Scott’s right.
“Does Liv know?” he suddenly asks and one look at my face seems to confirm that. “Even more reason for you to be the one to tell him then or you’ll drop us all in it, and like me, Liv has been bitten by other people’s lies.”
I take his warning if that’s what it is and after a nod of agreement, I leave.
Chapter 17
Declan
“I am not sulking.” My protest is weak. I am sulking.
Liv laughs at me while Mase shakes his head in the rear-view mirror of his car.
“I don’t see why we need chaperoning.”
Liv spins in the front passenger seat to face me. “Because our dad doesn’t know about you and Anita, and she wants to keep it that way.”
“Great, so now she’s ashamed of me!” I snap at my sister-in-law, knowing I’m being an arsehole.
“Maybe she thinks you’re ashamed of her as you run as fast as you can whenever our dad is around.”
I like Liv, love her, but she’s pissing me off and I am already in a foul mood.
“What the fuck has it got to do with anyone else? He isn’t even her real dad.”
Liv is ballsy and not one to back down from confrontation, not that she courts it, but she looks taken aback by my tone and I imagine the words themselves. She quickly recovers but it’s my brother who speaks first.
“Declan, watch your mouth. You do not speak to Liv that way, ever, not even when you’re pissed off that Anita would only allow you to pick her up if we came too. This is your doing, yours and hers, not ours, and whether you consider their dad to be hers or not, she considers him to be precisely that and so does he.”
I sulk a little more but know he’s right and I owe Liv an apology. Before I can voice it, she reaches over, taking her arm from beneath the seatbelt and gives Mase a peck on the cheek.
“Babe, thank you for defending me, but there is no need, really.”
Mase looks sceptical. “Livy, put your arm back under the seatbelt.”
Liv complies then turns her attention back to me again. “Dec, I love you, please remember that, but know that if I wasn’t pregnant and on my best behaviour, I would come back there and punch you really fucking hard. You chose to shag some nameless caterer, not knowing she was the nearest thing I had to a sister at our engagement party and when you discovered who she was, ignored her. Then, you decided to go back for seconds at our wedding, in our honeymoon suite no less.”
She leaves that hanging there, the fact that she knows that. Mase spins to look at her, shocked at her knowledge of that fact. She looks between us and rolls her eyes.
“I am not a fucking idiot. So, back to my point; you shagged her and fucked it up several times over and then decided you were going to make a go of it or whatever you’re both doing, so if people don’t know or she tries to keep it a secret, that is on you, not me. So, sort yourself out, stop with the pouting and sulking routine and bitching at me or pregnant or not, you will be going to visit your mother whipped.”
I stare at her, knowing she can throw a punch. Remembering when she punched Mase and almost broke her hand.
“You are scary, Liv,” I accuse while she simply shrugs as we turn into the road where Anita lives.
Liv has barely made it out of the car when Mase’s seatbelt is flying off and he is turning towards me.
“What the fuck is the matter with you? I warned you not to bring this to my doorstep or to fuck with my life, mine and Livy’s, and here we are.”
I’m unsure if he expects me to answer, apologise or offer some kind of explanation. I do none of those things, but just sit there and stare at him.
He shakes his head, roughly runs a hand through his hair and then frowns, looking scarily like our dad.
“And if you ever take that sullen tone with my wife again, I will be the one punching you, not her.”
I know what’s expected now and without reservation I do it. “Sorry.”
He nods. “Just sort your shit, both of you and if you’re taking her to meet the family, you might want to consider breaking the news to Nigel about the two of you.”
