Chloe Walsh

"He's not trouble," I urged. "He's a good person, Mam – a great one. He's training to be a professional rugby player, for god's sake. He already plays for his country. He's smart and driven and kind. He's so kind, Mam. He doesn't take drugs or mess around like everyone else his age. He's not the monster you've invented in your head."

"Are you going to kiss me or not?" Shannon stunned me by asking.

"I just…I don't…I'm trying…" My words broke off and I exhaled a pained sigh as I watched her watch me, those sucker-punching blue eyes wide and welcoming. "Fuck it –"

"I was definitely high that night," he agreed, twisting around to face me. "And I definitely meant it that night."

My heart galloped wildly. "You did?"

"I love you," he went right ahead and rocked my world by saying again. "Present tense – as in I mean it now. And maybe I shouldn't be saying that – maybe I'm fucking everything up by telling you that when you're in the middle of your family stuff, but it's the truth." He shrugged helplessly. "I'm in love with you. I think I've been that way for a while now – a long fucking while, if we're being totally honest." Exhaling shakily, he added, "And that scares the shit out of me worse than the thought of not making the U20's. You scare me more than anyone I've ever come up against on a pitch."

"Wow." I released a shaky breath. "I can't believe you just said all that."

"I know." He looked a little sick when he said, "Dick move, huh?"

"I love you back," I blurted out, feeling a flood of heat rush through my body. "Like a crazy fucking amount," I added, giving his words back to him.

Smirking, he said, "je veux lécher la chatte de ma copine."

I frowned. "What?"

Johnny grinned devilishly. "I said, je veux être à l'intérieur de toi."

I scrunched my nose up. "You know I'm terrible at French."

"I'm counting on it," he laughed as he sauntered off. "See you tonight, baby."

Shitty parents.

Painful memories.

"She settled something inside of him. It was like she grounded him somehow – gave him something he clearly wasn’t getting from…"

"Keep you right here with me and never give you back."

Oh god, I want that, too.

I want you to keep me

Would you say that you're back to your full senses now?"

I shrugged. "Unfortunately."

Gibsie nodded. "And your heart?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What about it?"

"It's not going boom, boom, fucking boom today?"

It was a soft, innocent, almost featherlike peck on the lips, but it was everything in this moment, and it meant everything to me because it was from him. Because for the very first time he kissed me first.

This evening." He raised my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles.