Page 131 of All the Forbidden Things
We all turn to see Jake move towards us with a large, leather overnight bag slung over his shoulder.
“Sorry, forgot to mention the brat ponced a ride with me.”
“Ponced? Fucking ponced? Sorry for being under the illusion Micky works for everyone in the band, and is not solely employed to be at the beck and call of the mighty Max Young.”
“Shut up complaining, brat. Otherwise, I’ll be checking you into the pub in the village,” Jay tells Jake.
“Can you hear this, Marn? They’re ganging up on me already.”
“I can. They’re mean. Come here, little brother, I’ll protect you.”
Jake moves in, kisses Marnie’s cheek, and wraps his arms around her.
“Mmm,” Jake sighs, “cleavage, a hint of nipple too, nice.”
Marnie slaps him around the back of the head. “And this is why you’ll be checking into a room at the pub. And be warned, it’s haunted.”
“Have you spoken to Cal? What time are they getting here?” I ask.
“They’re not coming till next week,” Max tells me. “We’re here a week early remember? Thanksgiving isn’t until next Thursday, they’ll be here Wednesday.”
“Shit, I’ve only been here a day, and I’m already losing track of time.”
“Yeah, you also missed your hospital appointment yesterday. Mel messaged me to say she’s been calling but has had no reply. It’s like you dropped off the planet as soon as you got here.”
“This place’ll do that to ya, it’s why we love it so much.” Jay slides his arm around Marnie’s waist, as Evie buries her face into her dad’s neck, refusing to look at Jake who’s using just his index finger to tickle her with.
Marnie lets out a deep satisfied sigh. “It is. No idea how you guys cope in London anymore, especially now, with a baby to raise … We’ll get you an appointment to have your arm looked at locally, Billie. We’re not that far away from civilisation that we don’t have doctors. ”
“I agree. This place is everything.” I look up at Max. “It really is. It’s everything that I want.”
His eyes dance all over my face, and he smiles and nods slowly. “We can make that happen,” he tells me while wearing a sexy smirk on his face.
“Jesus, we gonna have to put up with this all weekend?” Jake asks.
“There’s always the haunted pub, arsehole,” I tell him.
Max
“Are you fucking kidding me?”I ask as I hold the T-shirt up in front of me. I look around the table at everyone attempting to suppress their laughter and try and gauge who it was that drew me in the Kris Kringle, or Secret Santa, or whatever the name is of this gift-giving bullshit.
“Try it on,” Jake encourages—he’s mynumero unosuspect.
“Did you buy me this?”
Jake shrugs. “Just try it on.”
“It’s a fucking Carnage T-shirt. I’mnottrying it on. I’m never gonna wear it, so why would I even bother trying it on?”
“Wow, you really gonna spit the dummy over a T-shirt? Layla, tell your dad to grow the F up,” Kenzie says from where she’s sitting across the table, sporting her new pale-pink-and-grey striped, double pom-pommed bobble hat, scarf, and fingerless gloves.
“I’ll have it if you don’t want it,” Billie offers. Her having a major crush on Marley Layton being the main reason I will never wear the fucking T-shirt I’m holding up in my hands. It has his and Sean McCarthy’s faces front and centre.
“Nah-ah.” Mel shakes her head. “You know the rules: no swapping gifts, and we all have to wear or use what we receive on the first day we leave here, take a pic of us doing so, and share it in our group chat.”
“Those are stupid fucking rules. It’s not even Christmas, it’s Thanksgiving, and I’m not even American, so I don’t know why I’m even involved.” Balled up sheets of Christmas wrapping paper come flying at me from all directions, and I laugh. “Fine, I’ll wear the fucking thing, and maybe I’ll take up smoking and accidentally-on-purpose burn a hole right through it.”
“Just give it to Kenzie to wash,” Cal says, “It’ll come back fitting Layla perfectly.”
