15. Gully
Gully
A fter the storm, came the calm.
The following day brought a sunrise like I’d never seen before. Every colour of an artist’s palette was on display as dawn broke, and Iris and I watched it from the jetty at the bottom of the garden, wrapped in a blanket.
It was also one of the first bioluminescence scenes that Iris had seen, the plankton that Caleb could tell us all about putting on a show, even though scientifically, the sea hadn’t been calm enough for long enough, but I’d let him work out why this morning that didn’t matter.
I’d woken just before sunrise for no apparent reason. The storm had blown itself out at around eleven o’clock, leaving us with a houseful of brothers and children, who all passed out around the same time, safe in the knowledge that Mavis was comfortable in hospital, an ambulance having reached her about an hour after I’d left.
I’d gotten out of bed, untangling myself from Iris and Moon, who seemed to be active tonight – probably well awake from her mamma’s stress levels – and headed to the window, seeing the veins of dawn rising.
I’d known then it was going to be a special sort of sunrise. It always was after a storm; the sea would become still again, or as still as it got, its gentle lapping a direct contrast to the previous day. The sand would bare the gifts of the storm, sea-glass and shells and driftwood all left out to dry in the strengthening rays of the sun.
But there was something about the sky this morning, enough for me to wake Iris and kiss her growing belly, murmuring words of apology to my daughter that she’d been disturbed, a kick to my face her thanks.
“Grab something warm. Let’s go down to the jetty.” I threw one of my hoodies onto the bed, mainly because they were big enough to keep Moon warm as well as Iris. Most of my clothes were now co-owned, and I’d accepted the fact that this was always likely to be the case.
We walked hand in hand through the gate and down to the jetty, the lawn sodden with rain, the wetness covering our feet. The air smelled fresh and felt warm, the last kiss of summer promised.
I lay out a couple of blankets on the bench at the jetty, putting a flask of tea and a couple of mugs down between us, then wrapped an arm around Iris and we watched the sunrise, purples and dark blues giving way to soft yellows and pinks and the ethereal green glow of the plankton in the sea, from a stretch that must’ve avoided being tossed by the storm, or some kind of magic had happened.
Maybe it was the latter.
We didn’t speak, just watched as the minutes turned into an hour and then longer, birds waking up around us, joining in the morning chorus now the storm had gone, gulls starting to dance on the sky, chasing each other as they dipped and dived through the air, the morning mist evaporating quickly to expose what was going to be a beautiful day.
Iris took photos because of course she did. I composed sentences in my head and thought about the next book I was writing and how I could incorporate this scene in there, then I came back to the here and now and the woman who was leaning against me, our daughter turning somersaults in her belly.
“Marry me.”
The words slipped out like the day had planned this to happen all along.
Iris turned to me, and I heard her swallow.
“Yes.”
I felt the smile grow so wide on my face it hurt. I turned around to look at her, the same smile meeting mine.
“You said yes.”
She nodded. “Yes. I’ll marry you. I’ve been waiting for you to ask. You kept playing with my ring finger.”
I nodded, pulling her closer, understanding how this moment was one of the most perfect I’d ever have. “I bought you a ring when we were in York. That was why I slipped off.”
“I wondered what you were doing.”
“It was that. I’ll give it to you when we get back in our bedroom.”
Her laugh surprised me. “I’d rather you didn’t give it to me here.”
“Get your mind out of the gutter, woman. I was being all romantic.” But I laughed, because this was us. This was right. “I’ll give you both when we get back to the bedroom, unless we have a morning visitor.”
“Elias or Elsie?”
“I was going to put my money on Finn, but they’d be more welcome.”
She laughed, her hand on my stomach, curling closer as the sunrise began to fade and let the day have her way.
“Shall we head back? We could slip in before anyone else wakes up.” Her hand went to her belly. “Moon’s dancing again.”
I tucked my hand under hers, feeling the kicks or punches. “She’s busy at the moment.”
“As long as she dances this way and not on my bladder we can stay friends for longer.”
