“Well, sunshine, you’re important to me, too. You both are. O’Connell told me that he was gonna marry you the first time he saw you at Daisy’s. Stubborn fecker was right.”

“He did?” I squeaked in amazement.

“I warned him off, but I knew he wouldn’t listen. When he wants something, he barrels in like a bull in a china shop until he finds a way to get it. When that didn’t work with you, he was lost. You threw him for six, and he had to change his ways to become the sort of person you needed. As soon as I saw that, I decided that I wouldn’t come between you. You both make each other want to be better people, and that’s a feckin’ rare thing. Far too many couples drown each other in their own selfishness these days. Now I ain’t sayin’ things between you are gonna be easy. Con’s got a promising career ahead of him, which means that you’re gonna learn the ins and outs of this business, no matter what. Lord knows, girl, that there’s gonna be enough obstacles trying to trip you up in the next few years so I sure as shite won’t be one of ‘em. You just remember that this is for life. When he pisses you off, you slap him upside the head and pull him back in line. You yell, you scream, you do what you need to do, but you stay and fight for each other and your marriage.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Danny. Thank you,” I told him and gave him a big squeezy hug.

“Now, why the feck are you getting all touchy-feely again?” he grumbled, although I noticed that he’d hugged me back.

“Oh, stop your moaning,” I admonished and let him go with a kiss on his cheek. He muttered a curse, as though kissing and hugging me was some great hardship, and went back to drinking his coffee.

“So, why did you want me to come in this morning?” I asked, as I sat back down in the subs chair.

“If you promise not to get free with the hugs again, I’ll tell you.” He eyed me suspiciously.

“Promise.” I smiled, drinking my coffee. He shifted around in his seat as though he was uncomfortable and didn’t want to tell me something.

“It ain’t right for you to walk down the aisle without a proper wedding dress. So Tommy and Kieran are taking you shopping today, and I’m paying.”

“Danny,” I choked. “Thank you. It’s very generous of you, but I can’t accept. I’ve never been wedding dress shopping before, but I can’t imagine that it’s cheap.”

“Huh,” Danny huffed. “What do I need all the money I’ve got saved for? Now, no more arguments. Drink your coffee ‘cause them lazy feckers are gonna be here in a minute.”

Speaking of which, I could hear them arguing outside of the door.

“Danny. It’s only going to be a little wedding. I don’t need a big expensive wedding dress.”

He laughed at that.

“You didn’t really think that boy was gonna marry you in a Registry Office did you? Christmas Eve in St Paul’s, you’re walking down a proper aisle, in a proper church, so you need a proper wedding dress.”

“What the fuck, Danny?” moaned Kieran, barrelling in through the door. “That was supposed to be a surprise.”

“Well, now it feckin’ ain’t,” boomed Danny, and both the guys shrank back. It still made me smile to see how intimidated they were of him, given how tiny he was. I respected him and still thought him formidable, but to me he was like an armadillo now, hard on the outside, soft and squidgy on the inside. St Paul’s was a beautiful church, and a Christmas wedding sounded so magical. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. How in the hell O’Connell pulled this off was a mystery and where had he found the time? His fight was three weeks away, and he was training relentlessly every day.

Despite Danny’s worst fears, I hugged him again on the way out. “Thanks, Danny,” I murmured. I accepted my gift graciously, knowing that there was little point in arguing. Between my new coat and my wedding dress, I was feeling majorly overwhelmed, but so very grateful.

“You’re welcome, sunshine,” he replied, giving my arms that were wrapped around him a quick pat. I left the office, with Kieran and Tommy arguing about who was in charge of Danny’s credit card, and went to find O’Connell. He was still doing hanging sit-ups, and it made me feel tired just to look at him.

“What?” he asked, when I stared but said nothing.

I couldn’t watch him train without wanting him in the worst way. As though he could see where my thoughts were going, he hauled himself up to the top bar, unhooked his legs, and jumped down. With a quick look to make sure that we weren’t being watched, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the locker room. Without giving me time to protest, his firm, but gentle lips locked onto mine, and I was in heaven. He kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in a month, and I was practically climbing up his body to get closer to him. If I thought he had the body of a Greek God when I met him, it was nothing to the way he looked now. Day after day, week after week and month after month of relentless training and clean living had sculpted his body to perfection. Since I’d begun cooking for the both of us, he taught me about what different foods would do to my body, about carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and vitamins. Now I looked at the nutritional information on foods before I bought them and stopped at the farmer’s market for home-grown fruit and veg. It wasn’t like I hadn’t cared about what I was eating, but before Danny had given me a job, I was more concerned about the food that I could afford and how I would store it, rather than what it did to my body.

O’Connell’s need was as urgent as mine. He picked me up so that my legs wrapped around his waist and backed me up against the lockers with a bang.

“I wanna fuck you right now against my locker, baby,” he growled. “I feel like I haven’t been inside you for a month.”

I moaned as he slid his tongue deeper into my mouth. When he talked like this, it used to shock me. Now, I knew that he just liked to tell me how he was feeling, as he was feeling it. It took all I had not to take him up on his suggestion.

“You’ve probably got less than two minutes before Danny tells the boys to fuck off and comes to see why you’re not training,” I replied.

“I’m that hard I don’t think I’ll last two minutes,” he moaned, and I giggled.

“Cormac O’Connell,” Danny shouted from the gym, and I giggled again.