She starts babbling about her night animatedly and I breathe her in. Happy to have her safe in my arms. I don't know what I would have done if she'd been in the house when that diseasedfuckwad tried to break in! Brad is behind me in seconds, wrapping us both up in his arms as if he's just had the same thought.
When Lizzie starts squirming and demanding, “Mama, down! Pikkuh!” I place her on the floor so she can run over to the back door and help her Grandad let Pickles back in. Looking up, I see that Grace seems to still be standing in the same spot, looking shell-shocked.
We sit Brad's parents down, and between us tell them everything that happened last night. By the time we're done, I'm exhausted, knowing I have to go through it all again with the girls. Possibly more than once, since I don't think Max is back from Paris until tomorrow.
“And the two of you…” Grace trails off, pointing between Brad and I. I don't know what to say because we haven't had the chance to talk about it at all. But I slept in his bed,in his arms, all night. And I have the distinct feeling he said something about me never going back to my house.
“A private discussion for later,” Brad replies quietly, pulling me into his side.
Grace holds her hands up in a universal white flag and heads to the kitchen to start breakfast. But I swear I see a little smirk on her lips as she does.
“Where's my phone, do you know? I have a feeling there's going to be a barrage of missed calls and texts,” I look back towards the stairs.
“Shit, I think your bag is still in my car. I forgot to grab it when I carried you in last night. Two secs, I'll go get it,” he says, pulling his shoes on.
“No, I can get it. You stay and have a coffee, keep warm. You've done enough already.”
Turning, he places his hands on my shoulders, one of his thumbs rubbing my collarbone gently. “Blaze.Youhave a coffeeand keep warm. I'll be right back.” With a quick kiss to my forehead, he slips out the door, leaving a pleasurable buzz where his lips had just been.
“He fuckingwhat?!”Jaime is half-standing, hovering over her seat in outrage.
As soon as I'd plugged my phone in to charge, I saw there were indeed three missed calls and multiple messages. I phoned her back straightaway so she wouldn't send out a search party, and she insisted on coming over, apologising that she’d left her phone on DND last night in case Isaiah tried to call.
Barely an hour later, there was an entire army on Brad's doorstep. Jaime had picked up Elle and her kids en route, too.
Brad and his parents decided to take all the children to the playground to give us time to talk – may all the deities and the universe bless their souls.
Since Max would never forgive us for leaving her out of this conversation, she's on video call on Brad's iPad, propped up at the end of the table.
“I’m so sorry I switched my phone off last night, babe. I'll never ever do that again, I hate that you couldn't reach me when you needed us most!” Elle squeezes my hand.
“No! Please don't apologise. I know full well why you turn your phone off at times, and your reason is even more of a prick than mine! Wait...does that sentence even make sense? I'm calling Ivan a gargantuan, scrotum-faced, wank stain in case it wasn't clear.”
Jaime holds her hand up for a high five as Max bursts a laugh through the tablet. Shaking her head with a smile, Elledeadpans, “Yes, I managed to decipher that one. Maybe not verbatim, but I got the gist.”
Tapping the screen, Max shouts, “Guys, I've only got so long before we need to head out! Let's get back on track and we can bash Ivan another day. It's Jake's turn today!”
“Sorry, yes. Where did I get to?”
“Jake broke up with you and left you so he could go fuck other people, then came back out when you were waiting for Brad and offered you a quickie. Fuck's sake, that makes me even angrier when it's summarised!”
“Right, yeah. So Brad turns up as Jake's all up in my face and they have a showdown. The bouncer drags Jake away – and side note, but I really want to bake that dude a thank you cake, he was the best – and Brad and I are hugging because I can't stop crying. And then we almost kissed, but Larissa was right there! God, I felt awful. I had no idea she'd come with him, but even so, I'd never want to betray her like that, and I know Brad wouldn't have wanted to either!” My head hits the back of the chair as I slump down.
“Shit, that's not good.”
“Oh, babe.”
“So what happened?”
“We got in the car and they drove me home. They insisted I shouldn't be alone, but I really just needed space. From them as a couple, from what I almost did, from all my thoughts of Jake. So I convinced them to leave with a promise to come over in the morning for breakfast with Lizzie.”
“I can understand you wanting space, babe. That's a lot to go through. And I think we all had our reservations about Jake but I never…I never would have expected that!” Elle says, staring into space.
“Wait, wait, wait,” a tinny voice comes from the end of the table. “Aren't you at Brad's now?”
“Yes?” I answer.
“But you're wearing Brad's clothes, if I'm not mistaken.”
