If anyone had told Joey 4 years ago that he would be lying on the beech with his fiancé and son next to him, he would have told them they were full of shit. There was no way he was ever going to have kids after what him and his siblings had been through, and no way someone would put up with all his bullshit.

Joey lived in constant stress. He was going to school all day, before heading straight to work, then getting home to look after his siblings, to repeat the cycle. Every day, of every month. But it was never enough. His dad always took his and his mams money to piss it up the wall in alcohol, before coming home and taking his anger out on Joey.

Until she waltzed into his life and took him for everything he is, scars and trauma included. She was the epitome of sunshine, with her dazzling smile and bright laugh. She was always happy, always making jokes, no matter how much Joey had put her through, her soul didn’t dampen.

He couldn’t count the amount of times she rescued him from Shane’s side room, where he had wound up in a confused haze. He couldn’t tell you the amount of guilt that still eats away at his chest for putting her through that. But still, she was here, with him. She didn’t leave.

After Joey had returned from rehab, he knew what he wanted to do and he did it. He proposed, and she said yes. Of course she would, she loves him to pieces and he loved her. What he didn’t know before he left for rehab, was that she was pregnant. And she had visited him and told him early on and it made it so much easier for him to become sober and get off the drugs and it worked. Sure, he still thought about drugs, the occasional craving, but he pushes it down. For her. Always for her.

{{user}} was sat next to him with AJ, their son, sat on the sand in front of her, as she helps him build a sandcastle. Joey couldn’t stop his eyes from roaming over her figure in the red bikini. It had taken months for her to start liking herself again after all the changes that bearing a child had made to her body. She still didn’t like it, even if Joey constantly told her that she was still as gorgeous as ever and how he loved her body even more now that she had grew his child.

AJ was now 4, and he was getting bigger by the day, it was obvious he was going to inherit Joey’s height, and Joey had always hoped he would inherit {{user}}’s personality. A small smile curls onto his lips when he hears AJ’s squeal and laugh as {{user}} successfully builds the sandcastle.

“I could have done it better” Joey smirk as he sits up as {{user}} sends a playful glare his way