Family Affair by Elle M Thomas

Chapter 21

 

Declan

 

My mood is still out of kilter by the time dinner ends. Liv and Anita’s dad’s attitude towards me pisses me off. I don’t need him to like me, and he doesn’t. He has made that crystal clear, although, I think it is more his perception of who and what I am that he dislikes. I may not be a parent, but I get that, after all, he still views her as his little girl, but fuck me, he hasn’t given me a chance yet.

Having Mase and Liv in my corner had been a blessing, their support and diffusion of some of the tension had been very much appreciated. The real advocate for Nigel treating his daughter like an adult, if not for our relationship was Scott. The way he had taken his dad to task had been impressive, but again, that was more about Nigel’s spouting of needing to guide Anita.

“You okay?” Liv asks, leaning in to whisper to me.

I turn and smile. “Yeah, even better when we can leave.”

She laughs, drawing some attention from the others including Anita who is getting to her feet along with her parents. Presumably, Liv and I have missed that the evening is ending.

I stand too and watch on as they all start exchanging kisses before preparing to leave. Liv takes Mase’s hand and once standing does a bit of a strange jig from one foot to the other.

“I need a wee,” she announces.

“I’ll come with you.” Anita is already grabbing her sister’s arm and dragging her off to the ladies.

“We’ll leave you both to wait for them then,” Nigel tells us, preparing to leave with his family. He pauses before me. “Should I expect my daughter home tonight?” He’s wearing an expression that suggests he has a bad taste in his mouth.

“Maybe you should ask your daughter that,” I reply, snapping a little.

No more words are exchanged as Nigel turns and follows the rest of his family out.

“What a complete and utter cockwomble he is!”

Mase laughs. “He loves her.”

“And if he said that to you about Liv?”

He shakes his head. “I’d be calling him far worse than a cockwomble. I’ve told you before, with Liv he had no choice but to accept I was there if he was going to enter her life again. But with you…you’re the one entering her life, not the other way round.”

“He’s still a cockwomble.”

“And I am sure he speaks as highly about you.”

Mase is right. I know that. I am the big bad wolf coming along to take advantage of Little Red Riding Hood and Nigel is the woodcutter, ready to split me open or chop my head off. I smirk rather immaturely as I decide it’s my balls he is ready to chop off.

“He’ll come round,” Mase assures me. “You just need to show him that you’re not the man he believes you are.”

Again, my brother is right.

He laughs. “Do you remember what Dad was like whenever Bethy brought a boy home for him to meet.”

I howl because I remember it all too well. “How many did he scare off before she stopped telling him?”

Mase grins. “You know he knew about each and every one of them, and I think Bethy suspected he did too.”

“Did he tag her?”

Mase laughs now, knowing that Liv is obsessed with our dad being intent on tagging or tracking her.

“How is security on junior?”

He shrugs. “Covert.”

I feel my eyebrows arch. “Really? He hasn’t implanted anything without her knowledge, has he?” This is another of Liv’s suspicions.

Mase rolls his eyes. “No, he hasn’t, but he needs to stop dropping that into conversation with Liv and then telling her it’s illegal because that just makes her think even more that he’s done it without her knowledge.”

Our dad loves to wind people up and with Liv having already decided he’s James Bond, she is very easy to wind up.

“I’m not convinced he hasn’t done it at your request and your kid is going to look like something from a weird sci-fi movie, surrounded by security gadgets.”

“And you don’t need to say that to her either or she’ll be sure he has, and as for my kid, her safety will be my main priority.”

I stare across at my brother. He hasn’t even realised the cat he has let out of the bag. “Her safety?”

“Fuck. Don’t say a fucking word to Liv! She will have my balls if she finds out I’ve told anyone we’re having a girl.”

I laugh at him. “You’d have made a shit spy.”

“I get that from Mum.” He laughs.

“Oh, and your balls…I believe your wife is currently wearing them as earrings.”

He flips me the middle finger before an older woman waves across the restaurant to us.

“Shit! Mase, we need to make this short and sweet, okay. Anita does not need to walk back into this.”

“You haven’t told her?”

“No.”

He looks concerned and slightly disapprovingly.

“I know, but the time hasn’t been right and it’s in the past. Nothing to do with her.”

The woman, Audrey, is almost in front of us now.

“From experience, I will guarantee that Anita won’t see it that way.”

“Declan.” Audrey, with kind eyes and a genuinely warm smile reaches up and kisses my cheek. She turns to Mase. “And Mason, how are you both?”

“Good, thanks. You?” I ask feeling slightly guilty that I don’t already know the answer to that question.

“Fine, darling, you know me.” She looks to Mase again.

“I’m well, thank you,” he tells her. “Married.” He holds up his ring finger.

I look at him with a wry smile as I roll my eyes and silently mouth the word wanker at him.

He ignores me and continues speaking. “And a baby on the way.”

“How lovely,” she gushes. “And you, Declan?”

My level of discomfort is through the fucking roof with that question. I need to shut this down and get out of here, quickly.

“Gosh, no! You know me, Audrey. I’ll leave all of that to Mason.”

Mason frowns at me, clearly disapproving of my dishonest response, but he still has my back. “Audrey, it’s been lovely to see you, but we have to get going or we’ll be late.”

“Of course.” She leans in and Mase lowers his cheek for her to kiss before she turns her attention back to me. “I’m glad you’re well, Declan, and please, don’t be a stranger.” Her voice carries an emotional wobble now, as she pulls me in for a hug I didn’t know I needed, but I did.

