Oh my God. I couldn’t speak, and I couldn’t move. My feet were rooted to the spot. We were on a normal street in the North East of England, but looking around we could easily have been on a beach in Miami, or somewhere equally as exotic. I felt like a tourist who had wandered onto the set of a music video for one of those dance tracks that’s always playing on the rides at the fair.
In the corner there was a barbeque on the go, and blasting from the stereo playing from the open dining room window David Guetta and Akon were singing about a sexy chick, which had an irony all of its own. I felt like a fish trying to learn to live on dry land. Scrap fish – whale – and I was never going to make it there. In short, I was way out of my depth. More than I had ever thought possible.
It was a beautiful summer’s day and the sun was blazing. I had only recently become accustomed to seeing Micah shirtless and being able to function around him like that without tripping over my own tongue.
And there I was in the Machvaya back garden, and there were six of them, just idly wandering about, all shirtless, all wearing shorts and nothing else. Bare feet, tattoos, muscles and tanned skin were everywhere I looked, and my legs just went to jelly beneath me.
It was like the set of a very expensive, and frankly very good porn film, like the stuff of dreams. Luca and Kris were wrestling on the grass, and though it looked aggressive, I reckoned they were just messing about. Marco lay face down on a sun lounger, a straw hat perched on his head, snoring surprisingly loudly. How he was sleeping, I didn’t know. Eli – I guessed it must be Eli – was bouncing on the trampoline like a kid – if kids had rock hard pecs, that is – and Nic and Micah were at the barbeque.
Micah turned at my arrival and smiled a dazzling smile, beckoning me to go to him, but I still couldn’t move. Was I meant to sit there all afternoon, drinking beer and eating burgers and be able to think straight? That was never gonna happen, I was completely flummoxed beyond belief, this was madness.
I so totally did not belong there amongst the beautiful people. And yet there was nowhere else in the world I wanted be.
“Jewls…” Micah said, coming to me, enveloping me in his big arms and kissing me passionately. I was acutely aware of all the eyes on me, and a little embarrassed at Micah’s very public, very passionate display in front of them. He pulled away, rubbing his nose on mine. “You made it.”
“Happy birthday, gorgeous.” I said with a smile.
“Thank you baby,” he said, kissing my nose. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
He took my hand and led me over to the trampoline. The man I had already gathered was Eli jumped down and came to us, smiling and squinting in the sunlight.
“Jewls this is my brother, Eli. Eli, this is Jewls, my girlfriend.”
Eli extended his hand to me, and smiled a stunning megawatt smile. “Jewls, pleasure.” And then he took my hand and kissed the back of it like Nic had.
“Nice to meet you,” I heard myself say.
“Yeah, sorry it’s been so long coming.”
Eli was different in some way to the others, although I couldn’t put my finger on how. He just seemed more…weathered somehow, a little rougher round the edges. That’s not to say he wasn’t absolutely gorgeous, just like the others. He was, he really was.
He had those familiar deep brown eyes, dark hair, ridiculously toned chest. His hair was longer, which for some reason I hadn’t expected, I don’t know why, long enough to be tied back in a ponytail and he had a beard longer than Micah’s, rough and a little untidy. He had a charm all of his own, not quite so perfectly groomed but still a knockout of a man. It was really hard to talk to him and keep my focus on his face with his huge chest at eye height to me. He had a scar on his cheek that kept catching my attention and I couldn’t help but wonder how he got it.
“That’s okay…” I said.
“My wife and sprogs will be along soon, so you can meet them then. Nice to see you, Jewls. Micah, get your girl a drink and a seat.”
“Jewls!” a familiar voice shouted from behind me and I turned just in time to catch Mari as she leapt into my arms for a familiar, predictable over the top hug. “Thank God you’re here; I’m surrounded by sweaty boys! How are you?”
“I’m good,” I said, as she finally released me.
Mari’s scream had roused Marco from his sleep and he crawled to his feet, grinning when he saw me. “Jewls! It’s me, Micah. Why are you all over Marco?”
