Chapter 45

Kendall

I was still riding the high of yes day when my sister-in-law, Cheryl, came by the bakery.

“Hi there,” I said as I barrelled out of the kitchen. Olivia was being trained to take over from me but couldn’t start for a few days. “How can I…? Cheryl!”

“Say hello to Auntie Kendall!” she said, bending down to direct the two cutest kids in the world.

Kate was five and would start school next year, while Benny came a little sooner than Cheryl and Finn had planned, being only a year younger. The two of them looked up and then rushed around the counter to throw their arms around my legs.

“Arnie Ken Doll!” Benny still mangled my name and most words, but his cute little husky voice had me squeezing him and his sister tight.

“Hey, Benny boy.” I ruffled his hair. “And how’s my favourite princess?”

Kate gazed up at me with a big smile.

“Good! When are you coming around to play Barbies again? You do the best voices.”

“Do I?” I straightened up. “I’ll have to sort something out with your mum soon. Actually…” I tapped a finger on my bottom lip with exaggerated care. “I’ve just moved into a new place, one with a pool.”

“A pool!” Kate’s head whipped around. “Mum, can we go to Auntie Kendall’s place, please, please!” Her little hands clapped together under her chin.

“We’ll see.” Cheryl looked calm enough, but there was a slight shift in her tone that had me looking her way. “How about we get you two a finger bun to share—”

“To share…” the kids both whined.

“But Benny hogs all of it.”

“Kate licks all the icing off!”

“Are you OK with them having one each?” I asked Cheryl in a quiet voice.

“Sure.” She let out a long-suffering sigh which had me plating up two finger buns, one with sprinkles for Kate and one with chocolate icing for Benny, before I set them down at a table over on the edge of the bakery. “How about a muffin and a mugaccino for mum?”

“Thanks, Kendall,” Cheryl said with a smile. It wasn’t until I pushed both of them over that she finally told me why she was here. “Did you have time for a chat?”

I liked my sister-in-law. Not only was she brave enough to put up with Finn’s shit, but she was always unfailingly patient with the kids and kind to our side of the family. So when she asked that question, I nodded, right as a timer went off.

“Yes, but I can’t right now.” I frowned slightly. “I’m so sorry. I’m both cooking and serving at the moment and not doing either thing especially well.”

“You cook now?” She blinked at that, having come into our lives after I’d lost the apprenticeship.

“I do.” I popped a hip. “You’re looking at a brand-new first-year bakery apprentice.” The alarm kept blaring, and I caught the subtle scent of bread getting a little too overdone. “And I’ve gotta grab something out of the oven right now. Come by the guys’ place…” I stopped myself. “Our place after work. You know where, right?”

“You’ve moved into Connor and the boys’ place?” Her question was perfectly innocent, but reading between the lines, I could tell she knew in exactly what capacity.

“Finn filled you in?” I asked.

She shrugged, then shook her head, glancing back when she heard the kids giggling. They had icing all over their faces.

“As much as he can. You know your brother.” Did I ever. “He tells me his side of the story, but…” She turned back to me. “I’m just trying to put two and two together. The change to the business, everything.”

“We’ll talk this arvo,” I assured her, backing up towards the kitchen. “I should be home around three. That work for you?”

“You got it,” she said, grabbing her mug and raising it.

“Hey, baby…”

I’d managed to get away a little early, having time to grab a big haul of snacks I knew the kids liked on the way home and I was setting them up in bowls now as I felt a pair of arms go around me and lips press against my neck. One kiss, then another had me shivering before I turned around to find Van standing there. That lazy smile, the way all the golden pretty hair had been messed up by a long day at work had me wanting to move closer, clean him up, right before I got him dirty again.

“Mm… that look.” Another kiss and another. “I love it when you get that sparkle in your eyes.” More kisses. “Means you’re thinking something dirty, and I wanna find out exactly what.”

“Shit, we can’t.” I jerked away and turned to the snacks. “Cheryl and the kids are—” My explanation was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. “I said they could come by and use the pool.”

“Treating this place like it’s your home. That’s what I want to see,” he said as he pulled away and moved towards the front door. “As well as enough sugar to send two little kids into a diabetic coma.”

“Van!”

