Chapter 60

Jamie

The trouble with this amazing suit is that it had me walking into the swanky hall Nadia's family had rented feeling a false sense of security. Looking sharp and having three hot guys at her back could do that to a girl. I scanned the many, many tables as we walked in, then saw my family sitting around one of the central tables, and my grip on the engagement present I was carrying tightened.

"It's not too late to make a run for it." Hunter appeared beside me with his own present in tow. "We could dump these presents and run, and then we could spend a very long time looking at how well Mac tailored that suit to fit your body, right before we took it off."

"Maybe leave the waistcoat on because damn…" Hayden's eyes slid sideways, the paper of his parcel crinkling as he inspected my cleavage thoroughly.

I sucked in a breath, tossing that idea around in my mind. I'm fairly sure Millie didn't spend ages pulling my hair back into a tight, intricate braid just for them to wrap it around their fists less than an hour later, but bloody hell the idea was tempting.

"But you're not going to." Brock looked completely confident in his assertion, while also being a little sad as he stared into my eyes. "You're going to see this through for Nadia and Frankie."

"There you are!"

As if summoned by their names, Nadia appeared, throwing her arms in the air as she rushed over. Frankie was slower to move, forced to break off a conversation he was having and hustle after her as she began to move.

"Oh my freaking god, you look amazing!" she said as she looked me up and down. There it was, more compliments puffing me up, making me think I'd nailed this whole formal wear thing. "Doesn't Jamie look amazing, Frank?" My brother went to reply, but Nadia rushed forward. "I'm so glad you came." She pressed a kiss to my cheek, the process made a little awkward by the present I was carrying, then turned to the guys. "And you brought all your boys! I'm Nadia."

Introductions were made, more kisses deposited on cheeks, but when she pulled away, I awkwardly handed the present over.

"We each got you something, made sure it was from your wish list," I said.

"Oh, you didn't need to do that!" she exclaimed.

Yes we did. The pleased flush in her cheeks, the way Frankie shot me a grateful look, because while he liked coffee, he was happy with the crappy instant kind, not the cool pod machine that made amazing stuff that I'd bought for them. We were making Nadia happy, and on that front we were united. He nodded to all four of us before moving forward to take the presents.

"So, you know Mum is gonna shit…" my brother hissed as he leaned in closer. "Do you want me to stick you guys at another table? You might end up sitting with one of Nadia's great aunts or something, but still…"

It might be preferable to what was about to happen when Mum saw what I was wearing and who I was with. In my mind, the memory of telling my brothers and my dad off had me standing taller, something Frankie noted. Without further conversation, he made it clear he could see I was determined.

"I made sure to leave four spots at your family's table because I wasn't sure who was coming," Nadia said, her words coming out in a rush. This was her day, her celebration, but that didn't mean she got to relax. "Your mother is a bit put out that Dave and Frannie were seated at the table next to yours, but with their kids, it was all getting a bit squishy. Steve and Amber left theirs with the babysitter."

So Mum would already be pissed. I nodded and said, "It's OK. We'll deal with it." I squeezed Nadia's hands. "This is your night. Enjoy it and don't worry about us."

But she couldn't seem to stop. A sidelong look at Frankie and then he was moving closer, his arm snaking around her waist.

"If Mum acts like a dick, you tell me and I'll sort it out." I blinked, narrowed my eyes and stared at my brother, expecting him to transform into someone, something else. This was not the Frankie I grew up with. In recognition of that, he swallowed and then pulled Nadia tighter against his body. "Nadia and I have talked, and she made sure I understood how badly Mum treats you."

"Your mum has been a bit… hectic with the wedding coming up." Nadia's words came spilling out. "She was always pretty intense." I snorted at that. "But then it just got worse. I talked to Frankie, made clear he needed to deal with the situation. Honestly, I was reconsidering the whole engagement for a while there."

