A FEW DAYS HAD PASSED since the exams, and I was pretty sure that Nikki and the gang had been partying for every one of them. I’d managed to pick up a few extra shifts at Daisy’s with some of the other girls wanting to go home for the holidays. Christmas was only two weeks away and the extra money would pay for a bit of Christmas shopping. I’d also promised Nikki, after a fair amount of arm bending, that I’d go for a night out with the guys before they headed home. Walking home from my breakfast shift, I was feeling quite festive for once and looking forward to having someone to spend it with. By noon the cafe had become pretty quiet, so after treating me to a delicious jacket potato, which Mike assured me I didn’t need to pay for, as a customer had changed his mind about an order and it was going spare, sent me home half an hour early. Although we hadn’t actually had snow yet, the frost was brutal and the pavements were pretty treacherous, but I made it home without slipping and breaking anything. I collected my post at the entrance and hummed Christmas carols all the way up to my flat. Shutting the door behind me, I chucked the keys on my desk and decided to have a cup of tea before checking my bills and attacking my heater. Seven hours later, O’Connell walked in through my door to find me sat on my bed, the flat freezing cold and my full cup of stone-cold tea on the table beside me. I was shaking, having held the letter in my icy fingers for so long, but I couldn’t let it go.
“Shit!” he muttered, slamming the door behind him. He dumped his training bag and grabbed my face.
“What’s wrong, baby? What happened?” he asked urgently. I couldn’t let go of the letter, so I told him what was in it.
“Mrs. Wallis wrote to me,” I turned to look at him, “my old teacher.”
“I remember who she is, sunshine,” he encouraged.
“She said that her house was broken into. There was nothing in there with my address on it because she keeps that in her diary which she had with her.”
“But she thinks it might be Frank, doesn’t she, looking for evidence of where you’ve gone,” he guessed, seeing quickly where I was going with this. I nodded my head and swallowed.
“The thing is, she said that she filed away all of my university acceptance letters but forgot to destroy them when I left. If it was Frank, he could have my full name now and a shortlist of universities where I could be. How long do you think it would take him to find me with that?”
“So, change your name again and make it more difficult for him, but you’re not running.”
“I won’t run,” I whispered, “I promised you I wouldn’t. But changing my name will take time, and even then I don’t know if it will stop him from finding me.”
He gave me his most adorable grin as he offered me his solution. “Then use a different way to change your name and marry me.” The shock that had me clutching the letter, now made me drop it to the floor.
“Thank you, but I don’t want to get married just to change my name. It’s kind of you to offer, but I can’t,” I protested.
“Then don’t marry me to change your name. Marry me because there will never be another man in this world who loves you as much as I do. You’re my best friend, my missing piece, and the only person who can make my world amazing just by being in it. Marry me because I promise you a lifetime of love and laughter and happiness.” He carried on seamlessly, as though he’d thought about this and wanted to get it out before he forgot any of it.
“I want to be your husband, sunshine. I want to know that you are and always will be the other half of me for the rest of my life. I know that people will say we’re too young and that we have the rest of our lives, but people don’t know shit about who we are and what we’ve been through. Give me one good reason why you don’t think we should get married, and I’ll give you a million reasons why I know we should.”
He knew that he needed to stop if he ever wanted to hear my answer, but it was as if he was afraid to in case my answer was no.
“You are absolutely certifiable, you know that.” I smiled at him.
“I know,” he said, tucking one of my curls behind my ear.
“I love you, Em. I will always love you. Will you marry me?” he asked gently.
Leaning forward, I held his face reverently in my hands and kissed him softly. With tears running down my cheeks, I whispered, “yes, I’ll marry you.”
O’Connell launched himself at me, smothering me with sloppy kisses. I couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. This strong, beautiful, crazy man adored me and wanted to be with me for the rest of my life. Should I have worried about what the world would think of our getting married so young and so quickly? Probably, but then most people had family and had never been truly alone like we had. Now we would be each other’s family, and I know that the caveman in O’Connell wanted me to share his name.
“How quickly do you think we can pull this together?”
“You don’t waste any time do you?” I laughed.
“You have the most beautiful laugh in the world. It makes me sad that you’ve spent more time since I’ve known you crying than laughing. I promise you that I’m gonna change that. I promise to put a smile on your face every day that we’re married. Even when I make you ‘kick me in the balls’ mad, I’ll make you smile again before you sleep. I know that I don’t deserve you, but I’ll work every day to try to be the man that you do deserve.”
“You’re going to make me cry again,” I admitted, choked up.
I couldn’t believe he didn’t think he deserved me, but then maybe the key to success in any relationship was to always be with someone you thought was better than you deserved. He kissed me again until I pointed out something fairly obvious.
“We don’t have any money to get married. If we want to do this soon, it will have to be a quick Registry Office wedding.”
