52. Caleb
Chapter fifty-two
Through Anna’s connections, and my bank account, we were able to get express testing on Dylan’s paternity test. Positive. He’s going to be a father.
Lex cried tears of joy over being an aunt, but I could tell she really missed her brother at that moment.
She has a few nights off from Hallucinogens, and now that Gage has finally promoted Keeley to assistant manager and let her hire a new bartender, Lex didn’t need to step in and help.
I encouraged her to take the drive down to Killara Bay and spend a few nights with her brother.
I hate any night spent away from Lex, but I could tell she wanted to be with Dylan. We had a video chat with him and Becca, the woman carrying their child. She seemed lovely but quiet, the shock of it all still sinking in.
Anna has been working with Dylan to make sure he’s protected. I offered to pay for a rental for Becca, so they didn’t have to live together, but Dylan liked her being with him in case she needed anything.
It’s going to be a lot of work with the tavern and distillery, but I think he’ll handle adding dad to the resume as well. Lex has spent every night since we found out talking about her childhood in Killara Bay and time spent at the tavern when she and Dylan were young .
It sounded like Dylan had a wonderful role model for being a single dad, but I’ll make sure I do whatever I can to help him. He’s Lex’s brother, and if she’s worried, then I’m worried. Besides, this baby girl or boy is going to be my niece or nephew, too.
The thought brings a smile to my face as I walk through the front door to my grandparents’ house for our weekly Sunday dinner.
Gage is steady on his crutches and able to move around a bit more now, so he’s back at his own house from tonight.
Mason picked him and Tiny up for tonight.
Tiny already looks like he’s put on a bit of weight over the days he’s been fed by my grandmother.
The Great Dane was already near seventy kilos.
Bastard needs to learn how to walk on a leash as well.
I make my way through the house to the back, where the kitchen is, the comforting smell of my grandmother’s cooking seeping through every open doorway.
“The favourite has arrived.” I smile as I walk through the archway that opens into the kitchen and meals area.
“Yeah.” Beth snorts. “I already told them that when I got here twenty minutes ago.”
I smile as I walk over to my sister, where she sits next to a grumpy Gage at the built-in breakfast nook. He has his foot with the long leg cast propped up on a chair beside the table.
I kiss Beth’s head, then tug on her ponytail because that’s what big brothers do, before making my way over to Grams, who’s stirring something in the kitchen.
“How’s Lex? How’s Dylan?” Beth asks as I drop a kiss on Grams’s cheek
My chest feels full that my sister would even ask about them. Family is important to all of us. She knows how I feel about Lex, they all do, but it makes pride ratchet behind my ribs hearing my sister accept Lex into all their lives too.
“She’s happy to be with her brother. His baby mama has a scan tomorrow, so Lex is excited that she was invited to go along for that.” I walk over to the fridge and pull out a beer as Mum walks into the room.
“How wonderful. A baby,” my mother gushes, Mason and my dad trailing behind her.
“Hey, Mum.” I give her a hug and bend down so she can kiss my cheek.
Dad walks in behind her, placing a hand on my shoulder and squeezing.
I release Mum so I can give a quick hug to Dad just as Mason comes barrelling past. I snag him around the neck, ruffling his hair and pulling him in to join me and Dad.
“I can’t wait till we have babies in this house,” Mum says, just as Dad smacks a kiss against mine and then Mason’s heads. I make my way over to the dining nook to join Beth and Gage.
“Me neither,” says Grams. “You should get your sperm checked, Caleb.”
My balls shrivel as my face contorts in a grimace. “Excuse me?”
She turns around, waving her wooden spoon at my groin area. “Just to make sure it’s all hunky dory down there.”
I cross my hands over my dick as I hear my siblings snickering behind me. “Everything’s fine down there.”
Grams shrugs and turns back to her cooking. “I’m sure it is, but it can’t hurt to check.”
“Yeah, Cale. Think of all the women you’ve slept with,” Beth says, waving her hand in a sweeping arc as if it’s some grandiose number. “Have any of those suckers ever slipped through before?”
Fuck, I hope not. I only want children with Lex. Surely, I would have known if birth control failed in the past. Right? Maybe I should get checked. Jesus, I feel faint.
I fall onto the end of the bench seat next to Gage. Mason’s practically falling over with laughter now where he sits on one of the bar stools. Gage snorts as if he’s so high and mighty.
