LAUREN

 

I thought if I crept back upstairs before the sun rose, I would avoid meeting anyone in the hallway. I was wrong. Morgan sat on the floor, a fresh cup of coffee in her hand, another sitting on the ground beside her.

She lifted the spare cup and held it out to me. “You okay?”

I walked over and sat beside her, taking the steaming cup and inhaling the bitter-sweet scent. “Yeah,” I said, taking a sip.

“You want to talk about it?”

The familiar tightness in the back of my throat returned and I shook my head.

Morgan reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “So…” she said, letting the word hang between us.

“So…” I mimicked.

Morgan’s eyebrow twitched and one side of her mouth curved. “Gabe, huh?”

I smiled and took another mouthful of coffee.

“You’re not going to say anything?” Morgan’s eyebrow still twitched oddly. 

I shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

“I want details,” she said. “I want the dirty, scandalous details. I’m so jealous of you right now. That boy is insanely gorgeous. The things I have imagined doing to him.” She shook her head, a slow smile creeping over her face as she lifted her cup.

“That’s my man you’re talking about.”

She sighed. “I know. But I didn’t know that before, you know, when I was doing the imagining. We married women need our imaginations sometimes to get us through another boring ordeal when our husbands do the same thing over and over.”

“I’m sure Alistair would love hearing that.”

“Alistair can go take a flying leap.”

I lifted my eyebrows and looked down at the cup in my hands.

“Do you know he wanted to have sex last night? Last night,” she repeated as though the idea were scandalous. “We’re at my parents’ house. Who wants to have sex when their parents are only a few rooms away?”

I lowered my head further and took a noisy slurp of coffee.

“Oh my goodness. That’s why you snuck up from the basement, isn’t it? You were down there screwing his brains out.” Morgan groaned and rested her head against the wall. “Why do you get to have all the fun?”

“I believe you literally just finished saying that Alistair wanted the same last night.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“Because Alistair is Alistair and Gabe is Gabe.” She snapped her head back and looked at me. “Details now.”

Since Morgan and I were six years apart, we had never really been ones to discuss our partners. Sure, Morgan had talked about Alistair over the years, and I had talked about Derek, but our conversations had never ventured into the bedroom.

“Don’t be a holdout,” she complained when I remained silent. “I need to live through you. I need excitement in my life, and right now, you’re it. Well, your boy-toy is it.”

“Don’t call him that.”

She snorted. “That’s what he is, isn’t he? You’re not serious about him.”

“I introduced him to the family, didn’t I?”

Morgan fell silent and we sat side by side, sipping on our coffees. Out the window, the sun rose above the neighbour’s house causing a patch of light to move across the carpet.

“So you met at work?” she asked finally.

I nodded.

“Who made the first move?”

I let a smile creep over my face. “Oh, he made all the moves,” I said, teasingly.

“And?” she prompted.

“Okay, fine,” I said, admitting defeat and resigning myself to the fact that she was not going to give up. “We met at work. Gabe pursued me until he won. I was hesitant at first because of the age gap, but I’ve realised I just need to get over that.”

“You were together when we all came down for your birthday? That was why he was there, wasn’t it?”

I nodded and watched the patch of light spread a little further across the carpet. “This is the first time we’ve been together in public, so to speak. I guess I was a little worried about what people would think.”

“Who cares what people think,” Morgan said. “You’ve got a smoking hot man in your bed and he seems to adore you. What woman wouldn’t want that? Is he as good as I imagine he would be?”

“I’m really not comfortable with you imagining how my boyfriend is in bed.”

“Well tell me so I don’t have to imagine then,” she exclaimed. “Is his—” She cleared her throat and wiggled her brows suggestively. “Is it big? I bet it’s big. I bet it’s glorious.” She shuddered and I moved away a fraction. “Oh, come on. You’ve got to give me something, anything? I’m a bored woman here. I need this.”

“Need what?” Madison’s door opened and my niece stood in the doorway dressed in short pyjamas which barely covered the cheeks of her butt. I remembered the day she was born. The screams of my sister giving birth haunted me for months. My mother insisted I be in the birthing room with them. I think that may have been part of the reason I was scared when I first fell pregnant.

“Hey you,” I said, smiling up at her, pleased for the distraction.

“Hey Aunty L.” Madison sat beside me, legs crossed, and reached over to take the cup from her mother’s hand. “I’m so sorry about yesterday. I had no idea you can’t have children anymore. It sucks. You would have been a great mother.” She took a sip of the coffee and handed the cup back to her mother, shuddering at the bitter taste. “Have you ever heard of sugar?” she said to Morgan.

Once again the tightness at the back of my throat loomed and I gently squeezed. “Yep,” I agreed, trying not to let the emotion overtake my voice. “It sucks.”

The door to my parents’ bedroom opened and Mother walked out, fully dressed and ready for the day. “Morning,” she said, reaching out to pat Madison’s head. She strode past Morgan and me with barely a nod.

“I think we’re in trouble,” Morgan said once she had entered the kitchen.

“Why would you be in trouble?” I asked.

“Because I never told her what happened to you. I never told her the real reason Derek left. She feels betrayed.”

“She told you that?”

