“Well it’s not like your new fella is gonna visit Mum, is he?” I rush back to Mum’s room and grab my coat and bag. Passing my sister on the way back down the hall.
“Where are you going?” She spins on her heel as I rush past.
“I gotta go.” I wave my hand without looking back. “See you later. Bye Harry.”
“Bye,” he shouts, but I’m already out the door and racing to my car with the key fob in hand. My mind churning at a million miles an hour and heart beating to its own rhythm.
My palms sweat as I grip the steering wheel of my Audi, backing out of the care home car park. We chose this one as it was close by and the only one in our area that didn’t smell fusty. Even with its higher price bracket, Mum seemed to like it when she came for respite, and she was familiar with the people.
Heat blows from the car vent, warming my hands and cheeks, but another familiar warmth settles in my chest the closer I get to Shane’s house.
The setting sun casts a radiant glow on the horizon over the lake. Slowing my car down, I navigate the winding back roads, delving between hills and woodland as I approach the fork in theroad. Left takes me to Kane’s farmhouse, a route my car drives itself. But today I turn right.
An uncertainty clouds my mind, like the murky waters of the lake, unable to see clearly whether Shane did that for me or for Fern. Either way, I need to thank him.
After climbing the hill to Shane’s drive, I park my car outside his house next to his Shogun. Stepping out from behind the wheel, the wind whips at my face, carrying the scent of oak and moss from the forest. Autumn leaves rustle behind me, whispering in the wind.
Only a few houses spoil the landscape and the scenic view of the lake below, but they may as well be another town away. Up here, there’s not a sound but the rustling of leaves and the symphony of birds.
I walk around to the front of the house and press the bell on the side of the oak door. The house is as old as the hills, but with all modern fixtures and fittings. A total contrast to the dilapidated farmhouse that Kane lives in.
When he doesn’t answer the door, I ring the bell again.
“Hang on. I’m coming,” he shouts.
The door opens and so does my mouth as Shane stands in front of me in nothing but black drawstring shorts. He dries his black curly hair with a towel. Water droplets sit on his shoulder like morning dew, only its sunset, bathing him in a golden glow as the sun shimmers over the lake and hills.
“Everything all right?” He lets the towel wrap around his neck, hiding the ink on his chest. But the skull chewing a bullet covering his abs smirks at me as if it knows all my secrets.
“Er…yes. I…” Scanning every inch of his half naked body and filing the memory away for later makes it difficult to form a sentence. I rub my forehead, trying to remember why I came here.
Shane steps to the side, waving his hand for me to enter. “Are you coming in?”
I step over the threshold onto the flagstone tiles that pave his hallway. It’s not the first time I’ve been here, but the energy between us is different somehow. Maybe it’s the fact he’s shirtless, or maybe it’s the fact I had an orgasm in front of him the other night. Or is it because lately all I want to do is fuck my brother-in-law?
Shane closes the door behind me. “You sure you’re all right?”
I nod, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip. “I need to talk to you. If you’re free.”
“Let me just grab a t-shirt.” He strides past the staircase and disappears into a bedroom. His house is upside down, with three bedrooms on the ground floor and the living room and kitchen upstairs.
I wait for him in his hallway at the bottom of the stairs. My fingers glide over the simple wooden frames on the wall, documenting his life. My favourite is the one of him and Kane in Army uniforms, ready to embark on their first tour. Both boys look so young, and it’s no secret a man in uniform makes me hot.
Especially Shane in his police uniform makes my pulse quicken and those handcuffs he has hanging from his waist. The next framed image is him as a boy with his dad, fishing on the lake. I step onto the first tread to get a better look at the next image.
My breath halts when I see a chubby little girl sitting on Shane’s broad shoulders at a music festival while I lick at an ice cream.
“That was a good day, wasn’t it?”
I hadn’t realised he was standing next to me as I was transported back twenty years.
He points to the photograph. “I reckon I got more of that ice cream than you did.”
I smile, remembering it dripping on his head. “I can’t believe you have this up.”
He shrugs. “I found a few of your sisters’ black and white photos from college after we divorced, mainly ones she’d taken of me. I asked if she wanted them back, but she didn’t, so I thought I’d frame a few of them. She took some good scenic ones of the lake.” He points to the large framed black-and-white image behind me.
I turn my head, but before I can gaze at the image, his eyes capture mine. Standing on the first tread of the staircase in my pumps, we’re the same height. His lips inches from mine, his minty breath on my cheek sends a shiver of delight to my centre.
