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“I’m not leaving you,” he said, a hint of determination in those incredible eyes.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
I took his hand and led him in through the laundry to a scene I hadn’t expected.
At all.
My mum was in the kitchen. She was cooking something that smelled great, but on the balcony... was my dad and two brothers boarding up the glass panels.
“Uh, what’s going on?” I asked, surprised. Shocked, if I was being honest.
Mum looked up from the dishes of food and gave us a smile. “We figured you’d been so busy you wouldn’t have had time to take care of your house. I used your spare key.” She walked over, took Jeremiah’s arm, and led him into the kitchen. “Tully, go help your brothers. And behave yourself. There’s a drill and a nail gun involved, and quite frankly, I don’t want to explain any intentional mishaps to the ER doctors.”
Intentional mishaps.
I snorted, still shocked, and seeing Mum enlist Jeremiah into her duty list, I went out onto the balcony.
“Oh, look who it is,” Ellis said. “Blister’s here. Always shows up after the hard work is done.”
“Ellis, hold it straight,” Rowan grumbled.
“I am holding it straight,” Ellis griped.
Rowan drilled the screw in, then stood back to look at the slightly crooked board. He tried to whack Ellis with the drill. “Shoulda went to Specsavers, dickhead.”
“Tully, hold this,” Dad said, lifting another board into place. I held it and Dad fired a nail into it. Thank god he had the nail gun and not the other two.
“Oh look, it’s the only straight thing Tully’s ever done in his life,” Ellis said.
I tried to take the nail gun from Dad but he wouldn’t give it to me. “For Christ’s sake, boys,” Dad said. “Ellis and Rowan, go upstairs and start on the bedroom windows.”
Ellis, who now had the drill, gave it a few whirrs. “Not the only thing getting drilled in there, huh, Tull?”
I wrestled the nail gun off Dad, but by the time I got my hands on it, Ellis had already laughed his dumb arse up the stairs.
I considered going up after him but thought better of it. With a sigh, I gave it back to Dad. “I could make it look like an accident.”
He rolled his eyes. “Get the next board.”
I held the plyboard in place, realising that now Dad and I were alone, it was probably a good time to talk.
“Look,” I started. “About today. I’m sorry I dragged the business into it. I’m sorry for the shitstorm I created. It negatively impacts you and Mum, and everyone, I guess. I just didn’t think. I saw them and I was so freakin’ pissed off, I wanted to strangle them. I didn’t even think about the shirt I was wearing.”
He nailed the board into place. “What’s done is done. I accept your apology, and I do understand. Your mother explained it to me, and I get it. At first I was mad because it was reckless and unprofessional, but she told me what was really going on, and she asked me what I’d do if the media treated her like that, and I get it. Yes, it created a media stir, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. We have a legal team—”
“I’m sorry,” I said. But I was also confused. “Mum explained what to you? What’s really going on?”
Dad fired another nail into the next corner of the board and looked at me. “That you love him. You were protecting someone you love.”
The world tilted a little and blood pounded in my ears.
What?
“Pardon?”
“I mean, we were all kinda shocked with how you behaved with him in front of us. We ain’t ever seen you be like that with anyone, all cute and smiling, touchy-feely and whatever.” His cheeks ran pink. “I guess I just thought it was... fun and exciting, or physical. Or whatever. But you’re living together already, so...”
None of anything he was saying was making sense.
