by G. Bailey
“It’s nice to see you again, Devon,” Izzy replies, and he nods, looking between Blake and Izzy for a second, but I see it.
“I’m glad you’re happy,” he says, before walking to the door.
“She is,” Blake says, his words possessive, and Devon gives him one nod. Some kind of understanding between them.
“Tell Tilly I will be over tomorrow,” he tells me.
I have a feeling her family is going to be around a lot now.
98
Tilly
“Are you disappointed in me?” I ask quietly as my mum sits down on the sofa, and I go to sit next to her.
I’m still in shock that she turned up here, and that Harley just claimed to be the father of my baby. The man who says he can’t be with me is being there for me in every damn way anyway. I doubt he sees it like that, though.
“No . . . just a little shocked, Tilly,” she says, leaning back into the sofa and looking around the room.
“This is a nice house, does your boyfriend own it?” she asks me.
“Yes, and his brother, Luke, lives here, too. Izzy stays over sometimes.”
“I can’t wait to see little Elizabeth. I’ve really missed her, it must be nice to have a friend around,” she says, and I nod.
There’s an awkward silence that spreads between us, and I don’t know how to break it. I can’t exactly say sorry for not telling her and yet, I don’t know what to say to her. I don’t like seeing my mum like this, so worried and confused.
“Is Dad okay?” I ask, actually wondering why he isn’t here. My dad is not the type to let his wife fight his battles, and I know from the three phone calls I’ve answered that he isn’t happy with me.
“He had business to clear up before the move, so he won’t be here until tomorrow,” she replies.
“Oh.”
“Ace misses his sister, so does Grayson,” she tells me, and I nod, knowing I miss them too. I’ve always been close to my brothers. We aren’t far from each other in age.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you run?” she asks me the second question before I can reply to the first.
“I–” I start to say, and she cuts me off.
“Devon may be an idiot and know nothing about pregnancy, but I’ve had four children. You’re pregnant for nine months, and you didn’t leave our house until about four months ago, so there is no way that little baby is Harley’s unless you cheated on Daniel in France. Now . . . you want to say the baby is early to your brothers, or even your dad, to carry on with this lie, then fine, but not with me,” she says firmly.
“The baby is Daniel’s,” I say, hating to even mention his name out loud or admitting that even a part of my sweet, baby girl belongs to him. I will spend the rest of my life making sure she is nothing like him at all.
“Why doesn’t he know?” she asks me.
I look at my mum, with her red hair like mine and the smart look in her eyes as she thinks everything over. I know I should tell her, but the words don’t seem to want to leave my lips. I end up thinking back to Harley, how he told me everything about him, and he wasn’t frightened to do that. I need to be strong like him. At the end of the day, I didn’t do anything wrong.
“The night I left, he hurt me, Mum, and he tried to–” I take a deep breath. “He tried to rape me. I ran away because I don’t want him anywhere near my baby or me. Harley is just protecting me,” I say.
“Oh, Tilly,” she says, pulling me into a hug.
We both stay still for a long time as she cries on my shoulder, and I don’t know what else to say. Part of me feels like crying, and another huge part of me just wants to forget France. I can’t even speak the damn language anyway, not like my brothers can.
“Where is Daniel? He isn’t coming here, is he?” I ask, knowing that if she says he is, I will have to leave. I don’t want to, I don’t want to leave Harley. That arrogant man makes me like him more and more every day.
“No, he stayed. He wanted to come, but he couldn’t leave his work. Honestly, he moved out not long after you and only saw Devon weekly,” she tells me, and part of me is relieved that he wasn’t in their life.
“He is evil, Mum; he hurt me once before and used to control me. Everything from what I wore, to where I could go, and when I was away from him, he was obsessively calling my phone and accusing me of cheating on him when I got home,” I tell her, and her eyes widen.
“He won’t come here because if he does, I’m going to kill him, and your dad is going to help,” she tells me. I don’t doubt her; my mum can be scary as hell at times.
