Grin and Bear It (Ursa Shifters Book 3), page 34
Chapter 56
I woke up late the next morning and scrambled to get to school on time, but for some reason that didn’t seem to affect me. I breezed in the door like I had time to spare, feeling like I was floating on a cloud. I’d woken up to a ton of messages from the guys, each one wishing me a good morning, checking in to see if I was OK. There was no three anxious days waiting around to see if this was to become more than just a one time thing. The guys were here, present, eager. I was reading a particularly cute message when June found me.
“Ellie.” I stopped where I was, looking up reluctantly, not wanting this sweet, golden bubble to pop, especially when I saw the thin line of June’s lips. “Just getting in?” I went to reply but she shook her head in irritation. “We have your performance review this week and I’ve organised time on Thursday after school. You can let your nominated representative know about the time.”
The guys in my staffroom had hassled me to pick Michelle, the union rep, and I was glad now that I’d listened.
“Of course. Thanks for letting me know.”
“I’ll send you a meeting invite via email with the time,” she said, before nodding and walking off, not waiting for a response.
Pre-sleuth Ellie would’ve been nervous. She would have scurried off to class, going above and beyond, feeling like somehow that June was watching me. But I didn’t now. I made my way up the hall, weaving between students when the bell went and arriving at my classroom door, feeling like somehow I was in this protective bubble. I smiled as the kids filed into class and then asked, “Who’s got some good news to share?” when they were all settled.
I did.
It felt like a secret little flame flickering in my chest, burning, burning, keeping me warm, no matter what happened during my day.
“You look… different,” Meg said when I came into the staffroom for lunch.
“Nope,” I replied, grabbing my lunch from the fridge, but I was unable to stop my lips from curving into a smile.
“Yes, you do.” Her eyes narrowed as she peered at me over her chicken and salad wrap. “What happened? You get laid or something?”
“Pfft!” I made a noise of disgust and then shoved my sandwich in my mouth, lest the truth come out.
“You did!” Meg crowed, her gaze sharpening as she looked me over more closely, others in the staffroom turning around and smiling at the attention, but before she could interrogate me further, Sally, our year coordinator, came in.
“Guys, have you got your report comments uploaded?” she asked with a sigh. “June’s looking them over now and she’s about to start taking the heads of those people who haven’t put them on the school server yet.”
“Shit!” I yelped, aware that most of mine were up, but not all. I got to my feet and exited the staffroom, glad to be out from under Meg’s inspection, but once I’d uploaded the rest of my report comments I found my hand reached for my phone, not my lunch.
Cole had sent some photos of his progress painting my house. Most were wall shots, showing how good the place looked now, at least from the exterior. Another was a goofy selfie of him throwing a thumbs up and a hopeful expression, a newly painted wall behind him. But then there was the video. He looked around warily, then ripped his shirt up and over his head, settling that broad back against one of my walls and then spun a clean paintbrush around his fingers with a look that felt like it burned through my phone screen. I stopped the video abruptly, feeling my heartbeat start to race.
I flicked then to the next message.
Got zapped fixing someone else’s shoddy wiring, Tyson wrote. Still wasn’t as electrifying as being with you.
God… I groaned at the cheesy line, but somehow my grin widened.
The next message was a picture of Nash and Lin taking a selfie together.
Finishing off this job today, Nash wrote. We always do work real well together.
I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks, the echoes of the pleasure I felt when between the two of them feeling out of place, bad in a work setting, but it didn’t stop the thoughts from coming. Instead, there was something forbidden, taboo, as my thumb moved to open a new message and add four recipients.
You’ve fed me, fussed over me… There was another big F to go there, but I didn’t tap that out. How about I return the favour? I forced my thumb to send the message.
You don’t need to do that.
We want to spoil you. You up for more tonight?
