“Yeah, he’s me uncle Gav’s eldest kid.”
Bronagh suddenly gripped my arm when I turned and headed down the hallway towards the front door.
“Don’t ye’ bleedin’ dare, Dominic!” She scowled. “Ye’ aren’t havin’ it out with Gavin because our kids are datin’.”
“Dating?” I repeated. “They’re doing more than that. They’re having sex.”
“Dominic, just listen to me.”
I knew that tone, and it meant she disagreed with me.
“No,” I said, refusing to look at her.
I wasn’t letting her talk me around on this, not a chance.
“Baby,” she pressed. “We need to discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss,” I answered. “She is fifteen. Fif-fucking-teen. She is not entering a relationship when she has no idea about how they work. No.”
“Dominic—”
“Bronagh, I love you to death, but do not ask me to budge on this. I can’t. She is my daughter, and fifteen is too young for a relationship. Sex shouldn’t even be on her mind.”
My wife sighed. “You’re right, but we have to speak to ‘er and explain why.”
I was too heated to go anywhere near the kid.
“Unless it’s for school, she’s not leaving this house,” I stated. “She’s fifteen years of age, and she thinks she grown enough to have sex? Hell fucking no.”
“Okay,” Bronagh acquiesced. “If you say she is grounded, then she’s grounded, but just let me go and speak to ‘er before ye’ go up there and raise ten kinds of hell. She’s underage, we know that, but this is ‘er private business bein’ discussed with ‘er father and cousin, and she isn’t down here to defend ‘erself.”
I jerked my head in response, and Bronagh hustled up the stairs. I lifted my hands to my face and resisted the urge to scream. My entire world had been turned upside down, and I was infuriated that it was a Collins boy who caused it.
“How long have they been dating?”
“Indie says a couple of months,” Jax grunted. “It’s been a huge secret because Locke didn’t even know, and he’s always with Indie. I feel stupid for not coppin’ onto them sooner, but I honestly had no clue before yesterday. I never thought me cousins would look at Georgie in that way because they know I’d end them if they hurt ‘er.”
I paced back and forth, feeling like a caged lion.
“I’m fucking furious.”
Jax nodded. “Ye’ look it.”
“Bronagh will kill me if I kill this kid and get arrested.”
Jax nodded. Again. “I’d be more scared of Auntie Bee than prison, if I’m honest.”
I couldn’t even laugh. I felt sick to my stomach.
“She’s fifteen,” I said. “Fifteen and having sex.”
“In ‘er defence, Indie did say he was buyin’ them for their first time. He’s ‘er first boyfriend, so she’s still a virgin as far as I can tell.”
My heart deflated. “Oh, thank Christ in Heaven.”
I felt better but knowing that she was most likely planning on having sex still didn’t sit well with me at all. She was a child. Still a young girl whose mind shouldn’t be on something as grown up as sex. Fear wrapped around me because I realised that so far, I was handling this situation very badly. I reacted with anger, and if I continued to push that anger onto my child, she would rebel, and I’d definitely end up in prison to stop her from seeking out this little Collins bastard and his little dick.
“She has four brothers and twenty male cousins ... you’re all supposed to repel any boy from sniffing in her direction. You’re all doing a terrible job.”
Jax snorted. “Thanks, as if I didn’t already know that.”
I shook my head, then leaned my back against the hallway wall.
“She didn’t mean what she said, you know? She’s just upset.”
“I know.” Jax nodded. “I still want ‘er to take it back, though. Pain sliced across me chest when she said she hated me. She’s never said that to me before.”
I knew it hurt him. Jax adored Georgie; she was his number one girl. She was everyone’s number one girl, and she knew it. She loved her brothers and cousins more than anyone could explain, so I knew that a tearful apology would be given to Jax later when her anger passed, and regret was all that remained.
“She’ll take it back; just give her a second to calm down. She’ll come and find you when she realises what she said.”
Jax only nodded, then turned his neck and looked up the stairs. I spotted a hickey on his exposed flesh, and my lips parted slightly. I knew from experience if kids were taking the times to give each other love bites, they took the time to do other stuff too.
“You better not be having sex either!”
Jax snapped his head in my direction. “What?”
“You have a hickey on your neck. A big one.”
Heat burned its way up said neck.
“I’m not havin’ sex,” he answered, then cleared his throat. Twice. “I swear.”