Chapter 23
Blake
“That’s the last of ‘em,” my youngest brother, Hudson, grunts, stalking through the entryway to my new apartment carrying a large brown box.
Even though the box is labelled bedroom, I watch as he balances it precariously on my brand-new kitchen counter tops before grabbing a beer from the lukewarm six-pack, I hadn’t yet gotten around to refrigerating and falling onto my sofa with a groan.
Beside me, Grey drops the screwdriver he’d been holding, rising to his full height to stretch out his back.
“I’m calling it quits for today,” he says, rolling his neck to work out the kinks. “Gimme one of those.”
I press a beer bottle into his wiggling fingers, staring down at the sea of nuts, screws and bolts littering the floor. “Quits? How hard can building a TV unit be?”
Grey tips the neck of his bottle at me while Hudson sniggers in the background. “You do it, then.”
“Why did I even ask you two dummies for help?” I ask, picking up the box Hudson dumped and placing it in my bedroom. I probably won’t get to unpacking it for another couple of days, but at least it’s where it belongs.
“You didn’t,” Hudson replies, head lolling against the back of my sofa. “You simply dragged us along for the ride.”
“Yeah, well.” I wipe my hands on my tracksuit bottoms, grabbing a third bottle for myself and swallowing back half of it in one gulp, hoping it’ll take the edge off after today’s stressful moving day. “Now I wish I hadn’t.”
My tone lacks any real bite. As does Hudson playful roll of his eyes and Grey’s mumbled “Fuck off”.
For a moment, my brothers and I drink in companiable silence, the only noise a beeping car horn which drifts in through the cracked open window.
The floorboards creak a little as Grey spins slowly in a circle. “This place is really nice.”
I grin. “Thanks, mate.”
No matter how annoying my younger brothers are, it’s moments like this that I wouldn’t change for the world.
“Yeah,” Hudson agrees, thumping me on the back when I sink into the cushions beside him. “Good picking, bro. Although, I’m guessing it wasn’t the amazing view that sold the place, but the fact that your estate agent let you fuck her on those kitchen countertops back there.”
I turn to glare at Grey who stands sheepishly staring into his beer bottle.
“You are the worst secret keeper in the world.”
“I’m sorry!” He shrugs, gesturing to Hudson. “He weaselled it out of me.”
I bring my hand to my brow, rubbing at the third-day stubble coating my jawline. “Who else knows?”
“I only told Noah.” Grey ticks off the name of our eldest brother who lives back up in the Cotswolds with his wife Faith and their almost three-year-old daughter, Mollie. “And Delilah…”
“Gee knows too.”
“Oh, for fucks sake! So, everybody knows?”
Hudson nods, taking another swig. “Pretty much. While we’re getting things off our chest, I know I wasn’t supposed to, but I told Gee about the whole stupid fake pact Becker and you made.”
My heart skips a beat at the mention of Calla’s and I’s agreement. “It’s not stupid—”
“Delilah knows as well.”
“I know what?” chimes a familiar voice, causing all three of us men to look towards the door.
Delilah and Giselle stand in the doorway, a bottle of what I think is wine, clutched in hand.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Grey crosses the small space to scoop his soon-to-be-wife into a large hug, pressing his lips to hers.
I watch, heart clenching, as Giselle does the same, tucking herself under Hudson’s arm, lashes fluttering when he presses a light kiss to the top of her head.
“Aw, did we miss helping bring in the boxes?”
“Yeah, babe. We finished about ten minutes ago.”
Giselle tuts, but her smirk gives her away. “Damn. Dels and I really wanted to help, didn’t we?”
Delilah hums along, pulling a laugh from my chest. “You can finish the TV unit Grey’s given up on, if you really want.”
Giselle tips her head back, staring at Grey upside down. “Instructions get the better of ya?”
He nods. “Too many symbols.”
Pulling away from her fiancé, Delilah grabs a beer of her own, leaving two bottles, and carves out a space for herself on the floor, legs crossed. Until my other sofa is delivered, there really is no other place for her to sit.
“So, what is it I know?” she asks.
Hudson answers her before I can. “About his and Becker’s fake dating pact.”
“Oh!” Delilah nods, brows high on her forehead. “Yeah. I’ve known about that for a good month or so.”
“Me too,” Giselle agrees, nodding her thanks to Grey when he hands her one of the two remaining beer bottles before folding himself into a spot on the floor beside Delilah.
I pop my shoulders, stretching my legs out in front of me and resigning to the fact that everybody in this room knows what goes on in my private life. “Glad everybody knows my deepest darkest secrets, then.”
“It’s the Millen way,” Grey responds while Delilah squawks.
“Hey! It’s only fair seeing as how everybody knows about the time I vomited all over myself in class!”
