Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (2 page)

“You will be gentle with him won’t you?”

“As gentle as he allows me to be.” Paul confirmed.
“How’s Luke?”

Helen huffed out
a laugh. “Making the most of
the sympathy he’s getting over his injury.”

Inside the garage, Gavin dropped the box he was carrying and looked
around. “This is actually a cool space.” He breathed in, fresh paint and newly
sawed wood, nice. There was rackin
g on the walls
holding Novak’s surf boards, Gavin’s was amongst them too. His wet suits hung
next to his boards.

There was an upper level where Gavin found his friends bed up a newly
constructed flight of stairs. A small bathroom was in the process of bein
g built just off of the bedroom. Leaning over the
bannister, Gavin looked down at the living area below. A large, comfortable
looking sofa took up most of the area, a low table containing drawers rested in
front of it, all angled perfectly for the massive
plasma
television attached to the wall. A gift from Paul. A fridge and a small counter
top stove took up the back corner. His friend would be self-sufficient.

Running down the stairs and flopping onto the sofa next to Novak, he
looked over as his friend co
ncentrated on his current
favourite video game. “You have a man cave dude.”

Novak smiled but didn’t take his eyes from the game. “That I do.”

All too soon it was time to leave. Novak wrapped Gavin in a hug and spoke
quietly to him. “Things will get better
bro. You just
need to learn to chill a bit. Try not to give your old man too much of a hard
time ok? He loves you man, he’s doing what he thinks is best. It sucks balls
but it’s his decision and maybe getting away from here will be good for you.”

Nodding
into Novak’s shoulder, Gavin found he
was battling tears. “You know I can’t come back for a while?”

“Yeah, I’ll be down to see you. Don’t worry about that. I’ll miss you
brother.”

“Novak. About your face.” Gavin stammered as he added another layer of
guilt
to his conscience.

Laughing, hugging his friend, Novak replied “Forget about it, you
wouldn’t believe the advantages of being injured. You’ve done me a back-handed
favour.”

The journey home had never felt so long. It wasn’t all entirely due to
Gavin’s sul
len silence and refusal of food either.
God damn the Volvo was slow. He actually had time to take in the scenery as he
mashed his way through the gears and tried to encourage the Swiss engineered
tank into something that would resemble speed.

The electric
gates were standing open when he
finally guided the car into the driveway. It shuddered to a stop, almost with a
sigh of relief. Suzanne was standing with the front door thrown open as they
climbed from the car. Paul stretched his aching body as Gavin reac
hed for a duffle bag.

“I only need this for tonight.” He turned to look at Paul. “I’ll empty
the car tomorrow.”

“Good idea.” Paul nodded. That was the most Gavin had said to him in
weeks. He bent to kiss his wife’s cheek and was just about to tell Gavin he
’d show him to his room when again the boy spoke.

“Hi Suzanne.” He offered his new step mother a tight smile. “I’ll find my
room. I’ll shout if I need anything.” And with that he hot footed it up the
stairs.

Stepping into his wife’s arms, Paul buried his
face
in her neck, breathing in her scent as he held her tight. “He hates me.”

“He needs time.” She soothed. “You know I’ll help wherever I can.”

“Thank you baby.”

Standing in the middle of the two rooms that had been designated as his,
bag still clasped i
n his hand, Gavin was
contemplating doing a runner. He had no idea where he would run to. He couldn’t
go home. He had no money anyway. Shaking his head, he first turned towards the
bedroom and dropped his bag on the large four poster bed. He couldn’t deny
that he liked it. A lot. Running his hand down one of the
wooden posts, fingers following the carved indents, he appreciated the beauty
of the piece and how it carried its dark wood stain.

There was a small chest of drawers next to a door which he presumed
was a closet but no, he had his own bathroom. No more
sharing for him. He stood in the centre of the tiled room and for the first
time in recent memory, he smiled slightly. This was nice. Next he walked
through the bedroom door to a sitting room. Here the
re
was a large couch and an even larger television attached to the wall. In the
corner stood a desk on which stood three cardboard boxes. From the manufacturer
branding, it was obvious a new desktop computer was hidden within the boxes.

Another door led of
f of this room and that’s
where he found his closet. Not large but big enough for his needs. He was going
to be comfortable here and it was clear that no expense had been spared.
Sighing, he sat on the arm of the couch, assessing his situation. It sucked.
There was no two ways about it. He’d been removed from
everything and everyone he knew and loved and now here he was, stuck with his
dad.

