“Ah, fuck!” Sean snapped from behind me, and smacked the back of my head with such force my brain rattled. “You wanna fight, you come at me. It’s my little sister you fucked over, remember?”
I saw red and speared Sean down to the ground.
I pulled back and unleashed a series of punches on his face, but not one landed, because he had his head guarded, so I switched, getting a few hits in on his chest.
“It’s fine, honestly. Don’t be worried. A minute or two and it’ll be fine. Sit back down,” Bob’s loud voice broke through my clouded one. No doubt he was talking to the other punters in the pub.
A ringing noise blocked everything out and my vision spotted.
It took me a second to realise I’d been punched in the head.
Sean, the bastard, had broken through and punched me.
I was just about to return the favour when I felt arms come around my neck from behind and pull me off Sean. I reached back and hit Justin, who had a hold of me, but he didn’t let up until I stopped throwing punches. My head was spinning and my stomach threatened to spill at any second.
“Are you done?” Justin snapped in my ear.
“I’d have killed you both if I could see straight!” I snapped, then coughed when Justin’s arm tightened around my neck.
Sean laughed from the floor. “I don’t think so, little Hart. I let you get some hits in to help relieve some stress. You feel better?”
I blinked my eyes and when my vision focused I could see Sean, but it looked like he was swaying while sitting down.
Unexpectedly, I laughed. “Yeah, I feel better.”
Justin’s hold on me loosened, and then both he and Sean got to their feet and they helped me up to mine. They both shoved me and playfully slapped my head.
“Okay, everyone. Show’s over,” Bob announced.
The people who had bothered to look our way turned and continued on with their conversations like we hadn’t just been fighting a minute ago.
“I can’t believe he put you on your arse with one hit.” Sean poked fun at Justin as we straightened our stools and sat back down on them.
Justin rubbed his jaw. “Me last fight with him was five years ago. He’s perfected throwing a decent punch since then, it seems.”
I snorted as I laid my head on the countertop.
Justin smacked my back with his hand. “I’ve never seen you like this over a girl.”
“She’s not just some girl, man,” I stated. “It’s Neala.”
Sean nudged me. “Your Neala Girl?”
Yeah.
My Neala Girl.
“Yeah, she’s mine,” I said, and sat up straight. “I need to make this right . . . but I don’t know how.”
Both of the lads patted my shoulders.
“We’ll help you, bro,” Justin said.
I smiled inwardly.
I sighed. “How?”
We all sat and thought about it for a few minutes; then Sean snapped his fingers. “You have to get her on her own – you won’t get her full attention in a room full of people.”
I rolled my eyes. “She won’t leave her apartment. How the hell can I get her on her own when she won’t speak to me?” I asked.
That sent us into another few minutes of silence as we thought.
“I’ve got it,” Justin said. “We can trick her to come out—”
“Do you remember what happened the last time you deceived her?” I cut Justin off with a growl.
Justin frowned. “That wasn’t just me, man . . . And we all said sorry about that.”
I shook my head and looked at my half-full pint of beer; I didn’t even want to drink it anymore. I had come here to drown my sorrows, but no matter how much I drank I still couldn’t escape the way I felt. I pushed the pint away.
“It’s New Year’s Eve . . . What if we get her to come to the party here tonight?” Sean suggested.
I looked to him and deadpanned, “If she won’t come out of her apartment, then she won’t come here.”
Sean grinned and smirked. “You leave that to me. I’ll get her here; you just make sure you head home and that you’re all cleaned up and ready to lay everything on the line for her. You got that?”
I raised my eyebrow and looked to Justin, who shrugged. I looked back to Sean and decided what the hell? Who better to help me win Neala over than her own brother?
“I got it,” I said with a firm nod.
I just prayed that whatever Sean had planned would work, because one way or the other I was starting the New Year with my Neala Girl in my life as my girl.
I wouldn’t settle for anything less than her heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Neala?”
Uh.
“Neala. I know you’re in there; open the door. Please.”
Go away.
“Neala!” my mother’s voice shouted. “Please, open the door.”
I shot up from my bedroom when my mother’s voice rose to one of panic. Her voice sounded strange, and quite faint, but it was unmistakably her. I envisioned something horribly wrong with her, so without a second’s thought I ran from my bedroom, tore down the hallway, and pulled my front door wide open.
“Ma?” I said, my tone laced with worry.
I blinked. My brother stood before me, not my mother.
I was confused.
“Where’s Ma? I heard her,” I said.
Sean gnawed on his lower lip and then lifted up his arm and pressed on the screen of his iPhone.
“Neala?” my mother’s voice played from the phone.
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, then looked to Sean, who shrugged and pocketed his phone.
“I knew you wouldn’t open the door to anyone but our distressed mother,” he said.
The bastard tricked me. Again.
I snarled at him and tried to slam my door shut in his face, but he threw his body between the door and the doorframe, making it impossible for me to close the door.
“Get. Out!” I snapped.
Sean grunted in pain. “No, we need to talk.”
The hell we do.
“I don’t care for a single word you have to say, you piece of shite!” I bellowed, then lifted my hand and proceeded to slap Sean’s head.
He yelped. “Neala, stop it! That hurts! Ow!”
Feel pain, you fucker.
“No! You deserve everything you get, you lousy excuse for a brother,” I said, then fell backward onto my arse when Sean burst through the door and fell face forward onto the floor next to me.
Ha-ha-fucking-ha!
“That hurt,” Sean murmured.
I glared at him. “I’m glad.”
“You’re the dark lord of evil.” He groaned.
I grinned. “And someday I’ll rule the
Earth.”
Sean groused as he rolled over onto his back. We were silent as he lay next to me and stared up at the ceiling. I was looking upward too, but only because I didn’t want to turn my head and see his stupid face.
“This is breaking and entering, you know?” I grunted.
Sean snorted. “You’re me sister.”
“So? I don’t want you here, so it still counts as breaking and entering,” I said as I sat upright, griping as a slight pain radiated up and down my arse from the impact of hitting the floor when I fell.
I got to my feet, placed both hands on my behind, and rubbed the pain away. I looked down at my brother and rolled my eyes.
“You’re almost thirty-two, and yet you still act like you’re fifteen,” I said with a shake of my head.
Sean looked up at me and smirked. “I bet you’ll be having a repeat of this conversation with me in fifty years.”
I snorted. “Doubtful. I plan to disown you long before then.”
Sean clumsily got to his feet, and when he straightened up he flung an arm around my shoulder and hugged me to his side. He kissed me on the crown of my head and said, “You couldn’t disown me – you love me too much.”
True.
My eye twitched. “It’s a shame how I could never disown you, but you had no problem doing it to me for four days.”
Sean raised his eyebrow. “Four?” he questioned.
I huffed, “I’m meshing Friday night and Tuesday morning as one whole day, so yes, hours-wise it adds up to four days.”
Sean nodded, then hugged me again. “I’m sorry, Neala, truly sorry. It was a stupid idea, utter rubbish really. Please forgive me. I’ll never trick you into anything ever again. I promise.”
I stepped away from my brother and closed my front door before I turned back to him.
“What do you call playing Ma’s voice on your phone in order to get me to open up the door then?” I asked.
Sean opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Starting from right now I won’t trick you anymore. Promise.”
I snorted and shook my head at him.
“Come on, Neala. It’s New Year’s Eve; you can’t start a brand-new year not speaking to your family.”
Says who?
“Watch me.”
Sean frowned. “We miss you, Sis. Ma cries every day because she feels so horrible about everything that’s happened.”