Morgan just winced and shrugged.

Another door creaked open and Morgan’s eyebrow started twitching again.

“Gabe,” I said, getting to my feet and planting a kiss on his lips. “Morning.” He looked his usual glorious self with his hair tied back into a messy ponytail, jeans and a t-shirt which clung sexily to his chest.

Gabe wrapped me in his arms, lifting me a little as he squeezed tightly. “You okay?” he whispered into my hair.

I pulled away and smiled. “Absolutely,” I said, though the word came out a little torn.

His eyes flicked over to where Morgan and Madison had risen from the ground and were both eyeing him hungrily. “Are you sure?”

I clasped his hand and started walking towards the kitchen where I knew Mother would be cooking up her usual staple for breakfast. Pancakes were only a Christmas morning thing.

“I’m sure,” I said.

Madison moved to follow but Morgan held her back. “Put some pants on,” she told her daughter.

Madison looked down at her legs. “I have pants on.”

“Well, go put some on that will cover your arse cheeks then.”

To say breakfast was awkward would be an understatement. Gabe’s eyes just about popped out of his head when Mother sat a bowl of porridge down before him, but he smiled politely, thanked her and proceeded to spoon the glue into his mouth. Dad kept his nose buried in the paper. Mother looked anywhere but at Gabe or me. Madison never made an appearance and Morgan and Alistair talked more than I had ever heard before.

After breakfast we headed into town to catch the Boxing Day sales, leaving Mother and Dad behind. We wandered aimlessly, bumping into the hundreds of shoppers that I didn’t even know existed in the small town. Morgan smirked every time I caught her eye, and her gaze slipped over Gabe’s body every chance she got. When we decided to stop for a coffee, Alistair, Gabe and Madison walked into the sports store while Morgan and I sorted the drinks. After ordering, we took a seat at one of the tables. Morgan’s eyes followed Gabe into the store.

“Would you please stop looking at him like that?” I asked, frustrated.

“Like what?” she said, attempting to smile innocently. It came off as anything but.

“Like you want to eat him.”

“A girl can dream.” She sighed.

“Not about my boyfriend she can’t.”

Morgan shimmied her shoulders. “So protective. I love it.” The waitress brought over our coffees and sat them on the table. “I’m just so bored,” she said. “Everything about Alistair is bland, bland, bland. I want some excitement. I want what you’ve got.”

“I thought things were better now that he had sold that app. You’ve got a new car, a new wardrobe.” I nodded to her stylish clothing. “And you’ve put an offer in on a new house.”

“That’s only money.”

“Money is what you used to complain about.”

“Well, we’re currently getting sued so that might put a stop to all that.”

I took a sip of coffee, holding the cup up to my mouth a little longer than necessary as if it could somehow shield me from the anger I knew my next comment would evoke. “Maybe if you stopped telling him he was useless all the time, things might improve between you.”

Morgan’s eyes snapped to mine. “And what would you know about marriage? You’ve haven’t actually managed to get anyone to marry you yet.”

I was surprised at the vehemence in her tone. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “You just don’t seem to be very nice to him. It’s got to be hard on the guy.”

“Says the thirty-year-old woman dating a teenager.”

“Wow,” I said. “Great Clementine impression.”

Morgan narrowed her eyes but didn’t reply as the others joined the table.

Gabe’s hand rested on my thigh as he reached for his coffee. He took a sip and slammed the cup on the table. “Argh,” he said, lifting the cup again and examining the contents. “What is this?”

“Coffee,” Morgan replied harshly.

Gabe looked at me with a questioning expression on his face, his thumb rubbing circles on my leg.

“Morgan forgot to take her happy pill this morning,” I explained.

Gabe gave a half-hearted laugh and then reached into his pocket when his phone rang. He looked at the screen and then excused himself from the table, telling me he’d be back in a minute.

The four of us sipped on coffee and Madison played on her phone until he returned.

“That was my father,” he said, sitting back down. “Jake’s coming home.”

“Who’s Jake?” I asked, noting the wide grin that had spread across Gabe’s face.

He looked at me, his expression showing confusion, then said, “I forgot I hadn’t told you much about them. Jake’s the youngest of my half-brothers. He joined the army and was sent overseas nearly six years ago. He’s only been home once since, for Clark’s funeral.” A brief wave of sadness crossed Gabe’s features. “But he’s coming home tomorrow. My other brother, Tyler, is picking him up from the airport tonight and they are driving to the family holiday home tomorrow. Dad wants me there to see him.” Gabe directed his attention to me. “Now that I’ve met your family, will you meet mine?”

“Well,” I said placing my coffee cup on the table, suddenly feeling a little flustered. Introducing Gabe to my family was one thing. Being introduced to his was another. “After the delightful encounter you’ve had with my family, how could I say no?”

Gabe laughed. “It hasn’t been all that bad.”

“Oh, really? Remind me of the good parts?”

Reaching across the table, Gabe took my hand in his, brushing his lips across my knuckles. “Well, I did have a rather nice wake-up call this morning.”

Madison’s eyebrows shot skywards and Alistair cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should head home. You guys will want to get on the road if you’re to be there to meet your brother tomorrow.”