Unmarked: Sean's Story (Chosen #4) by Alisa Mullen Page B

immediately reacted.
    “Good lord, woman,” I said as I tossed the box to the floor and moved on top of her. I tickled under her armpits which made her laugh out loud. I pulled up her shirt to give her kiss to her tummy and stopped.
    Aoife continued to giggle from my tickling until she realized I wasn’t moving. She gasped and pulled her shirt down so far that she punched me in the face from the force of her movements.
    I got up off of her and grabbed the remote to the television, muting Law and Order. I turned around to find her face in her hands. She was trembling. Was she crying? Was she scared? Fuck, I was scared for her.
    “Aoife,” I whispered as I moved towards her closer with great care. I didn’t want her to shut me out.
    “I am so sorry. You told me you wanted to keep your shirt on and I just totally disrespected you. I am not going to say that I am not concerned about those scars on your stomach and if you ever want to talk to me, I am here.”
    Her tear reddened face looked up to me in surprise. “You aren’t going to ask how I got them.”
    It took everything I had inside of me – all the willpower I had ever had for anything – to shake my head.
    “Really?” she asked.
    “No,” I whispered. “I want you to want to tell me about you – good and bad. I think I should tell you some things about me, too.”
    “We just met,” she said.
    “I know.” I knew that and I hated that. It didn’t make any sense. I had known other girls for way longer and never had the need to put myself totally out there for them to criticize or get turned off. With Aoife, it was sort of immediate. I would show and tell her everything about me – good and bad and I knew without hesitation that she would not only love me but admire me even more than she did right now. Was that instant love? Was that instant anything? What did I have to lose with Aoife? I take that back – what did I have to lose besides her?
    “Is it too soon to tell our secrets, Sean?” Even though she used a whispering tone, her whole body implored me for an answer, the answer. It was as if I knew what the rules for us were. I was fully aware that she had much depth and history to her life.
    I stared at her and I wanted to plead, adamantly explain why it wasn’t too soon for us to know everything we could about each other. If there were some way to drill something into her head that would provide me with a narrative of everything she had been through I would rather have done that – perhaps in her sleep – so I didn’t have to look at the saddened fear she had as she waited for my response.
    “I can’t answer that, Aoife. I want to say no because I only get you for a couple of months and then… who knows what will happen. I want to say no because you are the first girl I have ever wanted to dump all of my garbage out in front of. I trust you. I think I need to tell you everything or I won’t be doing this friendship or relationship justice. What are secrets to us anyway? What will they do to us? We already have thousands of miles up against us.”
    “I will tell you what is going to happen,” she answered me with a sad smile, two tears falling out of one eye.
    “Tell me,” I urged, closing in towards her and reassuring her that I was not going to run.
    “You will stay in America and keep your shop going. One day, you will marry a beautiful woman and have bloody brilliant children. Oh, Sean! Those kids will be so gorgeous.” She covered her eyes again and I took her hands away.
    “And you? What is going to be your life story?” I choked out because I knew it wasn’t the pretty fairy tale she had painted for me. Was she trying to convince me of a happily ever after? Didn’t she know that in that moment I was the happiest I had been in years?
    A humorless laugh filled my bedroom. “I will return to Wicklow and take care of my family. I will obviously continue to go to school and to work. I will take the hour long bus ride in and out