Chapter 53

Kendall

It is a truth universally acknowledged, in Australia at least, that men are ridiculously protective of their female family members without actually doing a good job of it. Like they have this whole bro code, established between them and other men, about what is OK to do around another bloke’s mum or sister. A guy will fight one of his friend’s for dissing his mum but then do very little to actually show he loves and respects her as a person. So as I watched Dad puff himself up, I frowned slightly and then shook my head.

And Mum’s expression was a perfect copy of mine.

Gage had arrived home with Mum, Dad, and Finn in tow. I’d hastily pulled a pair of shorts and one of the guys’ shirts on and met them in the kitchen.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

I’d said that in a far sharper tone than I’d intended, but yesterday’s bullshit still stung. Then there was Mark and his bully-boy tactics. Mum had glanced pointedly at the kettle, obviously thinking that as the woman of the house, I should offer everyone tea, but I’d stayed right where I was.

“We’ve come to sort this mess out,” Dad had grumbled, arms crossed. “And I could murder a cup of coffee, thanks, love.”

“We’ve come to talk,” Mum corrected.

“Coffee things are there.” I pointed to the section of the kitchen with the kettle. “Mugs are in the cupboard overhead, but you’re not getting anything, not if you’re going to try and pull the same bullshit you did last night.”

Dad jerked back as if slapped.

“Kendall!”

“Dad.” I squared my shoulders. “This is my home and my life and it’s your choice if you want to still be a part of it but let me make this clear.” I stared past them to where Gage lurked, his lips twitching. “This is real. Gage, Van, Connor, and me, one way or the other, we’re gonna try and make this work.”

“Then we all better sit down and talk this out then, shouldn’t we?” Mum said, bustling into the kitchen to make coffee.

I relented, searching around in the cupboards for some biscuits, plating a packet of Tim Tams, but when I went to carry them over, Gage took them. He steered me over to a seat and then set the biscuits down, but it was the warmth of his hand that helped settle me. I looked up as I sat down, and all of my irritation faded away.

“There it is.” I looked up to see Mum smile as she set coffees down on the table. “I caught Gage looking at you like that more times than I can count.”

“You did?” Finn frowned as he looked at me, then Mum. “You never said anything to me about that.”

“Probably because I knew how you’d respond,” she said, settling down beside him. “Badly. You were always jealous of Kendall, even when she was a little girl.”

“Jealous?”

Finn and I said the word at the same time with almost identical expressions of disbelief.

“You were the baby of the family,” Mum said, “and the only daughter. Daddy’s little princess.” Dad shifted uncomfortably on his chair, dragging his mug closer.

“Princess?” I stared at them, looking for evidence of pod people because that couldn’t be right.

“You always got away with everything,” my brother grumbled. “We’d pull a prank and Dad would laugh, but then he’d make me clean it up.” He glared at me. “Even if you were the one who’d made the mess.”

“You needed to look after your sister—” Dad said.

“By terrorising me?” I’d meant to keep that lighthearted but failed. “The four of you tormented me the entire time.”

“And you gave as good as you got.” Finn’s arms came to rest on the table. “Remember when you weakened the seams on all my shorts?”

Shit, I’d forgotten about that. My lips twitched as I tried to stifle a smile, but a snort from Gage stopped that cold. I let out a little chuckle as I remembered my brother walking down the hallway, unable to work out why everyone was laughing, right up until the point someone pointed out the big hole in the back of his shorts. I’d used that trick a few times, waiting for Finn to forget and be lulled back into a false sense of security, pulling that prank off enough that he started exclusively doing his own washing.

“The piece of paper between my sandwiches?” Finn said.

God, I’d gotten him a few times with that one too. He was too damn slack to make his own and Mum would tell me to make him some as I was doing my lunch, so I’d slide a piece of baking paper between the bread and filling, cutting it neatly so he wouldn’t notice until he bit down into it. I did it often enough everyone stopped asking me to make my brother anything.

“I forgot all about that,” I said.

