18. Chapter 18

Chapter eighteen

Sammy

O h my god, oh my god, oh my god. I have never been so nervous in all my life. I'm so glad Blue took my bait and has left to drive across the city to get my doughnuts from a tiny shop that I have been talking wistfully about all day. He is such a sweetheart.

At this time of day, the traffic is going to be awful. It's going to take him ages. I feel so bad. I've never even had those doughnuts before. I just googled independent shops at the far end of town. I needed a way to get him out of the house.

But what if the delivery doesn't arrive when it is supposed to? I would have sent Blue on a wild goose chase for nothing.

I'm standing here on the driveway as if I can will the delivery truck into existence with the power of my thoughts. There are probably a thousand more useful things I could be doing, but I'm rooted to this spot.

"Calm down," says Lello as he squeezes my shoulder.

I take a deep breath. "You're right, everything is going to be fine."

"I didn't say that." Lello wrinkles his cute little nose.

I stare at him. He shrugs.

"If you don't calm down, Blue will sense that you're anxious and he'll turn the car around to come check on you. "

My heart skips crazily. What the hell? Stop being anxious or things will get worse? What the hell am I supposed to do with that information?

"Thanks, Lello," I say drolly.

The little kelpie beams at me. "You're welcome!"

Then his gaze flicks over my shoulder. "Oh, I see the truck! I told you everything was going to be okay!"

He skips away from me, back towards the house. "Guys! The truck is here!" he bellows into the doorway.

I shake my head in weary resignation. Lello is quite something.

One by one, the boys emerge from the house. My smile gets wider and wider. Everyone is here, apart from Ned. He's at work, and besides, it is the middle of the day, so he wouldn't be able to help much anyway.

But Lello, Red, Jade, Pink and Gray are here. So are Mal and Carter. Brodie is at the pet store, picking up fish.

I still feel super bad about yelling at Red and Brodie about how shit Blue's pool is. But they are the de facto leaders of this strange family, so they should have realized. To their credit, they were aghast once I pointed it out, and have been very happy to pay for everything I have organized.

And Red is here, ready to lug heavy bags of gravel around to the back, and Brodie is acting as fish delivery guy. So they are completely redeemed and forgiven in my eyes.

The truck finishes reversing up the driveway and comes to a stop. The engine switches off. The driver jumps out of the cab and walks towards us while pulling on his heavy work gloves. He looks up and freezes. His jaw drops and his gaze darts everywhere.

I bite back my chuckle. Poor guy. It can't be everyday he is greeted by a small army of incredibly hot twinks. The others may be well out of my league, but I'm still not bad to look at. So this man really is being presented with a feast of eye-candy.

"You got something for us, darling?" I wink .

He startles and shakes himself out of his stupor. He opens the back door of his truck and starts heaving bags of gravel out and onto the driveway.

Red takes the first bag and the poor driver blinks in surprise as the slender young man picks up the heavy sack with ease and saunters off with it.

Lello is next, and he makes it look just as easy. Gray takes two bags.

My gaze locks with Pink and we both have to cover our mouths to hide our giggles.

Mal takes the next bag, and he's a big guy, so that doesn't look too strange.

The poor driver unloads some person-sized plants and Pink takes one of those since he is basically human and doesn't have freaky strength like the others.

The driver looks relieved at this return to normality, but then Jade grabs a sack of gravel and walks away with it like it weighs no more than a pillow.

Our hapless human driver gives up on trying to act like nothing is up, and just stops and stares after Jade with his eyes all but bugging out and sweat dripping down his face.

Shit. I thought it was funny, but what if he actually gets hysterical? Ordinary people aren't supposed to know that the paranormal world exists.

Carter strides forward and slaps the man on the back, in that dude bro way some men do. He says something and the driver laughs. Then his shoulders relax.

Carter steers him back towards his cab, and soon they are out of sight.

Looks like Lello's mate has this. Phew! Thank goodness for that, because I wouldn't have a clue what to say to put the man's mind at rest.