Let me take you out tonight, beautiful. A Bunnings sausage is a culinary delight, but I know this cute place…
My notifications went wild as each man made wilder and wilder offers. I shook my head as I read them all, some of their proposals entirely unsuitable for a school night but still… It was nice to be asked, for someone, or several someone’s to be so eager to show me a good time.
But this time, I wanted to be the one hosting.
I’ll cook, I tapped out. I can’t cook many things, but I can cook a lamb roast. Potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, all the trimmings. I’ll get some apple pie from the shops for desert.
I’d never cooked for Derek. In some ways, the lack of effort ran both ways, but suddenly that’s all I wanted to do. But I didn’t have to wait on tenterhooks for a reply, because they were instantaneous.
A beautiful woman and good food? Sign me up, Lin wrote. But as for dessert? Let’s see where the night takes us.
The bell went, letting me know I needed to stop being the sleuth’s prospective mate and go back to being Miss Jennings, but I got to read one last message before the kids came stampeding in through the door.
You wanna cook for us? Nash wrote. Not sure I like the idea of you working up a sweat in the kitchen. Prefer to do that other ways ;) But anything you make? It’ll taste like heaven. Be there with bells on. Just tell me what time.
I felt an echo of that golden pleasure I experienced each time I was around them, the feeling out of place in the classroom. But I had to push that to one side as I shoved my phone into my pocket and started the class.
Hours later, I was starting to question my life choices.
The lamb was in the oven, slow roasting and the savoury scents of lemon, garlic and rosemary filled the house, but as I peeled a metric fuck tonne of potatoes, I looked around the house. Why did I offer to host here? The guys’ house was lovely inside and out. They had a big, top of the line, shining stainless steel oven at their place. I could’ve prepared the meat there, then worked on the potatoes… My brows drew down as I looked beyond the kitchen and to the dining room table, seeing the piles there. But right as the anxiety started to spike, Colleen waltzed in.
“Lamb roast!” she yelped, rushing over. “Have I told you how much I love you?” I tried to fend her off with some sharp elbows to her ribs, but she took advantage of my encumbered state to snuggle into me and pepper me with air kisses.
“Coll… Coll! For fuck’s sake—”
“You cook the best lamb roast. Have I told you that lately? So, so good. And then we have leftovers and I can take them for lunch—” she enthused.
“Maybe not leftovers.” Her onslaught paused then and I knew she was watching me closely. Yep, she stared at me as my eyes slid sideways. “The guys are coming around for dinner.”
“The guys…” She pulled back, smirking as one hand went to her hip. “Damn, girl, you know you don’t need to lure those fellas in with a roast dinner. They’ll love you no matter what. But your famous lamb recipe?” She started to perform a funny little dance. “Someone’s gonna get a boning tonight.”
She sang that over and over, no matter how many times I told her to stop. Even a potato peeler pegged at her head didn’t silence her, until my next comment.
“Though I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t just take the food over to the guys’ place. The twins can have something to eat too and…”
Coll followed my gaze, settling on the dining room table and that’s when I flushed. My feet shifted restlessly, some primitive part of me wanting to shield my doom piles from her gaze, even though she saw them every day.
“OK, so don’t get mad…”
No sentence that started that way ever ended well, so I bristled as she stepped away, hands outstretched as if to ward me off. I thought she was going to step in and try and sort the mess, part of me stiffening, ready to leap forward and stop her. Instead she disappeared into her room, appearing not long afterwards with an armful of cane and wicker.
“These are some cute collapsible trunks I picked up from Kmart not long ago,” she said, eyeing me warily. “They fold up to nothing, but when you assemble them…” She demonstrated, each one forming a sizeable box with a lid. “I got one for each pile, and a couple of extra ones. I know you don’t want your system messed with, but I figure this way everything could just stay in here, in the order you organised them, but they’re portable and you can close the lid so you don’t have to see the piles when you don’t want to, reducing visual clutter.”
I just blinked as I stared at her, trying to process her words. My eyes ached, my tear ducts filling, then spilling over, one tear running down my cheek.