“That’s what happens.” Mum blew on her tea then took a sip. “Everyone keeps score in their hearts of the injuries done to them, forgetting about their own behaviour. How they’ve hurt others.” She glanced at Finn. “The things they… explored when they were young.” A meaningful look for Dad. “But what keeps us together as a family is our ability to make amends when we’ve done the wrong thing and to forgive, if not forget, once someone has properly atoned.”

Dad and Finn looked at each other then, then right as my brother sucked a breath in, the front door was pulled open and a voice cut across everyone.

“Kendall, you up? You will not believe the morning I had. I have seen photographic evidence of our parents, yours and mine and Gage’s and Connor’s, all having a gang…” Van’s lips fell closed as soon as he reached the kitchen. His eyes went wide as he saw everyone clustered in here, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “A gang photo.” He shot them a sheepish smile. “Our parents were… bikies, yeah, bikies, back in the day.”

“Heather still has those photos?” Dad asked Mum. “I thought she threw them out.”

“Have you ever known Heather to throw a thing out? She took in every old thing I tossed from the house when we moved,” Mum replied.

“They weren’t bikies.” Van whispered that in my ear. “It was a gang bang.”

“Got it, thanks.” I smiled at him tightly, then as his words filtered in, I found myself settling back in my chair. Laughter bubbled up inside me as I looked at each one of my family members in turn. “So, you were pissed that the guys wanted to be in a relationship with me because there’d be no gang bang action for you with your sister.” Finn’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t say a thing. “And you lot had sex parties with the neighbours.” Dad flushed bright red, but Mum just met my gaze head on. “So the problem isn’t that I’m in a loving relationship with more than one man, just that it doesn’t include my brother or that it’s something serious rather than sexual exploration.”

“Well, Kendall—” Dad started to say.

“Yes.” Mum didn’t overrule the boys often, but when she did, everyone listened. “That and shock. Things have gotten more conservative now. You just don’t hear about more than two people being together, so it took us by surprise, but…” Her focus shifted to Dad. “We reacted badly yesterday and after talking to Gage, I think we can start to make amends.”

“I’m gonna sign my shares in the company over to you, Kendall.”

I blinked, stared at Finn, looked more closely for that whole pod people thing, and then blinked again.

“What?”

“Gage has made really clear that the way things were couldn’t continue and…” My brother sucked in a breath. “IoweyoubecauseIwasajealousprick.”

“What?”

“Fuck, I knew you were going to make a big deal out of this.” Finn sighed. “I was jealous, OK? Of the attention everyone gave the only girl. Of the fact nothing seemed to keep you down. You always bounced back from every prank and then started planning your own. You gave as good as you got and…” He nodded slowly. “I respected that.” But any good feeling he was experiencing seemed to fade. “I fucked up, though. First with your interview and then when I should’ve admitted it was my fault.” He shook his head. “Moving you out and away from the guys. I’ve started therapy.”

“The fuck you did…” I stared at him. “Really?”

“Really. Cheryl and I are working through things, and it’s become clear.” His lips thinned. “I can be a bit of a bloody prick at times, so… I’m signing my share of the company to you. You’ll be a quarter owner and…” Finn looked past me to Gage and Van. “Potentially one of my bosses. I know you fellas don’t want a bar of me now, but… I need a fucking job to support my family, and you know I’m a good plumber.”

“Probably because you’re as full of shit as those pipes,” Gage drawled.

“Yeah.” Finn chuckled. “I probably am. So, whaddya think, baby sister? I know I’ve still got a long way to go to fixing things between us, but having me as your minion might go some way towards that.”

He was still my brother. Annoying, infuriating, and frustrating, but my brother, so I was up and out of my seat and walking around the table before anyone could say another thing. When I flung my arms around him, his hands clasped mine.

“I’ll make the guys get you to do all the shitty jobs,” I promised. “Cleaning toilets with toothbrushes. Your toothbrush, hopefully.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said in a shaky voice.

“So that’s what you were up to.”

We all turned to see Connor standing there, obviously having entered the house much more quietly. He just stared at everything that was unfolding, as if unable to believe his eyes. Then he nodded at Gage first, then Van.

“Where the hell did you get to this morning?” I asked, pulling back from Finn. “All of you?”

“We went to fix everything,” was all the reply I got.