I narrowed my eyes playfully at him, shaking my head. “There is not a chance I would ever mistake you for Micah…again.”
He smirked at that. “Really? And how can you tell us apart.”
I shrugged. “Because my man has hair on his chest. And as I understand it…you uh…shave yours?”
All the boys laughed at that and Marco grinned. “I’m saying nothing. You’re cruel to me, Jewls.” He looked at the bag I was carrying. “Ooh, presents? You know it’s my birthday too, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Is it? Damn, sorry I forgot about you. Ah well…you’ll have to have this.”
Grinning, I handed him his present. He tore through the wrapping and held up the tee shirt, so it was facing everyone else, and they all burst out laughing, seeing it before he did.
Micah shook his head. “Ah, that’s perfect!”
Marco frowned and turned it round to look at it. His face broke into a smile and I let out a small sigh of relief that they were all taking it as the joke it was intended to be.
It was a black tee shirt, and on the front written in white it said Evil Twin.
Micah laughed. “That’s awesome, Jewls. Try it on, bro.”
Marco did just that, holding both arms out as if to say ta da! “Thank you, Jewls. It’s very…me. Love a girl with a sense of humour.” He winked at Micah. “This one’s a keeper, bro.”
Micah looked at me, his expression serious and filled with love. “I know she is.” he kissed me again. “Love you, babe.”
I beamed as I nodded. “Love ya too. You want yours now? Or later?”
I think he knew me well enough to sense that I’d had the attention on me for longer than I was comfortable with, and he winked. “Later, babe. You want a drink?”
I nodded eagerly. “Oh, please.”
“I’m on it,” Mari said, grabbing my hand and dragging me into the house.
Micah watched us go, smiling at Mari’s typical excitement. I missed him the minute my hand left his.
The kitchen was every bit as beautiful as I had imagined it to be – huge, and all black with chrome fittings. Mari opened the American style fridge, showing me the contents.
“Okay…we have beer, cider, vodka, white wine, red wine, rose wine, gin, coke, lemonade, milk, water…basically you name it, it’s in here no doubt. What can I get you?”
“I’ll just have a coke for now…” I said and when she narrowed her eyes I added, “Me and alcohol…not good when I’m nervous.”
“Why are you nervous?” she asked, obviously puzzled, “You shouldn’t worry about that lot. You’ve met them before, right?”
“All but Eli…”
“Ah…Eli’s a sweetheart. Of all my brothers he’s the one we’re all most proud of. He’s come a long way over the years. And he helped Nic raise me ya know so he’s more than a brother to me. He’s…a role model. If I told him that he would laugh, because he’s the rebel of the family but…yeah, he’s a good guy. And Lisa, my sis in law? She’s awesome, you’ll love her. She’s been in his life longer than I have. And my niece and nephew? Gorgeous.” She handed me a glass of coke and winked. “You ready to go back out there?”
I nodded nervously. “Yeah. Point me to the party.”
“Oh wait! Here she is now. Lisa, hey, glad you’re here at last. Come and meet Jewls, Micah’s lovely girlfriend.” A slim, extremely pretty blonde walked into the kitchen followed by what seemed like two mini tornadoes. Both shouting for ‘Uncle Nic.’ A little boy about three years old I’d guess, with dark hair and big
brown eyes flashed a huge grin as he ran by…..a mini Machvaya alright. And a beautiful little girl, maybe five years old, ran along in his wake, all tumbling blonde curls and the same brown eyes as her brother.
“Pleased to meet you too. Such beautiful children. Micah’s told me all about them, he adores them.”
“They adore him too, all the brothers in fact. But no one gets a look in when Nic’s around as you can see.” The kids raced down the garden towards Nic and leapt on him. He caught them, George first, and tossing him high in the air. Then Ruby, nuzzling into her neck making her giggle.
“There’s only Nic who can control them,” Lisa laughed, “They have their daddy wrapped round their little fingers.”
Smiling, Mari took my hand and led me back in the garden along with Lisa.