And therein lie the problem. Paul was somewhat of a mystery to him. He’d
been witness to the hurt the man had caused
his
mother but what did he really know about him? Even from his jaded view, he
could see Paul was trying. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy to start off with
but he was going to try. Providing his temper didn’t get the better of him.

Returning to his bedr
oom, he began to empty the
bag which contained the majority of his every day clothing. The delicious
smell wafting into the room mad
e his gut clench
and mouth water. His stomach was certain his throat had been cut. He’d refused
food on the way here, idiot
that he was. Abandoning
his clothes across his bed, he walked quietly down the stairs, following his
nose.

The swinging door into the kitchen opened silently. He stood, not
speaking as he took in the room and the mouth-watering smell. To his surprise,
Paul
, now dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and
barefoot, stood dutifully by the hob, stirring a pot while Suzanne plated up.
When she turned and reached for the gravy boat, she saw him hovering in the
doorway and smiled, beckoning him forward.

“Er, hi. That smel
ls good.” He mumbled.

Handing him the now filled gravy boat, she pointed to the table as she
picked up two plates. “I hope you like roast beef.” She followed him. “I can
make you something else if you don’t.”

“Who doesn’t like roast beef?” He asked, god he
was going to drool any second now if he didn’t start eating.

Watching the exchange over his shoulder as he put the pans in the sink to
soak, Paul held back his smile at the easy way Suzanne talked to his son. Yes,
he would be drawing on her help quite a b
it.
After a last check that everything was locked and
hovering for a while outside Gavin’s room and hearing no sound, Paul turned
towards his bedroom and slipped between the sheets, snuggling close to his
wife. Slowly, he began to relax, then it hit him,
they
had been married for over a month and this was only the second night they had
spent together as husband and wife.

“Suzie. You know I love you.
” He started.
“
I have a
confession to make.”

Turning in his arms, she raised an eyebrow “Oh?”

Paul nodded
and held her hands in his. “I think
I’ve killed your car.”

“You WHAT?” She tried to pull her hands free.

“Well, it still runs, under protest and it’s favouring third and fifth,
it’s not too fond of the other gears though so I think it might be time for you
to get a new one.”

Finally wriggling her hands free, she beat on his chest as her leg came
over his hip. “I babied your bloody penis extension all the way home and you go
and wreck my car as thanks?” She was trying hard not to laugh. She loved her
aging V
olvo but even she recognised it was on its
last legs.

“I didn’t wreck it.” He chuckled, “Its still in one piece. Mainly
,
and it’s not like I could make the
bodywork any worse.” He finally sat and wrapped his arms around her, pulling
her back down with him.
“I’ll buy you a nice shiny
new one in the colour of your choice and with gadgets, you know things like
windows that open AND close without the need for a clothes hangar as
encouragement.”

“You are a bastard Mr. Jensen.” She laughed.

“But I’m your bastard
Mrs. Jensen.” He held her
tight as he kissed her, groaning into her mouth as she ground her hips down
onto him.

“I’ve missed you lover.”

Chapter
2

Gavin lay on his back. The large four poster bed was comfortable,
supporting his body but he couldn’t sleep.
Unused to
the
noises
this house made as it settled, he found he was jumping at every sound
and the darkness was freaking him out just a little. He’d never been afraid of
the dark, not even as a small child but now it seemed to close in around him.
The lig
ht in his bedroom was too bright so he opened
the door to his living room and turned on one of the lamps. Crawling back into
bed, he was comforted by the warm glow coming from the next room.

He jolted from sleep a short time later with the initial thought
of “Where am I?” Sitting up, looking around the room, he
wondered what had woken him. The noise came again and it was unmistakeable.
Paul’s chuckle and Suzanne’s long drawn out groan of satisfaction had his ire
rising. Sliding from the bed, He walked out i
nto the
hall. No wonder he could hear, their bedroom door was open. Shit.

Going back to his room, closing the outer door, he hesitated when he
reached his living room door but the now muffled moans coming from the room
across the hall from his made the dec
ision for him.
Closing the door, he felt his way to the bed in the darkened room. Once back
under the duvet, his eyes now adjusted to the darkness, he noticed that he was
still getting a slight glow from the living room lamp from beneath the door.

He was t
rying hard not to resent his father. He
knew Paul was an affectionate, passionate man but did he have to do the
horizontal shuffle on his first night here? Gavin snapped on his bedside light,
too irritated to sleep now. He reached for his bag, found the di
ary his previous school had provided and flicked through
the pages.

