by Cara E Holt
“So, it wasn’t the money?”
I nearly fall off my chair.
“Daddy!!” Emily scolds, with a horrified look on her face.
I meet his eyes across the table. I would not be intimidated by him.
“His money was one of the reasons I hated him at first. Money means nothing to me. Money can’t buy you happiness or love.”
He observes with shrewd eyes, as he sips on his wine. “Then you are a rare breed. Women see the likes of me and my son as a meal ticket.”
I nod. “I’m sure many do. Money does not impress me.”
Grayson squeezes my leg under the table as if to re-assure me. “So, how’s business Dad?” I can tell he is attempting to change the subject and his Dad seems to have tired of grilling me, so he allows Grayson to pull him into talk about work.
The rest of the meal is strained and awkward. Tess sulks for most of it and gives me daggers at every opportunity. Emily hangs on her father’s every word. Grayson grits his teeth and bares their company. It is official, I do not like Daniel St. Clair or his leech of a girlfriend. Both are poisonous, but in different ways. In truth, they deserved each other.
We arrive back at the St. Clair house at just after eleven. Tess disappears off to somewhere, probably to fill herself with more alcohol and Emily nips into the kitchen for more food.
“We are going to head to the den.” He tells his Dad.
“Ah come now. Let’s make the most of this family night.” He smiles and gestures to the lounge. Grayson pulls a face, but he guides me to a seat and sits down beside me. Just when I thought this torturous evening was over!
Grayson’s phone buzzes and he answers. “Hey Dom.” He gives me an apologetic smile and leaves the room to take the call. This leaves me and his Dad alone in the lounge. His father stands before the fire place observing me, a glass in his hand. He eyes me like meat and I don’t like it. He walks over and comes to sit beside me.
“You know Everly, I’m twice the man my son is.” His hand snakes on to my right leg. “Twice as experienced as well.”
I brush his hand off my leg. “I don’t think that’s appropriate talk Mr St. Clair.”
He chuckles and puts his hand back on my leg. “Oh, come now.” I feel his eyes on my chest. “Aren’t we friends? I like you, you have fire in your belly.” He leans in closer and strokes my cheek. His hand moves further up my thigh and I jump up out of my seat, knocking his drink out of his hand in the process. It is at this point Grayson comes back in the room. He looks at me and he sees me looking all jumpy and then his eyes fall on his Dad who is wiping the wine off his shirt.
“Tell me you didn’t Dad?”
His Dad grins and feigns innocence. “Come now Grayson. I was just being friendly.”
I scoff. “You were trying it on?”
Daniel St. Clair laughs. “I was just testing you to see how loyal you are to my son.”
“Fucking bullshit Dad.” Grayson bellows and before I can stop him he storms over and punches his Dad in the face, sending him falling backwards over a small side table. “You stay away from her, you get it?”
His Dad smirks as he stands back up. “My, my you really do like this one, don’t you?”
Grayson grabs my hand and pulls me behind him. “I swear to god Dad. You ever touch her again and me and you are done. You just can’t help yourself can you.”
“Well that girl Paige had no complaints.”
Grayson stops still. “What?”
“That lovely girl Paige. She was more than willing to be friendly. I had her on my desk.”
Grayson laughs, his face full of disgust. “You disgust me. No wonder Mum had enough of your lying, cheating ways.”
His Dad lurches forward with a fist raised. “Go on. Do it.” Grayson growls at him. “Do it.”
Daniel lowers his fist and adjusts his tie. I hear the door behind us open.
“Daddy what’s going on?” Emily stands at the door wide-eyed.
“Shall I tell? Or do you want to? Let her see how truly wonderful her precious Daddy is.” Grayson spits the word Daddy.
“We are out of here.” Grayson announces as he turns and pulls me with him. He gives Emily a peck on the forehead as we pass her, and she looks at us both completely confused about what has just gone down.
He quietly seethes in the car. I can feel his anger oozing from him.
“I’m sorry you had to experience all that. My family is a complete fuck up Ev.”
I put my hand on his leg. “We can’t choose who our family is.”
He shakes his head. “I can. As soon as I am eighteen. I am done with that man. Your Dad has been more of a father to me than he ever has.”
“I know. I can see that my family cares about you a great deal.”
He pulls up in front of my house and cuts the engine. He rests his head wearily on the steering wheel and let’s out a long breath.
“Hey.” I say as I rub his back. “I’m fine, no harm done.”
He looks up at me with a sad smile. “You sure you still want to be around me? You know what they say like father like son.”
“You are nothing like your father Grayson. Nothing like him. You hear me.”
He shrugs and runs a hand through his unruly dark hair. “Aren’t I?”
I climb over the central console and onto his lap. “Look at me Gray.” I lift his chin with my hand and his blue eyes look sadly at mine. “You are good and kind and thoughtful. I never met your Mum, but I think there is a lot of her in you.” I put my hand on his chest. “You are a good soul. I feel it. Whatever our souls are, yours and mine are the same.”
He grins then. “Did you just quote Wuthering Heights to me?”
I grin back at him. “I’m a budding editor. Quoting the greats is a given.”
“You think your Dad will let me stay now he knows we are a thing?”
I nod. “Yeah, of course.”
We walk in the house hand in hand to find my Dad and Sophie curled up on the sofa watching television.
“Dad can Grayson stay tonight. He kind of had a run-in with his Dad?”
My dad looks at Grayson and gives him an understanding smile. It looks like my Dad knows what an ass his Dad is. “You know you are always welcome here son. You sleep in Dom’s room though.” He tells him wagging a finger. “No trying to sneak into my daughter’s room?”
“No sir.” He replies with a firm nod.
Sophie grins at me from where she sits and winks at me. My step-mum is really quite cool. “Dom and Izzy are in the den.”
We head down to the den and find Dom and Izzy curled up watching a film.
“How did it go?” Dom asks stretching and yawning.
“It went.” Grayson replies frowning as he sits down and pulls me down on his lap.
“Dad fucked Paige.” Grayson announces, leaving Dom and Izzy both open mouthed.
“That was a conversation killer.” I state and smile awkwardly.
“On his desk.” Grayson adds.
Izzy’s face wrinkles up in disgust. Her porcelain complexion paling. “Urgh, that’s an image I will never wash out of my brain.”
“He tried to make a move on Ev, whilst I was on the phone to you.”
It looks like we were sharing all the gory details tonight. “Are you okay?” Dom asks me, his eyes full of concern and shock.
“I’m fine. Grayson lamped his Dad, it was a good hit.”
Grayson grins at me and kisses my nose.
“He’s a dick Grayson. We all know it. The way he reacted over Emily confirmed that.”
I look at Grayson, my eyes full of questions. “What happened with Emily?”
He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Another night I’ll tell you. Can we just forget about my Dad and chill?”
I nod. I would let him off for tonight, but soon I would push him for the details.
Chapter Twenty.
Sunday morning and I am awoken to the sensation of someone kissing my neck.
“Mmm, this is a nice way to wake up.” I mumble, still half asleep. I lazily open one eye to find the very gorgeous Grayson, wearing that sexy smile he wears so well.
“I have an even better way to start the morning.” He teases and waggles his eyebrows at me which causes me to laugh. Who knew Grayson could be this cute.
“Everly I brought you a gun.”
Grayson groans on hearing Ollie’s voice behind us. “Why don’t you play with your Lego for a bit instead Ol.”
Ollie comes further into the room and sits on the end of my bed, wearing his nerf mask. “I want to play nerf wars with Everly.”
Grayson and I grin at each other, knowing it looks like we will have to take a rain-check on what we had been about to start. Grayson winks at me as he sits up and looks over at Ollie.
“How about we play hide and seek? You hide. Everly and I will come and find you.”
Ollie jumps up and down excitedly. “I love hide and seek. I know the best places to hide.”
“Go on. Then we’ll count to a hundred. One, two, three.” He shoos Ollie with his hand. “Go you are losing time.”
Ollie bounds out of the room without a backward glance.
I give Grayson a knowing look. “That was cruel.”
He laughs as he jumps up and closes and locks by bedroom door and then walks back to my bed with a determined look in his eye. “Five minutes and we’ll go and find him, I promise.” His hand snakes under the waistband of my bed shorts.
“Maybe just five minutes.” I say breathlessly.
Some seven minutes later we head down to the basement. “Trust me, I know where he is.” Grayson tells me confidently. “He always goes to the same places, in the same order. He’ll be in the laundry room.”
“Oh Ollie.” He shouts in a teasing voice. “I’m coming to get you.” We both laugh as we hear Ollie giggle loudly.
“You’ll never find me.” Ollie innocently shouts, totally giving away the fact he is the laundry room.
“Is he in here?” Grayson booms as he opens the washing machine door. Ollie giggles again.
“I’m not in there, silly.” He shouts.
Smiling Grayson tugs me along behind him as he puts his hand on the lid of the laundry basket.
He swiftly lifts the lid and a giddy Ollie squeals as Grayson leans in and tickles him.
“Stop Grayson, you’ll make me wee.” He shouts in between fits of laughter. Grayson lifts him out and throws him over his shoulder.
“What shall we do with him now we have him Ev?”
I tap my chin, pretending to think as Ollie watches me from his upside-down position. “I think we should make him into a yummy Ollie sandwich.”
Grayson fakes an evil villain type laugh. “Mwah-ha-ha.” He lifts him upright and pretends to bite his tummy, causing Ollie to giggle and squeal.
“Who is eating my son?” Dad stands in the doorway watching us, grinning. “Ollie, we have to get ready to go swimming.”
Ollie’s eyes brighten at the mention of swimming, he is a real water boy. He looks torn though and looks back at me and Grayson, as he walks over to his dad. “Can we play again later?”
Grayson gives him a firm nod. “Of course, squirt. You can help me find Everly next time.”
Ollie grins and walks back over to him. “Shake on it.” He tells Grayson, offering out his hand. My heart melts for this little brother of mine. Grayson shakes his hand firmly and this seems to satisfy Ollie as he runs over to our dad and gets swung up into his arms.
“We’ll see you later.” My dad hesitates in the door. “I wondered Everly, if you would like to meet your grandmother later?”
My eyes go wide. “My Grandma. Your Mother?”
He nods. “She has been wanting to meet you for weeks, but I wanted to wait. To give you time to settle in and get to know us first.”
“I’d love to.” I tell him, no trace of doubt in my voice. This earns me a huge smile from my dad.
“Great. She will be so pleased. We will go over this afternoon. Say about two?”
My Dad and Ollie leave us, and I sit myself down on the counter over the washing machine.
“You know I haven’t once thought about my new extended family. How awful does that make me?”
Grayson comes over to stand between my legs. His Ice blue eyes find mine. “It doesn’t make you awful. You were adjusting to a totally new life and grieving for your Mum.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. “I have a Grandma.” The excitement is obvious in my voice.
“You have an awesome Grandma. I have met her many times, she is one cool lady.”
I grin at him. “She is?”
He nods, his hands resting on my thighs. “Yes. In fact, you remind me of her. She says what she thinks and doesn’t put up any pretences.”
I wrinkle my nose in anticipation. “Will you come? When I meet her. I’m kinda nervous.”
He gives me an understanding smile. “Sure. I’ll always be there when you need me Ev. That you can count on.”
I rest my forehead against his and close my eyes savouring the feel of his physical closeness. “When did I come to rely on you?”
He smiles. “About the same time I came to rely on you. Me and you Everly, we’re the same. Two broken pieces.”
I stroke his cheek. “I like being broken with you.”
“I like being broken with you too sweet cheeks.” He admits to me, before his lips find mine and there is no conversation for a good few minutes.
We head into the den some five minutes later and put on some tv. I’m sat straddling Grayson and we are locked in a deep kiss when Dom enters and coughs.
“Step-brother stroke, best friend alert. Can you please not dry hump each other in my presence.”
“Leave then.” Grayson tells him in-between kissing me.
Dom throws himself down on the sofa besides us and chucks a cushion at us. “I do live here you know.”
Grayson and I pull apart and I turn to face my step-brother. “Does it bother you? This?” I ask him, pointing from me to Grayson.
Dom sits there, arms folded and scoffs. “No of course not. I’m honestly happy for you both.” He chuckles. “I always knew one day he’d end up whipped, despite his protestations.”
Grayson laughs. “You can talk.”
Dom holds up his hands in surrender. “I love my girl. I’m not afraid to admit it.” He gives Grayson a questioning look and then looks at me.
I quickly change the subject. The ‘L’ word is one I’m not ready to have. “What are we doing today?”
“There’s a band on at a local pub I thought we could go see. Think there’s a barbecue on and other stuff.”
“Sounds good.” Dom says, offering his approval. “I’ll text the others.”
An hour later we walk into the grounds of one of the local pub. It has a huge grassed area to the back and a band are out there on a makeshift stage warming up. Emily has joined us, wanting to spend some time with her brother before she heads back to boarding school later. There are hay bales for seats and I sit in-between Grayson and Emily on one. Grayson’s right hand, rests on my leg.
“Here they are!” I hear a voice coming from behind us and look over my shoulder to see Izzy and Owen, with Molly and Jacob just behind them. I nervously push Grayson’s hand off my leg and he looks at me, brows quirked and the shakes his head and looks away. Did I just upset him? I thought both us were not ready for any kind of public declaration about us.
Owen walks round to stand in front of us with Izzy. Izzy is wearing a pretty gingham off the shoulder top in blue pinstripes and white jeans. Her long red hair, falls down her back in effortless waves.
“Where is that boyfriend of mine?” She asks scanning the crowd for Dom.
“He’s at the bar, getting the drinks in.” I tell her.
“Great I’ll go find him. You want your usual Owen?”
Owen nods, his eyes falling on Emily, sitting beside me. “Little Emily’s
here.”
Emily rolls her eyes at him. “I’m not little Owen. I’m sixteen now.”
He winks at her. “You’ll always be little Emily to me.”
I watch Emily look at him as she flips him off. She likes him! I can tell by the way her eyes linger on him when he begins to chat with Grayson. I throw my arm around her and whisper in her ear.
“He’s just teasing.”
She nods and sighs and looks over at Owen with a look of wanting. Yep, she really likes her brothers friend. I can’t imagine that going down well with Grayson. I grab her hand in mine.
“Come on let’s go for a walk around.”
She gives me a thankful smile and allows me to pull her up. We head off leaving the others and snake our way through the crowds over to where the smell of food is coming from.
“Emily!”
At the sound of her name Emily freezes still, her eyes go wide. She turns and there, before us is Andrews.
He looks as surprised as Emily is. He also looks like the wind has been knocked out of him.
“You’re here. You’re home?”
She shakes her head and looks at her feet. “Just for the weekend.”
He searches her eyes. “Can we talk?” He looks at me and then back to her. “Alone.”
Emily grasps my hand tighter. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I see her panicked face as she looks back over to where the others are.
Andrews steps forward. “I tried to call you when I found out, but your Dad and that brother of yours wouldn’t let me speak to you.”
She laughs nervously. “I wonder why. You left me high and dry Caleb.”
I look up surprised at hearing her use his Christian name. How did these two know each other?
He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Look Ems. I’m sorry for what I said back then. I panicked you know?”
I see Emily tearing up. “You panicked? I was fifteen and you walked away.”
“What the fuck is this?”
Grayson stands behind Andrews, arms folded and looking mightily pissed off.
Andrews sighs and turns to face him. “I didn’t know she would be here.”