Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Liam

W hen they finally got inside, Mum bundled Liam into her and Dad's ensuite bathroom, and bundled Ambrose into the main bathroom. He wasn't sure what she did with Grandad Billy—hosed him off outside, maybe? When Liam had showered and rid himself of the mud he was covered in and dressed in the warm, clean clothes Mum had left for him, he came back into the living room to find Ambrose wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, his hair all fuzzy and soft and his fingers wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. Grandad was splayed out in his recliner in a dressing gown and Ugg boots, with Balian starfished on his barrel-like chest. They were both snoring. The TV was playing quietly in the background.

Liam only hesitated a second before settling next to Ambrose on the couch. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." Ambrose gave him a shy smile. "Thanks for the rescue, and for not thinking I cracked onto Marcus." He wrinkled his nose at the name.

Liam ducked his head. "It was nothing. "

"It wasn't, though," Ambrose said quietly. "You believed me, and that doesn't happen to me very often. Normally I'm the bad guy. And then you came looking for me in a thunderstorm, riding out to rescue me on your white horse. Well, orange tractor. That's super romantic. Very Pride and Prejudice ."

"I've never read that," Liam admitted.

Ambrose grinned. "Probably because it doesn't have a chapter on the optimum alkaline soil balances needed for superior shiraz harvests, am I right?"

Liam grinned back and bumped their shoulders together. "Idiot."

"Nerd."

Mum came bustling through from the kitchen carrying a tray which held two mugs of hot chocolate and a plate filled with thick slices of her homemade fruitcake, bright yellow and slathered with butter. "There we go now, boys," she said, settling the tray on the coffee table and handing Liam his mug. "Something to chase the cold away."

"Thank you, Fi," Ambrose said.

"Thanks, Mum," Liam echoed.

Fi picked up her own mug and sat in the armchair across from them.

Liam reached out and took Ambrose's hand. "We thought we might try dating for real, Mum," he said, because it seemed important for Ambrose to know he still wanted to try this, that nothing had changed as far as Liam was concerned.

Fi gave him a considering look, and Liam reminded himself that he wasn't asking permission and held her gaze.

"Let me get this straight," she said, turning to address Ambrose. "You…hire yourself out and pretend to be a terrible date, but it's all an act? "

Ambrose shrunk back into the sofa. "Um, yeah."

"To clarify," Mum said, pursing her lips a little, "the first time we met you, at the restaurant at The Rocks, that was you being you?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Mum said and sagged with relief like a balloon with the air let out. Liam expected her to rally and launch into a lecture, but instead she let out a triumphant "Ha!" that was loud enough that it had Grandad Billy startling in his sleep. "I knew you were nice! I said, that first night we went out, now there's a nice boy for Liam!"

Ambrose just looked confused, and Liam couldn't blame him. "So, you don't think I'm a liar and a terrible person?"

Fi pursed her lips. "Well, I will admit you threw me for a loop a few times there, but really, what you do isn't really lying , is it? It's—" Liam watched her cast about for the right words. "Well, it's acting , isn't it? You're just an actor, playing a part."

"I guess?" Ambrose said cautiously.

"Well then, there's no reason to hold it against you." She nodded to herself. "No reason in the world. Like I say, I knew you were a nice boy."

Ambrose let out a long breath. "I swear I didn't mean for this to happen—the thing with Neve and Marcus, I mean. Marcus saw me on a fake date the other week when he was there with some blonde, and he tried to blackmail me. I'm so sorry about everything."

"No," Liam said firmly, reaching for Ambrose's hand. "This looks like she's letting you off easy, but really she's letting herself off easy. Mum, you put a lot of pressure on us, to the extent that I paid a stranger to pretend to be my boyfriend, and that's on me, but it's on you a bit as well. Because it's crazy, isn't it? That I'd rather do that than tell you the truth? That I wasn't ready for another relationship because the last one…" He swallowed. "The last one I got cheated on, okay? Jonah cheated on me."

"Liam!" Mum exclaimed, immediately outraged. "He did what ? I'll wring his scrawny little neck!"

"No!" Liam groaned. "It was ages ago and it doesn't matter now, and just…just leave things alone, please ."

"Fi, sweetheart," Dad said from the door. "Liam's trying to tell you that you need to back off sometimes."

Mum sucked in a shocked breath.

"You have to let them make their own mistakes," Dad said. "Liam, and Neve too, and do you remember how many frogs Bridget kissed before she found Orhan?"

"I just want them to be happy!" Mum exclaimed.

"It looks to me like they're all figuring it out at their own pace," Dad said. His eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled at Liam and Ambrose. "What sort of money do you make from being a fake boyfriend anyway? I reckon I scrub up all right."

"You're a silver fox," Ambrose said. "You'd make a killing."

Liam wrinkled his nose and pondered the awkwardness of having to be jealous of his own dad. "Ew."

But he flashed a secret smile at Dad too, to thank him for lightening the mood. He knew Mum wouldn't let the Jonah thing go—she'd fret about it on his behalf for ages before she finally burst—but she was letting it go for now , and that was a hell of a big step for her.

"Hear that, love?" Dad asked proudly. "I'm a silver fox."

"I know you are, love. I'm very lucky." Her smile wavered a little. "Oh, Liam, is it really all my fault? "

"Liam is also terrible at conflict," Ambrose said suddenly. "And I don't mean fighting. I mean that Liam is the sort of person that if a waiter brought out his soup and it was cold and also there was a dead sparrow in it, Liam would tell him it was fine and then he'd eat around the sparrow." He squeezed Liam's hand. "I get it, Fi. What you have, you and Will, it's pretty amazing. And you want that for your kids as well. You want them to be happy. Except Liam doesn't know how to ask you to give him space, because he's scared you'll think he's rejecting you, so in some crazy part of his brain it actually made more sense for him to hire me than it did to just tell you that he didn't want a boyfriend right now."

"Then you changed my mind anyway," Liam said softly, warmth flooding his chest.

"I am super convincing," Ambrose said. His smile was cocky, but his fingers shook a little against Liam's.

"It's not your fault, Mum," Liam said. "It's my fault too. But also, if we were both normal people from a normal family, I never would have called Ambrose, so, ah, thanks."

"He thought I was horrible at first," Ambrose agreed. "But he kind of likes me now."

Fi got a twinkle in her eye. "You know what Ambrose is, Liam?"

Liam had a horrible feeling he knew where this was going. "Don't say it, Mum," he warned.

She ignored him. "He's your Vegemite!" She paused and thought. "Actually, he's mine too, I think. I've quite got the taste for him now."

"Mum, stop. That sounds all kinds of wrong," Liam said.

"What sounds wrong?" Neve asked, coming into the living room dressed in her pyjamas and clutching a family-sized block of chocolate. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but she gave Liam a watery smile and plopped herself down in one of the armchairs.

"Mum's trying for an analogy," Liam said.

"How's it going?" Neve asked curiously.

"Eh." Liam held his hand out and waggled it from side to side.

"Oh, you two!" Mum said, but she was smiling even though her eyes looked suspiciously wet. Liam supposed it wasn't every day that your daughter broke off her engagement because her fiancé had forcibly kissed your son's fake boyfriend. He couldn't blame Mum for being a little bit overwhelmed by everything. To be fair, it did sound like the plotline of an incredibly overwrought soap opera. The way today had started out, by this evening they'd probably discover that Riley had a secret twin or something, or maybe Grandma, even though she'd been dead for almost ten years, would make a dramatic entrance in the rain. It honestly seemed like that kind of a day.

"Neve, I'm so sorry about Marcus," Ambrose said, but Neve shook her head.

"It wasn't your fault. This isn't the first time he's cheated, but he always had an explanation, managed to talk me out of listening to my gut instinct. You've actually done me a favour, showing him up for the rat bastard he is."

"Marcus was an arse," Grandad chimed in, because apparently the mere mention of Marcus was enough to wake him. "If it was up to me, I'd?—"

They never got to hear what Grandad would do to Marcus, because they were interrupted by the persistent buzz of Ambrose's phone.

He pulled it out and frowned. "Sorry, I have to take this." Liam caught a flash of the name on the screen as Ambrose pulled his hand out of Liam's and hit the answer button .

Mrs. Ahmadi.

"Hello?"

Liam could hear a voice speaking rapidly, and Ambrose stiffened. But as they spoke, Ambrose's shoulders lost some of their tension and when he let out a sigh, it was resigned. "I'm glad she went on her own. That's always better. She's probably been skipping her meds. Thank you for telling me," he said. "I'm out of town until tomorrow. Will she be all right till then?" A muffled response. "Oh, you will? Thank you so much. Tell her I'll see her soon, and tell her—tell her I love her, okay?"

Ambrose hung up the phone, and his face crumpled. Liam wasn't sure if he should ask, but it turned out he didn't need to. "It's Mum," Ambrose said. "She's in hospital. It's not—it's not a big deal. She got a taxi there."

For a moment Liam didn't understand exactly what Ambrose was saying. Then he realised he was talking about his mother's mental health, and that sometime in the past she must have been taken to hospital unwillingly. "Okay."

"What's happened?" Mum asked, her forehead creased with concern. "Has she had an accident?"

A quick smile flashed across Ambrose's face before he ducked his head—both rueful and bitter.

"She has some mental health issues," Ambrose said, his gaze fixed on his phone screen. "But she took herself up there. So that's good. That's really good."

Liam wondered what it was like to have your mum calling you, claiming you'd stolen some photograph, and not believing you hadn't. He wondered what a whole lifetime of that felt like, and suddenly understood why Ambrose's smile had been bitter when Mum had assumed it was an accident. Because Mum thought that most families were like theirs—hell, Liam thought it too. Maybe not with the same privileges, but the same dynamics—people who loved each other. People you could tease and annoy the shit out of, but also count on to have your back when you needed. And where the parents took care of their kids, not the other way round.

Liam remembered being shocked when he was a kid, and someone told him that fish couldn't see water. That's what the Connellys were, in the end. They were fish who couldn't see water, while Ambrose was dying of thirst.

Great.

Now he was doing the analogy thing.

"That's good," he agreed, maybe a little too brightly.

"Do you need someone to take you back?" Mum asked, obviously not convinced that it wasn't a crisis. "I know the roads are flooded, but by the morning it should be clear, and we can get Will to drive you back early or you and Liam can take the RAV4?—"

"If Ambrose says it's fine, it's fine, love," Dad said, and Liam didn't miss the grateful look Ambrose shot him.

"Yeah, it's fine," Ambrose said, and stood up suddenly. "I just have to go and use the…"

And he bolted from the room.

Neve pointed her block of chocolate at Liam. "You should go after him."

"Are we a bit much?" Grandad asked, patting a sleeping Balian on the backside. "We might be a bit much."

Liam levered himself off the couch. "I'll go," he said. "But I'm taking the chocolate."

He found Ambrose sitting on the front veranda with John Phillip, both of them glaring out into the rain. Through the shifting dark curtain of the storm, Liam caught occasional glimpses of Marcus's car in the distance, still face-first in the ditch.

"Where's Marcus?" he asked curiously, sitting on the love seat beside Ambrose and holding out the chocolate.

"He tried to come up here, but John Phillip growled at him," Ambrose said. "So he ran back to the car. It was pretty funny."

John Phillip grinned, his tongue lolling.

"I like your family a lot," Ambrose said, breaking off a piece of chocolate. "But they are also very big, and very loud, and far more caring than I'm used to. Not in a bad way," he hastened to add. "Just…I feel like they think I'm a poor lamb or something. They don't get that not everyone has what they have, and that's fine."

"You're not talking about the vineyard, are you?"

Ambrose laughed softly and shook his head. "No."

"Okay," Liam said. "And I know that it's fine in general if not everyone has a family like mine, and I know that you, specifically, are fine, but also, it would be okay if you wanted to borrow my big, dumb, loud family whenever you wanted."

"Okay." Ambrose's voice wavered a little on the word.

"They don't pity you, either," Liam said. "Like, when they're love-bombing you, that's not going to be pity."

"Love-bombing?"

"It's what cults do," Liam said. "And multi-level marketing schemes. And also big Irish families—this family in particular. Except in this case, it's because they genuinely like you."

Ambrose hummed and sucked on the end of his chocolate. "I mean, I'm pretty great," he said at last. "I can see why they'd like me, quite apart from the fact I'm dating your sorry arse. "

Liam's breath caught. " Are we dating, then?" he asked, just to make sure.

Ambrose broke off a square of chocolate and pressed it against Liam's lips. "I don't share my chocolate with just anyone, so yes."

Liam let his lips part, and he snagged the chocolate between his teeth but he barely tasted it, too busy savouring the knowledge that they were on the same page, and that Ambrose wanted him just like he wanted Ambrose. He swallowed, then impulsively leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on Ambrose's lips.

Ambrose made a surprised noise, then he was kissing Liam back. It was soft and sweet, and Liam let himself savour the taste of Ambrose as he learned the shape of his mouth. They kissed slow and lazy, and Liam ended up with one hand curled around the back of Ambrose's head, fingers carding through the strands of his still-damp hair. When Ambrose finally pulled back, Liam grinned and said, "You're a good kisser."

"You too," Ambrose said. He rested his forehead against Liam's. "Can we just…stay out here for a bit?"

"Sure," Liam said. Honestly, he would have agreed to anything Ambrose asked right now, because despite the absolute shitshow today had almost turned into, it had ended up all right. "Besides, if we go back in now Neve will want her chocolate back."

Ambrose shook his head. "Not happening." Peeling back the foil from the block, he proceeded to lick the entire surface. "It's mine now, but you can share."

Liam rolled his eyes. "Really? Licking it to make it yours?"

Ambrose grinned. "It's one of my best patented bad boyfriend moves, I'll have you know. People hate it when you do it at restaurants. "

Liam couldn't hold back the snort of laughter. "You do not!"

Ambrose raised an eyebrow. "You've seen me in action. What do you think?"

"I think I may never be game enough to take you out to dinner, just in case you fall into old habits."

Ambrose laughed softly, and let his head fall against Liam's shoulder. It was nice, a comforting weight, and Liam wrapped his arm around Ambrose and pulled him closer, and they sat there for a while trading kisses and squares of chocolate as they listened to the rain and the occasional sounds of Marcus swearing. As romantic evenings went, it might have been unconventional, but it was still pretty great.

Eventually though, the front door opened, and Will poked his head out. "Mum's got dinner ready, boys."

Liam stood, stretched, and extended a hand to Ambrose, who let himself be pulled out of the love seat, and they trooped inside. Fi fussed over Ambrose still having bare feet and bustled off to find him some dry socks, and as she left Liam mouthed "love-bombing," at Ambrose, who grinned back at him.

Once Fi had determined that Ambrose wasn't in imminent danger of losing his toes to frostbite or trench foot, they settled around the table, and she brought out shepherd's pie and roast veg as well as warm, fresh bread rolls, and Liam's stomach rumbled at the soothing, familiar smells. It wasn't that he couldn't look after himself in Sydney, but there were times when nothing beat his mum's cooking, and this was one of them.

Ambrose inhaled deeply as well and let out a tiny groan. "Fi, you're a goddess among women."

"That she is," Will agreed, giving her a fond look. "Now eat up, the lot of you. "

Liam couldn't help sneaking glances at Ambrose as they ate. His hair had dried into a soft mess of sticky-uppy bits and stray curls on the nape of his neck, and it should have looked silly, but no, Ambrose was still stupidly attractive. In fact, the scruffiness somehow made him even better looking, which Liam felt was patently unfair—except he didn't really mind, because that unfairly attractive man was his boyfriend. And this time it was for real.