AOIFE
“JULIE, I swear to God, if you even think about bailing on me during the lunch rush, I will rain hell down on you,” I growled, eyeing the redheaded barmaid who was reaching for her cigarettes under the bar. “Hell, I tell you.”
“Oh, simmer down, princess,” she grumbled, as she snatched up the packet and moved for the opening at the other end of the bar. “I haven’t had a smoke all morning. I’ll be five minutes.”
“Bitch,” I growled – and not quietly – as once again I picked up the slack for my co-worker.
Once I had taken and fulfilled all the drink orders on my section of the bar, I reluctantly moved to Julie’s section and started pulling pints and quenching thirsts. It wasn’t until I reached the end of the bar that I recognized a pair of familiar brown eyes staring back at me.
“Tadhg.” My heart leapt in my chest. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you,” he replied, tone hard, as he sat on a towering bar stool and stared back at me, unyielding. “It’s important.”
Yeah, I figured it had to be if he had traipsed across town to track me down.
“Tadhg, you know you’re not allowed in the bar without an adult here with you.”
“I have you, don’t I?”
“Yeah.” Emotion racked through me, and I nodded. “I guess you do.”
“He’s back.”
My heart jackknifed in my chest. “Joe?”
The younger Lynch offered me a stiff nod and I choked out a huge sigh of relief.
Leaving Joey at those gates last night was about the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life, but I did it with the knowledge that if I couldn’t get to him, then neither could Shane Holland. Temporarily appeased with the wad of cash I had borrowed from a boy I barely knew I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that Shane was gone forever. But right now, temporary was all I could hope for. “Is he okay?”
“No.”
My heart cracked in my chest. “No?”
“There was a big fight between Mam and that blonde lady with the posh car who brought Joey and Shannon home,” little alpha came right out and told me, blunt as always. “Shannon was crying over the posh lady’s son, Mam was going mental, and Darren stormed off.”
“What about Joe?”
“After he put Mam to bed and fed the boys, he locked himself in his room.”
Jesus.
With my heart bucking wildly in my chest, I looked around the bar, desperate to drop everything I was doing and go to him, even though I had another four hours of my shift left. But then I thought about the lack of funds in my bank account and the growing intruder in my womb and I paused. I couldn’t afford to lose this job. If I walked off, they would fire me, and nobody was going to hire me in my condition.
I needed the money, dammit.
“By the way, I know about the baby,” Tadhg blew my mind by saying. “My brother got you pregnant.”
My blood ran cold. “Who told you?”
“Nobody,” he replied flatly. “I overheard Mam and Darren talking about it.”
“Okay.” Clearing my throat, I quickly popped the cap on a bottle of coke and set it down in front of him, along with a couple of bags of cheese and onion flavored crisps. “Listen, I’m due a break in twenty minutes. Can you wait here for me until then?”
“Don’t worry.” Nodding stiffly, he tore open the crisp packet and tucked in. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“So, does your mam know you’re here?” I asked, sitting down on an old barrel in the smoking area. “Because I have to say, Tadhg, your mother isn’t exactly my number one fan. I don’t think she’d be too happy to know that you’re here with me.”
“Do I look like I give a shit about what she thinks? Besides, I already told ya she took to the bed again,” he responded harshly as he sat on the empty beer barrel opposite me and polished off his fourth bag of crisps. “I’m here for my brother.”
I sighed heavily. “Come on, Tadhg, we both know Joe didn’t send you here.”
“Never said he did,” he replied, scrunching the empty crisp bag up and stuffing it into the pocket of his navy tracksuit. “Listen, I’m not thick. Everyone treats me like I’m the same as Ollie and Sean when I’m not. I’m not a baby, Aoif. I know things too, ya know.”
Yeah, he knew things alright. Things no boy of his age should know or be subjected to.
“I’m here for Joe because I know he’s fucked in the head right now,” Tadhg continued, taking another swig from his bottle of coke. “I saw it in his eyes that day in the kitchen. I saw him check out. I know he’s not here anymore. Dad broke Shannon’s lungs, but he broke Joey’s mind and Mam helped him do it.”
“He’s still here, Tadhg,” I croaked out, repressing a shiver from how accurate this boy had taken his brother’s measure.
“No, he’s not,” the little guy challenged. “He’s gone and you know it, too.” He gave me a hard stare when he said, “But my brother can get better. I know he can, and you need to not give up on him.”
“Tadhg…” My breath caught in my throat, and I sucked in a shaky breath, wondering just how much he knew. He was turning twelve in a couple of days and knowing that he had this level of intuition and awareness about his family was heartbreaking. “I’m not giving up on your brother.” Swallowing deeply, I offered him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “I never will.”
“He’s going to make it hard.”
“Nothing worth having comes easy.”
“And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
“I’m well aware.”
He watched me for a long beat, clearly taking my measure, before nodding his blond head. “Good. Because you won’t get better than him.”
“I know.”
“I mean it,” he pushed, tone defensive. “Joe’s the only parent I remember having, so, trust me when I tell you that your kid…” He paused to gesture to my stomach before adding, “Is going to have one hell of a father.”
I absorbed his words like an addict would crack cocaine because in this moment, whether he meant it or not, Tadhg Lynch was giving me everything I needed. He believed in his brother in the same way I did. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t yet a boy of twelve, the fact of the matter was that he got it. He saw the same person I did and was prepared to fight for him. It gave me hope. It gave me comfort.
“I’m going to come over as soon as my shift is over,” I told him, unable to disguise the emotion in my voice.
“They’re going to try to force you out,” Tadhg said, standing up, seemingly done with our conversation. “Mam and Darren.” He gave me another hard look before saying, “Don’t let them. Don’t give up on my brother.”
“Don’t worry,” I replied. “I won’t.”
“Good.”
“Do you want to hang out here until I’m finished work?” I asked, watching as he moved for the wall of the smoking area. “I’ll drive you home.”
“That’s what I’ve got legs for.”
“But your dad’s still out there.”
“My dad can go fuck himself,” little alpha called over his shoulder as he climbed onto a wheely bin and vaulted effortlessly onto the stone wall enclosing the smoking area. “If anything, he needs to hope he doesn’t run into me.”
“Tadhg, hold up—”
“I’ll be seeing ya,” he called out, offering me a half-assed sailor salute before disappearing over the wall.