I heard Benny’s shriek all the way down the hall as the kids came stampeding in. Well, Kate did. Van had slung Benny up on his shoulders, giving him a horsey ride into the kitchen as his sister trailed behind him. Both Kate and Cheryl eyed the gap between Benny’s head and the light fittings, but when it looked like Benny was gonna get a forehead full of glass, Van dropped down with a chuckle then kept on going.

“So, how was work…” Cheryl looked down at the snacks as Kate drew closer, the little girl’s eyes like saucers. “Oh, you didn’t have to.”

“Kinda did. I apologise for the bad behaviour that is about to result, but it’s an auntie’s sacred duty to feed her niblings full of junk.”

“Mum, can I have some MM’s, pleeease?” Kate asked.

“Well, say thank you,” Cheryl said.

“MM’s!” Benny shouted, instantly letting go of Van’s shoulders, forcing my boyfriend to scramble to slow his slide down Van’s back. “I want MM’s!” And with all the selfishness of a small child, he pushed forward, shoving his sister out the way.

Benny was just a little kid. Academically, I knew that the part of his brain that would contain capacity for empathy just wasn’t developed yet, but there was a strange kind of pain that came from watching Kate get pushed out of the way. Her eyes went wide, her hands threatening to lose their cache of chocolate buttons as pain, then outrage, flashed across her face.

“Muuum…!” Kate said in that high-pitched way only young children seem to master.

“Benny—!”

Cheryl snatched the bowl out of her son’s grip and held it up, trying to ensure he listened to what she had to say, but right as his face began to crease up, Van swept in.

“Hey, little buddy.” Was there anything more masculine than a man’s biceps popping as he held a child? “That’s not how we treat our sister. Look. Ben. Ben.” But the little boy was squirming determinedly, his face getting redder and redder by the minute. “Benny, Auntie Kendall bought all these snacks just for the two of you.” Van grabbed a Cheezel and crunched it. “Damn, that’s good.”

Benny watched Van chew his snack, eyes wide, and my guy just grinned.

“There’s enough for everyone,” Van said. “As long as we’re nice. Can you be nice to your sister?”

Crisis averted. A little nod from Benny meant he could be allowed down and rather than dive for the MM’s, Benny went to the bowl of Cheezels, laughing as he put the rings of snacks on each of his fingers like they were jewellery. He crunched one, then another as Cheryl lowered the MM bowl down.

“Kids…” She sighed. “Don’t ever have any or…” She looked speculatively at Van as he tossed Cheezels in the air and caught them with his mouth, something that had both kids laughing. “Or join me in the trenches. Yeah, do that.” My sister-in-law turned to face me. “That’s a possibility now, right?”

“The gossip mill has been going into overdrive?” I asked as I grabbed bottles of water out of the fridge, handing her one.

“In a way.” She frowned slightly. “I mean my husband comes home with a black eye, grumbling about the fact he’s being kicked out of a company that he helped build. I mean…” She shrugged. “I’ve got questions.”

“OK, shoot.”

As Van got the kids all ready to get into the pool, we went into the lounge room, watching the lot of them through the big, glass door.

“What…?” Her hand moved restlessly. “What happened? The guys seemed to be resolutely single, and while they had their ups and downs, the company seemed to be doing well. We didn’t see a lot of you, Kendall, but you seemed happy when we did.”

As I sank down onto the couch, a long sigh followed.

“If you really want to know, I need to go right back to the start.”

“OK.” She shot me a nervous smile. “I mean Finn doesn’t know I’m here. He thinks I went to a playgroup. Every time I try to ask what’s going on, he just grumbles some bullshit. Hit me, Kendall. Tell me everything.”

So I did.

“He did what?”I’d never heard Cheryl raise her voice before, but she did right now, staring at me intently, and somehow, that was validating. “I knew you guys were never close but…” She glanced over at Benny and Kate. “But to bully you for all those years.”

“He doesn’t treat you like that, right?” I asked.

It was something I’d always wondered about my brother’s relationship with his wife.

“I’d cut his balls off if he tried.” I snorted at that mental image, but her sharp tone went a long way to easing my fears. “But…”

“Muuuum!”

