Page 53 of Stronger Than Love

This time, it was Oonagh who placed a soft kiss on my lips.

It occurred to me while driving home that what I felt for her now was different to what it’d been before. Previously, I’d been happy to sneak around and grab stolen momentswith her. Now, I wanted to claim her in front of the entire world and damn the consequences. My friendship with Niall was nothing compared to what I felt for his sister. He’d kill me for being with her, but I’d die a happy man.

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Chapter Nineteen

Oonagh

The hot chocolate smelt divine and the heat permeated into my hands as I held it to inhale the aroma.

Mum chatted happily to Mrs. Munroe at another table in the coffee shop, while Martin, Angie, and I sat huddled at another. We were always together at work, sitting at the same table for our breaks, but today everything felt different. Like my life had begun to change and move away from theirs.

“Did you make a decision on the job?” Angie asked, shredding a cupcake to eat it with her fingers. She was the only other person, apart from Liam, I’d told that I’d been offered the job.

“What job?” Martin snapped, his gaze cutting to me.

“I applied for a general surgery job here.” I sighed and stared out at the view of the ocean. “Everything was just starting to weigh me down and I felt like a change—spend some time with my family.”

“And you never thought to mention this?” Martin demanded, his tone making the hairs at the back of my neck stand to attention.

“I did, Angieknew about it.”

He cast a furious look in my direction before glaring out the window. His right leg that was crossed over his left tapping furiously against his knee.

Angie and I shared a troubled look before she glanced away to study all the blown-up photographs on the wall. He’d been in a foul temper since he arrived. Normally Martin was upbeat and joking, shoving you or trying to tickle your sides to make you laugh. Today he was sullen and withdrawn.

“Hey,” Angie exclaimed. “Is that you?” She pointed at the photograph of me at the bonfire.

“Yeah, I saw it the last time I was in here,” I commented. “We used to make fires on the beach when we were younger and sit around them toasting marshmallows. That’s Liam.” My finger traced over the image of him.

“They were always inseparable,” Mum called over to Angie. “There were times I swore I had three children. Two and the extra one I adopted every summer.”

“Those boys dragged themselves out of the shitstorm their parents created and became men the entire village is proud of,” Mrs. Munroe continued, smiling at the photo like a proud Auntie. “Liam and Callum stood on this very site and watched them demolish their old home. They swore no one would ever live on this site again since it was filled with nightmares. When they built this coffee shop, they said they wanted it to create new memories.”

“Hence the name,” the waitress smiled at Mrs. Munroe as she concluded the story for her.

“Liam owns this place?” I asked.

“All the brothers do,” Mrs. Munroe replied. “When he came home after Callum’s attack, the other brothers had been taken into care. He arrived on our doorstep since my husband was headmaster back then, not knowing where to look for them. He was soaking, having walked through a storm looking for them. Devastated is the only word to describe him, broken beyond what any human should have to endure. It was the last day I ever saw weakness in Liam Doherty. The boy died that day and the man you see today emerged. I’m so proud of him.” Her chest puffed out as if she’d solved all his problems for him.

My cupcake turned to ash in my mouth. If I’d stayed, I could have been there for Liam, helped him piece his life back together again. Shame pierced deep into my heart at my childish actions. I tuned out conversations after that, smiling and nodding when required, but lost deep in my own thoughts.

We walked back home along the beach. Martin threw his arm over my shoulders the way he often did, tugging me into his side. For the first time it didn’t feel like the brotherly gesture I believed it to be. It felt possessive and domineering, my stomach churning with unease, even as I tried to pretend everything was okay.

Niall arrived later with Aoife. She seemed determined to dislike me, her acidic comments beginning to wear my nerves thin. Martin began drinking as soon as Niall unpacked crates of beer from his car.

“You need to slow down,” Angie said, nudging Martin and smiling. There’d been times in the past I thought Angieliked Martin as something more than a friend, yet he tended not to notice she existed.

He scowled at her and moved away to flirt with Aoife, who seemed to relish his attention. She giggled, touching his arm when she replied, and glanced up at him from under her eyelashes.

Was it wrong of me to hope he’d steal her, and I’d never have to face the prospect of gaining her as a sister-in-law?

Every so often, I caught Martin watching me with a strange expression on his face. He never normally got this drunk, so I put it down to too much alcohol and not enough food. I’d have a chat with him tomorrow and find out what was up with him.

Liam arrived after eight o’clock with pizza. I let out a breath I never realised I was holding when he wandered in with a smile on his face and his hair mussed up. He set a box directly in front of me away from the other boxes, giving me a quick wink. Tears stung the back of my eyes when I opened the box and realised that he remembered the toppings I always asked for—Chicken, bacon, and pineapple. Everyone used to call me crazy, but it was what I always ordered.

Michael wandered in a few minutes behind Liam with my favourite cheesecake desert from the little bakery along the seafront along with ice cream. He popped the latter into the freezer with the familiarity of always being here when he was younger.

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