by Unknown
I opened the door and smiled tentatively, wanting to pull the towel from my hair and hide my face in it.
“Morning sunshine,” she greeted with a wide grin. Her eyes dropped to my shirt and she raised an eyebrow, “Oscar the Grouch?”
I blushed. “He’s my favourite,” I whispered.
Fredi snickered, “No wonder you like Stone.”
“Stone’s not grouchy,” I said with a frown. Silent, gruff and mean maybe, but not grouchy.
She snorted. “Maybe not around you,” she said, her face splitting into a wide grin, “He certainly didn’t sound grouchy last night.”
I flushed bright red and fisted my hands to quell the urge to hide. Fredi laughed loudly and winked at me with a kind, but teasing smile. “Get out of my way so I can use the bathroom Evie,” she said with a mock scowl and I hurriedly stepped out of the way. She paused in the process of closing the door and smiled again. “Go and tell Stone what you want for lunch. The boys are going out to get us some.”
I nodded and unwrapped the towel from around my head, hurrying towards the front door to catch them before they left.
***
Alec and Donny were just rising from their chairs when I stepped out onto the porch. Simultaneously, they grinned. Stone was sitting with his back to me, but he turned his head slowly to look at me. I blushed under their gaze and ran a hand through my damp hair.
“Morning,” I whispered, even though it must have been nearing noon.
“Morning,” Donny greeted with a cheeky smirk.
Stone nodded slightly at me, his lip quirking at one side in a very small smile as his eyes darkened and swept over me.
Alec rolled his eyes at Donny and moved to give me a hug. “We’re going to buy lunch,” he informed me, “What do you want?”
Donny opened his mouth to say something, but Stone kicked him and glared. Donny shut his mouth, yet his eyes sparkled naughtily. I told the boys what I wanted and Stone stood as Fredi emerged from the hut. He moved closer to me, his hand coming to rest on my hip as he bent his head close to mine. Little ripples of pleasure shimmed down my body, my skin tingling beneath his hand and my nipples tightening as memories of the night before assaulted me.
“Back soon,” he murmured near my ear, his hot breath tickling the damp hairs at my nape. He brushed his lips against my temple in a whisper of a kiss, before he straightened and pushed Donny forward, towards the front steps.
“Don’t forget my calamari rings Donovan!” Fredi called after them as she sat down at the table and pulled out a chair for me.
Donny turned back to shout something, but Alec grabbed his elbow and tugged him onward.
***
I sat down a little nervously beside Fredi, unused to spending time with her alone. I was a little uncomfortable around her. She grinned at me and set her heavy, black boots on the table, leaning back in her chair and absently toying with the frayed ends of her very small denim shorts. I crossed my legs on the chair and reached up to tie my hair in a wet ponytail, unwittingly drawing Fredi’s eyes to my chest. I paused and shifted a little with discomfort. Fredi frowned.
“I don’t remember buying you that shirt,” she said, reaching for the pack of smokes on the table and pilfering one, “It looks like it fits well. Did you get that when you went with Briar and Candy?”
I relaxed and shook my head, letting my arms drop and smiling cheerfully. “Remember when Harvey called and yelled at me?” I asked her, leaning back in my own chair and carefully sliding my bare feet up next to hers. Her eyes narrowed and she paused, her lit zippo stopping just a little before her cigarette. She flicked the lid shut, dousing the flame as she snatched the fag from her mouth and slid it behind one ear.
“I remember,” she said shortly, “What about him?”
“Well,” I continued a little slower, unnerved by her change in mood, “He sent me an apology text a couple of days later, but he still felt bad about it, so he decided to get me a present.”
Fredi scoffed, “The dickhead thought he could buy you off?”
I frowned at her. “I’d already forgiven him,” I told her, “Harv’s a bit of a hot head, but he’s really sensitive underneath. He was really upset that he’d made me cry…not that he’d ever admit that.”
It was Fredi’s turn to frown. “So he bought you a T-shirt?” she asked in disbelief, her face showing her disgust, “What happened to flowers and chocolates and expensive jewellery?”
I burst out laughing. I clutched at the pain in my stomach and gasped for breath. I couldn’t imagine my big brother buying flowers or chocolate for any girl, let alone his baby sister.
“What’s so funny?” Fredi demanded.
I drew a deep breath and wiped at my eyes. “Harvey is hopeless at gifts. He’d never buy anyone flowers and I don’t think he’s ever even entered a jewellery store. He gets Vicky to buy all his gifts for him.”
“Vicky?” Fredi questioned, looking confused.
I nodded. “Yeah, Harvey rang her and told her to send me something.” I rolled my eyes. “Which was pretty ridiculous, because Vic was on a training exercise in America and he could have just asked Charlie, who was right there looking after him.”
“I’m lost,” Fredi said, lighting up her cigarette.