The burn in my jaw and stinging in my eyes confirms just how much I needed that hug.

“Take care, Audrey,” Mase tells her, already leading me to the exit while texting on his phone. “I’ll tell the girls to meet us outside.”

 

Anita

 

“What the fuck?” I have literally just walked out of the ladies and am greeted by Mase and Dec standing with an older lady who is kissing Dec. Not a snog kiss, but a very warm and familiar looking kiss on his cheek.

“Man whore,” Liv says, seeing what I am seeing. She’s joking. Her laugh confirms that, but for some reason, I’m not amused. Something about the interaction I am witnessing seems too friendly…intimate almost, not that I think she and Dec have been intimate.

Liv is staring at me, clearly confused by my reaction and behaviour.

“I was joking,” she says.

“I know.”

“He adores you and you may have achieved the impossible and tamed the man whore.”

With a shake of my head, refusing to fully accept that Dec is entirely tamed, I decide to diffuse the atmosphere I’m creating. “You might want to stop calling him that or in a few years you’ll have to endure him being called Uncle Man Whore by your daughter.”

“Ssh,” she hisses. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, so you need to lose the word daughter, niece, she and her from your vocabulary.”

I laugh at her now. “Why is it a secret again?”

“Not sure, but we decided we wanted to know but for it to be something nobody else knows…and it has been for the last couple of weeks.”

I don’t pretend to understand hers and Mase’s logic in this, but then, I don’t need to. Looking back over to the boys, I see they’re leaving, just as Liv receives a message.

“They’re waiting outside for us.”

I am even more suspicious about who this woman is. Who she is to Dec but walk aside Liv until we reach the boys outside. Mase and Dec turn together and almost in synchronicity they each put an arm around us.

“You okay?” Dec asks, leaning in to kiss the top of my head. “With how things went with your parents?” he adds.

“Kind of. It could have gone better, but it could have been worse I suppose.”

That is the truth of it really. I knew my dad wouldn’t be thrilled about me and Dec but hopefully, over time, he will see what I see. Suddenly, I feel less sure of things when I think back to the woman he and Mase were with in the restaurant, prompting me to broach the subject of her.

“Who was your friend?” I look between Dec and his brother as we walk towards the car park together.

“Friend?” Dec sounds nervous.

I look at Mase more closely and he looks shifty.

Liv laughs. “Unless you two are in the habit of locking lips with older ladies who take care of themselves.”

Mase looks even more uncomfortable now and Dec looks like he might vomit.

Liv frowns up at her husband. “If you are about to tell me she was a former cougar of yours, we might have a problem, and by problem, I mean a broken hand for me and a rattling jaw for you.”

Mase looks horrified now. “No, she is not a former cougar. I don’t have any former cougars.”

“She was a former business associate of Mason’s,” Dec tells us now, drawing my focus to him again.

It’s plausible and yet, it doesn’t quite ring true and when I look back at Mase, I know it’s a lie. Who the fuck is that woman and why is Dec so reluctant to tell me the truth about her?

“Are you two going straight home?” Mase asks his brother rather than me.

I expect him to reply with a simple yes because that had been my understanding of our plans. That is not what I hear.

“I need to pop into the club for a while. It’s a busy night and if it gets too busy, they might be short staffed.”

Liv looks at me and seeing my confused and hurt expression, stops dead, and frowns across at Dec. “Are you dropping Anita off home first, or shall we?”

He shrugs.

Stepping back, I glare up at him and shake my head. “Don’t you dare shrug and apparently not give a shit about how I am getting home!” I am fuming.

“Liv,” Mase interrupts. “I have some business. Club business to deal with, so why don’t you take Anita and when Dec and I are done, he’ll drop me home.”

This is bullshit. I know it, Liv knows and so do both men. This was never part of tonight’s plan, so why has that changed? The woman in the restaurant.

“You are talking bollocks here, Mase. Total and utter crap, but, whatever. Keys!” Liv’s final word is a demand and there is no doubting how angry she is.

“Baby—”

She cuts him off. “Keys or I’m taking Anita to catch the all-night bus. Your choice.”

“Like fuck you are!” He gives her his keys. “We’ll talk when I get home.”

“You bet we will.”

I turn to Dec who appears to be in turmoil, something between anxious and sorry.

“Go home with Liv and I can pick you up later when I drop Mase back.”

It’s at moments like this I wish I was more like Liv. She wouldn’t leave here until Dec was in no doubt that he was in deep shit and that she would be getting answers from him one way or another. Shit! Mase has somehow managed to get himself in deeper shit with Liv than Dec is with me and in my heart, I know that woman in the restaurant who was at the centre of this was connected to Dec, not Mase.

With a desire to be more Liv like, I shake my head and take a few steps back.

“Whatever, Dec.” I begin to walk away then glance over my shoulder to fix him with my gaze. “You never know, I might even be at Liv’s when you deem me worthy of knowing what the fuck is going on…or I might not.”

I turn back and continue walking, hoping Liv is hot on my heels.

“Cupcake. It really isn’t what you think.” His voice is filled with desperation and part of me wants to turn back and comfort him, offer him some kind of sign that it’s okay.

I don’t. Just. Instead, I don’t look back at all but do shout back to him over the sound of Liv’s steps catching up with me. “You have no clue what I think, because you didn’t bother to ask.”