“Hey! None of that. It’s your birthday. No one washes dishes on their birthday.”
“It’s just another day, O’Connell.” She laughed and I growled at her for not wanting more for herself today. I love that, even growling I didn’t intimidate her. Mostly my acting tough just made her giggle or roll her eyes. We’d come a long way since our spectacular showdown and were closer for it. I sat down on the bed and pulled her by her wrist to sit down on my lap. Pulling a box from behind my back, I placed it in her hands. Her eyes instantly welled up, and all my fears evaporated. It didn’t matter what was in the box. She’d love it anyway. She was tracing her fingers over the ribbon reverently.
“Are you going to open that or stare at it all day?” I asked, amused.
She wound her hand around the base of my neck and kissed me gently, then carefully peeled away the ribbon and tape. I swear to God, I was about to rip open the damn thing myself if she took much longer. Finally she slid off the lid to reveal a silver locket.
“Oh, O’Connell. It’s breathtaking.” She sighed wondrously.
“Open it up,” I told her. Inside was a tiny, perfectly sized picture. Danny was in the center looking pretty pissed off, Liam was smirking, Kieran was grinning, Tommy was pulling a face, and I was smiling as I thought about what my girl would think when she saw this. To get all of us in the locket picture, we had to squeeze around Danny. We looked like a scary arse version of the Brady Bunch. Em burst out laughing when she saw it.
“This is wonderful,” she told me. “How on earth did you get them all to sit for it?”
“I asked Danny to do it, and he told me to fuck off. Pleading and begging didn’t work, and finally Kieran asked him what he had bought you for your birthday. Danny went a bit green and told me he’d sit for one picture and give me fifty pounds if I let him say it was a joint present.”
“I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when it was being taken. I really can’t imagine Danny doing this, even for me,” she said with a laugh.
“Kieran and Tommy fucked about so much, Danny was just about hoarse from telling them off when the picture was taken. He told the photographer he’d stay for one shot, after that Kieran and Tommy wouldn’t have been in it anyway because he would have murdered them. That was the picture, and the photo people sized it down enough to fit in your locket.”
“Thank you so much, love. I’ll treasure it. But you shouldn’t have spent so much money on me.”
“I spent exactly the limit we set for birthdays. The boys all chipped in so I even managed to get a couple of odds and ends in.” She stared at it, running her finger gently across the picture. “It’s a Celtic family locket. You got us in one picture, and I’ve left the other one blank. You know. In case we ever have kids.”
She bit her lip, and her eyes teared up. She handed me the locket as she lifted her hair and secured it around her neck. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her to her feet and toward the bathroom.
“Time to get dressed. There’s one more thing you need to see,” I told her and with a quick kiss and a tap on the arse, I left her to get ready.
*
“Okay. Open your eyes. What do you think?” I took my hands away and let her look. This was almost as nerve-wracking as asking her to marry me. Back then I was asking her to forget all the crap surrounding me and imagine a better version who’d made something of himself. I was asking her to take a chance on me. Now I was doing the same with this house. Tommy was right. It was a shit hole. But when I was done, it would be a palace. A home for the two of us no one could ever take away. I stared at her expression, looking for any sign at all about how she felt.
“I love it,” she whispered, looking up at it in awe. I let out a deep breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“I know it doesn’t look like much now, but imagine if I cleared out and repaired the front garden, put in new windows and new fencing. Liam and I have gone over this place inch by inch, and the roof is sound. With a bit of hard work, it’ll look great.”
I was rambling now. She’d already agreed to it, so I have no idea why I was giving her the hard sell.
“Can we afford it?” she asked, her eyes full of wonder.
“It’d take all our money and then some. But I’ve worked out a loan with Danny for what we need, and we can pay him back with the rent money we’ll save on our flat. We’ll have to fix it up on a budget but the boys have offered to help with the labor.”
With a squeal she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me loudly. “I can’t believe you found this place. It’s going to be amazing! I know I can’t do any building work but I can clean, strip wallpaper, and paint,” she babbled excitedly. “Ooow, we could go and get some paint samples today,” she suggested.
“We haven’t even had an offer accepted yet,” I pointed out with a chuckle.