by C L Green
“Thank you. Hang in there okay?” He says softly.
He leans in and gently brushes his warm lips across mine before letting his fingers drop to my lap where he plucks his sunglasses out of my hands. He quickly settles them back on his face.
“Okay,” I return softly.
He restarts the truck and we continue on the way to his parents’ house.
*****
Jax’s parents’ house is huge.
Perched on five acres on the outskirts of a small country town, everything about the house and its outbuildings can only be described as big. The house is two stories of red brick grandeur with balconies and verandas everywhere.
Attached to the house is a four-car garage with all the roller doors currently open. With the doors open you can see all the spaces are taken up by various old classic cars. The sorts of classic cars you only see at car shows and in the movies.
Further on from the house I can see a large dam with two small islands. Next to the dam is a large permanent gazebo with gardens of shrubs and flowers spiraling around it.
Further on past the dam are three massive colorbond sheds. Each big enough to be a factory which gives them an industrial look. Facing away from the dam with wide concrete driveways that exit onto the street at a different point to the house driveway, I wonder who needs such huge sheds. Massive lights and security cameras are dotted all around the sheds and driveway.
“Jax, what do your parents do for a living?” I ask needing to understand what the big sheds are for.
“Civil engineering. They have a separate site where they keep most of the trucks and digging equipment. Dad sometimes brings big pieces of equipment home to work on them, therefore the big sheds. One of those sheds is Ma’s car shed though.”
He smiles and I’m guessing that it’s the thought of his mothers’ car addiction that makes him do so.
I muse on the sheer enormity of the sheds as Jax pulls into a large concreted car park area between the house and the sheds. I look across to see another black Silverado, almost identical with Jax’s already parked. The main difference between them being that the other one has two child restraint seats in the back.
I guess it belongs to his brother Luke and his wife Teagan.
Next to it is parked a big black Jeep Commander. The tough version of a people mover that I guess has to be Ryan’s and Rebecca’s because of their larger family.
I then decide that his parents need this car park because there’s no way their boys would be able to park these monster trucks in a normal driveway.
I also decide that black is the Walker color of choice.
Jax shuts off the truck and leans across me to open his glove box and grab out a big bag of mixed lollies. I take one look at the lollies and then give him a questioning look as he realizes he has been caught out. He grins at me and says, “They’re not for my parents.”
He slams the glove box shut, launches out and quickly races around the truck to open my door. I barely have time to get my seat belt undone when his hand is on mine and he is dragging me out of his truck. He slams the door and hauls me towards his parents’ front door.
As we approach the front door I see it swing open and Teagan appears, beaming at us both. Not long after, two small boy’s rocket out from behind her. One has neat and short red blonde hair with his fringe spiked. He is screaming “Uncle Jax is here!”
The other, slightly smaller with a mop of messy raven black hair screams, “Unc Ax is ‘ere!”
They both do this loudly.
I feel Jax’s hand stiffen in mine as he braces himself against the impending collision with the two boys. He does this just as they slam direct into his legs, screaming and jumping about with excitement. He quickly shoves the bag of lollies into the older boys face and says, “Reece, make sure all the kids get some. You know the drill, don’t tell Grandma!”
Reece lets go of Jax’s leg to grab the lollies in one hand and fist pump the air with the other. He then spins on his heels and hares back into the house. The small boy remains staring up at Jax adoringly.
“Hey little buddy,” Jax says patting him gently on the head, “What’s grandma cooking today?”
“Person!” He bubbles happily up at Jax. “Wif sister babs!”
“Excellent!” Jax grins at me and then looks back at the small boy, “I wonder whose sister we’re eating?”
I see Teagan step forward to pick up her little boy.
“That would be Persian, with Shishka Babs. This is Caleb and the other lolly heister was Reece. It’s great to see you again.”
She smiles softly at me and then looks up to Jax. “In fact, it’s fantastic.”
She pecks him on the cheek.
I see Jax glare at her as she turns and heads back into the house in front of us. Jax gives me his signature yank and we follow her.
Entering the house is an experience on its own. The house is immaculately presented. It has polished timber floors, pale walls, lots of archways and bulkheads and plenty of soft lighting. Every wall shows off a designer piece of artwork.
As we head down the hall, I hear the excited babble of children off to our left as the hallway opens to a huge family room. This room has a massive flat screen television the children are hooting over an x-box game on.
A young girl, probably about twelve years old, with a mop of red-blonde hair is busily dividing the lolly booty up among the room. Reece is already running around the room with a set of lolly teeth in his mouth pretending he has false teeth. He looks up to see us standing in the hallway and hoots, “There she is, I told you she was pretty!”
I feel a huge red flush burn across my face as every person in the room stops what they are doing to look at me. I quickly scan the room and relief floods through me as I note the room only has children of varying ages in it.
Thank God there are no adults.
I choke on that thought when I hear the Xbox pause on the television and another red-blonde head pops up.
A pair of crystal blue eyes surrounded by a gorgeous, movie star face appears. The eyes then fix on me intently.
Holy shit, there’s another one.