“Hey, you wouldn’t be laughing if you got someone pregnant without meaning to. ”
We slip into easy conversion after that.
It follows into the dining room while we eat together and again as we all spread out in the family room to relax after dinner.
Mason’s talking about his continual search for a new house.
I have no clue what’s wrong with his current one, but apparently, it’s not right.
Lex has been texting me. She’s so worried about her brother. She knows he’ll be fine, but she desperately wants to be closer to him, now more than ever.
Mason’s still going on about his house hunting when an idea pops into my head.
I bring up the maps on my phone and start looking around the route from Heart City to Killara Bay.
With a few options, I bring up a real estate website and start scrolling, solutions filling my head at a rapid pace.
New possibilities and excitement for the future are lighting me up inside.
“Hey, Mase? Can you take a drive with me this week?”
“Yeah, I can make something work. Where to?”
“Trevally Falls.”
“What’s in Trevally Falls?” Gage asks as he looks over my shoulder at my phone.
I pass it to him so he can scroll through the pictures. “Hopefully a solution.”
“There’s nothing you wouldn’t do for her, is there?” he asks, as if the thought is so entirely foreign. That your happiness could be so tied to another.
“No,” I answer. “Now that I have her, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her.”
My brother almost looks mad at me for those words.
Or maybe he’s mad at himself. Isabelle is still not acting like her usual self.
She puts on a mask, but I can see through it.
I’ve checked in with her as much as possible.
Lex has invited her out for girls’ nights.
I’m pretty sure the only thing that’s going to cheer my friend up is getting my stubborn brother to get his head out of his arse.
“Talked to Izzy? ”
Gage drops his head back on the couch, staring at the ceiling with a sigh.
“Why won’t you just talk to her, fucker?
” I shift my eyes around the room, making sure Mum and Grams didn’t hear my name calling.
They don’t like it, and I don’t feel like being told off like a child.
But Gage is the one acting like a child here.
Maybe I should tell Mum that he’s ignoring Isabelle. Or at least pretend to.
“Mum would be so disappointed you haven’t checked in on her. She really likes Isabelle.”
“You’re a dick.”
“No, you’re a dick.”
“Caleb!” Dammit.
I open my mouth to apologise to Mum, when I remember a few months ago, sitting at the dining table, and Gage throwing me under the bus about Lex to get out of talking about Isabelle. My, how times have changed.
I feel a gluttonous conceit fill me as I inhale and then announce to the room, “Gage hasn’t spoken to Isabelle since the crash.”
Outrage. Total outrage ensues.
“Henry! Why are you not speaking to her? It wasn’t her fault. That’s just awful.” My mother is well and truly disappointed.
“Very selfish,” I agree like a pompous arse.
“That poor sweet girl! I told you to call her,” Grams scolds.
“Why would you choose to ignore Grams, Henry?” I look around the room, rallying sympathy. “And poor Isabelle. My dear, dear friend.”
Gage sinks further into the couch as his cheeks turn red.
His shirt drags and pulls with the movement, and my eyes latch onto a silver chain hidden inside the neck hole of his shirt.
I’ve never known my brother to wear jewellery other than what’s pierced through his skin.
It’s not even a thick chain, it’s quite dainty .
“Perhaps he felt bad for getting her into the accident,” says Grandpa. “If she’s trying to talk to you, Gage, she’s obviously more worried about your wellbeing than hers. I think you should call her.”
“I agree,” says Dad. “It was an accident, Gage. You’re not to blame. Nothing you did that night could have changed the outcome. It was the other driver who crossed into your lane.”
“Yeah. If anything, you saved her from being hurt more when you threw yourself over her.” We all look at Beth, stunned.
He threw himself over her? Well, now, I feel like a dick.
He was trying to protect her. I forget how deep my brother’s hurt runs sometimes, going back to the first person he couldn’t save in a similar situation.
“I’m sorry, brother,” I mutter under my breath so the rest of the family can’t hear.
“No,” he grunts. “You’re right. I should call her. I’ll do it tonight.” Then he hands me back my phone, staring at the background on the screen. A selfie of Lex laughing while I bury my face in her neck.
“What’s that like?” he asks, tipping his chin to the screen.
“Like everything I didn’t know I couldn’t live without.”