“If you look up the definition of a cult, you’ll find it fits it.” Alex stood up. “That was all I came for. We don’t have a firm resolution. There are more leads to follow up on, but in the meantime, keep locking your door.”
“Al, can you do me a favour?” Scott kissed the top of her head gently. “Can you sort out an alarm system for the house we’ve apparently bought.”
“I’ll fit it myself. I’m upgrading the one at Sorrell’s hotel. And your bar.” Alex headed to the door.
“Why my bar?”
Alex shrugged. “Just a precaution.” He slipped away without making a noise.
“He knows something,” Keren put her hands on top of Scott’s keeping them on her belly.
“Alex always knows something. But this time I think he knows more. Now let’s get me out of this damn hospital so I can get home and lounge in my sweats without any nurses trying to cop a look.”
She laughed, feeling their baby kick gently, savouring the feeling and pushing any fears or worries out of the way. They were all fine, everything was okay. They could embrace the sunshine.
Epilogue
Two months later
“Thanks for this.” The words didn’t kill him. In fact, nothing about being with Jake or speaking to him, even having a beer with him, made him feel any way near murderous. It appeared that coming close to death would do that to a man.
“Not a problem, Cuz. Although I’m unsure as to what Key’s reaction’s going to be when she sees your man cave. Didn’t you tell her you were coming back with a spare bed for the guest room?” Jake neatly avoided a goat that was on the road and only cursed slightly. He had been quieter since the incident on Bleak Low and as far as Scott knew, hadn’t had a single one-night stand. But they’d never spoken about what had happened up there, or what they’d talked about.
Jake had been round frequently, helping remodel the house that Scott and Keren had bought, having a Friday night card game or football watching marathons on a Sunday. Their relationship was back on that even keel. Kind of. Jake wasn’t happy and Scott hadn’t found out why, and wasn’t sure he was the right person to find out either.
“It’s a summer house. And it was a bargain. Plus, it’s not just for me. Key can use it too, to read in or chill, or have friends over.” Scott had thought over the plus points for all concerned, knowing well that it was, in fact, a man cave and somewhere he could take his guitar and practice, maybe have a few beers.
Jake turned the corner into the road that led to Scott’s home, the house that had become the place he was going to bring up his family. It felt as if there should be a plaque outside to announce what it was, the significance of the place, that this was where he would look after, protect and love his little family. Right now, he didn’t think it was possible to be happier. He had everything he needed and more than he’d ever imagined.
“I’ll help you offload. But it’ll be tomorrow before I can start building it.” Jake shifted the truck into park.
Scott frowned at him. The idea had been that they’d start piecing together the summer house today. The weather forecast was good, no rain, just a bit chilly because summer had long since died away, but he wanted to get the wooden walls off the ground and in situ as soon as possible. The baby was a month away and he wanted everything to be right in the next two weeks, so Keren had two weeks of maternity leave where she could relax as much as possible with everything set.
“Okay. It’s Saturday so I suppose we’ll have it sorted in a few hours. Alex isn’t working so I’ll ask him to come down.” Scott unbuckled his seatbelt.
“Zack said he’ll help too. And Jonny, although the kids will be running riot in the garden at the same time.” Jake sounded almost apologetic.
Scott didn’t get out of the car. “It sounds like you’ve been planning this.”
Jake shrugged. “Kind of. You haven’t had a housewarming yet and this is pretty much the last chance before we’ll be wetting the baby’s head. So I might have organised something. There may be a few more to come and help.” He sounded sheepish.
“Has Keren approved this?” His woman was exceptional, that he could vouch for, but she would not take kindly to any form of surprise at this point.
“Keren knows. We had the sense to run it by her first.”
“Thank fuck for that.” Scott stretched, ready to get out and unload the panels.
“Look, I need to clear the air for the last time.”
“Really?” Scott wasn’t sure he was ready for this. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever be ready for it.
“Yep. Let me speak.”
He said nothing, simply giving Jake the opportunity to take the floor and talk. He didn’t know what to say anyway.
“Can we put it behind us? What happened when we were still pretty much kids?”
Scott stilled. “It is behind us. For fuck’s sake, Jake – we need to move on. We’re good. You’ll have a second cousin, although she’s going to call you uncle.”
