Chapter 16: Family

Dad, Sarah and I were out the front when Snow pulled up in the drive the next morning.

Dad and I were teaching Sarah the basic exercises of Taekwondo, and we both agreed she was a natural. I knew dad would love having someone new to take to the dojo. I also suspected that with her grace, mum might include ballet or some sort of dancing lessons.

We turned to see Ryan get out and then Beth got out too. Ryan hugged dad, and I hugged Beth. I gave her a big kiss too. I had really missed her, and I felt a lot of my tension dissipate with her in my arms. I then proudly introduced her to my dad, and he gave her a big hug.

Then Sarah said, “Wow! Does this whole family glow?”

I rubbed the top of her head, “Yep, even you do.”

She looked at me in surprise and then grinned. “That’s why I belong here,” she told me and then put her arms up to Ryan to get her hug. He happily hugged her, and they introduced themselves to each other as we went inside.

Mum came down the hall with Tommy, and I had to smile at her with love. She was one happy mum, or should I now say, Grandma? She cuffed Ryan up the side of his head and then hugged him.

She hugged Beth and then stood back and looked at her. “I stand corrected son, she is way better looking than me,” she said. Then she bustled off to the kitchen to get the jug on for coffee and tea.

Mr Walters came out to see what all the hubbub was about, so he got introduced as well. He looked at Ryan, “You’re damn lucky she was at least sixteen when she fell pregnant and that you weren’t eighteen,” he said.

Ryan blushed. It wasn’t by much, but then again Darcy wasn’t going to press charges, and neither was Tanya. I grabbed Ryan and dragged him off. “What about Indy?” I asked when I got him to my room.

“Oh shit! Sorry, I forgot to tell you. We split up after you and Beth went back to the island two weeks ago. She was nagging me about moving in. I told her I wasn’t ready for a live-in girlfriend and that I’d do the asking when I was.”

“She got the shits with me, finally, and she told me to get stuffed. Her crap was gone when I got home that night. I haven’t even bothered to ring her, and she hasn’t called me. Brian said she was sucking on some guys face in the bar last weekend, but I didn’t go upstairs.”

Ryan shrugged, and I asked why he had smiled when I gave him the ring? He grinned. “Tanya’s face came into my mind. I was going to give Indy the flick. I even told her after you gave me the rings that I didn’t love her and only wanted to be friends, but I don’t think she believed me.”

“I knew it would be a couple of months before I could come and find out where Tanya was, so I let Indy stick around until she worked out, she wasn’t going to get what she wanted. Probably not my proudest moment but she was the one chasing and didn’t want to hear no.”

I understood where he was coming from. Some people didn’t like been told you weren’t interested in ‘for keeps’ and went after you harder. He didn’t know when he was leaving, so why should he say no to sex that was being freely offered. He had told the girl that he didn’t love her, and that sex and friendship were all that he was offering her.

“What about your job?” I asked him.

“I’ll go back after I see Tanya and my son. It will probably take me a month to six weeks to finish up, but we will work it out. They are my problems big brother, but I do know how to ask for help if I need it,” he assured me.

I told him what time the funeral was, and he said he’d be back to pick Beth and me up in time. He gave me a hug and left. I went back to the kitchen. I hadn’t searched his feeling for a while, or I’d have known about Indy. I was slipping, too involved in my own problems I surmised.

I headed back to the kitchen and Beth came and sat in my lap and kissed me until I was poking her. Fuck, she was lucky I didn’t race her off, after a kiss like that. I looked at her, and she grinned at me and then said, “I love your mum.”

I chuckled, “She has that effect on people.”

“Your dad is pretty sexy; unfortunately, he is taken. I’ll just have to settle for the son,” she said.

I growled, and she kissed me again. I was just about to take her to my room and damn her pill, when mum interrupted us, “Put that boy down, you don’t know where he has been, girl.”

Beth laughed, “That’s where you are wrong, Mrs Watson, I know what this boy has been up too.”

She looked at us, and I smiled at mum. She shook her head, “Well, as long as she has been warned. I’ll be interested to see how this turns out.”

Beth said to me, “You should have seen the hunk that Mark was interviewing in town.” She blew on her fingers as she shook her hand back and forth in front of her face, making my mum smile at her before she headed back into the kitchen.

Beth then said, “Mark asked me to get his personal details, so we could process him on Tuesday. He’ll be on the plane with you. He has a house in Mackay, and he is coming from there. So, you can get to know him and show him around. He is getting the room under yours.”

“How come you didn’t tell me on the phone last night?” I asked.

“You were sidetracked by a blonde,” she answered. Then she said, “You’ll probably get sidetracked by another one on Tuesday.”

“He is blonde?” I asked with interest.

“And tanned and a similar build to yours that’s why he was hot. He made me wet. My brother wasn’t happy with him, chatting me up or me showing interest. But Eddie is going back to Townsville, and Mitch isn’t. So, I can’t wait until you see him. He has blue eyes and a cute dimple and even better, he is ex-Army like me,” she said.

I frowned, “How did he hear about the job? I thought Mark had picked someone for the Sparky’s job to replace me?”

“Nope, the bloke changed his mind. Mark rang me and told me to pass it on and then my brother’s ‘friend’, Mitch, said he was looking for a job, so I called Mark back.”

I noted that she had stressed the word ‘friend’ and she had said that he was ‘chatting her up’. Then she winked at me. She had told me that her brother was gay. I hoped she meant Mitch was bisexual like me. I then frowned, “I wouldn’t have thought our other partner, was another Sparky.”

“Well, his specialisation is air-conditioners and refrigeration, and he is also a carpenter. I suppose that comes in handy for installing them. We are often multi-traded in the Army. Mark said he will save management a bundle as he said you’ve needed a Fridgie for a while,” she said.

I grinned at her. Now he fits the other set of bling. I kissed her and said, “Can I try him out first?” Beth laughed and whispered in my ear, “Yes.”

Then she giggled because I was as hard as a rock under her. The last time I’d gone three weeks without sex was when I’d been on a site job eight months before, and I hadn’t been wearing the bling then either.

Mum came and told us to come and get some breakfast while it was hot, and we got up to help ourselves. Mum chuckled at me rearranging things down below. What could I say? Beth was a sexy sheila, and she had been deliberately riling me up talking about Mitch.

My mum knows what I like.

The funeral was thankfully short.

The Joneses had opted for cremation, and it was all done on site. Mum had organised the flowers and Tommy, and Sarah seemed to understand they were both here to say goodbye to their parents. Sarah sat on my lap through the whole thing, and Tommy was happy to be with mum as long as dad didn’t go too far.