Kate had a pair of lungs on her, but she’d had to develop them. Her little brother was a bit of a terror. He’d splashed Kate, and when she began to splutter, a gleeful smile spread across his face. He went back for more, splashing and splashing until Van loomed between them. Kate shot him a grateful look right as Van stared down at Benny.

“Ben, we don’t treat your sister like that.”

Van didn’t realise it, but that actually helped heal something inside me. It was like a small bone just snicking back into place, easing all the other associated pain.

“Katie likes it,” Benny insisted.

“No, I don’t!” Kate snapped.

“She’s just being a girl…”

Fuck, didn’t that bring memories back, to when my gender was somehow a slur. It had filled me with outrage then, but I didn’t expect my hands to start shaking now. I rose at the same time as Cheryl, the two of us moving to intercept.

“Of course she’s being a girl,” Van told Benny. “She is a girl. Girls are awesome.”

“Ew…” Benny made an ugly face.

“Your mum is a girl.” The expression softened as the little boy looked through the glass door at Cheryl. “So’s Auntie Kendall. Girls are freaking amazing, Benny, but that’s not the point. Splashing someone when they tell you to stop is not OK.” Van’s eyes found mine through the glass. “Trust me, mate, if you can learn that now, it’ll save you a lot of trouble in the future.”

Apparently that settled the matter. Van had the two of them playing a game of Marco Polo, and seconds later, they were both giggling as Van floundered around blindly, trying to find them. But Cheryl? Her calm didn’t return so easily.

“He’s good with kids.” My eyes flicked sideways at the slight shake in her voice, and she shot me a tremulous smile. “I might be organising a baby shower for you in a year or two.”

“Maybe,” I replied.

“A dad that sticks up for his daughter.” Her eyes searched my face. “We both know how important that is. Katie can be a real whinger.”

“She must get that from Finn,” I said, trying to make a joke out of things, but it fell flat.

“She’s fussy and doesn’t like to get dirty, and Benny…” She shook her head. “He gets his hands into everything. We’re trying to get him to understand boundaries.” But then she shook her head sharply. “I’m trying to make him understand boundaries, but Finn…”

I could just imagine what my brother was doing. He was like Dad-lite, and every time he spouted the same shit that was outdated back in our parents’ day, I barely resisted the urge to nut punch him. He’d learned not to say ‘boys will be boys’ around me, lest he cop a lecture, but… None of us held Benny’s need to make noise and mess, to rampage through life, against him. We just wanted Kate to have the same privileges.

“Thanks for sitting down and filling me in on what’s going on. Finn’s a mess. He’s just been sitting at home, drinking every day, and when I try to talk to him…” Her lips thinned. “I think I know what I need to do now.”

What? I wanted to ask, politeness the only thing that stopped me. What will you do? I stared at the kids, saw Benny was harassing his sister again, but Van managed to redirect him, challenging him to a race. That competitive gleam in Benny’s eyes had him focussing entirely on Van, right before the two of them launched themselves across the water. Was history going to repeat itself? That was what I really wanted to know, but I kept my mouth shut.

“The reason why I first came to see you is there’s a BBQ on this weekend,” Cheryl said instead. “Your parents are coming to town to hang out with Van and Gage’s parents. The boys will get the invite soon enough, but I figured I’d let you know.”

I went very, very still right then, trying to imagine it. Gage carrying a slab of beer over his shoulder, me with a big salad in my arms, while Van and Connor… Everyone would look up, be delighted to see us, and then start putting two and two together. How did we all arrive at the same time? Why was Connor taking the salad from me and putting it on the trestle table? Why was Van swooping in to kiss…?

“Thanks,” I replied finally. “I’m not sure what we’ve got on then, but we’ll let the parents know.

“Sounds good.” She got up and opened the door. “C’mon, kids, it’s time to go!”

“Awww…”

Some complaints-Benny had a bit of a tantrum, but Van and I managed to jolly him out of it-and then the kids were bundled into the car.

“Maybe I’ll see the two of you on Saturday night?” Cheryl said from inside the car.

“What’s on Saturday night?” Van asked.

“Our parents are having a BBQ,” I replied.

“They are? Shit, and we’re invited.” We both waved as Cheryl’s car took off, the kids turning around to press their faces against the window, waving furiously as they pulled away. “So, are we going?”

I sucked in a breath, ready to answer, but the words just didn’t come out.