Chapter 44

Gage

“I don’t get it,” Van hissed at me as we picked our way very carefully through aisles of fragile china. “It’s just shit that you cook food on. Why is it such a big deal to Kendall and…?” He blanched when he peered at a price tag. “Why is it so damn expensive?”

“Why did we buy that brand-new DeWalt circular saw?” I asked him. “The old one was fine.”

“But it had a laser sight and it takes one of those newer, longer-life batteries,” he replied. “The blades last longer and… Oh.”

I knew he’d work it out eventually. He glanced back to where Barbie was pointing out one thing then another, getting more and more excited by the second, but my girl wasn’t really paying attention. Instead, she picked up a pastel green pot, turning it over in her hands as she inspected it with a reverence we saved for tools.

“So Barbie was right.” Connor came to stand beside us after having a word with one of the sales assistants. He’d made clear what the brief was today: for Kendall to walk out of here with everything she could possibly want for the kitchen. I didn’t care if we were the only ones who used the items we bought. We just wanted her to have the best of the best in case she ever decided she wanted to cook. “This is exactly where we needed to take Kendall. I thought massages—”

“We can still do that.” I grinned despite myself—and had been all day. Some of the guys made mention of it, giving me shit, but I didn’t care. I was on top of the damn world. “We can do all the things you’ve got stored away in that head of yours.” I glanced at Connor. “That’s what this means. Kendall said yes.”

“Kendall said yes.”

The other two repeated those words with the kind of reverence people save for sacred rites, though in some ways that was what this felt like. My destiny, that was what had me moving towards her.

“What do you think?” I asked as I sidled up to my girl.

“I like the purple,” she said, picking that pot up. “But the green would suit your decor better.”

“So get the purple.”

“Maybe some green, some purple…” She tapped the bottom of her lip. “I mean, how many am I buying? This is the kind of cookware that will last a lifetime, but that comes at a cost…”

I clicked my fingers to get the attention of a passing salesperson, which in hindsight was kinda rude, but I wasn’t focussed on that.

“Do you have this entire range in purple and green?” I asked, waving a hand in the general direction of the items.

“Yes, we do,” the woman said, her manner warming instantly.

“We’ll grab both then.”

“Gage…!” Kendall gripped my arm and hissed that at me as I led her deeper into the store. “We can’t buy that much cookware!”

“Yes, we can.” I stopped to smile down at her. “Remember what today is?”

I hated that we had done this to Kendall, made her all squirmy and uncomfortable when someone was nice to her, but I couldn’t look backwards, only forwards. I wanted her to get used to this shit. Fuck, even expect it. Take gifts with open arms like she had a right to. I tried to communicate all of that in my stare as I waited her out.

“It’s yes day,” she squeaked. “God…”

“Yes to being pampered. Yes to being looked after.” Barbie’s grin got broader and broader as she swooped in and gave my girl a hug. “Yes to finally being treated like a princess for once.” Her nose wrinkled. “A princess that cooks.” She shook her head and continued. “Yes to getting all the good dick.”

“Jesus, Barbie!” Kendall hissed, looking around guiltily, making me wonder exactly what she had been sharing with her best friend. “And anyway, where the hell are we going to store it all?” She looked up at me. “Your kitchen is big, but it’s not that big.”

“What’s not that big?” Van asked, appearing at her shoulder.

“Your dick,” I shot back, earning me a dark look. “But we’re going to need to build some more storage. Kendall’s buying a whole lot of cookware—”

“We don’t need two sets,” she insisted. “That’s so much money!”

“Let’s see if we can spend more on some decent knives,” I said with a grin, steering her down the aisle.

It took a few hours, but once the staff worked out what was going on, they proved to be very attentive. It was lucky we brought both vans because we ended up filling up the backs of both of them with all the things we purchased. We might not be able to spring for another yes day of this scale for a while, but it was worth it. Kendall’s grin hadn’t faded for a second, not even when we got home.

“I could makesome great soups in winter with those stock pots.” I nodded along to her chatter. “Stew a bunch of bones real slowly over a long, long time and create a bunch of my own stock, then add some meat and vegetables.” Her eyes widened as she stared at me. “You’ve got a big yard. We could grow vegetables in the back.”

“We’ve got a big yard we can grow vegetables in,” I corrected.

I glanced at Connor, catching the moment he went very still. He’d paid good money to have the backyard landscaped and maintained. It didn’t mean shit to us, but he’d made clear it helped with the value of the house.

“A vegetable garden?” he said. Van and I shared a look, shaking our heads.

“Just remember what day it is, Connor,” Van said.

We watched Connor’s Adam’s apple bob right before he smiled.

“Yeah, we could do that. Why don’t you come out the back and show us where you think it could go?”

“Maybe we could ring for some Chinese takeaway and eat it out the back on the grass?” Van suggested.

“Eating under the stars?” She nodded slowly then grinned. “Yes, I’d like that.”

“Almost as much as Connor would like to build a vegetable garden.” He shot me a dark look, but I just grinned.

“You don’t like vegetables?” Kendall asked.

“I like vegetables just fine,” he replied, steering her out of the back door.

“He loves chickens even more.”

Having a chicken run would have Connor breaking out in hives. Chicken shit everywhere? Might be good fertiliser, but the smell and the mess was enough to get a firm no from him.

“Oh my god, free-range chickens would be amazing!” Kendall looked over her shoulder at me, making clear she understood the joke.

“Now, Kendall—” Connor started to say.

“What day is it today, Red?” Van called out as he put the takeaway order in.

“Yes day!”

She threw her arms up in the air, just like Barbie had.

“But chickens…?” It was then I knew just how much Kendall meant to Connor because as he let out a sigh, I knew she’d won. “Fine, you can have one.”

“You can’t just have one!” Kendall’s faux outrage was pitch perfect. “Chickens are pack animals.”

“They’re not…” Connor looked around, taking in her smirk and then ours, shaking his head before grimacing. “You fucking bastards. Is the vegetable garden a joke as well?”

“Nope. Mum always grew her own food in the backyard, and things like carrots taste way better when just pulled from the ground. The natural sugars are still present and…” Kendall paused, then grinned guiltily. “And you don’t care about any of that.”

“We do if you do,” he replied, taking her hand in his. “So, how big are you thinking?”

The backyard was expansive, a stylish combination of grass, carefully tended flower beds, and gravel entertainment areas spread before us, but it was soulless. None of us came out here except to hang the washing out. It’d be a good thing to dig up some of that grass, to install some long rows of freshly turned earth for Kendall to plant crops in. Not only would we apparently have sweeter carrots, we’d have a home, and I think Connor started to see it. All the times Mrs. Kennedy had us out the back pulling up weeds, having to instruct us very firmly on the difference between nuisance plants and seedlings. He nodded slowly as Kendall threw her arm around him, describing exactly what she was thinking.

“It’ll be just like before, won’t it?” Van came to stand beside me, keeping his voice low.

“Better.”

Because as I stared, if I squinted my eyes just a little, I saw a couple of small figures running around the two of them, playing in the water feature, shrieking as they splashed each other, and complaining when the gravel bit into the soft soles of their feet before asking to be carried. It was early days, but I couldn’t help but dream on yes day of two, maybe three, kids trailing after their mother.

“Yes,” I said finally. “Yes.”