"Shit, Nadia…"

Caught in my own little bubble, I hadn't realised that Mum was pulling the same bullshit with Frankie's fiancé, but that made sense. She rode her daughters-in-law almost as hard as me.

"It's OK, but I'm not marrying some mummy's boy who won't stand up for his own wife." Frankie went pale in response to Nadia's hissed words. "I asked him what he would do if we had a daughter and his mother started treating her like Majorie does you…"

All the chatter in the room faded away then, replaced by the sound of my thudding heart. Their lips kept moving, but I couldn't hear it. Probably because at no point before this had any of my brothers felt the need to step up and defend me. Part of our family dynamic was the guys sticking together, keeping as far away from Mum as possible. Using the reasoning that what went on between the two of us was all women's business, it'd left me alone and completely without allies. A counsellor had pointed out that perhaps my preoccupation with stuff men liked such as cars was an attempt to buy into the safe space they created for themselves. But to hear I was now being offered protection by my brother? I forced myself to smile.

"Well, I guess we need to get this over with, see what I'm dealing with."

Because across the floor, I was conscious of one set of eyes boring into me. My mother sat at the table, people chatting, drinking, and laughing around her, but she ignored them all. It was me she was focussed on with laser-like precision, taking in what I was wearing in one long look.

"I'll be fine," I said as if those words were a magic spell I could cast, changing reality to suit myself.

"We'll be fine."

Hayden was close enough to kiss, his body forming a protective shell around me. To replace the one I used to erect, I realised. My eyes slid sideways, taking in each one of them, and like soldiers before a battle, we nodded to each other. We could do this.

"Have an amazing party," I told the happy couple. "Don't let Frankie drink too much or he'll start trying to breakdance again."

"I can pop and lock with the best of them," he said, with all the confidence of a melanin-deficient person, the awkward dance moves he just did making us all shrink back. But once I took a step away, it got easier, turning around and striding towards the table.

"Hello, love." Dad spoke to me first, looking up as soon as we got close. The skin around his eyes creased and his smile was tentative, but that's not what caught my attention. It was where he was sitting. Amber and Steve were between him and my mother, her face sour as she wrapped her hand around her wine glass. "You look nice. Brock, Hayden…"

"This is Hunter, Hayden's twin, obviously."

He moved around then, Dad getting to his feet to shake his hand, right before he turned to my brother, Steve. I introduced everyone, but Steve paused, looking at Hunter's hand like it was a dead frog or a live snake, before shaking it way too hard. Hunter grinned, his teeth shining like a shark's, right before his bicep flexed, his fingers clamping down hard on Steve's until my brother was forced to jerk it free.

"Twins, huh?" Amber purred, her slightly unfocussed gaze indicating she'd been making good use of the free bar. "So what's that like?"

"Amber—" Steve growled.

"I wouldn't mind being the meat in that sandwich." She wiggled her finger up and down, indicating the guys.

"Should I be offended?" Brock's voice buzzed in my ear as he leaned in close.

"Relieved," I hissed back before turning back to my family. "Steve doesn't have a twin, but I guess you could hit up Dave? Similar attitude at least." My brother's scowl grew darker. "Maybe you and Frannie could trade off."

"Jamie—" Dad used a far gentler tone than I expected, but Mum, she was never one to hold back.

"That's enough."

She didn't move, didn't rise to her feet, and to anyone else walking by, they just saw an older woman having a quiet drink. But me, I saw something else. This was same woman I'd spent my childhood butting heads with, the one I tried to find peace with as an adult, thinking that one of us had to wave the white flag and sue for peace.

And much good it'd done me.

"Mrs. King—" Hunter said, moving to introduce himself to her, but she shot him a withering look, making clear she'd rather masturbate with a cheese grater than get to know my date.

"So you're doing this." She couldn't clarify, her eyes taking in my suit, my dates, even my hair and makeup, her cat's bum mouth pulling tighter by the second. "I tried to find you something suitable to wear." Her eyes found Brock's. "And an escort worthy of you, but you had to…" Mum's hand rose, the slight shake worrying me for a second. "You had to?—"

"Marge."

