Chapter 39

Kendall

“Evening, lovely ladies.” Alan strode in through the door, dropping his briefcase on a chair then leaning down to give Barbie a kiss. She met his lips and gave him a big smooch. “Po pia!” He snatched a little spring roll from the pile before Barbie could claw it back. “My favourite.”

She let out a low growl, hunching over her food like an angry dog before stabbing a perfectly lacquered nail at the kitchen bench.

“Which is why I ordered some for you.”

“That’s why you’re the best.” He took in the messy spread of takeaway containers and the open bottle of wine. “Wine and Thai food. What’re we celebrating?”

“Well, today I—” I started to say.

“Kendall broke her drought and got laid by not one guy, but three!”

Barbie had been shrieking that for some time, the little bitch. We were going to have her irate neighbour knocking on our door shortly. That or the lady would be shooting me dark looks on the ride down in the elevator.

“So Bang-aggedon happened?” Alan did not seem at all surprised. “You know what that means, Barbs…”

“Don’t call me Barbs…” Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. “No, no, no, I didn’t agree to that at all.”

“I told you it would happen, and you said if it did, you’d clean the bathroom for the next month,” he said with an impish grin. “No take backs. We shook on it, remember?”

“Yeah, but that was just after sex, and you had just dickmatised me. You know what happens after you give me multiple orgasms.”

“Um, ew.” I wrinkled my nose and then went back to slurping the noodles in my laksa.

“We’ll talk about you discovering the delights of good dick later,” she said before turning back to her boyfriend. “A promise made under duress isn’t worth the paper it”s written on.”

“And a verbal agreement is enforceable by law.” He pressed a kiss to her crown before sitting down beside Barbie. “So, Kendall, do I need to cross examine these guys, find out what their intentions are? I don’t have a rifle, but I could probably get one of those plastic replica ones that looks pretty convincing when I lay it across my lap and quiz each one of them.”

“Oh my god, why is that hot?” Barbie said, staring at Alan more closely then looking across at me. “It’s hot, isn’t it?’

I couldn’t answer her, not because I refused to respond to yet another request from her to confirm Alan’s attractiveness, but because his words dragged something else up. He was joking, of course he was, but… It wasn’t hard to see it, my own brother or my father being as protective of me as Alan was pretending to be. My eyes dropped to the creamy turmeric-tinted soup, and I gave the noodles a swirl. I was pretty sure the men in my family would’ve just shoved me at the guys to be rid of me.

“Hey.” A gentle nudge of Barbie’s elbow had me coming back to the here and now. “I know talking about how sexy Alan is makes you gag, so don’t.” She grinned. “Talk to me about how sexy those three dudes of yours are.”

“Not my guys.”

I said that on automatic, but even I thought twice about my words.

“Oh, they’re your guys. They are one hundred percent your guys. You didn’t see the way they looked at you when you first walked in the door. Alan. Alan.”

“Yes, Barbs.”

She went to protest at the nickname, right before he kissed the end of her cute little nose.

“They looked at her like she was prime rib and they hadn’t been fed for weeks. No, no! Like she was a case of beer and a pizza that walked in the door once the footy game finished.”

“That good, huh?” He winked at me, making clear he was just humouring her.

“Oh my god, the keys to Mad Max’s car!” she shouted, stabbing a finger into the air. “The big, shiny black one.”

“The Interceptor? Damn.” He nodded slowly. “OK, so do we get invites to your wedding…” Alan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Weddings? Is that even legal? Commitment ceremony then.”

“Um…” My thigh muscles tensed, my butt starting to lift off the seat.

“Don’t say the word commitment!” Barbie hissed. “You know how Kendall gets when you say the ‘C’ word around her.” She turned to me, now adopting an exaggeratedly calm tone. “It’s OK. No one’s going to ask you to marry them. Just take a breath with me.” She sucked hers in, gesturing for me to do the same. “Big breath in!”

I poked her in the ribs hard, so hers came out in a big rush.

“Stop being a dick. I’m not about to run.” Tell that to my quivering thighs, and not in a good way. “I’m not.”

“That was very… convincing.” Alan shot Barbie an alarmed look. “So, more wine?”

Before I could even answer, my glass was filled and pushed towards me. That wasn’t smart, and neither was me having a big gulp of it, but once I put it aside, I turned to face the two of them.

“But in other news not related to my vagina, I decorated a cake today.”

“Yeah?” Alan helped himself to another one of Barbie’s po pia, only to earn himself another smack. “Chris rope you into helping him in the kitchen?”

“And I served the customers,” Barbie told him proudly.

“Will they have any tomorrow, that’s the important question. Remember those people you yelled at when you were working as a waitress.”

“He was about to pinch my bum!” she snapped.

“He was the aide of the bloody Prime Minister.” Alan frowned. “And a complete arsehole, but, Kendall, you made a cake?”

“Decorated one.” I blinked, able to see it in my head. “And Chris has asked if I want to do an apprenticeship.”

“Is that something you want to do?”

I had Alan’s attention now. He’d tried to talk to me about job security as carefully and politely as he could, but Barbie had let me know he was concerned about my future employment.

“Yeah.” That felt weird, really weird to say, but it was true. “I think I do.”