A particularly hard kick came my way. I laughed softly, looking at Iris, a million questions answered with how she returned that gaze. There was one I wanted a spoken answer to. “When do you want to get married?”
“Next year. On the anniversary.” She smiled, her smile growing bigger. “It’s not morbid, but I want to replace how we remember that date each year. I don’t want to forget – I’ll never forget – but I want the day to have a different feel and I think Ivy would like that.”
I nodded. “I agree. When do you want to tell everyone that I’ve finally bribed you to be my wife?”
“When we find out how Mavis is.”
I kissed her then, the yellows and pinks and baby blues of the new day colouring the sky, dark silhouettes of seagulls bringing it to life and the lapping of the waves gently nudging against the jetty.
Another first kiss. Maybe we could make a lifetime of them.
Dear Gully,
I’m writing this because I’m too embarrassed to actually put it into words. Had I known your twin was up and awake, I would never have done that without making sure our bedroom door was locked. I am utterly mortified that your brother saw me giving you a blow job, or at least, the back of my head while I was giving you said blow job.
Not going to lie: it wasn’t easy to know someone had walked into the bedroom given you had hold of my head and were telling me exactly how good I was.
At least it was your brother.
Please pass on my apologies to your family and tell them I hope to see them in another few years when my mortification levels have dropped so I’m able to show my face again and not just the back of my head while your cock is in my mouth.
Love you,
Iris
I re read the note while ignoring Roe’s laughter, the coffee steaming on the kitchen island and the kids playing outside with Finn and Ruby.
“Shall I go and speak to her?” Roe tapped his fingers on the top of the island. “I shouldn’t have just walked in like that, but I wanted to let you know about Mavis.”
“We should’ve locked the door. I just didn’t think to.” Because I was still drunk on the bathroom sex we’d just had, brought on by showing Iris the engagement ring, which she’d thankfully loved.
Loved enough to decide we needed to leave the bathroom so she could get on her knees and thank me properly, which was how she’d put it, so I’d been standing – trying to stand – while resting a hand on a bedside table, with Iris in front of me, my other hand in her hair, the start of my orgasm just there when Roe walked straight into the bedroom.
It wasn’t the first time Roe had caught me with a girl, not that Iris needed to know about that. And I’d still witnessed him on the receiving end of some otherworldly pleasure more times, including him and Freya in their garden before they moved house, but Freya didn’t know about that.
I would tell Iris though.
“I’ll go and speak through the door.” Roe stretched. “Wait till you’ve got a toddler. Then you get really creative with playing hide and seek. Ask Finn for horror stories.”
“What horror stories?” Our bigger brother entered, full of what looked and smelled like fox shit.
“When Elias walked in on you and Ruby.” Roe shook his head. “I just caught Iris doing a favour for Gul.”
“Oh. Lock doors. Wake up early. Set an alarm for three am. Get your brother to babysit through the night. But don’t do any of that until your first is at least two years old. That’s my top tip for the day.” He grabbed some kitchen roll and started to wipe off the shit on his T-shirt. “Does Iris know how many times you interrupted me and Ruby?”
“She might by the end of today.” She definitely would.
Finn shrugged again, losing his T-shirt and throwing it in the bin. “No point saving that.” He stopped, taking his phone out of his pocket. “We have an update from Gray – Mavis is stable and talking, wanting to know when she can go home.”
I felt the last bit of worry leave. “Thank fuck for that. She won’t be released today, will she?”
“She’ll be lucky if it’s a week today.” Roe opened the fridge. “Should I take Iris chocolate?”
“Always a good idea.” I took a good mouthful of my coffee. “I’ll go and see Mavis later.”
Finn nodded. “She’ll want to see you. Shall we barbecue breakfast?” He sniffed the air.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Roe came back downstairs a few minutes later, looking relieved. “She’s okay. It was my fault, so I grovelled. Told her how lucky you were.” He frowned at me. “New jewellery?”
“Maybe.”
Both my brothers stared at me.