“Dad doesn’t need to go back to prison, and I don’t want to lose my mum, either, but Harley won’t let him near me. You’ve seen the man, he is built like a machine, and Daniel would have to be mad to try to go near me now,” I reassure her.
“He is a handsome man and a good man to be at your side like this. He’s a keeper,” my mum says, waggling her eyebrows.
“And a complicated man,” I respond, making her smile.
“The best ones always are, but he is there for you. Most men would run,” she says, and I know she’s right.
“Harley wouldn’t run, he isn’t like that. His very nature is to be protective. He brought all of his brothers up since their dad died,” I tell her.
“That poor boy,” my mum says.
“And then, he took Izzy and me in, knowing about the baby, too,” I say.
Mum nods, looking around the room and to the Moses basket. Harley bought the Moses basket and set it all in here for me. He put my favourite bed blanket on the sofa, and there is even a drink left out for me on the side. He must have done all this, getting ready for me to come home.
“Does he know about Daniel?” she asks me quietly.
“Yes, he was the first person I could actually tell. He makes me feel safe, and he understands me. Well, we understand each other . . . I can’t explain it,” I say.
“I don’t have to understand it, only you two do. You know I’m a big believer in fate, and sometimes fate leads you to the only person who can understand you, sweetheart,” she says, placing her hand over mine.
“Mrs. Fox, I mean Linda,” Izzy says as she opens the door and runs into the room. My mum stands up to hug her as she and Blake come in, shutting the door behind them.
“Oh, Elizabeth, it’s so lovely to see you. You have grown so much since I last saw you,” my mum says as Izzy pulls away.
“I missed you, too,” she says with a big smile.
“You look the image of your mother, she would be so proud of you. At university and settling down,” she tells Izzy, who gives her a small, sad smile. I know she misses her mum every day, but my mum is right, they do look alike.
“Now . . . who is this handsome man?” Mum asks Izzy, who laughs as Blake comes over.
“My boyfriend, Blake . . . Blake, this is Linda, Tilly’s mum.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Blake says as he shakes Mum’s hand.
“The pleasure is all mine,” Mum says, winking at Izzy, who laughs. Blake looks a little worried as we all start laughing.
My family is here.
99
Tilly
“You have a baby, that baby?” My dad repeats for the third time since I explained everything, pointing at my daughter in her pushchair by the door.
Harley is standing next to her and gives me a sympathetic look. I haven’t even had a chance to introduce him yet. I know my mum told him and has been trying to calm him down all morning before we got here. I guess it’s not every day you find out your only daughter has a baby that you didn’t know about.
“Yes,” I repeat.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” he asks me, standing with his hands on his hips and glaring down at me.
My dad is a scary person, and he is as big as Harley, with his muscular arms and serious expression. All the kids at school used to be scared of him, except for Izzy, who knew he is just a big teddy bear . . . usually. Except at times like
this.
“Darling, Tilly isn’t a child anymore, and yes, she should have told us, but does it matter? We have a granddaughter,” my mum says, her tone soothing. It always seems to be able to calm my dad down.
“I know she isn’t a child,” he says with a sigh, coming over to me. My dad picks me up into a large hug and then lets go.
“Right . . . if you get pregnant again, I want to know. Now, who the hell is the giant by the door?” he asks, pointing at Harley.
Harley walks over and offers his hand to shake. “Harley King.”
“Jerald Fox,” my dad says, shaking his hand.
When Harley lets go and takes my hand in his, I’m a little surprised by his touch, but I don’t comment on it.
“You the dad?” he asks.
“Yes. I met Tilly in France when Izzy told me her friend lived near,” he says, repeating the lie we came up with to tell my family. I can’t tell them the whole truth, and this is just easier.
“You cheated on poor Daniel?” my dad asks with a disappointed look.
“That’s private, Mr. Fox,” Harley says, and my dad turns his glare on him.