Crawling onto the bed, he pushed me backwards and climbed over me to nuzzle the side of my neck, making me laugh again.
“I’m not marrying you in some quick Registry Office ceremony. I want to get married in church.”
“Then we’ll set a date for early in the New Year and get married in church.”
“Yeah, we’re not waiting till New Year either.”
“O’Connell, you can’t have everything,” I said exasperated.
“Watch me.” He grinned. “Just leave it to me. I’ll sort everything out.”
“What are we going to do about Frank?” I asked worriedly.
“Nothing,” he told me. “If its okay with you, I’ll move in here until we can afford a bigger place, and if that fucker comes after me or my wife, I’ll make him wish he’d never been born.”
“You shouldn’t underestimate him,” I warned. “He doesn’t fight fair like you do.”
“Baby, I only fight fair in the ring. If he has the balls to come, then let him come. You’re not alone anymore.”
I cuddled in close to my fiancé until I realised something.
“Um, O’Connell. Do you want to jump in the shower?” He laughed out loud.
“You’re not very subtle about telling me I stink.”
“It’s not that,” I lied, “I just don’t want you to catch cold because you’re sitting round my apartment in your sweaty training gear.”
“I ran home from training to get in a few extra miles, and it’s our apartment now.”
“Not until after the wedding it isn’t,” I told him. “I’m not living with you in sin.”
“Whatever, sunshine. I’m pretty sure I can get you to sin even without the living.” With that, he pushed my top up and kissed my belly, slowly working his way up to my breasts as he proceeded to show me just how sinful I could be.
O’CONNELL MIGHT NOT HAVE officially moved in, but I was barely alone for a moment anymore. Until we were sure that Frank hadn’t found me, one of the boys took me everywhere. It was like they’d organised some kind of rota, which was pretty spectacular for them as I was pretty sure they couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. I have absolutely no idea what O’Connell said to Danny, and forever more it would stay between them. I knew that Danny did a fair bit of cursing and door slamming for a couple of days, but I didn’t know whether that was because he wasn’t happy about the wedding or because O’Connell had told him about Frank. But nothing was said to me until O’Connell passed on the message that Danny wanted to see me in the gym on Saturday morning at nine am.
“What, why?” I asked in a panic.
I didn’t mind getting the talk about how irresponsible we were being, but I’d prefer to have O’Connell by my side when it happened. The gym was surprisingly busy when I got there, and O’Connell winked at me from across the room as he carried on with his hanging sit-ups.
“I’ve made you coffee,” Danny told me as I walked into the office.
“Are you mad at me?” I blurted out. I couldn’t care less what anyone else thought, but Danny mattered to me.
“Why the feck would you think that?” he asked, as he sat down in his chair and lit up a cigarette.
“Because you think we’re too young, and it’s too rushed,” I answered truthfully.
“Do you think that, sunshine?” he asked, carefully.
“No,” I replied without hesitation. “I love him. Time and age won’t change that.”
By now, Danny must have known the full story, so I didn’t pull any punches. “He doesn’t see me as a victim, he sees me as strong and empowered. In his eyes, he’s not good enough for me, when in reality I’m not good enough for him. I want to marry him because he’s the man I want to grow old with. Before him, I didn’t even have hope that I’d get to grow old. This shitty life takes away far more than it gives us, and if I’ve got a chance of happiness, I’m taking it.”
“Well then,” he replied, “doesn’t look like you need my blessin’ does it?”
“I don’t need it, Danny, but I’d like it. We both would. You might not know it, but you’re important to both of us.”
“Well, sunshine, you’re important to me, too. You both are. O’Connell told me that he was gonna marry you the first time he saw you at Daisy’s. Stubborn fecker was right.”
“He did?” I squeaked in amazement.
“I warned him off, but I knew he wouldn’t listen. When he wants something, he barrels in like a bull in a china shop until he finds a way to get it. When that didn’t work with you, he was lost. You threw him for six, and he had to change his ways to become the sort of person you needed. As soon as I saw that, I decided that I wouldn’t come between you. You both make each other want to be better people, and that’s a feckin’ rare thing. Far too many couples drown each other in their own selfishness these days. Now I ain’t sayin’ things between you are gonna be easy. Con’s got a promising career ahead of him, which means that you’re gonna learn the ins and outs of this business, no matter what. Lord knows, girl, that there’s gonna be enough obstacles trying to trip you up in the next few years so I sure as shite won’t be one of ‘em. You just remember that this is for life. When he pisses you off, you slap him upside the head and pull him back in line. You yell, you scream, you do what you need to do, but you stay and fight for each other and your marriage.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Danny. Thank you,” I told him and gave him a big squeezy hug.
“Now, why the feck are you getting all touchy-feely again?” he grumbled, although I noticed that he’d hugged me back.
“Oh, stop your moaning,” I admonished and let him go with a kiss on his cheek. He muttered a curse, as though kissing and hugging me was some great hardship, and went back to drinking his coffee.