Micah was lying on a sun lounger on the grass and he sat up and patted the space between his legs when he saw me. I sat down and he immediately wrapped his arms around me, pulling my back up flush with his front, planting a kiss on the top of my head before settling his cheek against mine. I let him hold me – it was after all, my favourite place in the world and just watched his family from behind the relative privacy of my sunglasses.
There was something I’d noticed as I watched; all the brothers had the same anchor tattoo, in exactly the same place as Micah, on their hip. I was naturally curious.
“Micah…?” I said, quietly.
“Mmm…?
“What’s with the anchor tattoos? I noticed you all have them.”
I felt his smile against my cheek. “When we were small, and Nic was fighting and working to keep us all together, he had the tattoo as a sign that the family would stay together no matter what and he would be the anchor. It’s sort of symbolic. As we’ve all reached eighteen, we had it too, as a sign of our solidarity.” He lowered his voice even more. “Don’t tell anyone, but even Mari has one, only hers is on her bum, out of sight. None of the others know about it, Nic would have a fit. I went with her when she had it done.”
I giggled at that, and then sighed. “What an amazing family you have yeah.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, and kissed me again.
Chapter Seventeen
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Micah
I knew she was nervous about coming to my house and being with my family, but bless her when she showed up she looked terrified. Still, I knew I could rely on them to make her feel welcome and sure enough that’s exactly what they did. Her first time meeting Eli went smoothly and I was relieved. I loved my big brother, but he could be quite short with people if he was in the wrong sort of mood. Fortunately he had showed up quite relaxed and in a good mood and his manners shone through. And Lisa, his wife, always seemed to have a calming effect of him, she always had, which had been a good thing on occasions in the past.
Jewls spent most of her time sat in my arms – mostly because I was reluctant to let her go – or with Mari and Lisa sat in the corner obviously discussing me, or at least, that was how it seemed to me. As birthday parties went, it was pretty awesome. The most important people in the world around me, loud music, sunshine, beer and enough food to feed an army. What more could I ask for?
As time went on Jewls relaxed more and by late afternoon she was totally chilled and more like the Jewls I knew when we were alone together. I was so bloody proud of her and more than that, happy for her. Because I knew she had probably thought she couldn’t do this, or she would make a fool of herself or some such silliness and she had shown the complete opposite. She had shown that she fitted with me, and with my family.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
I have to admit, that although I had started out borderline terrified, as the day wore on I really, really enjoyed myself. The Machvaya clan went out of their way to make me feel welcome and that’s exactly how I felt. I wanted the day to last forever.
The rain came at tea time, and we all ran inside, laughing hysterically before congregating in the kitchen. Micah pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead.
“Come out with me tonight, babe.”
I looked up at him and frowned. “Huh?”
“Let’s go out. Few drinks, bit of a dance…let’s get dressed up and have a night out, we’ve never done that. What do you say?”
No way, no how. That was what I wanted to say. I was just about as antisocial as a girl could get. This was one of those moments where the gap between Micah’s world and mine really showed. The difference between an introvert and an extrovert. I wanted to worship this man in private, to express my love on the sofa with a movie and munchies…he wanted the whole world to see it.
But…it was his birthday and I could see by the way his eyes lit up at the idea that he really wanted to do this, so I heard myself say,
“Okay…”
“Yeah?” he said, surprised. “You will?”
“Sure, why not.” I said. I probably sounded breezy and casual, I felt anything but.
He nodded happily and then Nic called him over to help him go out and grab the barbeque stuff from the now soaking wet back patio. I tried to catch Mari’s eye, but she was busy laughing and messing on with Lisa and the kids so I took my phone from my pocket and sent her a quick text.
SOS!! Micah wants to go out for drinks tonight!! What the hell am I gonna do, all I own are joggers and leggings! Help! Xx J xx
I watched as she took her phone from her pocket, looked at the text and nodded to herself. I watched her typing away and then I got back,
Don’t panic. Go home, shower etc…I will be along in an hour. I got this, it will be fine.