Hudson lets out a belly laugh, head falling back against the edge of the sofa. “God, that story never gets old.”
“Sure, it doesn’t, Mr I Once Cried On A Rollercoaster.”
“It was the wind making my eyes water!” Hudson argues.
Giselle grins before she reaches over to pat my knee, ignoring the squabbling pair. “How’s it going between you and Calla?”
“It’s good.” I take a sip of my beer for liquid courage. “Her boss is a right tool—”
“He’s her boss? I thought he was just a co-worker?”
“Nah, he’s been promoted to boss. Just a couple of weeks ago, actually. Anyway, like I said, he’s a right prick, so I can see why Calla asked me to help drive him away.”
“And is it working?”
“I think so. I haven’t heard anymore horror stories recently of him making her uncomfortable or giving her extra work to do so she has to stay later in the office.”
The girls nod slowly before Gee voices the question, I’m pretty sure is on every member of my family’s lips, “So, how much longer is it going to last?”
“Honestly?” I scrub at my jaw, hiding my mouth. “I have no clue.”
“Do you—”
“I like the girl, I really do,” I interrupt Delilah. “I just…”
“Just what?”
“Nothing.” I lean forward, forearms resting on my upper thighs and shake my head. The words stick in my throat. “It doesn’t matter.”
A chorus of voices disagree.
“Blake.”
“Come on, man.”
Hudson gives my upper back a pat. “Tell us.”
I swallow thickly, forcing the words out of my mouth that I’ve been sitting on for a while. Months, actually. Since the moment Calla knocked on my apartment door to check up on me.
“I like her. I really like her. It’s scary how much.”
From her position on the floor, Delilah reaches out a palm to grip my knee. “Have you told her?”
I shake my head.
“Why not? She might feel the same way.”
“Believe me, if Calla felt the same way she’d tell me. I’m just… I don’t think I’m the right fit for her. Long term, anyway. We’re vastly different people, polar bloody opposites. I’m sure the things we want aren’t the same way.”
“Have you asked her what she wants?”
I pop my shoulders and flatten my lips. “Sort of. Kinda.”
“That’s a no,” Grey huffs, a slight tinge of amusement colouring his tone.
“We’ve been busy.”
“Yeah. Fucking.” Hudson grins before he lets out a pained grunt, his hand coming up to massage the spot on his ribs where Giselle winded him with her elbow.
“You are so crude!”
Ever the mature one of the group, Delilah rolls her eyes good naturedly and squeezes my knee.
“You don’t have to listen to me, but I think you should tell her how you really feel.”
“Yeah,” Grey not surprisingly agrees with his fiancée. “Plus, you’ve practically already been dating each other so what’s swapping a ‘fake date’,” he bunny quotes around his words, “for a real date? You’re already halfway to being in love, so just tell the girl.”
My heart ricochets against my ribcage at his words, my stomach flipping.
“I’m not—” The rest of my words fall flat as my mind whirrs, stalling and jerking, no longer sure which way is up, down, left or right.
Am I in love with Calla Becker?
Have I really fallen in love with my fake girlfriend?
A loud rap on my new apartment door saves me from having to answer my own question. Frowning, I peer round at the four of the closest people in my life, finding them all peering back at me.
“Are we missing someone?” Hudson jokes, cracking a smile.
I cross my new space in a few strides, the slap of my soles on the floor echoing across the bare walls and pull open the door.
Calla grins back at me, raising a bottle of bubbly above her head. “Hey you.”
My mouth is so dry I can hardly croak back a response.
Wearing a pretty white – don’t they call it a milkmaid style? – sundress embroidered with tiny yellow sunflowers, Calla looks fucking good enough to eat.
I watch her pulse flutter beneath the thin skin beneath her ear, visible thanks to her silky blonde hair scooped up into a bouncy ponytail off her elegant neck. My fingers itch to reach out and tug on the strands, to see what reaction I could elicit. A whimper? A moan?
“Oh.” Calla peers over my shoulder, her eyes widening when she spots I’m not alone. “I didn’t know you had company. I can—”
I lurch into action, letting go of the door to pull Calla into a tight hug.
I have to clench my jaw tightly when I feel her soft tits press against my chest, the heat of her body seeping through the thin material of my shirt until it kisses my bare skin.
“Don’t be silly. Come on in, there’s enough space for everybody. ”
“You sure?” Calla huffs warmly against my collarbone, creating a path of gooseflesh in its wake.
“Promise.”
Throwing a sunny smile, Calla steps over my threshold, placing her bag and bottle on the kitchen counter, before grabbing the last beer in the pack and settling herself down amongst my family.
I swallow down the lack of warmth I feel now we’ve parted and instead gather up the stack of leaflets I found stuffed inside my postal cubby hole.
“Should we order some food?”