Finding the entry marked BOURNEMOUTH in his untidy scrawl, he flipped
over the page and found the entry in red pen that marked Paul’s wedding. There
were no further entries. He hadn’t writ
ten in it
since he’d been airlifted from Bournemouth to his mother’s bedside. Leaning
back against the pillows, he gave himself a mental slap, Paul had left his new
wife to be at Carmen’s bedside and this was his first night home since that
day. Maybe he s
hould try not to be so selfish. He was
stuck here for the foreseeable future. It could be heaven or hell. The choice
between them was his alone.

“How did you sleep?” Paul asked, replacing his mug on the scrubbed pine
kitchen table.

Gavin shrugged as he hov
ered in the doorway.
“Ok I guess. This house makes some strange noises but I suppose I’ll get used
to them. The people in the house seem to make a fair bit of noise too.” Yeah,
had to throw that in.

Paul reached for his mug as he contemplated his answer. T
aking a sip of the steaming brew, he wrapped his hands
around the mug. “I must remember to shut the door in future.” He acknowledged
his son’s words. “I expect we are going to have quite a period of adjustment.
You have to understand, Suzanne and I are acc
ustomed
to
it
being just us.
We aren’t in the habit of closing doors but it’s one will we adopt. My error. I
apologise that you heard us.”

“It’s ok.” Taken aback by Paul’s answer, Gavin had been exp
ecting him to snap out a reply
, giving orders
but he had r
ecognised his mistake and owned it.
Making his own mug of tea, he sat opposite his father. “I’m sorry dad. You left
here the day after your wedding to make sure I was ok and to be with mum. I
have no right to complain about you re-connecting with your wife
.”

“This is your home now. You have every right to complain about what goes
on here but know this, I do love Suzanne, deeply, passionately. I won’t be
curtailing my activities with her because it offends your morals.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to. I know you love her. That’s blatantly clear
every time
you look at her, besides it’s not my
morals it offends, it’s my ears.
I only wish you would have looked at
mum that way.”

“Gavin..”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Gavin cut
him
off.

“You can’t keep it bottled up forever.” Paul countered.

“I don’t intend to. One day, you’ll get both barrels.” He got up to leave
but Paul stopped him.

“You’ve already given me that and I can take whatever it is you feel you
need to get off your
chest. I’m here for you son.
Even if you think you can’t talk to me, you can. Anytime you want to. I love
you. Nothing is going to change that. I know I haven’t been a good father to
you. I don’t know if it’s too late for me to be that, you are almost an a
dult but I’m going to try. I won’t ever stop trying.”

Nodding as he took on the words, he pushed open the swing door. “What am
I supposed to do here? I don’t know anyone except the family. I don’t have a
school to go to or a job. I now have no friends. Am
I
expected to stay in my room all day until you decide what to do with me?” He
stood quietly as Paul put both mugs in the sink and turned back to him.

“You have free run of the house. I’ll show you around. There’s a pool you
can use and a well-equipped gym
as well as a music
room. We have a meeting with one of the private colleges at the end of the
week. They’ve seen your academic records and are eager to talk to you. We also
have a few sessions with a counsellor but between now and then, you’ll be with
me
wherever I go. I’m sorry Gavin but I don’t trust
you not to do a runner.”

Gavin barked out a laugh at Paul’s last words. “I considered it last
night.” He admitted. “But I have nowhere to go and no money to get there so it
looks like we are stuck with each
other.”

First stop was Paul’s now rather large gardening company. The portacabins
had been replaced with a single storey building which housed the administrative
staff and the shipping containers had gone in order to make way for a large
storage warehouse
and workshop. Paul gave Gavin the
guided tour before heading into the offices.

Gavin was surprised to find the offices bright and airy. A radio was
playing and there was laughter coming from the staff. Given the nature of the
business, the majority of the
staff wore jeans and
t-shirts bearing the company logo.

Following Paul to the back of the building, they stopped in an open
doorway and Gavin was introduced to his father’s partner Phil who made the
initial comment of
, “o
h you poor sod, you look just like
him.” Making
Gavin smile.

Laughing, shaking his head and uttering
, “c
harming.” Paul turned away and opened
the door to his own office directly across from Phil’s.

“By the way, your computer is fucked.” Phil called. “I mean broken.
Sorry.” He corrected his
language.