I frowned at her. “Well they are kind of hard to keep straight, but I thought Briar would have drawn up some sort of diagram and drilled you all on it.”
“What?”
An idea occurred to me. “Briar and Donny did fill you all in on my family, didn’t they?” I asked her in bewilderment.
“What do you mean?” Fredi sat up, her feet falling to the floor with a loud thud.
“Harvey is my older brother,” I said slowly, “Vicky and Charlie are my older sisters.”
“What!?” Fredi exclaimed, her cigarette falling from her mouth, but she paid it no attention, “How many siblings do you have?”
“Eleven,” I said with a sigh, “There’s Zane - he’s in some special force section of the military. Then there are the Air Force triplets: Vicky, Evan and Harvey…”
I smiled at her and added, “You met Logan, of course. He’s next.”
Her jaw dropped and I hurried on.
“Then there are the twins: Cooper and Charlotte…”
Her eyes bulged, and then lit with amusement.
“Cooper’s a mechanic and Charlie’s a nurse.”
“After the twins, comes Paul – he’s nearly finished his Education degree and still lives here in Darwin…He was the one I was trying to avoid last night.”
“I’m next…and then there are the younger triplets, who are still at school: Jake, Mike and Luke.”
“Wow…” Fredi muttered, letting out a long breath, “Fuck me.”
“No thanks,” I whispered with a small smile. She huffed a laugh and playfully hit me.
Her smile faded and she lit another cigarette with a frown. “Does Stone know about this?” she asked seriously.
I thought for a moment, before slowly shaking my head. “I don’t think so. If Briar and Donny haven’t mentioned it, he couldn’t know. He’s never asked me about family…we don’t really talk much.”
Fredi snickered at that and I blushed.
“I mentioned Vicky – well, that I had an older sister…and he met Jake,” I said with a frown, “But that’s it I think.”
Fredi gazed up at the roof over the porch. She blew a few smoke rings and sighed.
“The game is over,” she said cryptically, “You don’t need it now that he’s made his move.”
What the hell?
“I don’t understand,” I admitted, leaning forward, “What game?”
Fredi brushed it off, her expression deadly serious. “You need to tell Stone about your family,” she told me flatly, looking a little worried.
“They’re not a secret!” I said in frustration, feeling confused and left out of the loop, “They never have been!”
“Just tell him,” Fredi said shortly,
stubbing out her cigarette with a finality that ended the conversation, just as Stone’s car pulled up and the boys brought us our lunch.
***
Nothing out of the ordinary happened at lunch and I sat there quietly, pondering my discussion with Fredi. She seemed to think it was important that Stone knew about my family. Well, normally I would have said the same about a boyfriend…but Stone and I weren’t dating officially and he’d given me no indication that he wanted to know more about me. Hell, I wasn’t the most talkative person either. I was hardly just going to strike up a conversation about my large, crazy family out of nowhere.
My phone rang in my standard family ringtone and (as usual) everyone’s eyes landed on me. I fished my mobile out of my pocket and glanced at the screen, withholding a groan when I saw the name. Jake wasn’t wasting time on chasing me up.
“Sorry guys,” I murmured, “It’s my brother.” Alec and Donny chuckled as I hurried inside and accepted the call.
“Hi Jake,” I said softly, getting comfortable on the bed.
“I told you that you owe me right?” he greeted with a grumble.
“Yeah, you did,” I agreed.
“Paul’s been on my back all morning. He’s probably going to try and call you soon. Josh managed to take a picture of you last night and sent it to him.”
I winced.
“Thanks for the heads up.”
“Who the hell was this guy Jake saw you with?” Mike demanded and I realised I was on speaker phone.
“Just a friend,” I hedged, “How many people did you tell Jake?”
“Friend my ass!” Jake snapped, “And I only told Mike and Luke…oh and Cooper.”
“Jake!” I protested.
“If he’s nothing, why does it matter?” Luke cut in.
“Because you’re making it more,” I groaned quietly.
“I tried to ask Logan about it,” Jake added, “But he didn’t text back.”
“Logan’s met him,” I informed them, “Besides, Logan doesn’t think I need babying like the rest of you.”
“Because Logan’s an irresponsible idiot!” Mike snapped, “You’re small and fragile Evie, and not just physically either!”
“I am not!” I whispered fiercely.
“Evie,” Jake said quietly, his voice deadly serious, “We sat back last time and trusted your judgement with Ben. We didn’t tell any of the others and we helped you sneak out to meet him. Even after the asshole hurt you we only ever told Cooper about it. We’re not making that mistake again.”
I sat still and all I could hear was the boys’ breathing. What Jake was really telling me was that he had convinced Mike and Luke to go along with it. And, as such, he was feeling the worst.
“So,” Mike growled, “Spill or we’re coming to get you.”
