Page 15

Just not mine, that went without saying, the two of us well aware of the dynamic. That settled, we went to work, packing up all the food and stacking the dishes before putting the dishwasher on.

“Who’s for some apple pie?” Heather asked, bustling in and glancing at the kitchen, then giving us a nod of approval when she saw how well we’d cleaned it.

“Oh, I better—” I started to say.

I wanted to be home, in some big fluffy PJs and sitting in front of my TV right now.

“Have a big bowl with ice cream and cream,” Hunter said, moving forward, arms outstretched.

“No, no…” I held out my hands to ward him off, because for some reason these idiots got off on manhandling us girls, tossing us about like dolls. He’d put his arms around me and held me to his chest more times than I could count, but this? I squirmed, then punched him in those oh-so-hard pecs, which just made him laugh as he carried me over to the couch. My arm was forced to go around his neck, trying to stabilise myself, but this felt different. He stared down at me, lips twitching, wanting to smile, but stopping himself from doing it. I’d never noticed the million shades of blue in his eyes before, but I caught every one of them now. The smile won, curving his lips as he continued.

“An even bigger one for me, Mum,” he said.

“I don’t know where you put all of that food,” she replied with a shake of her head. “If I ate a quarter of what you boys did, my arse?—”

“Would be just as sexy as it always is,” Angus said, moving behind her to cuddle up close.

“Gross!” Millie howled, snatching up the remote before Hayden could, right as Hunter put me down. He took a seat right next to me, Hayden sitting down on the opposite side, leaving me wedged between them. The McDonalds had a big sectional couch that formed an L shape in the living room, so there was plenty of room for everyone to spread out. Instead, I was left to sit there, jammed between the two of them like meat in a sandwich.

Which gave rise to some very uncomfortable thoughts.

Most of Australia and a big chunk of the world had seen the twins’ half-naked bodies. Tall, well-muscled and all blond hair and tan skin, they fitted the stereotype of the Aussie surfer perfectly. They helped sell a whole lot of surfboards to guys who thought they’d look the same if they took up the sport. But those ads were plastered on billboards or stuck to storefronts, the twins looking effortlessly perfect and remote. I didn’t feel their body heat radiating through my clothes when I stopped to stare at the ads, nor smell that spicy scent. Musky, something woody, but something a little like incense as well, that made my nose tingle, I breathed that in instead of air and had to wonder what it’d feel like to be wedged between them in my bed, sans fluffy PJs. I blinked and focussed abruptly on the TV.

“Thanks, Mum,” Brock grunted, sitting down a little way down the couch as he accepted the bowl of apple pie.

“And this one’s for Jamie,” Heather said. Two sets of hands shot out to take it, which had her frowning. “You’ll get yours in a minute, you greedy guts. There you go, love.”

The warmth of her voice was reflected in the bowl, my hands feeling like they were thawing as I cradled it, the aroma of sugar, apples, and fresh pastry filling my nose. Heather had been making her famous apple pie ever since I’d come around for the first dinner. Just as Hunter asked, the bowl was piled high with ice cream and cream, and I stared at it because it was one of the few safe spaces to look.

“Better eat up.” My eyes flicked sideways to see Hayden was peering down at me. “You know Mum, she’ll have a hand on your forehead taking your temperature, then diagnosing you with some rare disease in the next.”

“An allergy to apple pie,” Hunter said. “Or sugar. remember when she went on that low-carb kick?”

We all groaned at that. Bacon, steak, and butter are fine things, but best consumed with tasty, tasty carbs. I grinned then, shaking my head as I picked up my spoon, because that shared history helped me relax. I was just sitting on the same couch, with the same guys, at the same kind of dinner I’d been attending for over ten years. Nothing had changed. That had me spooning a big mouthful of delicious pie into my mouth, but as I savoured the taste, I was conscious I had an audience.

My eyes rolled up to see Hayden watching every swallow of my throat. His smile faded, a small line forming between his brows instead. I watched his lips fall open just a little, as if he wanted a bite, and my hand moved to give him one when Heather broke in.

“Hayden?” He looked up almost guiltily, a fine red flush colouring his cheeks as he blinked. “Don’t you want some pie?” his mother asked.

“Thanks, Mum,” he said, accepting his bowl and digging in, just like he normally did.

“So…” Millie had a shit-eating grin all over her face, “how about a little RuPaul’s Drag Race? The new all-star season has started.”

“And my girl, Miss Vanjie better come out on top this time,” Hunter said.

“Bitch, Roxxxy slays,” Millie shot back. As the two of them squabbled, I sank back into the chair, eating my pie.

“Back in the day, you only saw boys that dressed like girls in clubs on the Cross,” Angus said, sitting down in his recliner and popping the footrest. He was referencing the notorious strip of clubs in King’s Cross, Sydney. “They are bloody good at what they do, though. You see the before and after and you’d never know they were the same person.”

“Think maybe I should be using a lot more makeup?” Heather said, patting her hair.

“No bloody way.” He dragged her down and onto his lap to the sound of their children’s groans. “You’re already too pretty without a speck of makeup on.”

“Put the damn show on,” Brock told Millie, “something to drown out the sound of Mum and Dad making out.”

But they weren’t. Instead, Angus had Heather sitting across his lap as he fed her spoonfuls of pie. The two of them giggled like teenagers and that’s when I felt a wrench. Not that I wished my parents were the same. Dad was a big gruff man and Mum was too uptight to do anything like this ever, let alone when they had company, but because… Growing up around the McDonalds had been like a glimpse into heaven. One day I’d find my Angus, I’d assumed, and somehow that had my focus shifting to Brock.

He was sitting forward, elbows on his knees, his forearms flexing as he ate his dessert, and with that sixth sense of his, he turned sideways to meet my gaze. I squirmed in my seat, something that was made hard by the twins’ presence, but didn’t look away. Those strange pale-brown eyes took all of me in, then he shook his head slightly before looking meaningfully at the bowl in front of me. Eat, that was the clear message. I watched his eyes narrow as I pushed the spoon around but didn’t have any more, his jaw muscle flexing.