Dad could be harsh, loud, cutting if he had to be, because I'd seen him shout each one of his unruly sons down with just a word when we grew up. Never Mum though, Dad had that going for him. He'd never raised a hand, said a word against her.

Not even when I really needed him to.

So I just stared when he did just that now.

"That's enough." For any of us kids, that would've been the end of it. Mouths would've snapped shut and we would've found a way to move on, but Mum was never going to take that. As she jerked herself to her feet, he stared her down. "Let's sit down and enjoy a nice night for Frankie and Nadia."

"I can't just sit here pretending that this…" She gestured vaguely to me and my guys. "Is happening right in front of me. I'm going to get a drink."

I watched her hustle away, my eyes falling to the still three-quarters full wine glass she's left behind, then jumped when someone pulled a chair out for me. Brock, I stared into his eyes, smiling when he did. I'd revved myself up like a car idling on the starting line, ready to fire up, fight my mother, but her storming away? That was the best possible scenario. I sat down and Dad nodded in approval as Brock tucked my chair in under me. The twins grabbed seats on either side of me, something that had him snorting right before he leaned over and said, "I'll go and get us a drink."

"Beer for me," Hunter said with a grin.

"Get it your bloody self," Brock shot back before ambling over to the bar.

"So…" When Dad folded his hands before him and leaned forward, I stiffened. This is what he looked like just before he started to interrogate someone. "How the hell did you learn how to drive like that, love?"

Steve rolled his eyes and Amber watched what was going with a quizzical expression, but I just smiled.

"Well, you know how I used to say I was going out to study at the library?"

"You didn't." Worry and amusement warred on Dad's face, a smile winning. "Not with those bloody idiot boys that used to come around the house, sneaking in the back door."

"The one and the same," I said with a grin. "Pretty sure they just invited me out thinking I'd look pretty perched on the bonnets of their cars. That wasn't enough for me. I wanted to put my foot to the floor, do burnouts, just like the guys."

"So freaking hot…" Hayden hissed, winking when he caught my eye.

"That's why I didn't pass Year 12, but I got a pretty impressive reputation down at the illegal drags track."

"Bloody hell…" Dad raked a hand through his hair, then turned to Steve. "Did you know anything about this?"

"Don't drag me into this," my brother spluttered.

"So how about now?" Dad's eyes begged me for an answer he could live with and thankfully I could provide it.

"Now?" I sat back in my chair, feeling Hunter's fingers toying with my braid, or was it Hayden's? "Now I work hard not to buy cheap tyres to burn up and blow out in the same night. Now I just try to be the best damn mechanic I can be."

"We'll do our best to keep her on the straight-and-narrow, Mr. Kingston," Hunter said with a smirk. "I mean it's hard, seeing as Jamie's such a wild child, but every day we wake up and try to convince her to stay on the straight-and-narrow."

He should've turned around then, feeling my eyes burning into the side of his face. it'd been years since I'd done anything as dumb as that.

"Do you now?" Dad's eyes narrowed. "So, tell me a bit more about yourselves. Male models, Jamie was saying?"

"Carpenters most of the time," Hayden said.

The chatter washed over me, but I couldn't really pay much attention to it. Brock made it to the bar and I watched him put a finger up, drawing one of the bartenders over.

But not just the staff member.

Mum was propped against the bar nursing a new glass of wine, but when she caught sight of Brock, she stiffened. My body was filled with the same tension. Because she pushed away from the bar and then stalked forward, taking up position next to Brock's elbow. A shout froze in my throat as she looked up at him, then started to speak, because no matter what she had to say–enquiry about the weather, a discussion whether the banks would raise or lower home loan rates, or the likelihood of facing a nuclear winter or global warming, I didn't care–none of it was good. I was rising up out of my seat, right as her arm landed on his.