“I didn’t know ye’d be de one givin’ de Sisters somet’in’ to talk about!” he called after me, smiling as I turned my head to glare.

I turned back around and reached up as if to smooth down the back of my hair with my left hand, curling my pointer finger down as I did so, flipping him off as secretly as I could. A smile spread across my face as I heard him roar with laughter behind me.

“Dat’s not how we do it here!” I lifted the pointer back up, and as I walked into the building I heard him yell, “Dere it is!” as one of the Sisters shushed him.

***

School was pretty much as I’d suspected. People were talking about me. I heard the whispers in the restrooms when girls didn’t know that I was there…but surprisingly, everyone left me alone. I got the impression that the girls were almost in awe of me, which made very little sense. They hadn’t given two shits that I was some exotic American when I’d first started, and I couldn’t find a reason why moving out after I’d turned eighteen would garner any more of a reaction.

It wasn’t until the second week of Patrick walking me to school that I finally understood what the fuss was about.

“Hello, Trick,” one of the popular girls called flirtatiously as she passed me and Patrick in front of the school. We’d started waiting at the front of the school until the very last minute before we parted ways. I think he was growing anxious about leaving Ballyshannon, his trip home already longer than he’d planned.

He nodded to her with a smile, and I clenched my teeth so hard I heard my jaw pop.

“What the fuck was that?”

“What?” He looked at me as if I’d grown two heads. “Caitlin?”

“You know her?”

“We’ve met. Yes.” His voice became amused, and rather than kicking him in the nuts like I wanted to, I tried to spin away. It was an overreaction to a frigging head nod, but it rankled just the same. I couldn’t seem to stop the wave of jealousy that rolled over me.

We’d been cocooned in our own little bubble for over a week, and it had given me an unrealistic view of our relationship. In our bubble, it was just me, Patrick, Peg and sometimes Kevie. Up until that point, I hadn’t had to deal with other girls vying for his attention, and knowing that Caitlin had probably known him much longer than I had made me green.

It was completely illogical, but that didn’t make it any less real. I was the one sleeping in his bed—though he slept on the couch. I was the one who was learning to make his favorite foods. I was the one helping Peg string up his boxers and undershirts to dry in the small backyard. I knew him better than anyone, and it pissed me off that Caitlin thought she could flirt with him right in front of me. Even worse, he let her.

He was mine.

“Amy? What is it?” He wrapped his arm around my waist, causing one of the nuns to glare at us. “Why are ye angry?”

“I’m not.”

“Ye are.” He turned me around and searched my face for a moment before grinning slyly. “Yer jealous.”

“I am not!”

“Oh, yes. Ye are. And ye’ve no reason to be.” He grabbed my hand and started tugging me down the sidewalk away from the school. No matter how hard I tried to pull away, his grip didn’t let up, and soon we’d made it around the corner and into an alleyway.

“I’m going to be late!”

He didn’t answer me, but as soon as the last word left my lips, his mouth was on mine, his hands digging into my hair. His tongue licked inside, rubbing against my own, and I groaned as my body relaxed into his.

“Ye’ve no reason to be jealous,” he told me between kisses. “I want ye.”

“Then why haven’t you kissed me in over a week?” I asked breathlessly. Our hands were roaming over anything we could reach without disrupting our clothing, and I somehow found myself pushed against the cold brick behind me as his hips ground into mine.

“Can ye imagine it?” he groaned into my neck, running his hands just under where my skirt met my thighs. “If I touch ye in de house, while no one’s around? Dere’ll be no stoppin’ us den.”

“Good,” I whispered, running my hand down his back.

“No.” His hands found mine where they’d begun digging into his ass, and brought them up, pinning my wrists at each side of my head. “We’ve talked about dis.”

“That doesn’t mean I agree with it!”

“Ye’ll not give yer virginity away like a whore wit’out me ring on yer finger,” he replied darkly.

I gasped in shock, and if he hadn’t been pinning my hands, I would have hit him.

“You’re such an asshole!”

“Would ye like to know how I know Caitlin?” he asked angrily. “Everyone knows her.”

“I hate you.”

“Ye love me, and ye’ll marry me. All I’m askin’ is for ye to fuckin’ wait.”

“Wait? Will you be waiting? You’ve obviously had sex already!” An emotion I couldn’t place flashed over his face before it turned to a glare. He refused to give an inch, and I felt myself grow angrier and angrier until I couldn’t stop the words that spilled from my mouth. “That’s bullshit and you know it,” I said, the words low and mean. “Maybe we should just stop what we’re doing right now and we’ll meet again on an even playing field.”