“You bought me pretty doom boxes to hold my doom piles?” I croaked out.
“Hey…” Colleen dropped the boxes on the floor and rushed over. “I’m sorry, I just thought—”
I shut her up as I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight then and just squeezing.
This wasn’t an entirely pleasant feeling. Part of me was kicking my own arse for not coming up with the same simple solution, another hating how scared Coll was of broaching the idea. Yet another part was completely freaked at the idea of moving anything off the table, but it wasn’t the solution that had me sighing into her arms, but this.
My life felt like it was full of people proposing apparently oh so obvious solutions to my problems, and coming with it was this barely repressed irritation that I had those problems in the first place. Why couldn’t I sort my shit out? Why wasn’t my house neat and tidy? What kind of person lived like this? I could never answer any of those questions and so I wallowed in self recriminations or hid from it all, shoving my head firmly in the sand. But for someone to see that I needed those piles, for some reason or another, and find a way to make them more portable and palatable? My throat felt like it had swelled up, choking everything off, although I managed to express my appreciation.
“Thanks…” An inadequate response if ever there was one. “Coll, thank you—”
“No need.” She pulled back then, smiling down at me, even if her eyes were suspiciously shiny. “You know I’d do anything for my best bitch, right?”
But before I could answer, there was a knock at the door. She pulled away, walking over to answer it, then smiling when she saw who was there. Each man was freshly showered, as evidence by neatly combed wet hair and clothes that looked like they’d just been ironed, or pulled out of their wardrobes. Lin nursed a bottle of wine in his arm, Cole carried a slab of beer on his shoulder, and Tyson held a baking dish covered with a tea towel.
“We came a little early,” Nash said, sheepishly hoisting his toolbox. “You said you had light switches that were zapping you—”
“And we thought we could help in the kitchen,” Tyson finished smoothly.
“This is when you discover how much I love you,” Colleen said, jabbing a finger in my direction. “Because I’m gonna head over to Dale’s, no doubt to eat two minute noodles instead of roast fucking lamb.”
“Coll—” I started to protest.
“Use the boxes,” she said. “Feed your boys and…” She let out a sigh. “Be happy, El. Let yourself be happy.”
As the guys filed in, filling my kitchen, right as my bestie beat a hasty retreat, I started to see just how that might be possible.
Chapter 57
Knox and Maddox
Nash walked up to the twins as they worked on their assignments at the kitchen table.
“We’re going over to Ellie’s for dinner,” he told them. “Finish your work and then grab some takeaway for dinner. My card is by the phone. Just charge what you want to that.”
“Yess…” Knox hissed.
“Don’t go nuts though,” Nash growled. “Dinner and some dessert only and after you’ve finished your homework.”
“Can Declan come over and have dinner with us?” Knox asked, both boys perking up at the idea.
Nash sighed, looking the two of them over closely.
“Just Declan. We’ll be back by ten at the latest and I expect the two of you to be showered and in bed at that point, and Declan to be home in his bed.” His eyes narrowed then. “I can trust you, right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Maddox felt like Knox’s reply came out too fast, too smoothly, but his uncle didn’t seem to notice. He nodded just the once, then turned to see the rest of his uncles appear in the kitchen.
“Look after yourself,” Lin said, ruffling their hair. “Work hard and do the right thing. Uncle Ty will look at your maths work when he gets home.”
“And Uncle Lin will proofread your English when he gets home,” Tyson replied with a tight smile.
“Unless you’ve got art homework, I’m no good to you,” Cole said with a wink. “But make sure to put your bloody dishes in the dishwasher or—”
“You’ll make us do all the dishes for the week in the sink,” Knox finished for him with a sigh. Cole was always coming up with increasingly creative threats, but he rarely followed through on them. “We know.”
The boys watched their uncles closely as they gave their final instructions, but as soon as the front door closed behind them, Knox tossed his pen down to grab his phone.