I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that but it wasn’t like I had many options. Micah and Nic had come back inside and Micah took my hand in his, kissing my fingers. “Babe, Eli is gonna give you a lift home, okay? He’s the only one hasn’t had a drink. Lisa and the kids are gonna stop here for a bit. I’ll come pick you up in…say a couple of hours? About seven. If it’s still raining I’ll get us a taxi from there, okay?”
I smiled for him and nodded. “Okay, babe.”
I said my goodbyes and headed outside with Micah and Eli. A car I gathered was Eli’s – a flash BMW – sat behind Nic’s Mercedes. Micah kissed me furiously and helped me into the car, stepping back onto the path to watch me leave. Eli climbed in the driver’s seat, fastened his seatbelt and started the engine, quickly pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, his driving so fast and sharp my heart leapt up into my mouth briefly. Micah waved and we were away, racing down the street.
Being in the car with Eli was beyond awkward. He was definitely the odd one out of the brothers, more introverted than the rest of them, with a real edge. I didn’t quite know how to take him, if I were honest, he made me nervous. Because I could sense a sort of…rage beneath the calm exterior he showed, like he was a ticking bomb waiting to go off and I was all too familiar with that, with Andrew. It felt like if you just said one thing he didn’t like he had the potential to explode. It was impossible to know whether he truly liked me or not.
By comparison he seemed perfectly comfortable with the silence between us; I gathered he was a man of few words.
We stopped at some road works, the light on red and he tapped the steering wheel a few times before reaching over me with an “excuse me” and searching with one hand in the glove box, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He pulled one out with his teeth and lit it with a lighter from the centre console, winding his window down as he took his first drag. He offered the pack to me.
“You smoke, Jewls?”
“Um…no thank you.”
He nodded absently. “Yeah, don’t blame you, filthy habit.”
Still the lights hadn’t changed and he tapped the steering wheel some more impatiently with the tips of his fingers. The action pulled my attention to his arms. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and that was when I first noticed them – the scars. He had scars from old cuts all the way up both arms, inner and outer and
more concentrated around his wrists. I looked away quickly before he noticed I’d seen them.
“So you survived your first time at Casa Machvaya, huh?” he said out of nowhere, and with a warm smile.
“Yeah…” I said, trying my best to sound casual.
“They’re a good bunch. You’re safe with us.”
I wasn’t sure how to take that. I wondered if they all knew about Andrew, and if that was his way of trying to relax me. If it was, it sort of worked. Because I felt safe when I was around this family, they were an impenetrable force field of loyalty and strength.
“Yeah…” I said again, feeling like a complete inarticulate idiot.
He nodded, more to himself than to me. He flicked the stereo on, and the car was filled with very loud old school trance music, the beat thumping through the speakers in the doors and he wound the windows down, drawing the attention of every passer-by in the vicinity. The lights mercifully changed and he immediately put his foot down again, speeding off down the long stretch of road. At one point I glanced at the speedometer and saw we were doing close to seventy. I fleetingly wondered if he drove at this speed with his kids in the car.
I had watched them at the party, Eli with Lisa, and with the kids. He was every inch the doting husband and father, affectionate and friendly but I wondered what he must be like to live with twenty four-seven, or when he was in a bad mood. The thought made me glad that Micah was as laid back and chilled as he was. But then Micah’s childhood had been different to Eli’s I supposed. Eli had been thrust into surrogate parenthood at, working it out quickly in my head, a crucial time in his teenage years. That had to suck, and would explain a lot.
As we turned on to my street, I had to practically shout “this is me” to be heard over the thumping music. He didn’t slow down any and then practically slammed the brakes on as we pulled up next to the chippy, bumping up onto the curb. He didn’t even turn the music down as I undid my seatbelt and all but mouthed the words, “thank you.” He simply saluted me with a wry smile, waited for me to get out and then sped off, leaving me a shaking wreck on the pavement. It was almost a full minute before I could get my jelly legs to move me to my front door.
Gypsy Kiss: Book 1: Micah (The Gypsy Kiss Series) Page 25