I was forcedto hang around for a few hours to let the wine burn out of my system, so we finished off the Thai food, packed it away, and then cleaned up the kitchen. A couple of episodes of Drag Race, with Barbie throwing her shoes at Alan’s expensive flat screen TV— the usual crazy—and I was good to drive. But right as I was about to leave, Alan caught me at the door.

“Hey, just making sure you’re OK.” He looked back at Barbie, who was in the bathroom, getting ready for bed. “I know Barbs is super excited about all of this. So excited I’m going to have to pop her bubble and make clear I’m not gonna share her with any guy, but… just wanted to make sure nothing is happening that you aren’t one hundred percent on board with.”

I snorted, a dismissive reply on my lips, ready to be uttered before I stopped myself.

“I’m OK, Alan, honest.”

“Well, if they start shit with you, let me know.”

His low growl had me grinning. Alan kept himself fit, but there’s a different kind of strength that comes from working for a living all day. I knew Alan was a good boxer, but if he shaped up to the guys…? He noted my rising eyebrow. “I might not be the guy who makes people disappear, but working in finance, you always end up coming across the people that do, if you catch my drift?”

“Hidden depths, Alan. Hidden depths.” I twisted the car keys on my finger and then remembered who they belonged to. “But I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. I’ve known these guys since I was a kid, so there’s been girls, so many girls…” I sucked in a breath. “They’ll move on from this just like they have everything else.”

I told myself that,over and over, as I drove back home. But my manifesting fell to pieces the moment I opened the front door. The aroma of lamb, thyme, and garlic, flavoured with a bit of Worcestershire sauce, hit me as soon as I stepped inside, taking me back years. Mum always made shepherd’s pie for me on my birthday because it was my favourite, and it was the only way she could get Finn to shut up about there being pumpkin in it. On my birthday, even Dad forced him to shut up and eat it as my brother shot me dark looks across the table. I hadn’t had it since I left home, so the smell had me pausing on the doorstep, just breathing it in. Then I was walking forward, down a darkened hall, and into the living area where someone had set up dinner.

The room was dark as well, so it was only the ambient light pooling in through the big sliding doors that illuminated the basket filled with fresh bread rolls, the yeasty scent all too familiar. The shepherd’s pie, complete with lightly browned melted cheese on top, sat in the centre of the table, waiting to be eaten.

They’d made it for me.

Not just my favourite food, but Mum’s recipe, I could just tell. The aroma was exactly the same, even if muted now since the food was cold. I felt a pang as I stepped closer, then another, seeing the cutlery and plates set out on the table. Four place settings. My fingers flexed, wanting to snatch one away, shove the plate in the cupboard, but before I could get close, he arrived.

“You’re home.” Van was trying to keep his tone light, his smile there, but it faded too quickly. “We made you dinner, but—”

“Barbie came to work and wanted me to come around to talk. I left her at a bar the other night because I was with you guys when I was supposed to catch up with her.”

He nodded slowly.

“And now you were with her, when we thought you’d be home with us.” I bristled at his tone, stepping closer, ready to tell him that I didn’t owe anyone anything, when he grabbed my wrist. “Where’s your phone?”

“Here, but…” He held up the screen so face ID would unlock it, then went into my notification settings. “What’re you doing? Van, what’re you—?”

“You don’t owe it to us to come home. You don’t owe us an explanation of where you go and what you do, but…” He held up my phone. “Texting us back so we don’t freak the fuck out would be very nice.” His lips curved just a little. “We had to talk Connor down from calling the cops and lodging a missing person’s report.”

“Don’t you have to wait twenty-four hours?” I squeaked.

“That’s a myth. Kendall…” My phone was pressed back between my limp fingers and as I gripped it, his hands went to my jaw right before his forehead pressed against mine. “I know this is moving really fucking fast, but for us it feels like it’s been moving way too slow. We’ve been waiting for you for nearly ten years, babe. You’re just gonna need to be a little patient with us.”

I did? I was ready to be angry, to jerk myself away with a hiss, but his words disarmed me so thoroughly I found myself just standing there, feeling his lips hover in the space above mine.

“You cooked Mum’s shepherd’s pie for me?”

“Yeah, we did. Connor rang your mum and got the recipe.” That sent alarm bells off in my head, but they were smothered as he got closer. “We worked together and got it made as close to the recipe as possible.”

“But you didn’t eat any?” I asked, glancing at the table then him. “You guys went without dinner?”

“We had a few pieces of toast and a beer instead.”

“But aren’t you hungry?” Not for food, that became apparent. I meant to say that seriously, but as his eyes shone, my words took on new meaning. “I mean, you went to all this work.”

“I can’t eat it without you.” I jumped as a hand went to my waist. “It tastes like shit without you.” Both hands closed around me and then hoisted me up so I sat on the end of the table. “Nothing’s good without you, Kendall.” He stepped between my legs, whispering his words against my lips. “Just you, baby.”

I stared at him then, needing to respond, but as my mouth fell open, a loud rumble from his stomach had both of us looking down.

“Um… seems like your belly has other ideas,” I said.

“Fuck…” He pulled back slowly with a grin. “Maybe I am hungrier than I thought.”

“Well, c’mon. Microwaved shepherd’s pie is almost as good as fresh.”