This has to be Jax’s twin, maybe it’s his brother? Actually, no it can’t be, he’s too young. Rebecca’s eldest?
“She sure is Reece,” he chuckles and keeps staring at me. I see his eyes move away from my face and scan the rest of my body, hanging around my breasts a little too long.
“Don’t even think about it Christopher. Keep your eyes and hands to yourself.” I hear Jax growl from next to me as he pulls me closer to his side. He let's go of my hand and puts his arm around my waist so that I fit snugly against his hip.
Um, possessive much? This is new, or is it?
“Sure thing Uncle Jax, I was just enjoying the view. Nice to meet you…” Christopher looks back at my face with his eyebrows lifted suggesting he’d like to know my name.
I manage to squeeze out a strangled, “Ash.”
“Ash.” Christopher mutters as he ducks back down behind the couch again. “Smoking hot,” I hear him mutter as the game on the screen launches back to life.
I feel Jax tense up again as he again growls, “Chris!”
He then abandons his grip on my waist to grab my hand again and start dragging me off down the hallway toward the back of the house.
The end of the hallway opens out into the main dining, family and kitchen area. This big open area overlooks a large pergola that gives magnificent views of the dam.
Ro is in the kitchen madly chopping, while Rebecca bends over viewing something in the oven. I notice three men with messy mops of red-blonde hair sitting outside under the pergola drinking beers. They are talking animatedly while watching cricket on an outside flat screen television attached to a side wall of the pergola.
“Hi Ma.”
Jax lets go of me to move over to his mothers’ side and peck her on the cheek. He then turns towards Rebecca and waits for her to stand up before wrapping his arms
around her in a bear hug and saying, “Hi Bec.”
Bec hugs him back then pushes him away to move towards the fridge. She gets a bowl from one its shelves and continues with the task of getting lunch ready.
Meanwhile, I am left standing on my own with Teagan beside me. My senses are assaulted by the mouthwatering smell of herbs and spices as Ro and Rebecca go about assembling their Persian meal.
Not too sure what to do with myself, I smile nervously at Ro as she looks up at me with her cheeky signature grin.
“Hi sweetie. I’m am so glad you could make it.”
“Thanks for inviting me. You really shouldn’t have,” I mumble awkwardly. Feeling out of place I look around wishing there was somewhere I had to be.
“I most definitely should have!” She chirps and gives me a knowing wink. “Now, normally us girls all get cracking in here while our men spend some time bonding outside over beers. Today however, you get an exemption. Especially because you are the honorary guest the boys haven’t met yet and because we already know you don’t cook. Feel free to go out there with them for a while as we girls get organized. Is that okay?”
Our men? Jesus is there a plot I missed in this story somewhere?
I am starting to realize that Jax’s revelations in the truck were far more serious than I could have ever imagined.
Jax grins, “Thanks Ma,” as he makes his way to the fridge and grabs two cold beers.
“You gunna be able to choke down a beer, I’m not sure mum has bourbon in the house.”
“Of course I have bourbon!” Ro barks at her son. “It’s in your father’s study, a nice bottle of Bookers I do believe.”
Jax grins at his mum again, “Of course you do. Teagan, any chance you have diet Coke here today?”
“Sure, I’ve put a slab of cans in the bar fridge out under the pergola. Do you drink bourbon with diet?” She looks at me quizzically.
“Yes, if that’s okay?” I ask, feeling nervous about my strange diet Coke and bourbon drinking habits once again.
“That’s a cool idea, I’d never thought of that. I’ll go get the bourbon and make two. I wouldn’t mind trying that myself.”
She spins and heads off down the hallway again.
“Make that three!” Rebecca yells out and then to my surprise I hear, “Four,” as Ro adds her bid to the tally.
She looks at me with a massive grin on her face and her blue eyes sparkling with mischief.
“There’s no way I am going to let all you girls tank up on bourbon without me. Sunday lunch is about to get interesting.”
*****
The next few hours fly. Jax takes me outside to meet his father and brothers and I am pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying their company. Clearly Jax’s father David has strong genes. I can see this because all the boys look like him, just younger.
The only recognizable exception I can make out is that Jax has his mothers’ blue eyes. Both Luke and Ryan have steely gray eyes the same as their father. I could imagine, just by looking at Luke and Ryan who are both hot hunks of men, that David was one hell of a hottie in his younger days too.
The men are all well-mannered, chatting naturally with me and including me in their conversations on sports, cars, work and other man matters.
I did however notice that while we sat outside, Jax sat between me and his brother Luke. While he did this, he kept a possessive arm firmly wrapped around my back.
I had not felt too comfortable about this at first, but as the men continued to chat and I sat sipping my bourbon, I found myself relaxing against Jax’s side enjoying his company and his closeness. It all felt so natural and friendly.
Lunch itself had turned out to be delicious. The Persian theme had been truly amazing with the entrée being a Persian barley soup called ash-e-jow. Ro had then quickly followed this with a mains meal of tender and flavorsome Persian beef shish kabobs. These were coupled with a cucumber and yoghurt salad called maast-o-khian. As well as this, each plate had been piled high with a delicious rice and saffron dish called adas polow.