Stopping, dodging Gavin, Paul returned to Phil’s office. “What’s wrong
with it?”

“Don’t ask me. It won’t start up properly. I’ve called the guy but he’s
got a back log, he’ll be here sometime next week. You’ll have to use mine.”

Stepping back int
o his own office, he saw Gavin
Sitting behind his desk. “Gavin?”

“What’s your log in? I’ll see if I can sort this out.”

Dragging the spare chair and sitting next to his son, he watched as his
fingers flew over the keyboard. Paul didn’t even know there was
a black screen where commands could be typed but Gavin was
diligently working away. Paul had a moment of panic when Gavin pressed his
finger onto the power button and held it there. The computer guy had told Paul
never to do that.

Tapping his fingers as he
waited for the
machine to boot up again, Gavin glanced at his father who by this time had
started signing cheques. “Your computer is so slow. What have you been doing to
it? It doesn’t look that old.”

Paul shrugged. “I’m hardly here anymore. Maybe its fee
ling neglected.”

“Uhuh, sure, its feeling neglected.” Gavin went to work as he initially
started the machine in safe mode then rebooted. “There you go. You can cancel
the computer man. Bloody hell Dad, you have just about everything saved to your
desktop.”

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“Yeah. Look, I’m going to create folders and save these documents and
pictures on your hard drive. I’ll make note so you know where everything is so
you can take that panicked look off your face.”

“Where did you learn
to do that?”

“I appreciate it’s probably been a while
,
but I learned it at a place called
school.
You know that place where they teach
you stuff? But I guess you learned different skills to me. Plus
, I’m a genius.”

Paul took the dig about his education an
d
misspent youth on the chin. Not the time or place for that conversation.

They stopped and picked Suzanne up before heading
to
a restaurant for lunch. How the other
half lived. Gav
in gawped as the establishment’s
manager greeted Paul by name and ushered t
hem
to a secluded booth.

“How are you settling in?” Suzanne asked.

“Ok, I think. I’m definitely hitting up the pool later.”

Putting her menu down, Suzanne studied her step son. He was certainly
more animated than he was last night and Paul seemed more
relaxed too. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to make you
breakfast. I had an early client. That’s a rarity and I will usually be home.”

“It’s cool.”

“What have you two been up to?” She pressed. She smiled as the pair told
her of their morning.

Paul announced tha
t his son was a genius.
“He sorted out this weird problem with my computer at the yard, didn’t
even break into a sweat.”
Her heart warmed
at the obvious pride in his voice. Perhaps this transition wouldn’t be a
s
difficult as they had presumed.

Lunch over a
nd Suzanne dropped at a beauty
salon amidst Paul’s mutterings of
, “
I don’t know why you need to go to these places, they can’t improve on
perfection.” The two of them found themselves outside an austere looking
building. Paul nudged his son to get him movi
ng.

Gavin’s initial assessment of perhaps this won’t be too bad
after his first
chat with the counsellor proved to be
completely and utterly wrong when Paul was ushered into the room and the
subject turned to that of his mother and her relationship with Paul.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he steadfastly refused to talk while he
f
elt himself becoming increasingly
angrier
at every word Paul said about his
mother. When the counsellor turned to Gavin and asked if he would like to add
anything to Paul’s assessment of his relationship, he ground out
,
“I will not talk about my mother whi
le he is in the room and I certainly won’t address anything
to do with her relationship with him.” He got up and walked out when the
counsellor pressed him further.

Paul found him pacing in the waiting room. “Gavin.”

“I am not going to discuss mum with you
. Not
now. Not ever and what you said in there was all bullshit.” He shouted.

“No. It wasn’t. There are things that went on between your mother and I
that you may not want to hear about but they happened. I know I did many things
wrong during my time with
her but so did she. Neither
of us were perfect son. It’s about time you accepted that. I always did what I
thought was best.”

Gavin stopped pacing long enough to scream
.
“That’s bollocks.” At Paul before a new
face appeared in the room and introduced herse
lf as
Gavin’s anger management counsellor. He desperately wanted to tell her to go to
hell but his manners kicked in and as this was court ordered, he didn’t really
have a choice. He caught sight of Paul slumping in to a chair, head in his
hands as he clos
ed the door. Good. He thought. I hope
you suffer.
Returning home that evening, Suzanne found her
husband in the kitchen, arms folded across his chest, legs crossed at the
ankles as he leant against the counter and glared at the ceiling over his head.
A ser
ies of thumps made her eyes travel upward.