Page 3 of Stronger Than Love

Liam had been my friend first; I’d met him on the beach playing in the rockpools all alone and invited him home. Niall had been in bed with the chickenpox. We’d spent weeks playing together with me teaching him to ride Niall’s bike because Liam didn’t have one. His rejection of me hurt more than I could put into words. Knowing he’d be here helped me through the last few weeks of school every year.

His bike clattered to the ground and his shadow fell over me. “What’re you doing?”

“Reading.” I refused to look up because the pain in my chest threatened to erupt into sobs.

His foot scuffed the grass in a nervous gesture. “My brother says I’m too old to play with girls.”

Callum was a bully who stole from Mr. Wilson’s store. I’d seen him smoking more than once and Mum told Dad she’d heard he was drinking. He was one person neither Niall nor I were allowed to play with.

Liam crouched in front of me. “We’re twelve now, Oonagh. Surely back home you don’t have boy friends?”

My gaze lifted to his. “Niall and I go to the same school. We have both boy and girl friends.” I studied Liam, his clothes were scruffy and torn, and his shoes had no laces. There were bruises on his arms and a cut on his left cheek.

“Your face is cut. Mum has plasters inside.” Standing, I held my hand out to him. Liam stared at it as if I was going to slap him before he tentatively put his fingers in mine.

Mum kept a first aid kit in the kitchen because Niall was clumsy and never done falling off something. I dabbed the cut with witch hazel before putting a plaster on it. My fingers trailed over the bruises on his arms. “What happened?”

Liam shrugged. “I fell off my bike.”

His trainers were cut at the bottom of the front seam and his toes poked out. Brigid in school had the same cuts on her shoes. When I told Mum, she made me take a pair of mine into school and give them to her. Without thinking, I left Liam devouring a cupcake and retrieved a pair of Dad’s from upstairs.

He glared at me when I held them out to him.

“Same thing happened to my shoes and Brigid gave me a pair of hers in school,” I explained. It was what Mum had told me to tell Brigid in case she was upset with me.

Liam’s gaze flickered to the trainers in my hand.

“They’re too small for Dad and you’re bigger than Niall.” I slid him another cupcake without a word. Liam spent his life being hungry.

“Why do you always have to be nice to me?” he demanded, his head lowering and his hair falling over his eyes.

“Because no matter how many times you’re mean to me, Liam, I’ll always be your friend.”

He glared at me with his stormy blue eyes, his fingers tightening into a fist. “I don’t need your charity.”

“Charity is something you give to strangers. You’re like a brother to me, and I borrow Niall’s stuff all the time.”

“I don’t feel like your brother,” he ground out, the blue in his eyes deepening.

“That’s just because you don’t have a sister at home.”

A strange emotion flashed across his gaze, but I had no idea what he was thinking. All I knew was that Liam needed help, and there was something I could give him. He left afew minutes later and didn’t return—even to play with Niall for another few weeks.

***

Chapter Three

Oonagh

The house still looked the same. It had belonged to my maternal grandmother and transferred to Mum when she passed away. There were too many memories in this house, too many emotions that clung to the furniture like ghosts waiting to haunt me.

I didn’t do birthday celebrations because our birthday was in the summer and Mum was always in this house during that season. Some of my books still adorned the window seat in the kitchen I’d curled up in to read. Mum had left them there as if I was going to appear and start to read them again.

“Niall’s organising a barbeque for later. Your father built one outside a few years ago.” Mum chatted away in idle conversation behind me, her hands occupied with the groceries she stored into the cupboards.

Instead of replying, I helped to keep my mind off my birthday celebration in a few weeks. I’d taken some time off work due to my last assignment being harrowing. It had made me re-evaluate my life, and since my return home, I’d been applying for jobs here to save me travelling so much.

Unpacking my clothes enlightened me into the routine my life had become. There were none of the frivolous outfits of my youth, as now everything was stern and practical.Combat trousers, jeans, leggings, T-shirts, and sweatshirts were all I possessed.

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