Introduction
Okay… a little recap for those of you who read the first book a while ago. I know how the cliffs are ruining us all and I’m a victim just as much as you guys.. haha!
So:
Shaun is a dick, but we love him. A lovable dick. Or prick, as we mostly say in Scotland.
Lacey has just found out her father has arranged for her to marry Liam McGuiness. She’s not happy (who would be?) but at the end of the last book we saw her breaking things off with Shaun (because as much as we love him, he’s a dick).
Shaun takes this news about as well as a child takes cough medicine, and storms off in a huffy huff to speak to his dad, and tell him what he plans to do.
And that is where the story continues…
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Esme x
Chapter 1
LACEY
Well, that went about as well as I could have expected it to.
He didn’t manhandle me out of the school or push me up against a wall. I didn’t see his jaw tick or his hands clench into fists. What he did, though… maybe that was worse.
Your own father would sell you to the highest bidder.
I can’t deny his words stung, because they’re completely true. I only have one parent. You’re supposed to depend on a parent to fight your corner.
Unconditional love.
When you’re a parent, you do what’s best for your children. You put their needs before yours.
My father claims that’s what he’s doing, but deep down I don’t believe him.
We have enough money. We have a nice house and we have nice cars. He has offshore companies in tax havens, and I have more in my college fund than most folks do in their pension pot.
It’s not a case of doing what’s best for me… it’s a case of doing what he wants.
To hell with what I want.
I don’t want to marry Liam, but a small part of me enjoyed telling Shaun I was going to.
He started this little game we’ve been playing. He’s had the upper hand from the start, while I’ve just been fumbling around in the darkness.
I’m exhausted.
Mentally exhausted.
I don’t know how to fight him because I don’t know what he wants. But now, whether he actually did like me or whether this was just a plan to break my heart and run me out of town, it’s over.
And I feel like I’ve won.
I feel like I’ve had my justice.
I wanted revenge, but maybe that was an unrealistic expectation. Just knowing that he didn’t get what he wanted in the end is enough for me.
I can move on.
The bell rings to signal the end of the day and I head out to the car park to meet Liam. I tie my hair back in a ponytail and put on my game-face. If I can crush Shaun Keagan’s expectations without flinching, then Liam McGuiness should be a walk in the park.
“You’ve decided?” he asks, his face expectant. He looks like a puppy who’s been waiting patiently for a treat. I haven’t even made it to the car park yet, and he’s still a good few meters away.
I roll my eyes at him and keep walking while he syncs into step beside me.
“I’ve decided,” I tell him, keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead.
“And?” He puts his arm out to stop me walking any further and spins me around to face him.
“And I’ve told Shaun that I’m going to marry you—”
He cuts me off before I can finish my sentence.
“Oh, Lacey! You have no idea how happy I am to hear that. I promise, I’ll be the best husband you could ever imagine. I’ll—”
“Liam, you need to calm down.” I put my hand on his chest to stop him. “I told Shaun I was going to marry you, and you can tell your father and my father if it makes you feel better. We’re not doing it for real though. We’ll pretend like we just couldn’t wait so we eloped, or something. No one will know any different.”
He looks at me like I’ve physically stabbed him.
I can see a thousand questions crossing over his face, but he finally calms down and straightens it up. He swallows. “Can I ask why?”
“Are you actually mental? Do you know what year this is? What planet you’re on?” I can’t even fully comprehend the mindset of a person who thinks marrying someone for any reason other than love and commitment is acceptable. Not business arrangements, not company shares, not gentleman’s agreements, and certainly not to escape a may-or-may-not be real secret cult.
“Lace, I know it’s soon and perhaps unexpected. But this makes sense. We would be great together — we’re so well matched. We can grow up together, learn to love together.” He looks at me with such conviction in his eyes that I almost pity him.
I would pity him if it wasn’t so fucking ridiculous.
I turn on my heels and head towards the car. “I thought you said this was about keeping me safe?” I call back, not even bothering to look over my shoulder.
So this wasn’t really about keeping me safe. He just wants me for himself. Fucking idiots, all of them. But especially my dad for agreeing to this madness.
I arrive home and surprise-surprise, he’s working away. Again.
Alice is here though, she’s out in the back garden clipping back a rose bush. I go outside to see her since it’s a warm afternoon and after the day I’ve had, I’m thankful for some company.
“I don’t know what time you technically finish,” I say, “but would you like to stay for dinner?”
She turns around and smiles, putting her snips down on the grass. “I would have loved to, dear, it’s just I have a husband at home who doesn’t know the way to the kitchen in his own feckin house. The old arse would probably keel over if I wasn’t home to make his dinner for him,” she tells me, winking.
I chuckle and sit myself down on the patio chair. “I didn’t know you were married?”
“Oh aye, married at 16, and every bit of it a life sentence… I’d have got less in the jail if I’d just followed my head and murdered the bastard the day I met him,” she says with a smile. Her words are prickly but her eyes are dancing.
I laugh at her. “It can’t have been that bad, surely?”
“Oh Christ! The stories I could tell you. He didn’t make it easy, put it that way. We still fight like cat and dog to this day,” she says, standing up and dusting off the dirt from her apron. “Cup of tea?”
I nod. “Yes please, I can make it though?”
She swats her arm as if to say, don’t be ridiculous and I smile and follow her into the kitchen.
Her words remind me of the conversation I had with Shaun, where he was talking about his gran and grandad and tried to claim that kind of relationship was a good thing.
“You don’t get tired of it? I mean, still fighting after all these years?” I ask her. I fetch the milk from the fridge and set it down on the counter next to her.
“Maybe I would if I didn’t always win,” she says with a shrug, then she grins at me. “The thing with my Jim is,” she continues, filling up the kettle at the sink. “He likes to think he’s in charge and he knows best. He likes to think he’s winning whatever it is we’re fighting about. I guess I just learned to let him think that he was.”