Page 33 of Saving Ren

“Did you call? She get away okay?” Cooper asks. Like me, he’d seen Lauren’s bruises last night and assumed, also like me, they were the reason she was leaving her husband. I’d also shared with him earlier that I was going to show her a unit we’ve just renovated and were about to rent out. He’s not stupid and knew exactly who I was calling when I stepped outside with my phone in my hand.

“Yeah, she’s at Jo’s already.”

“She gonna look at the place on Gardener Street?”

I avoid making eye contact with my brother by looking up at the waitress and thanking her as she puts my eggs beni down in front of me. I shake my head while busying myself with the salt and pepper and asking for the hot sauce.

“Why not?” Cooper asks as I finally look up and meet his eyes, aware that both Zac and Jack are watching us.

“She needs to sort her head out, find a job, whatever,” I offer with a shrug.

“And you’re gonna just leave it at that? I thought you liked this chick?”

“Who?” Zac and Jack ask in unison.

“Lauren. . .”

“The redhead from last night?” Zac questions. I nod, proceeding to fork food into my mouth so I don’t have to answer any more questions.

“The short one who was with the blonde you were talking to at the bar?” Jack asks, my eyes instantly narrowing on him as a little tug of jealousy pulls at my gut.

“Oh shit, looks like you’ve got competition, Gabe,” Zac chimes in.

I take a sip of my coffee and study Jack for a moment. He’s a couple of years younger than me, but I know he has a kid a bit younger than Ava. I thought I was young at twenty-three, and becoming a father, but Jack must’ve only been nineteen or twenty. He’s recently moved down here from the North Coast of New South Wales but already has a bit of a celebrity status in the area because of his brother’s fame as an MMA fighter. It might also have something to do with the fact he’s a good-looking rooster. My sister’s telling me constantly that with his pouty lips, hair that he’s constantly pushing back off his face, and his green eyes, he could easily be a model.

Can a stare be violent? I hope so because that’s how I feel about Jack having any interest in Lauren, and I want him to know it. He doesn’t back down from the look I’m serving him from across the table, he just smiles and shakes his head.

“Good luck with that redhead voodoo, their magic is pretty potent stuff,” he says through a mouthful of bacon.

“You talking from experience?” I ask.

“Yep. . .” He finishes chewing his food and appears to be considering his next words as he does.

“You know there’s always that one girl, the one you just feel different about? You just feel that thing, that pull. Right from the very start, you just know she’s got something special?”

My mouth feels instantly dry, and I take a gulp of my coffee as he talks.

“I married mine,” Zac says. “Straight up, I still feel that thing every time I look at Sam.”

“Same,” Cooper adds. “It’s what I was talking to you about last night. It’s not something that makes sense or that you can even put into words, it just is. It’s there, and there’s nothing you can do to change it.”

I watch them nod, feeling like they’ve been inside my head all night.

“Nope,” I admit, loudly popping my lips on the p sound. “It’s never happened for me. There have been women I’ve wanted to see again, but if I don’t,” I shrug, “then, no drama. It’s no big deal.”

I watch a look pass between the three men I’m sitting with. “What?” I question.

“Until last night?” Coop asks.

I let out a groan. “I don’t fucking know. Something happened last night. As soon as I looked at her, I don’t know. . .” I shrug again, rubbing at my chest with my knuckles. The indigestion from last night obviously returning. “It was like something shifted inside me.”

My audience throw their heads back in unison and laugh.

“Until last night,” Coop repeats. Only this time it’s not a question.

“So what happened with you?” Cooper then asks Jack.

He scratches the back of his neck, pushes his floppy fringe my sister has a thing for, back off his face, and lets out a long slow breath.