I shrugged. “I asked her this morning. She said yes.”
“Oh fuck. I walked in right at the wrong moment. Shit.” Roe smacked his hand to his forehead.
“Language.” Freya walked past him, smacking him on the ass.
“Don’t worry about my two, they have a full vocabulary already.” Finn shook his head as if he’d already given up. “Congratulations.”
“What are we congratulating?” Freya muscled her way in, caught in the arms of Roe.
I noticed that his hands spread across her stomach, just like they had before she told us she was pregnant with Calla.
“Let me go and get Iris. Say nothing.” I legged it out of the kitchen and upstairs, meeting Iris on the landing.
I felt that same punch I took every time I saw her. Beautiful, happy and mine. She was smiling now.
“Still need to hide?”
She shook her head. “This isn’t the first time this sort of thing’s happened, is it?”
“Fuck no. Mavis is sitting up and talking, by the way and Roe noticed your ring. Ready to share the news?” I put my arms around her, hugging her to me as best I could do.
Her face brightened. “Definitely. Let’s leave off sharing wedding plans though.”
“Agreed. We’re barbecuing breakfast as well.” I frowned at her. “And I think Freya’s pregnant. See if you can find out.”
“Oh,” she said, tipping her head to one side as if she was considering something. “That’d make sense. She wasn’t drinking last night or the last time we were out. I bet she is. That’ll be fun – if she is, Moon and the new baby will be in the same school year as each other.”
“Half-sisters. Almost the same as twins.”
“If they have another girl. They might have a boy and we’re jumping to conclusions.”
We walked downstairs, still talking in hushed voices. The kitchen was kind of full when we got there, Ruby inside now with the children, making them drink something good for them and sit down for ten minutes. All three looked like they’d been rolling round in the same fox shit and smelled like that too.
“Your children are feral.” I looked at my brothers and shook my head.
Finn shrugged. “It’s genetic.”
Ruby turned around and looked at Iris. “It’s the Holland genes. Sorry, Iris. I’ll hose them down later.” She stood up and pulled a face that told me she was weighing up what was coming next, looking over at Finn. “Well?”
Finn shrugged. “Celebratory breakfast?”
“What exactly are we celebrating?” Roe leaned on the kitchen island. “Let’s start with Iris’ new jewellery.”
I pulled Iris in front of me, wrapping my arms around her, my hands on her belly. “We’re engaged. As of this morning.”
There was an eruption of noise and congratulations, even from my nieces and nephew, who probably weren’t that sure what was going on.
The hubbub calmed, leaving a pregnant pause. There were glances between my brothers and their wives, more glances than I was expecting.
“Calla’s getting a sibling.” Roe stood up, catching Calla as she ran towards him. “We’ve just passed the twelve week mark.”
“Mam’s going to be beside herself.” Finn went over to Ruby. “May as well steal their thunder, Rubes. The last one’s going to be due about the same time.”
“You say the last - ”
Finn shut Freya up by making a snipping motion with his fingers. “No, this is the last. The only one that’s been planned, and there are no more.”
Ruby nodded. “The holiday of a lifetime will happen around eighteen and a half years from now. That’s if we can leave them without them burning the house down.” She glanced over at Elsie and Elias who were looking like angels in training, sitting down nicely with their drinks and fruit.
They just smelled disgusting.
“Congratulations.” I shook my head. “Shared thunder today.”
Finn grinned. “The storm after the storm.”
“Definitely in a few months. It’s going to be interesting.” I nodded, holding Iris a little tighter, feeling the baby move inside.
Roe shrugged, passing Calla to Freya. “This was kind of what we wanted when we moved here, wasn’t it? Being together.”
“That’s a bit deep for you. Did the storm transfer a different personality in there?” Finn gave him a look of horror. “But yeah. I suppose things have worked out okay.”
I saw Ruby and Freya share a look, one that was passed to Iris and then they laughed.
Which started the rest of us off, probably in shock, the laughter carrying on while we managed to not burn the bacon on the barbecue.