Players, Bumps and Cocktail Sausages (3 page)

They did.

I woke up and groaned. My head was pounding, and my tongue felt like sandpaper. How fucking much had I drunk last night?

“How’re you feeling?” Abby asked, leaning over me. She sounded pissed off. Why was she pissed off? I was the one who was allowed to be pissed off here.

“My head… It hurts.”

“Not surprised. Brad and Cole had to carry you home. Some girl gave me your phone.” She raised her eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.
Yes, Abby, I brought the girl I cheated on you home with me. Jesus!

“Holly,” I said. “Brad’s sister.”

“She’s pretty.”

Dangerous fucking territory.

I shrugged. “She’s alright.” Holly was pretty under the eye make-up. Her naivety and that good girl thing she had going on made me doubt she would ever cheat. If anything she would be cheated on, like I was.

“How old is she?”

“Twenty.”

Abby sat down, and I knew I’d said something wrong.

“You know a lot about her then?”

“Are you for real? Ben said we should invite her because she knows no one here and I asked if she was old enough to be drinking in a pub and Brad told me her age.” Was she seriously quizzing me? I would never do anything to hurt her, and she knew that. Or she should know that.

“Okay, I’m sorry. I just don’t like women thinking they have a chance with my hubby that’s all.”

Since when did carrying a phone become payment for animal sex in a pub bathroom?

“You trust me?”

“Of course I do, baby, I just get jealous. I wouldn’t be normal if I didn’t.”

But jealous of someone holding my phone?

“Alright. What time is it?”

“Almost eleven. We need to leave in an hour so take these,” she replied, handing me two white painkillers and nodding to a glass of water on the bedside table. “I’m gonna have a shower. Do you need any clothes ironing for today? Know what you’re wearing?”

“Jeans and a T-shirt.”
Miles’ birthday, not dinner with the queen.

“Okay.” She kissed my cheek and left the room. I hated that we were stressed at each other more than we were happy now.  We needed something to get back to how it was just a few months ago; things had become mundane and pretty shit. A dirty weekend away. That would do it. I wanted a whole weekend with no clothes and my wife in as many positions as possible.

I heard the shower turn on and got hard. Abby in the shower seemed like a damn appealing idea right now. After downing the pills and taking a huge gulp of water, I went to the bathroom.  She was washing her hair in the shower; the suds streamed down her back making my mouth water.

“Room for me?” I asked.

She spun around as if she thought I was a murderer. “Jasper, you scared me. I’m almost done, babe, we don’t have long.”

Another rain check then.

I stripped as she quickly finished washing her hair and got out.

“So, what did we get him?” I asked Abby as I drove over to Cole and Oakley’s place. It was Miles’ birthday but since my sister’s garden was massive the party was at their house.

Abby put herself in charge of presents after the condom incident on Cole’s birthday after Everleigh was born.

I rattled the neatly wrapped present. It wasn’t a watch-shaped present. Why wasn’t it watch-shaped? Watches weren’t flat and floppy but this was.

“A shirt your mum picked out when we were shopping last weekend.”

Okay, a shirt definitely wasn’t a watch. I looked at Abby and mentally cursed her blank expression. Why wasn’t she giving anything away, and why couldn’t I just man up and ask her?
Have you turned back into a cheater, Abby?

“Did you pick up Everleigh’s headband?”

“Damn it,” I muttered.

Abby sighed. “Jasper, we’ve had that almost a week now.”

“Sorry. She can get it tonight.”

“I’ll make sure she gets it.”

How had Abby changed so quickly? She’d been acting weird for a little while now. At first I thought it was just because her parents were separating, but I don’t think so now. Her parents fought for most of her life, and she said she was relieved they were finally breaking up. So what the fuck was up with her? Another man was the only conclusion I could come too. I hated it because I’d finally reached a place where I could trust her one hundred per cent again, and she was seriously screwing with that.

Feeling deflated, I looked out of the window as we approached Oakley’s house. I should have just kept whoring around rather than forgiving her and settling down. That was much easier.

“Ready?” Abby asked, smiling at me as she opened her door.

I nodded and got out, plastering a smile on my face. As soon as the front door opened and Everleigh ran outside my smile turned real.

