Without hearing the rest of her explanation, I head straight for the kitchen to go through to the garden. As I come down the steps, I stop, shocked by the scene in front of my eyes.
Ryan and Evan are wrestling, trying to turf up my parents’ lawn; my dad is on a sunbed, laughing at his son and his adopted grandson. Chris is sitting on the patio, deep in conversation with the last person I expected to find here, on a Sunday, with my family. Just looking at her, talking to Chris as if she’s known her forever, with the sun lighting up her face and her shoulders – why, with skin as perfect as hers, would she not use sun cream? – with that never-ending smile on her lips, that not even the biggest arsehole – which, to clarify, is me – could dim down. She’s so confident, so sure of her place in the world – which couldn’t be anywhere but my house – and I realise that, maybe, the only person that was missing in this family has finally come home.
I’vecome home.
“You couldn’t miss a nice day like this,” Mum says from behind me. “And you also couldn’t miss such an important occasion.”
I turn to her. “Occasion?”
She smiles knowingly at me, then loudly announces: “Nick, what a nice surprise!”
What?
“We weren’t expecting you.”
Is she seriously doing this? Is Mum playing matchmaker with my life?
Casey turns straight away to look at me, and I realise from her expression that she definitely did not expect to find me here.
“H-hey, everyone,” I say, feeling suddenly awkward, as Ryan and his new sidekick burst out laughing a few metres away from me.
“Finally, Nick,” Dad intervenes; and from hisI’ll handle it from heretone, I realise that this is going to be a really long, shitty Sunday. And it’s all because of yours truly.
“We thought you weren’t coming. Casey’s already been here for a while.”
I hear the distinct sound of someone spitting out their drink, followed by a fit of coughs, but I don’t turn to see who the culprit is.
Dad gets up and approaches me. “Someone in this family has to start getting things done. It’d be nice to have at least one wedding by the end of this year, don’t you think?” he says, smugly.
“I-I…I don’t…”
“Maybe you should set a good example.”
“E-example?”
Dad smiles triumphantly. “You’re the eldest, right? Maybe if you decided to get married first, your brothers would follow suit.”
Okay, usually I’d let it slide, but this… I can’t let him believe that there’s something going on between Casey and me.
“Dad,” I start, gently. “Me and Casey—”
“I know.”
“She’s not part of the family – you know that, right?” I say, trying to be delicate but, at the same time, get straight to the point.
He looks at me for a few moments.
“Oh, Nick. Still the same old idiot as always,” he says, before moving past me with his crutches and heading inside, leaving me speechless.
* * *
After that embarrassing episode,Casey and my dad decide to focus on his physio, as I sit outside with a drink, watching Ryan and Evan try to pull each other to the ground.
Chris comes and sits down next to me.
“She doesn’t know, does she?”
“That bastard.”
