Chapter Seventeen #2
“Come on, Mason,” he says, leading him towards the exit. Mason rolls his eyes but follows his lead anyway. I come up behind Bella, resting my hand in the small of her back.
“Give it time,” I whisper and she offers me a weak smile before following closely behind them.
I sit on the veranda outside the clubhouse, watching from a distance.
She needs time to connect with her boys, so I don’t want to interfere with them, but it’s hard to sit back and watch her painfully try to interact with Mason.
He shuts her down at every opportunity with a roll of his eyes.
Noah, on the other hand, has clearly missed his mum.
He leads her round the courtyard, hand-in-hand, to look at all the motorcycles.
He gives a cheeky smile every time she ruffles his hair or tickles him.
She goes from being in her element, soaking in all his love, to looking forlorn every time she tries to gain any reaction from Mason.
He’s spent the last couple of hours with his headphones in, staring down at his phone.
Bella and Noah climb the stairs, and I smile warmly at them.
“How you doing, buddy?” I ask Noah as he takes a seat next to me on the bench. He looks up at me, smiling, swinging his legs as they don’t quite reach the floor.
“Good, mister, thank you.” I smile at him, and he cocks his head to the side, looking at my kutte. “What’s that?” he asks, pointing at the patch on my chest.
“That’s my patch. Do you like it?” I ask, and he nods.
“It’s way cool. Why do you have it?”
“It basically means that I’m part of a very exclusive club.” His eyes light up.
“Ooooh, we have a club at school. It’s a football club. Is your club like that?” he asks, inquisitive.
“Yeah, kind of. You see all those motorcycles?” I ask, pointing at where he had previously been standing with his mum. He nods. “Well, this special badge right here means we all like motorbikes and look after each other like a family.”
“Oooooh, Mummy?”
“Yes, baby,” she answers, kneeling in front of him.
“Are you now in the special club?”
“Yep. Clay here is Mummy’s special friend. He looks after her.”
“Clay,” he says, trying my name out, “thank you for looking after mummy.”
I go to speak, but Mason comes up behind her and interrupts.
“Yeah, right, more like Mum’s new husband.” He rolls his eyes, throwing himself down in the chair beside us before placing his headphones back in his ears. She sighs, standing and offering her hand to Noah.
“Shall we go get some ice cream?” she asks, and he takes her hand, pulling her towards the door.
“Mason?” she asks as she’s dragged away.
“Nah.” He eyeballs her in disgust as if she’s just scorned him.
He looks across at me as I shake my head in disapproval.
“What?” he snaps, removing his headphones from his ears.
“Listen, mate.” I lean forward, resting my hands on my knees.
“I ain’t your mate.”
“Okay, then, Mason. I might not be your mate, and I know I’m nothing important to you, but you need to understand that you only have one mum.”
“Duh.” He rolls his eyes again.
“Well, when she’s gone, that’s it. Think about it. If something were to happen and she wasn’t around, would you want the way you’re treating her now to be the last thing you remember?”
He suddenly looks sullen, and I feel like a grade-A prick.
He stands, making his way across to where the bikes are parked.
I take the opportunity to follow him and try to find something that interests him.
A way in. He’s leaning against the wall, kicking the dirt under his feet.
He looks up, and it’s the first time since he has been here that he looks conflicted.
“That yours?” he asks, nodding to my bike.
“Yeah, sure is. You like her?” He nods and grins, the first genuine smile I’ve seen all day.
“You wanna sit on her?”
“Can I?” There’s a twinkle in his eye.
“Of course.”
He walks over to me, handing me his phone, and I place it in my pocket, lifting him onto the seat and holding him in place.
“Erm, can you . . .” He suddenly sounds nervous, so I give him a moment. “Could you rev it?”
I reach in, taking the keys out of my pocket, and lean over to place them in the ignition.
“You see this here?” I ask, showing him the throttle. “If you rev that.” He looks at me with wide eyes, excitement mixed with panic. “It’s in neutral, so it’s not going anywhere. Go on.” I encourage, nodding. He pulls on the throttle, smiling broadly as the roar of the engine comes to life.
“Now, that’s cool,” he says, letting go of the throttle. I lift him off the bike, putting him back to the floor and he circles it, running his hand over the chrome.
“Maybe we can get you one when you're older, mate.” I wink at him.
“Nah, mum and dad would never let me.” I notice that he doesn’t pull me up on calling him mate this time, feeling confident that we’ve made progress in such a short period of time. I look up and catch Bella watching us, tentatively. A warm smile playing on her lips.
He tries to put the kickstand down. “Leave that to me,” I say, putting my fist out for him to bump, and when he does, I inwardly congratulate myself.
We make our way up to where his mum and Noah are sitting.
He throws his arms around his mum, and she initially freezes, mouthing ‘what the fuck’ before embracing him.
“Sorry, mum,” he mutters into her side and she kisses his head.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” she sighs into him.
He releases her and sits down next to his brother, who’s showing him a board game that we brought early that day.
“How?” she whispers to me.
I wink, “Call me the child whisperer.”
She bursts out laughing and shakes her head, taking a seat with the boys.