Dessert had been a traditional date fudge dish called ranginack. Ro had served this with a thick, spicy cream and sprinkled it with almonds and pistachios. Once again my mind mentally calculated the calories I was consuming and I realized that I was in about two weeks of running debt from this one weekend alone.
Uh oh.
Throughout the course of the afternoon I noticed that Teagan had taken on the responsibility of ensuring that my bourbon glass was never empty. As well as this, she had also ensured everyone else’s bourbon glasses were never empty.
Unfortunately, before I had managed to work out what was going on, it was too late. It was midafternoon and I already had my fourth drink in hand. Things were starting to get messy.
I figured this out when I tipsily surveyed the adults seated around the dining room table. I figured it out when I noticed the men still had half-full beers and serious faces, yet the women had near empty glasses with big smiles and glassy eyes.
My mind flashed back over the course of the afternoon and I soon realized that not one of the men had been to the fridge to renew his beer. I also realized that at one stage I had seen them all wander down the hallway to head upstairs for a time. They had been chatting about something quietly as they went, and on their return they continued sipping on their beers, slowly.
I realized now that this was because they had cottoned on early that the woman were headed for a bender and they had come to a common decision to be the appointed drivers.
Feeling relaxed and enjoying the family environment, I begin focusing my attention on Jax who is sitting next to me chatting to Luke about his Silverado.
God he is hot.
Really, is it even legal to be that hot? I feel a surge of pure lust rip through my body as I slowly run my eyes over him.
I swing my attention back to the family spread out around the table and soon realize that each one of them is extremely good-looking. This has to be the most insanely good-looking family I have ever met.
All the men are tall, muscle-bound and incredibly hot. All the women are slim and ridiculously pretty.
Having met all the children while we ate, it was also clear to see that these genes ran strongly. All the young boys were just mini hot guys waiting to mature. This was clearly evidenced by an already mature, young, hot guy, Chris. Rebecca and Ryan’s nineteen year old son.
It was also evidenced by Rebecca’s two blonde girls looking so pretty at ages sixteen and fourteen that I was positive trouble was brewing for Ryan. He was going to have his hands full vetting potential boyfriends.
A shot of jealousy courses through my veins. I quickly stamp it out when I look around the room again and realize that all these people are also really nice. They have been really nice to me all day and not once have I felt uncomfortable or unwelcome in their home.
Even dressed in dirty pants and their sons t-shirt, no one has made me feel anything but welcome.
I smile up at Jax to see he is now staring at me intensively. He smiles back softly as if he understands the cogs have been grinding in my head again.
“You ready to go?” He asks quietly, not wanting to let the others know that he is planning on us leaving until he has my confirmation.
How thoughtful.
Feeling slightly tipsy and more than a little turned on at the sight of his crystal blue eyes honed in on me I chirp, “Sure!”
This was just a little too loudly.
It was loud enough to stop all the rest of the animated conversations going on around the table and all eyes hone in on me.
Woops.
I see a huge smile spread across Ro’s face as her eyes flash their shiny blue enjoyment at my outburst.
“You can’t go yet, I haven’t shown you my cars!”
She also bawls this out across the table just a little bit too loudly. Perhaps I’m not the only one feeling a bit tipsy.
“Not today Ma. It’s getting on and I need t
o get Ash back home and then I need to get her back to her place.”
Jax says this with a definitive tone that leaves no doubt there will be no arguing with him.
“Oh.” Ro looks crestfallen. She stares into her drink disappointedly and then her face suddenly becomes all serious. She shoots her eyes back to Jax and says, “She can’t drive home, she’s been drinking.”
Good point Ro!
I hadn’t even thought about how I was going to get from Jax’s house to my house. I notice heads nodding around the table as they consider my predicament.
The woman all develop serious looks (well as serious as they can considering their levels of intoxication). They study their glasses and consider how to deal with this epiphany.
The men all just start looking at each with a look that suggests they all have a secret and it is amusing.
What’s so funny?
“I know that Ma. I’ve got it sorted.” Jax grins and winks at his father.
“He sure has.” David winks back at Jax. “Time for all you young men to gather your woman folk and families. You need to hit the road. It’s time for me to take advantage of your drunken mother.”
He leans over and pulls Ro towards him to give her a blistering kiss.
My jaw drops as I stare at David. Did he just really say and do that?
Ewwww.
My parents would never have done anything like that in front of me or my brothers. In fact, I can’t honestly say I have ever even seen them do more than give each other a chaste peck on the cheek when one or the other was leaving to go somewhere.
Public displays of affection were absolute no-nos.
“I’m sure you can show Ash your cars next time she comes to lunch,” I hear David mumbling against Ro’s mouth.
“I’m sure I can,” I hear her mumble back.
They then continue to ignore us and go about their unashamed snogging.
“Right then!” Jax announces as he pushes his chair back and grabs my hand. “We’ll be off. Drive safely folks and I will see you next week.”
Everyone mutters their good-byes and I see Luke lean and whisper something in Teagan’s ear. She jumps up out of her seat with a huge grin on her face, wobbling a little bit as the full impact of the bourbon hits her.