“Uncle Jasper,” she screamed. And I knew that no matter what happened with Abby, I would always have my favourite girl.

Chapter Three

I plucked Everleigh out of the air as she jumped at me. The kid could properly clear the floor. It was terrifying.

“Hey, kiddo.”

“Don’t eat the chicken. Daddy said Grandad don’t cook it right,” she said, getting straight to the point. “Chicken that don’t cook right makes you hurt, doesn’t it?”

It was hurl, and it was me, not Cole, that had told her when I was sick once that bad chicken made you hurl, but I was glad she’d got it mixed up. Saved me from Oakley’s yelling.

“That’s right. Bad chicken makes your belly hurt.”

“Hey, girly,” Abby said, taking her from me. Everleigh started telling Abby about the chicken too so I took the opportunity to say hi to my mum, who was waiting by the front door – on granddaughter duty.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Mum said, hugging me.

“Hey. How’s it going?”

“Good. I’m so happy everyone can be together again. It’s been too long. Abby,” she said, pushing past me. “How are you? It’s been a while.”

I tried not to think about why she wasn’t at my mum and Miles’ for dinner last week. It seemed that while I just wanted to knock her up and have a family, she just wanted to be young and go out again. I thought we were on the same page. When we got married, I thought – because she’d
said
– that we were going to start thinking about trying to have a baby. Usually I was quite good at finding the real message between what a woman said and what she actually fucking meant, but clearly I had mistaken ‘I can’t wait to have a family with you’ for ‘Sod off, I want my freedom.’

I followed them into the back garden, saying happy birthday to Miles before I grabbed my first beer of many.

“Hey, man,” I said as Brad walked out to join me. Holly was just behind him, almost hiding. I nodded my head. “Holly.”

“Where’s the beer?” Brad asked, heading over to the cooler by the barbecue that I pointed out.

“Hi. Thank you again for inviting me,” Holly said, biting the inside of her mouth.

I shrugged. “No worries. Let me introduce you to my sister. Oakley!” Holly flinched, not realising I was about to shout, even though Oakley was at the other end of the garden.

Instead of my sister, my niece ran over and stood in front of Holly, checking her out with a little scowl.

“Do you like purple?” Everleigh asked her.

“Um,” Holly muttered at the random question and then smiled, bending down a little. “I love purple, it’s my absolute favourite.”

“Mine too.” Everleigh beamed and skipped off, and with that brief exchange, Holly had been accepted.

“She’s cute. Your niece Everleigh, right?”

“Yeah, and yeah she is. She likes you.”

She smiled. “You can tell from that?”

“You like purple, and if she didn’t like you she would have held onto my hand and glared at you.”

Holly laughed. “Alright.”

“Hi,” Oakley said, finally getting to us. “You’re Holly, right?”

“Yeah, hi. Thanks for letting me come.”

Oakley waved her hand. “Of course. You want something to drink? My mum’s making cocktails, can’t guarantee they’ll be nice, though.”

“Holly’s not a big drinker,” I said.

“Okay,” Oakley replied slowly. “Well we have non-alcoholic stuff too. Come with me and we’ll find you something.” They walked off, leaving me alone, chatting as they made their way into the conservatory that now looked like a brewery. How fucking much alcohol did they buy?

“How come Holly’s here?” Abby asked, doing Everleigh’s ninja thing and just appearing in front of me.

I frowned.

“Because her brother’s here. I said she could come rather than hanging out at her parents’ house alone. Plus I thought she would get on well with Oakley, and I was right.”

Jesus it wasn’t liked I’d asked her on a date.

“Right,” she replied. “Are you going to introduce me too?”

Shrugging, I nodded my head and walked into the conservatory after them. Abby’s mood swings were beginning to piss me off. In the car over she was okay, minus the headband thing; when we arrived she was a loving wife, but now she was acting pissy.

“Holly,” I said, “this is my wife, Abby. Abby this is Brad’s sister.”

Abby stepped forward. “Nice to meet you, Holly.”

“You too.” They shook hands, and Holly took the cocktail from Oakley’s hand, thanking her.

“Drinking today?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It’s a non-alcoholic cocktail.”

“You don’t drink?” Abby asked as she poured herself a glass of red wine.

