Page 99 of Redeeming 6

“I wouldn’t trade you for all the steak in Ireland.”

I grinned. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

Winking, Joey turned his attention back to road.

“We’re supposed to be on a diet,” Gibsie accused, dragging my attention back to their banter. “Did you get me something?”

“Yeah, I got you a burger.”

“Thanks, Johnny.”

“And then I got hungry, so I ate it.”

“You’re a monster!”

“You two are so weird.” I laughed, shaking my head as I turned back to my boyfriend. “Aren’t they funny, Joe?”

“They’re something alright,” he muttered, shaking his head and letting me know that he was entirely unimpressed with his future bro-in-law’s antics.

“Hey.” Gibsie sprang forward between the seats to gape at us. “Who the fuck are you guys?” he asked, though the expression on his face assured me that he knew exactly who we were.

“Not a word about the weed,” he whispered, begging me with his eyes to keep schtum. “He’s the captain I tried to drug. He’ll kill me!”

“Johnny’s friends with my boyfriend’s sister,” I threw him a lifeline by offering.

“Sister?” Now, Gibsie really did frown in confusion. “What sister?”

“Shannon,” Johnny chimed in.

Gibsie’s eyes widened to saucers. “Shannon?” He gaped at the back of Joey’s head and whispered, “Oh, Jesus, that’s his sister? Cap’s obsessed with his sister!”

Snickering, I nodded.

“Yes, Shannon,” Johnny bit out.

“Oh shit,” Gibsie murmured before turning back to his buddy.

They fell into a blatantly obvious double-meaning conversation, where the only people in the car that they were fooling were themselves.

“Oh, yeah.” I leaned close and whispered in Joey’s ear. “That big gorilla of a boy definitely wants in your baby sister.”

“Jesus Christ, do you want me to crash the car?” Joey choked out with a shudder. “That is a hideous thing to say to me, baby!”

“It’s true, though,” I mused. “Maybe they’ve already done the deed.”

“Molloy.”

“She’s so tiny, and he’s so big—”

“Aoife!”

37

My Sister Needs a Friend

JOEY

Manipulated into driving miles out of the way on the insinuation that I might get my dick wet afterward had me driving through an impressive ten-foot cast-iron gate and up a mile-long private country lane that led to a house straight out of the films.

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