“You don’t know what I was going to say.”
“It doesn’t matter what you were going to say.”
“Queenie, I’m not about to complain about not hauling timber for days at a time. I’d rather be with you.”
Rubi clutched his heart. “Locktipuss, you’re killing me here. Leave some romance for the rest of us.”
“Sorry.” I wasn’t. It was true. I drove the lorries because the club had asked me to, but in truth, I hated it. Chugging up and down the motorways in giant HGVs gave me a bird’s-eye view of every other fucker’s terrible driving, and with my kid about to hit the road, it was a sight I could do without. Besides, even without the memory of Orla’s soft skin and wicked kisses searing my brain, I’d choose her any day of the week.
“Anyway...” Rubi sensibly gave Orla some space. “No one’s away that weekend. Those of us that ain’t banned—namingno one—love a bit of Sea Rave. Been going since we were lanky teenagers.”
I read between the lines and shot Orla a look. “You’re banned from Sea Rave?”
She rolled her eyes. “Thank me later. It means you get free tickets.”
“How’s that?”
“Ask him.” She chucked a pen at Rubi. “I can see he’s dying to tell you.”
Rubi hooted out a laugh. “Oi, it’s not my fault O’Brians aren’t built for social situations.”
“It wasn’t my fault some bitch got in my face either.”
I was beginning to get the gist. “Fighting, Orls? Really?”
“Don’t say my name like that. I have too much to do to make time for swooning off this chair.”
We shared a grin that lit Rubi’s nosy face up like a Christmas tree, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
On that, anyway. “Don’t blame her. It’s in the genes. They’re all banned, every single one of them.”
“For what?”
“In age order?” Rubi ticked his fingers off. “Fucking, scrapping, fuckingandscrapping at the same time. And Embry’s on the blacklist for punching an off-duty copper.”
“Nice.”
“I enjoyed it, but it means the good father and the O’Brian siblings can’t party with the rest of us until the SAS motherfuckers running security forget their pretty faces.”
Made sense. Most of it anyway. “All right then. Explain to me how their ASBO behaviour gets me free tickets for Willow.”
“Bribery.” Rubi pulled out his phone. “The organisers didn’t want to spoil it for everyone, so they offered me and Nash all the free tickets we wanted for the rest of our lives if we left the troublemakers at home.”
It was my turn to laugh. “That’s brilliant.”
“Yeah, we thought so. And it means Deeky and Folk can have a date night too. Leave Ivy with Alexei and Uncle Cam.”
“Not Saint?”
“Nah.” Rubi tapped at his phone. “Chattypants loves a festival. All those people. All that noise. Time of his life.”
I couldn’t figure out the punchline. I wasn’t as close to Saint as Folk had become, but I was aware enough of his neuro-spiciness to know he didn’t like loud and busy places. A summer festival spread over a couple of fields, I could just about imagine. But this one? In the corn exchange complex up the road? With nothing but a few marquee arenas to escape to when the indoor stages got too much?
Couldn’t see it.
Still, I wasn’t about to complain about one of my most lethal brothers being close the first time I took my firstborn wild kid to a music festival. Far as I was concerned, the more eyes on her the better.
I watched Rubi pocket his phone, then swung my gaze to Orla. “Nash’ll stay with you, right?”
