Page 53 of Loving Wild

The girls chat continuouslyon the hour-long drive, with Gabe and me mostly smiling and laughing at their conversations about boys, music, fashion, and naïve opinions on life. As we get closer to his dad’s house in Brighton, Gabe switches the music, so it only plays through the speakers in the back. He also turns the volume up.

Taking his hand off the wheel, he rests it on my thigh and gives it a squeeze.

“You doing okay?” he checks the girls in the rear-view mirror before looking at me and asking.

“Yep. You?” I question. His eyes slide back to the road, and he shrugs.

“I love when we all get together, and especially that you’re now gonna be a part of that. Hate that she’s gonna be there.” He adds another shrug but doesn’t look at me.

“Said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t know how you’ve done it all these years.”

I watch as he nods slowly.

“I get that anyone outside of our family would feel like that, but once you meet my dad, I think you’ll get it and understand why we’ve done what we can to protect him.”

Turning my eyes back to the road and the beach running alongside it, I silently nod.

“He’s a good bloke,” Gabe says after a while. “He lost my mum, then he lost his brother in a terror attack in Bali,” I turn to look at him again. “She’s a shit human, but she’s good to, and for my dad. She makes him happy. I’ve disappointed him enough with the shit I pulled growing up. I wasn’t going to be the one to ruin his marriage and risk him having another heart attack.”

Unsure of how to respond, I choose to remain silent.

“Total honesty, Ren. Tell me what you’re thinking right now?” he asks me quietly.

Sliding my hand into his, I give it a squeeze.

“Total honesty, I’m worried I’m going to love your dad as much as you do and want to cunt punt the bitch even harder.” I turn my head in time to see him smile at the road.

“I fucking love you, Little Bird,” he says with another head shake.

* * *

One Directions, ‘What Makes You Beautiful’plays for what feels like the 974thtime as we pull up onto the drive of Gabe’s dad’s house. It’s not a house, it’s a beachside mansion. Built over three levels, there’s a balcony across the middle level, and a rooftop terrace on the third. My mouth is literally hanging open as we park alongside all the other cars on the in and out drive.

“This place is huge,” I finally whisper as Gabe turns off the engine.

“Yeah. They moved here after they got married. Jackie’s choice, she didn’t want to live in the house we all grew up in, it belongs to my mum’s family.”

The girls start to climb out of the truck, “take your backpacks,” Gabe tells them.

“What happened to that?” I ask as we open our doors to follow the girls.

“We still have it. We use it for Christmas and get-togethers. It needs some work, but it’s a great house, on a huge block with bay views in Mount Eliza.”

Pulling our bag from the back of his truck, he turns and hooks his arm over the back of my shoulders. “Except for Dani, we all carried on living there when Dad moved here. Cooper and Jess lived there together until they bought a place and moved out, by then, Sam was living there with Zac, then they moved out, and I stayed there by myself.” He pauses for a moment and shrugs. “It reminded me too much of my mum, so I moved out too.”

I study him for a moment, my eyes taking in the dark whiskers covering his jaw because he didn’t shave this morning, the blue of his eyes, his scent. I let it all wash over me and allow myself a moment to bathe in the peace all of that brings.

“I’d love to see it,” I stand on tiptoes, kiss his cheek, and tell him.

“I’ll take you there. I’d love you to see it,” he kisses my forehead and replies.

“Put her down,” Zac calls from the front door. We both turn and flip him our middle fingers.

“Come and help me,” I order him.

After giving me a kiss, Zac grabs the potatoes, I grab the sausage rolls, and we follow Gabe into the house.

Heading through a large, tiled foyer, we move towards the back of the house and enter a huge room with a kitchen at one end, a pool table in the middle, and a living area at the other end. Floor to ceiling sliding glass doors create the entire back wall and are pulled halfway open, exposing the pool area out the back.