Page 306 of Redeeming 6

“It’s ‘got’, not ‘gots,’” Little Alpha piped up from the back seat. “Learn to speak, asshole.”

“Pack it in,” Joey warned, steering Ollie into the car to join his brothers. Only when they were all sitting down with their seatbelts fastened did Joey turn back to the Kavanaghs. “Thanks for everything. It won’t happen again.”

“And your mother?”

“She doesn’t need to know about it.”

Looking defeated, Joey climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door, leaving me standing alone with all three members of the Kavanagh family looking at me expectantly.

“It’ll be fine,” I mumbled. “They’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Edel asked, looking as convinced as I felt.

No.

Forcing myself not to cry, I offered her the brightest smile I could muster and nodded. “Uh-huh.”

______________________

There was a storm brewing in my boyfriend’s heart.

Silent and brooding the entire drive back to Elk’s Terrace, Joey drummed his fingers on his knee. He glared out the passenger window, while the boys laughed and joked in the back seat, blissfully unaware of their older brother’s inner turmoil. The minute I parked up outside his house, though, Joey was out of the car and stalking into the house.

“Fuck, he’s raging,” Tadhg surmised, making eye contact with me in the rearview mirror.

“You’re not ’posed to curse,” Ollie scolded as he worked on unfastening both his and Sean’s seatbelts. “It’s not good manners.”

Tadhg rolled his eyes. “Hey, Ollie, I don’t give a flying fu—”

“Okay,” I interjected before Tadhg schooled the minors on the more colorful side of the English language. “Let’s just go inside, lads.”

With Sean’s sticky little hand in mine, I followed the boys into the house, only to wince as the sound of shouting from somewhere upstairs filled my ears.

“Wow, you guys got a new television.”

“Darren gots it for us,” Ollie explained with a huff.

“Why don’t you put some cartoons on,” I suggested, ushering all three into the sitting room before moving for the stairs. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

“Fine, but I’m not watching shitty cartoons,” Tadhg called over his shoulder. “There’s a match on RTE.”

Leaving the boys to battle it out over the remote, I followed the sound of shouting and raced up the staircase, not stopping until I was standing in the doorway of their parents’ bedroom.

“How many fucking times do we have to do this?” Joey was demanding, as he ripped at the curtains to flood the once dark room in evening sunshine. “You can’t leave Sean on his own like that!”

With my heart racing wildly, I flicked my gaze to the woman curled up in a ball on the bed.

Marie.

“Just go away, Teddy,” she slurred, clutching her pillow as sob after gut-wrenching sob escaped her. “I’m tired.”

“It’s Joey,” he choked out. “Christ, what have you taken?”

“Like you can judge me.”

“I’m not judging you. I’m telling you to get the fuck up and be a mother to your children!”

“I’m so tired.”

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