“Why don’t we say hello to our grandchild? You can go and have a look around,” Mum says, breaking the tension a little, but Dad doesn’t look happy. His gaze seems to soften when he sees my mum pick up my baby girl from her pram, and he rubs his face with his hands.
“Go on, then, I have a baby to meet,” he says, and I quickly walk away with Harley.
“Okay, I’ve been in a lot of fights and met people that are huge and fucking scary, but your dad is . . .” Harley whispers, making me laugh.
“Yeah, I know, imagine getting told off by him as a kid.” I laugh, and Harley gives me a gentle smile.
“I would have preferred that over my father.”
“I guess I understand that,” I respond as we walk around the bottom half of the house, seeing no one.
The house is huge, with two lounges and a big kitchen. A much bigger house than we ever had before, and I briefly wonder where they got the money for a house like this before Harley speaks.
“My dad liked to beat the shit out of my brothers and me, training us to fight in The Cage for him. I don’t know if Izzy told you all that, but yeah, he got us into fighting to start with,” he says quietly, and I tug on his hand to stop him from walking up the stairs we find in the middle of the corridor we entered.
“I’m sorry, I never realised he trained you. I should have guessed,” I say, and he smiles at me.
“I never felt sorry for myself, but I did for my brothers. I tried to protect them, and I would have done anything to do that,” he says. “Tilly, I wish you would listen to me.”
“Listen to what?” I ask gently.
“When I say I’m no good for you, I mean it. I fucked and fought to protect my brothers, I’m not a good man. I don’t get why you keep fighting for me, for us, Tilly,” he says, moving closer to me. I take a step back, my back hitting the wall, and he moves to stand in front of me.
“What if I don’t want a good man? What if I want you?” I ask.
He lowers his face close to mine before he whispers, “That would be a bad idea, siren.”
“It wouldn’t,” I reply, leaning up and brushing my lips against his, not caring about what he says. Harley King may think he isn’t good for me, but I know he is worth fighting for. He resists me for only a second before he takes control of the kiss and is pushing his hard body into mine.
“Fuck . . . not what I expected to see this early in the morning,” my youngest brother’s voice comes from near us, and we break away from the kiss.
I turn to see Ace standing at the bottom of the stairs, his black hair is everywhere, and his blue eyes look tired. He has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, a leather jacket on, and faded blue jeans.
“Are you smoking?”
“Says you, who got pregnant and ran away. Sis . . . I think you’re winning the title for the most irresponsible one out of us, no?” he asks, and I glare at him.
“You’re such a rude, little shit, Ace,” I comment, and he laughs.
“Missed you, too, Tills,” he says and walks past us both, looking at Harley for a second.
“You fight in that cage? I saw the odds for the one coming up. Don’t die, yeah?” he says and then turns, walking out of the corridor.
“How did your brother see the odds?” Harley asks me, and I have no idea.
“What are the odds?” I ask Harley.
“You don’t want to know, siren,” he tells me and then walks away from me before I can ask him anything else.
100
Harley
“What happened?” I ask Blake when he shuts the kitchen door behind him with a tired sigh and not the happy grin I expected to see.
Sebastian and Elliot look over as they stop what they were doing. I stop cooking the pasta I was making for us all to celebrate Izzy and Blake’s engagement, knowing they’d be home soon from their weekend away. The poor dude has taken her on five dates now to propose, and every one of them has gone wrong. I seriously didn’t think this one could go wrong, but the look on his face says something did.
“I went to ask when I realised how much of an idiot I am. I left the damn ring box in the car. The car the valet drove away,” he says, and I mentally sigh.
“That’s unlucky, man,” Sebastian says, trying not to laugh, and I whack him on the arm.
“Just plan something else, or just ask randomly. I mean, you could tell her all the fucking romantic things you tried to plan,” Elliot says.