I pick up one of the tall, willowy plants and head towards the pool. When I get to the back of the house, everyone is standing around the pool staring at it. Judging by the empty bags, they've already tipped the gravel in. As I get nearer, the water comes into view. It's all murky and cloudy.

A god awful shriek leaves my lungs.

Lello whips around. "It's just sediment. It will settle."

My lungs are heaving. It's fine. It's all fine. It's only sediment. I haven't ruined Blue's pool. It's going to be lovely when it is done.

Lello hands me a shovel. I take it and blink at him blankly.

He rolls his eyes at me. "To spread the gravel around."

Oh right. Yeah. That makes sense. I can breathe underwater now. I can simply stroll to the bottom of the pool and shovel gravel around. Totally normal thing to do.

The kelpie shimmies out of his tiny shorts and picks up a rake.

"Come on, I'll help you," he says brightly.

I nod and move over to the shallow end. I'm keeping my shorts on, thank you very much. I never used to be shy, but these guys make me feel all sorts of inferior.

The water is cool. Pleasant. It feels like silk against my skin. Surely on a hot day like this, it should feel freezing? I wonder if it is another effect of the mate bond?

Lello walks with me towards the deep end. The water sloshes against my chest. My legs stop moving. My subconscious is convinced that going any further is a bad idea.

Lello grins at me. "See you at the bottom!" And then he disappears.

Easy enough for him to say. He has been breathing water his whole life. But it's fine. I can do this. What's the worst that can happen? Lello won't let me drown. At least, I don't think he will?

With that comforting thought in mind. I take a deep breath and duck under the water. It's murky down here, but not as bad as it looks from up above.

I find Lello standing at the bottom of the pool happily shoveling gravel around. The small stones have fallen into small piles, but most of the tiled floor is already covered. This isn't going to take long.

It already looks so much better than the sterile tiles. White stones were a good choice. It's going to look amazing when it is all done.

Lello grins at me and I realize I'm breathing water as if it's no big deal. I grin back and get to work.

The boys get some more bags of gravel and dump them down. Then Lello and I emerge to get the plants. Bedding them down in the stones is easy. The bright green ferns sway in the water and it looks like they are dancing.

We go back up to the top just as Brodie arrives with the fish. He grumbles about the lack of choice for cold, salt-water fish. But I think he has done a brilliant job. He has found three different types. And they look pretty to me. It's a shame we can't heat the swimming pool hot enough to give Blue the tropical experience of the aquarium. But this is definitely an improvement on what he had before.

Brodie hands me something that looks a bit like a hairnet.

"It needs to go over the pool pump, so the fish don't get sucked in."

My stomach rolls. Eww. Poor little fishes.

"I'll do it!" says Lello, and he snatches the hairnet thing from me and dives into the pool.

I wonder if Blue can talk to the fish and tell them to stay away from the pump? I swear he was communicating with the ones in the aquarium.

"It will keep the gravel out too," adds Brodie.

I nod. Oh god. There is so much I didn't think about. This all could have gone horribly wrong. It's a good thing I have such sensible friends.

A warm, glowy feeling fills my insides. Friends. I have friends.

"Blue!" shouts someone in surprise .

I whirl around. Blue is standing a few feet away, a box of doughnuts in one lax hand, looking like it is about to drop to the ground. He is staring wide eyed at the pool.

How long has he been standing there? There are so many people here, it would be easy to miss him.

I run up to him and take the doughnuts.

"Surprise!" I say weakly.

Blue just continues to stare.

"I know it looks a little murky, but it is just sediment, it will settle. There are plants down there too. And three different types of fish. Well, the fish are still in the containers but we are about to put them in," I babble.

Blue slowly folds to the ground, like a puppet whose strings have been cut. He covers his face with his hands, and he sobs.

My heart is pounding so hard that I swear it's going to break free from my ribcage. I cast my gaze around the other boys. Everyone looks worried.

Then I feel it. Pure and shining joy. Elation. Sheer happiness. Flowing down the mate bond.

I let out a breath. "It's all right!" I call out to everyone. "They are happy tears."

I made Blue happy, and it is the best feeling in the world.