“I’m gonna tell the boys they can come and hang at our place,” he told his brother.
“What?” Something curdled in Maddox’s belly. “But Uncle Nash said—”
“We could have friends over,” Knox finished for him with a grin, putting an emphasis on the S. “Nash won’t know. The uncles will be at Miss Jennings’ place for hours, maybe won’t even make it home tonight. You know the stories. They’re going nuts over her and while they do, we’ll—”
“Get in the shit, again?” Maddox stared at his brother. “Didn’t you learn anything from the party at Declan’s?”
“Yeah, to lock away all of the uncles’ alcohol, because fuck that.” Knox got up and started grabbing bottles of spirits from a cupboard in the kitchen to then carry them out of the room. “I can’t afford to pay off more bottles of Scotch. People will come around, hang out and then go. No alcohol, nothing to get us in trouble. It’ll be fine.”
But every time Knox said shit like that, it never was. Maddox watched as his brother started going through his contacts, firing off texts, then answering phone calls when they came through.
“Yeah, come around now,” Knox said to whoever was down the line. “My uncles are out and we’ve got the place to ourselves.”
This was not the way it was supposed to go down.
Maddox watched the hordes of kids come streaming through their front door with growing unease and when he looked at his brother, he saw something similar in Knox. Not that you would know it, if you didn’t already know the signs. His easy smile, the way he bumped fists with the guys walking in the door made it look like he was cool, too cool, but Maddox knew. As soon as the guys he was greeting turned away, Knox’s smile faded, his eyes widening, as he saw just how many people had turned up.
Kids Knox had invited had obviously let others know that the twins’ uncles house would be adult-free for the night and with the power of social media and mobile phones, the student grapevine went to work, alerting everyone. Boys pulled open the fridge, dragging out food, drinks, some finding Tyson’s stash of muffins and when they opened the tin, they were quickly snatched up.
“Hey, Knox!” one guy called out. Jimmy was in Year 12 at their school, not that he was there much. He didn’t need to be, because his reputation preceded him, despite his absences. “Got any more food?”
“I’ll order some pizza,” Knox called back.
“Knox!” Maddox glared at his brother. “Uncle Nash said pizzas for us, not for the whole fucking school.”
“Chill, Mads—” Knox started to say.
“It’s not like he won’t fucking know!” Maddox shot back in a terse whisper. He eyed the crowds, saw people flopping on the couch, turning on the TV, grabbing their game controllers and firing up their console. Some started opening rooms, checking out the contents before walking in and that’s when Maddox pulled away. “It’s gonna show up on his credit card statement.”
“I’ll pay him back,” Knox said with a shrug. “I’ve still got that birthday money the parents…” The two of them fell silent then, the quiet swallowed by the general hum of so many people being crammed into the house at once, but they shared a moment anyway, just staring at each other. “I’ll pay him back.”
But that wouldn’t be enough, they both knew it. They were teetering on the edge of making yet another shitty decision and Maddox felt powerless to stop his brother, right as Knox felt unable to run away from this impulse.
“What do you want on your pizza?” Knox called out to the group, fishing out his phone. He was met by a deafening chorus of replies and that was when Maddox turned away.
He had no appetite, not now and when he walked down to his room to find a couple making out on his bed, he let out a little snarl of frustration, something feeling like it was being violated.
“Out!” he growled, the two kids pulling apart, then relaxing when they saw him.
“Look, chill—” the dude started to say.
“Get the fuck off my bed and out of my room.” Maddox pointed imperiously at the door, feeling stronger, more in control, even if just for a minute. Fur prickled across his arm though, the sensation dragging his focus away from them, forcing it down, his hands into his pocket, as the two of them did as he commanded.
“Sure, fine, whatever,” the guy said, taking his girl’s hand and dragging her out the door. “Maybe there’s somewhere upstairs we can go, baby.”
