Mateo shrugged. “Orla brought the lads over and talked Nash into getting his nails done. Seemed as good a time as any to sneak out for ten minutes. You gonna tell me what the fuck happened?”
I already had, if you counted the six-word text message I’d sent him after school, but I repeated what I’d told Rubi anyway, more aware than I wanted to be of the others listening.
Mateo’s natural scowl darkened with every word. “You can’t just go over there?”
“And what? Kick Lauren’s door down and drag my kid from her bed?”
Mateo conceded my point, again empathising more than he deserved. “There has to be a way to stop this, though? Can’t you go to court or some shit?”
“I already went to court. This is the life it gave me.”
Mateo winced. “All right. But you have a... what’s it called... a contact order, right? She can’t fuck you around like this.”
“To stop her I’d need another arrangement order, and there’s a million things that have to happen before we go in front of a judge again. It could take fucking years.”
“It’s been years already. How does she get away with alienating you until then? It ain’t fucking right.”
I shrugged and stepped away to serve. When I came back, Mateo was no longer alone. Saint was with him. He stared, but I didn’t mind. It was everyone else’s attention that got under my skin. And Mateo still wanted an answer to his question. The same question Rubi had asked while wearing a pink tie-dyed tee with the sloganOmm My Godsplayed across his chest.
He was still wearing that T-shirt. And I was still wearing the one that had mysteriously appeared in the bunkhouse.Why does it smell like—
“What did your lawyer say today?”
I met Saint’s gaze again. “Same as she always says. That the only card I have is to be as reliable and stable as possible. She thinks I’d look better if I had a missus at home, but I reckon that’d make Lauren worse.”
“What about a mister?” Mateo said. “I know Lauren’s homophobic as hell, but it’s a different vibe to two women going at it.”
“Wouldn’t know, mate.”
Mateo grinned. “You never had a couple of birds scrapping over you, brother?”
“What do you think? Actually, don’t answer that.”
I stepped away again. It was Friday night. The clubhouse was packed. This time when I came back, Mateo had gone and Nash had taken his place, glitter in his beard, nails painted the same baby blue as his eyes. The others—Rubi, River, and Locke—had drifted closer too, and they were chin-deep in a debate that made my eardrums bleed.
“You need a pretend fella.” Rubi clapped me on the shoulder with his huge, tattooed hand. “I’d volunteer for the job, but I’ve got my hands full. Must be someone we can tap for the cause, though.”
I slow blinked.A fake boyfriend?Was this conversation even real? Any other night, perhaps not, but with so many brothers settled in for the duration, spirits were high and the beer flowed. Wild ideas became fact, and before I knew it, I was hooked up with Locke.
“Lauren already likes him,” Rubi reasoned. “So does Ivy. You could fake date for a while, right, Lockie?”
Locke eyed me over the rim of his fourth pint. “I’d be down, but I’ve got kids of my own, and my daughter would be all over me having a fella. Besides, she’s seen Decoy, and her mate called him a DILF. It’d be weird if her old dad started banging him.”
“Wow.” The rum on the shelves behind me began to call my name. “Don’t say those words again. Like, ever.”
“You got it.” Locke laughed, still giving me a look I couldn’t get a grip of. “So that’s me out. What about Folk? I mean, you’re already wearing each other’s clothes.”
I glanced down at the stolen T-shirt and something clicked in my frayed brain. The most obvious thing. Folk rarely slept in the bunkhouse, but he kept stuff there like every other brother who half lived on the compound. A locker that caught my eye every time I passed it for no other reason than it belonged to him.
Of course it was his shirt.
Goddamn, it evensmelledlike him, and the realisation that the ocean and herb scent was a tangible thing and not a figment of my wistful imagination distracted me from the rest of Locke’s words.
Suddenly I was twenty-five again, and my heart was beating out of my chest. My blood was the sweetest fire and I’d never been so sure of who I really was.
Sometimes it was hard to believe I’d been a dad back then too.
“He’d have to move in,” Rubi said. “Wouldn’t work if Lauren thought Deeks was just shagging him.”
