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“Christ, Gem. It’s bad enough having to pin your own brother to the floor without you freaking out on me. I need a drink.” He fetched three glasses and poured a generous measure of red wine into each.
“I’m driving, Jason, I can’t drink.” Anthony pushed the glass away.
Jason slid the glass towards his brother. “You’re not driving in your state of mind. Someone will take you home.”
“God, home. Gillian. Shit, I’ve behaved abominably to her.” Anthony covered his face with his hands.
“Ring her. Say you’re sorry. There’s a landline in the sitting room.”
Anthony left the room while Jason gulped his wine.
“Are you two all right now?” I asked.
Jason refilled his glass. “Hopefully. However, he still hasn’t decided, has he? At least he doesn’t think I’m out to destroy him. You were scared, why?” He laid his hand over mine, giving it a squeeze.
I shrugged. “I didn’t see that silly comb. I saw something else and then it got hazy. Sorry. Didn’t mean to, you know, add to your stresses.”
“Babe, you certainly pick your moments. You really thought we were going to hurt each other?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I didn’t know if you were both in control of your faculties when you walked into the kitchen.”
“Gemma. When have I been out of control of my faculties around you?” His eyes glinted in the kitchen lights, and I bent to kiss the back of his hand before caressing my cheek against it.
“Will he take your offer up?” I asked.
He stroked my hair. All our little gestures calmed my frayed nerves. “I think so. I don’t think he will say anything tonight. He has Gillian to deal with, first then we’ll get on with the business of sorting the mess out. It’s his company, and he will have to be in control. I’m not going to make him sign anything over this time. Just give him the best people.”
I leaned forward to him. “I hope he says thank you this time.”
Anthony returned holding two objects: a cane and flogger.
“Er. I found these. What the fuck do you two get up to?” His eyes widened, but not in horror, more an expression of suppressed humour.
“You interrupted us at play,” explained Jason. “We’d finished, thereabouts.”
“You have me apologise to my wife while these are lying next to me?” He shook his head and laid the implements on the table, nudging them with the tips of his fingers.
“How is Gillian?” asked Jason
“Relieved. She accepted my apology, so am I, too—relieved, that is. Her eye isn’t as bad as she thought. A bag of frozen peas helped. The kids have gone to bed, and her mum is ready to stew me alive. But I told Gillian I’m going to accept your offer of help and, all being well, things are going to be sorted. You said you’d arrange a car for me? I’m shattered. I want to hold my wife and tell her I love her.”
“Of course. We both do love our wives, Anthony,” Jason patted his back.
Anthony paused and faced me with a raised eyebrow. “What happen to you, Gemma? To make you so scared of us?”
“I wasn’t scared of you. Fear runs rampant in me, sometimes. Ask Gillian, she knows. Tell her she can tell you what happened to me. I don’t mind.”
Anthony pursed his lips. “Okay, whatever that means. I will ask her. You are all right? Both of you? I haven’t done anything wrong, have I? Other than hit my wife in the face and accuse my brother of betrayal.”
“No. Everything is fine.” Jason moved towards the doorway. “Let me see you out.”
With Anthony on his way home to a reunion with his wife and earful from his mother-in-law, Jason took me to bed, where we made wonderful, gentle, life-affirming love.
As he dimmed the lights, a sudden realisation hit me.
I sprang up in bed and leant over him. “Jason, you had plenty of time to tidy away. Did you deliberately leave the flogger and cane out?”
His expression transformed into a demon smile. “Yes. I knew he would feel bad about hitting Gillian.”
