Technically I had changed because of Abby twice. And I really wanted this to be it.
“Yeah or pathetic.” Ben grinned. “Although not as pathetic as Cole.”
“Good,” I said, “because Oakley deserves the best.” And the most pathetically in love idiot, I added in my head. She deserved someone that was willing to wait for a thousand years for her.
“Aw. The nicest thing Brad has ever said about me is that I’m not that ugly,” Holly said.
Ben laughed, and I felt like I should have said something to explain, but I didn’t want to bring up the past. Tonight was supposed to be fun and what had happened to my sister made me violently angry.
Me and Oakley were close, and I would die for her in a heartbeat. We’d been through something that meant we could never have a distant brother/sister relationship, not that I wanted that anyway. My mum, sister and niece were three people I would kill for, no questions asked.
“Brad’s a dick. You’re definitely not ugly,” Ben said. She definitely wasn’t, but no one found their sibling attractive – well, some probably did, but those were the people that would have eleven-fingered children.
Holly blushed at Ben’s back-handed compliment and muttered a shy, “Thank you.”
“God you and Brad are so different. You sure you’re related?” I said.
“Hold up,” Ben said, “you and Oakley couldn’t be more different either. She’s smart, beautiful, funny, and you’re....”
“Thank you,” I said sarcastically. “Anyway, can we please cut the small talk and get me so drunk I can’t even remember my own name?”
They did.
I woke up and groaned. My head was pounding, and my tongue felt like sandpaper. How fucking much had I drunk last night?
“How’re you feeling?” Abby asked, leaning over me. She sounded pissed off. Why was she pissed off? I was the one who was allowed to be pissed off here.
“My head… It hurts.”
“Not surprised. Brad and Cole had to carry you home. Some girl gave me your phone.” She raised her eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. Yes, Abby, I brought the girl I cheated on you home with me. Jesus!
“Holly,” I said. “Brad’s sister.”
“She’s pretty.”
Dangerous fucking territory.
I shrugged. “She’s alright.” Holly was pretty under the eye make-up. Her naivety and that good girl thing she had going on made me doubt she would ever cheat. If anything she would be cheated on, like I was.
“How old is she?”
“Twenty.”
Abby sat down, and I knew I’d said something wrong.
“You know a lot about her then?”
“Are you for real? Ben said we should invite her because she knows no one here and I asked if she was old enough to be drinking in a pub and Brad told me her age.” Was she seriously quizzing me? I would never do anything to hurt her, and she knew that. Or she should know that.
“Okay, I’m sorry. I just don’t like women thinking they have a chance with my hubby that’s all.”
Since when did carrying a phone become payment for animal sex in a pub bathroom?
“You trust me?”
“Of course I do, baby, I just get jealous. I wouldn’t be normal if I didn’t.”
But jealous of someone holding my phone?
“Alright. What time is it?”
“Almost eleven. We need to leave in an hour so take these,” she replied, handing me two white painkillers and nodding to a glass of water on the bedside table. “I’m gonna have a shower. Do you need any clothes ironing for today? Know what you’re wearing?”
“Jeans and a T-shirt.” Miles’ birthday, not dinner with the queen.
“Okay.” She kissed my cheek and left the room. I hated that we were stressed at each other more than we were happy now. We needed something to get back to how it was just a few months ago; things had become mundane and pretty shit. A dirty weekend away. That would do it. I wanted a whole weekend with no clothes and my wife in as many positions as possible.
I heard the shower turn on and got hard. Abby in the shower seemed like a damn appealing idea right now. After downing the pills and taking a huge gulp of water, I went to the bathroom. She was washing her hair in the shower; the suds streamed down her back making my mouth water.
“Room for me?” I asked.
She spun around as if she thought I was a murderer. “Jasper, you scared me. I’m almost done, babe, we don’t have long.”
Another rain check then.
I stripped as she quickly finished washing her hair and got out.
“So, what did we get him?” I asked Abby as I drove over to Cole and Oakley’s place. It was Miles’ birthday but since my sister’s garden was massive the party was at their house.
Abby put herself in charge of presents after the condom incident on Cole’s birthday after Everleigh was born.
I rattled the neatly wrapped present. It wasn’t a watch-shaped present. Why wasn’t it watch-shaped? Watches weren’t flat and floppy but this was.