“Okay,” I sighed, squeezing my eyes tightly closed. I checked to make sure the front door was still closed and kept my voice low. “His name is Grant Stone. He’s nineteen and in his second year of studying music at the university I’m at. He’s from Sydney and he plays the drums in this band I’ve made friends with.”
“And…” Mike prompted.
“And…” I paused, grimacing as I tried to come up with a description of our relationship that wouldn’t anger my younger brothers. “He’s quite tall and muscled…” I hedged.
Jake snorted at the understatement.
“And…” Luke prompted this time, starting to loose his patience too.
“And, well, we’re sort of seeing each other,” I spat out, and then quickly added, “But it’s nothing serious.”
There was an eerie silence on the other end of the line, before I heard Mike swearing his head off in the background.
“So what you’re saying,” Jake started carefully, his voice tense, “Is that you and that… huge… man… are just casually fucking?!”
I winced again.
“Well…it’s complicated. We’ve not really talked about a relationship…but we’ve been moving very slowly…I mean he’s been sleeping in my room for nearly two months and last night was the first time we actually-”
“Stop!” Luke interjected, “We don’t want to know!”
“So you’re not hiding this from your friends or anything?” Jake asked with a resigned sigh, “Not like last time…”
“No,” I said firmly, “It’s very out in the open. It’s just not serious enough to meet the family and I’d rather not have you all breathing down my neck!”
Luke laughed, “Jeez sis. Looks like you’ve grown some balls while you’ve been away.”
“Ew Lucas,” I said with a smile.
“Fine,” he said with another laugh, “You’ve found your spine.”
“Maybe a little,” I said doubtfully.
“I want to meet this guy,” Mike snapped, finally coming back into the conversation.
“No,” I said firmly.
“Evelyn,” he growled, but my phone beeped to signal another call.
“Gotta go,” I said quickly, cutting off Mike’s rant and answering the call from Coop.
“Hi,” I groaned, suddenly feeling very tired.
“What’s going on Evie?” Cooper asked me worriedly, “Both Jake and Paul have called me at work today.”
“Sorry,” I sighed, “I’m in Darwin for break week with some friends.”
“I heard,” he said with a touch of amusement, “Paul was going crazy over his friends seeing you at the pub in slutty clothes.”
“They weren’t that bad,” I grumbled.
“I think the skirt could have been a bit longer,” he said with a cough, telling me that Paul had forwarded him a picture. “But what’s this Jake was saying about some big, scary guy? Logan wouldn’t answer my calls, but he answered my text. He said the guy seemed alright to him.”
“He’s…nice,” I said, screwing my face up at how poorly that word described Stone, “At least he is to me. He’s patient and…respectful.”
“But who is he?” Cooper asked me, sounding a little put out, “You haven’t said anything to me about him.”
“Oh…well, he’s not my boyfriend…not officially,” I said quickly, wanting to get this over with, “His name is Stone and he goes to university with me. It’s not a secret or anything and we’re just taking things slow. He’s in some of the pictures I sent you. The drummer.”
“The drummer?” Cooper asked in surprise.
“What’s going on?” I heard his girlfriend asking in the background, “Is Evie dating the big, sexy drummer?”
“Shhh,” I heard Cooper tell her gently, “Wait a minute.”
“Look Cooper,” I whispered as the front door started to open, “I’ll email you when I get back. I’ve got to go.”
“Fine,” he sighed, “Have fun and be safe.”
“I will. Bye!”
I hung up quickly as Stone collapsed on the bed beside me. He grunted as it rocked beneath his weight.
“Hey,” I whispered with a blush, leaning my face over his to give him a tentative smile. My still damp fringe escaped my ponytail and fell to hang between us. He fingered the lengths slowly for a moment, before tucking them behind my ear.
“Thanks for, uh, moving me this morning,” I murmured, my eyes fixed on his tanned neck so as to avoid his probing gaze. He didn’t answer. He wrapped an arm around me and cupped my face with one hand. At his guidance, I lowered myself half on top of him, my lips mere centimetres from his. He kissed me then, slow and shallow and comforting. It was relaxing and completely pressure-free.
It was just him and me, gently pressed together as we settled in for an afternoon nap.
TWENTY-THREE
The annoying blare of my mobile phone disturbed our peace later that evening and I reluctantly rolled over to silence it with a grumble.
“Hello?” I whispered. I’d answered the phone without looking at the name.
“Evie,” was the only word Paulie said, but it was enough for me to gage his mood.
Great.
>
I crawled out of the bed, sheepishly mouthing the word ‘brother’ at Stone as I made my way outside for privacy. Paul still hadn’t said anything else and I knew he was waiting for me to jump in with apologies and explanations. He could wait all night. He wasn’t getting any.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone you were coming home this week?” he asked stiffly.