restlessly.

“Now.” Setting a pot of tea down in front of us, Mam went back and forth to the cupboards, laying out cups and side plates in front of us until the kitchen island resembled a high tea at a bleeding hotel. “Eat up,” she encouraged, sinking down on the stool across from us.

Not needing any encouragement, I happily stuffed my face, drowning myself in food I would never touch during training, but they didn’t make a move.

“Come on.” Nudging the plate toward Shannon and Joey, Mam smiled encouragingly. “I’ll be insulted if you don’t try one.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as they silently communicated with one another. Not one word was spoken, but I knew something was passing between them. And then they both moved in synchrony for the scones.

Thank Christ for that.

Relief flickered in my mother’s eyes as she observed the Lynches devouring the scones from behind the rim of her coffee mug. Her tear-filled eyes shifted to me and I gave her an“I know”look.

With a small shake of her head, Mam slapped on a bright smile and began to do what she did best: talk and meddle. The woman was gifted with her speech and could make conversation out of anything. I had no fucking clue where I went wrong or why that particular gene skipped over me, but as I watched my mother make small talk with the both of them, I was grateful.

Grateful that she was here.

Grateful she wasn’t losing her shit with me for having a girl sleep over.

Grateful thatshewas my ma.

“Johnny,” Mam said after what had to be an hour of idle chitchat. “We’ll have to get going soon. You have physio in an hour, love.”

My heart plummeted into my ass.

“I…” Pausing, I glanced at Shannon and then my mother. “I don’t have to go.”

Mam’s brows shot up in surprise. “You don’t?”

I hesitated for a split second, and that was all it took for Shannon to spring off her stool and announce, “We should get going, Joe.”

“Yeah.” With a shake of his head, Joey stood up. “We should.”

“You don’t have to,” I hurried to say, feeling panicked at the prospect of letting her go. “I don’t have to go to physio. It’s not that important. I can miss one day. It won’t kill me.”

“No, you need to go,” Shannon replied. “And we need to go home.” She glanced up at her brother. “Right?”

Now Joey was the one to hesitate as he stood in the middle of our kitchen, looking like he was fighting an internal battle of his own. “Right,” he finally replied, tone tight. “Home.”

“I’ll drive you both,” Mam interjected, shaking her head at me when I opened my mouth to protest.

I ran a hand through my hair in agitation. “But I just—”

“It’s grand, Kavanagh,” Joey said, giving me a meaningful look. “You’ve done enough, lad.”

No, I hadn’t.

I hadn’t done enough by half.

22

Throwing Down

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