Page 104 of Loving Wild

“You okay?” he asks. I shrug.

“I’ve no fucking clue,” I tell him honestly.

“She okay?” He gestures with a chin lift towards the bedroom. I shake my head.

“It shook her up. She’s a bit teary, but nothing we can’t handle.”

Zac smiles at me before—in an unusual show of affection—wrapping his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into him, and kissing my temple.

“I love her, Gabe. Really, she’s a great fucking girl. Love that she went in to bat for Dan like that, love what she’s already got with the girls. She’s family, man, there’s no fucking things up now. You need to put a ring on her finger and wife that.”

I rub at my jaw with the palm of my hand, smiling behind it.

“That? You just called the love of my life, that?”

“You know what I mean. Shut up and drink your coffee.”

“Did the police take photos of your face?” Coop asks Dani. Zac and I end our little moment and take a seat on the other sofa, facing my brother and sister.

“Yeah, that policewoman did, so did the bouncer.”

“Does it hurt?” Sam asks as she squeezes her arse between me and Zac and sits down. I throw my arm over her shoulder and kiss the top of her head.

“Since when did you become so tactile?” she looks up at me and asks.

“Since he found luuuuurve,” Dani grins from the other sofa and announces. I grin back, not even bothering to answer.

“You really okay?” I check in with my sister.

She sips at her coffee before making a choking sound.

“Jesus, what the fuck’s in this?” she asks, eyes darting between Sam and Zac, who both shrug.

“Don’t deflect, Dan. You okay?” I ask again.

She gives a one-shouldered shrug, and I don’t miss the tremble of her lips as she shakes her head. Coop moves before any of us can, and Jess is out from between his legs, and Dani’s in his lap before I’ve even set my coffee down.

“Men are dicks,” she says into Coop’s chest.

“Not all men, bub. That one tonight though, prize fucking prick,” he tells her. “You shouldn’t have tried fighting him though, could’ve got yourself hurt,” he repeats my sentiments almost exactly.

“You didn’t see the way he grabbed, Ren, the way he got in her face.”

“Watched the footage, bub, saw it all.”

My eyes slide from what’s going on with my sister to hit Lauren as she walks out into the family room a few minutes later. She’s wearing the Carnage hoodie I bought her a couple of weeks ago, over a pair of pyjama bottoms, socks on her feet, her face bare of makeup, wet hair twisted around and piled on top of her head.

“Coffee’s in the kitchen,” Sam calls out.

“Thanks,” Lauren says, and I watch her move to pick up her mug.

All the shit women put on their faces is to do what? I wonder. Make them look younger, prettier? Because Lauren never looks more fucking gorgeous than when she’s like she is right now. Her face free of makeup, her freckles and bare skin on show.

I smile up at her as she moves towards me, but she’s side-eyeing Dani in Coop’s lap.

“You okay?” she asks my sister as she sits down next to me.

Tucking her legs underneath her, she leans her head on my shoulder and sips at her coffee.