“I take it you’re gay then,” I told him.

“I guess,” he replied.

“You ever checking me out or thinking about me naked?” I asked him. He smiled at me in response and shook his head.

“You’re not my type,” he replied.

“Fuck you. I’m everybody’s type,” I answered with a smile. “As long as you ain’t doing either of those things, me and you don’t have a problem.”

He nodded at me but still looked tense.

“You’ll keep it to yourself?” he asked me. Scraping my hand over my unshaven chin thoughtfully, I leveled with him.

“Look mate, I’ll be honest. I’m not keeping secrets from my wife. That being said, Em would take them to the grave.”

He nodded in acknowledgment, and I watched the relief wash over his face as I promised to keep quiet.

“Seeing as we’re getting everything out in the open at last,” I said to him as his nervousness came back. “Who’s your new boyfriend?”

“Mind your own business,” he told me with a wry grin.

Chapter 5

“Why the fuck are we looking at this shithole, Con?” Tommy asked me, as he climbed out of Liam’s truck. Kieran and I already stood in front of a run-down old house. The windows were mostly cracked, and the small front garden was so overgrown with weeds that you’d need a flame thrower to actually get inside the place.

“It’s not a shithole, arsehat,” I said defensively. Tommy kicked at the rotten fence and his foot went straight through it.

“I beg to fucking differ,” he argued back with a smirk. I frowned at him menacingly and, as usual, he ignored me. He never did have any sense of self-preservation. “It’s probably full of druggies and squatters,” he added.

“Will you shut the fuck up?” I said, angry that he was pissing all over my great idea. “I want to buy it for me and Em to live in.”

Like some kind of comedy duo, he and Liam tilted their heads to the right, obviously trying to picture it as habitable. “I guess professional boxing doesn’t pay as well as I thought,” muttered Tommy. I sighed deeply, reminding myself that Em didn’t like it when I gave Tommy a slap. Even if he deserved it.

“I know it looks a bit banged up, but the houses around all look well-kept. It’s in a nice street, close to the gym, and there’s a good school nearby.”

“Why do you care about schools?” Liam asked.

“Shit, wait. Is Em pregnant?” Tommy chimed.

“What? No!” I added, as they bantered.

“Can you imagine how big their fuckin’ kid will be!” Tommy said, ignoring me. Kieran didn’t reply. He was too busy laughing at Tommy pushing my buttons.

“Right, that’s it!” I announced, as I lunged for Tommy. “No one makes fun of my kid.” The slippery little fucker dodged out of my way and hid behind Liam.

“So Em is pregnant then?” Liam asked, seriously.

“No.” I sighed. There was a bit of me that couldn’t wait to see her belly rounded with my child. It was too early yet though. “I just meant that it’s a good place to call home, and there’s a nice school nearby, if and when we do have a kid.”

“Can you afford it?” Kier asked looking at the sales particulars I’d given him.

“It’ll take everything we’ve got saved, but it’ll be ours outright. There’s no way either of us will get a mortgage for a long time, and it’s cheaper than anything else I’ve found ’cause it’s a repossession.”

“Why’s it so banged up?” Liam asked.

“Apparently the old owner didn’t like the idea of the bank taking his house, and he fucked the whole place over with a baseball bat. Inside is worse than the outside.” They all looked horrified, like that could even be possible.

“Don’t worry, mate,” Liam reassured me, with a pat on the back, “by the time we’re done with it, it’ll be Buckingham Palace.”

I grinned, picturing it in my mind all finished and seeing Em’s face as I carried her over the threshold of our first real home. “Listen, I know you guys all have jobs and your own training to worry about, but do you think you could give me a hand with the labor? There won’t be any money left to pay anyone, and I’m going to need help with this.”

“I’ll redo the central heating for five minutes alone with your wife and one of her chocolate cakes,” Tommy volunteered. Kieran, punched him in the arm for me.

“What? It would’ve hurt a lot more if he’d done it!” he said in response to Tommy’s wounded expression.

“It’s a good buy,” Liam told me. “Property is a good investment so at least you know your money is safe. Plus you’ll save rent on your crappy place. You do realize though that you could have the same size place with much less hassle if you bought flat.”

I looked up wistfully toward the house. “I know,” I answered, “but I don’t want a flat. I want a place that’s mine from the roof to the foundation. I want a home.”

Kieran nodded, knowing exactly what I meant. I spent what I guess would pass as my childhood bouncing between the haven of Kieran’s ma’s house and the pit that was my alcoholic mother’s house. Em’s shithole flat was the nearest thing I’d had to a home, but that was only because she was there.

Liam looked over the house with a careful eye, and I hoped he could see the potential that I could. Of all of us, he was the most experienced in construction. When I’d worked full-time, I did mostly carpentry. Kier was a general builder like Liam, while Tommy worked in plumbing and heating with his dad.

“We’ll need to find an electrician,” Liam pointed out. “This place is definitely going to need a rewire.”

“How about Big Joe? I’ve worked with him before, and he’s bloody good. I hear he’s looking for a new gym as well since Joe’s burned down. If we could talk Danny into letting him train at our place, he’d probably give us a good deal on the electrics,” Kieran suggested.

“Wait, didn’t Tommy fuck and dump his sister?” I asked.

“Who’s Big Joe’s sister?” Tommy said. Though I wasn’t sure a first name would help him pick her out of the sea of women he’d slept with.