“So, why did you want me to come in this morning?” I asked, as I sat back down in the subs chair.
“If you promise not to get free with the hugs again, I’ll tell you.” He eyed me suspiciously.
“Promise.” I smiled, drinking my coffee. He shifted around in his seat as though he was uncomfortable and didn’t want to tell me something.
“It ain’t right for you to walk down the aisle without a proper wedding dress. So Tommy and Kieran are taking you shopping today, and I’m paying.”
“Danny,” I choked. “Thank you. It’s very generous of you, but I can’t accept. I’ve never been wedding dress shopping before, but I can’t imagine that it’s cheap.”
“Huh,” Danny huffed. “What do I need all the money I’ve got saved for? Now, no more arguments. Drink your coffee ‘cause them lazy feckers are gonna be here in a minute.”
Speaking of which, I could hear them arguing outside of the door.
“Danny. It’s only going to be a little wedding. I don’t need a big expensive wedding dress.”
He laughed at that.
“You didn’t really think that boy was gonna marry you in a Registry Office did you? Christmas Eve in St Paul’s, you’re walking down a proper aisle, in a proper church, so you need a proper wedding dress.”
“What the fuck, Danny?” moaned Kieran, barrelling in through the door. “That was supposed to be a surprise.”
“Well, now it feckin’ ain’t,” boomed Danny, and both the guys shrank back. It still made me smile to see how intimidated they were of him, given how tiny he was. I respected him and still thought him formidable, but to me he was like an armadillo now, hard on the outside, soft and squidgy on the inside. St Paul’s was a beautiful church, and a Christmas wedding sounded so magical. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. How in the hell O’Connell pulled this off was a mystery and where had he found the time? His fight was three weeks away, and he was training relentlessly every day.
Despite Danny’s worst fears, I hugged him again on the way out. “Thanks, Danny,” I murmured. I accepted my gift graciously, knowing that there was little point in arguing. Between my new coat and my wedding dress, I was feeling majorly overwhelmed, but so very grateful.
“You’re welcome, sunshine,” he replied, giving my arms that were wrapped around him a quick pat. I left the office, with Kieran and Tommy arguing about who was in charge of Danny’s credit card, and went to find O’Connell. He was still doing hanging sit-ups, and it made me feel tired just to look at him.
“What?” he asked, when I stared but said nothing.
I couldn’t watch him train without wanting him in the worst way. As though he could see where my thoughts were going, he hauled himself up to the top bar, unhooked his legs, and jumped down. With a quick look to make sure that we weren’t being watched, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the locker room. Without giving me time to protest, his firm, but gentle lips locked onto mine, and I was in heaven. He kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in a month, and I was practically climbing up his body to get closer to him. If I thought he had the body of a Greek God when I met him, it was nothing to the way he looked now. Day after day, week after week and month after month of relentless training and clean living had sculpted his body to perfection. Since I’d begun cooking for the both of us, he taught me about what different foods would do to my body, about carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and vitamins. Now I looked at the nutritional information on foods before I bought them and stopped at the farmer’s market for home-grown fruit and veg. It wasn’t like I hadn’t cared about what I was eating, but before Danny had given me a job, I was more concerned about the food that I could afford and how I would store it, rather than what it did to my body.
O’Connell’s need was as urgent as mine. He picked me up so that my legs wrapped around his waist and backed me up against the lockers with a bang.
“I wanna fuck you right now against my locker, baby,” he growled. “I feel like I haven’t been inside you for a month.”
I moaned as he slid his tongue deeper into my mouth. When he talked like this, it used to shock me. Now, I knew that he just liked to tell me how he was feeling, as he was feeling it. It took all I had not to take him up on his suggestion.
“You’ve probably got less than two minutes before Danny tells the boys to fuck off and comes to see why you’re not training,” I replied.
“I’m that hard I don’t think I’ll last two minutes,” he moaned, and I giggled.
“Cormac O’Connell,” Danny shouted from the gym, and I giggled again.
“I fucking love that sound.” He smiled at my joy and carried on kissing me, his rock hard cock pressed up against me.
“Cormac fuckin’ O’Connell. I want twenty-five press ups for every feckin’ minute I have to spend looking for you.”
“Go, love. He’ll have you training all night, and I’d like to see my fiancé before I sleep tonight if it’s all the same to you.”
He let me down gently until my feet touched the floor, but carried on holding me in his arms.
“I like being called your fiancé,” he said between kisses.
“Well, don’t get too used to it. You’ll be my husband in a week.”
“You bet your arse I will be. Now go and blow some of that tight arse’s money and get a dress that takes my breath away.”
He kissed me long and hard enough to make me moan and for both of us to hear Danny mumble, “I’m too old for this shite,” as he walked into the changing room. I guessed my fiancé wouldn’t be making it home for dinner, after all.