“Coming from the guy who would ask Allie to marry him on his bike,” Blake responds drily, looking stressed.
“What’s wrong with that idea?” Elliot asks, and none of us answer. There is so much wrong with that idea, and I doubt Allie would be happy.
“Let’s dish up and have a nice meal anyway, but I am sorry, Blake; you just seem to have the worst luck,” I comment.
“I got lucky when I met Izzy, so I knew the universe had to mess with me somehow,” Blake says with a laugh.
“How long until the fight?” Blake asks me, causing the kitchen to suddenly go silent.
“Two weeks.”
“Fuck, I didn’t know it was that soon,” Blake says, and my brothers look away.
They have given up trying to convince me not to do this. That we should all run from here and leave this village in our past. I know they would get up and leave everything, with their girlfriends and children following, but I couldn’t expect them to do that. They know there really isn’t any way of us getting out of it because we would be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives. This is a chance to actually escape.
We all finish sorting the food out, hearing the girls laughing in the living room. It’s nice knowing Tilly is really settling in with our family. I don’t know when it became hers as much as mine, but I know I wouldn’t be able to let her out of my life.
“Is it strange having a baby in the house that isn’t yours?” Elliot asks me as we carry food into the dining room.
“No. I don’t see her like that, but I wish Tilly would name her. Calling her ‘baby girl’ for the last two weeks hasn’t been easy.”
“I bet,” Elliot replies, but he doesn’t look at me. “Dude . . . maybe you should ask her to move into her parents. I don’t get why she is staying here now that they have moved here. They have a massive house, and she should be with family,” Elliot adds, but I don’t look at him as Tilly stops in the doorway, hearing every word. Her hurt-filled eyes meet mine, and she turns around, walking out.
“Tilly, wait!” I shout at her back as she walks away, and I glare at Elliot who holds his hands up before I follow her through the house.
She stops inside the conservatory, which no one goes into, and watches the rain pouring down outside. I close the door behind me, looking her over. Tilly is wearing jeans and a white top, which makes her look like she didn’t just have a baby. Her long, red hair i
s loose and wavy, begging me to touch it.
“Do you want me to move out?” she asks quietly, but her voice echoes around the conservatory.
“No,” I reply with one word, but it means everything as I watch as she turns to look at me.
I don’t move as she walks over, placing both her hands on my chest and looking up at me. Tilly raises her hand and pushes a bit of my hair behind my ear before grazing her finger across my cheek. Only the sound of our heavy breathing fills the room.
“When are you going to stop pushing me away?” she asks.
“I’m not good for you, Tilly, but I can’t let you go,” I reply, leaning down to kiss her. I can’t resist her anymore.
Tilly moans as she relaxes into the kiss, and her hands go into my hair. I pull her up to me, kissing her harder and loving the way she moves her body against mine.
“I can’t, not yet,” she says, breaking away, and I know she means because it’s not long after her labour, not that she doesn’t want to be with me.
“I’m sorry, I’m fucking sorry I’ve been avoiding this, us. Not anymore, Tilly,” I say, watching as her blue eyes watch me. “You’re mine now, and I’m not pushing you away anymore. You’re the reason I’m going to win that fight in two weeks.”
“You’re still fighting? It’s in two weeks?” she asks, her voice nervous, and I hate that I have to fight. That I can’t just walk away from it all. I can’t do that to my brothers.
“I don’t have a choice, Tilly,” I reply. There’s a knock on the door behind me, and I open it to Maisy, who smiles.
“Sorry, but the food is ready and everyone is waiting,” she says.
Maisy has a huge bump now, and there is a planned birth for two weeks’ time. It’s the day after the fight, and I can’t wait to be able to see their baby when I win.
“Where’s Jake?” I ask her, knowing I forgot to ask earlier.
“With my dad. He popped over and Jake was napping. I didn’t want to wake him up as he
was up all night with a new tooth coming through,” Maisy responds as I shut the door behind Tilly.