“Not much.”

“How do you survive uni without alcohol?”

Holly laughed. “I have no idea. Did you go too?”

“Yeah, to study teaching and English Literature and Language. Now I work at the high school. What about you? What do you want to be after uni?”

“A pharmacist in a hospital,” she replied.

“Wow, that’s great,” Abby replied. I was glad they had something in common because if they hadn’t Abby probably wouldn’t have tried that hard to get along with her. She could be kind of selfish like that. She wouldn’t necessarily ignore Holly, but she wouldn’t have bothered to make her feel at ease.

Holly smiled shyly and, I realised the men were outside, cooking the meat on the barbecue with a cooler of beer beside them and I was inside chatting to the women who were drinking girly drinks. I shook my head and backed away. “I’ll be outside.”

I walked to the man area and grabbed a beer.

“Tell me there’s Jack Daniels in that?” I said to Cole.

“Just coke,” he replied, and I raised my eyebrow.

“Well since my wife is now on her third cocktail I’m guessing I’ve been nominated the designated responsible parent for today.”

“She’s getting drunk?” I frowned. She never got drunk, drunk. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, Jasper.”

I didn’t like it. Oakley didn’t drink until she got drunk, just tipsy. The last time she was drunk was when that bastard sperm donor we were supposed to call Dad sent her a letter from prison. It was almost two years ago. She got in such a state that Mum and Miles took Everleigh for the night so she could calm herself down. I hated seeing her like that. I’d wanted to kill him more than ever.

“Seriously, Jasper, she’s fine. It’s Miles’ birthday, and she wants a few drinks. She’s twenty-four, old enough to have a few cocktails.”

My shoulders relaxed. If Cole wasn’t worried, I wasn’t going to be. He knew her better than I did now, and he was a real worrier when it came to my sister. If he was cool and not concerned, then everything was fine.

He smiled sadly, understanding exactly why I freaked out. Oakley had dealt with a lot, but as strong as she was it would always be there. Therapy couldn’t take away the memories of what those bastards did to her when she was just a few years older than Everleigh.

“So everything okay between you and Abby now?” he asked, flipping over the burgers.

I shrugged. “I guess. Women drive you crazy, right?”

He laughed and shook his head. I could tell that was just for my benefit. Oakley didn’t drive him as insane as Abby drove me, but he didn’t want to disagree and leave me feeling bad. I wanted to pull my damn hair out. What the hell was going on with my wife?  I knew I was going to have to do the mature thing that Oakley suggested and talk to her, but in my experience, ninety per cent of the time talking to a woman left you no less confused than before. I think they enjoyed it. They loved messing with our heads; it was like a damn hobby.

“You up for going out tomorrow?” Cole asked.

Was he trying to keep my busy?

“Can’t. Doing something with Abby. Soon though?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

“Jasper, refill the cooler, please?” Miles said, handing me a bucket of water and balancing Everleigh in his other arm. Miles was her hero; she worshipped him. He had more right to be her grandad than that bastard rotting in prison did. She didn’t even know about him, and we had to keep it that way for as long as we could – forever, if that were possible.

I took the cooler from him and curtseyed, earning me an eye roll.

“So when am I getting my second grandchild?” Mum asked me, smiling like a psycho as I walked into the house to get some more beers.

I shrugged. A baby seemed so fucking far away now. I wanted to be a father and have a tiny person call me Daddy. Whenever Everleigh called Cole Daddy it put a smile on my face, she worshiped her dad – I wanted that too.

“Dunno, ask your daughter.” I replied.

Oakley frowned. “We’re not trying for another one until Everleigh’s settled in school full-time.”

“What?” Cole whined, walking through the door and pouting at my sister. “Not now?”

She laughed and threw her wadded up napkin at him. “Sorry but you’ve gotta wait at least another year and a half for baby number two. Unless, of course, you want to give birth?”

He smiled and then his mucky paws were all over her.

Mum pouted at me and Abby, more effectively than Cole.

“Come on, you two, I’m not getting any younger.”

I wrapped my arm around my wife. “We’re happy with the way things are for now,” I said, not wanting to put Abby in an awkward position if I said I wanted tons of them but she was more focused on her career.