by Lily Harlem
“Like shepherds?” Olivia asked.
“Yeah, I guess.” Evan nodded. “Then in the spring they shear them, dip them, help with lambing. It’s a full-on, hard way of life. Personally, I love it.” He paused. “Just as well as it’s what I’ll be doing, with your help, hopefully.”
“So you, and whoever helps you, will be away for weeks at a time?” Olivia asked. She didn’t like the sound of that. They’d just arrived and were trying to establish themselves as a family. She didn’t want two or three of her men drifting off for weeks.
“It’s how it is, babe.” Evan frowned. “Sorry, I thought you’d know that.”
She shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”
“It’s a simple solution,” Harry said. “We’ll pay the ranchers until we’re ready to take on the sheep ourselves.”
“Pay them?” Evan laughed. “With what? My father didn’t exactly leave me any cash.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “I’ll pay them.”
“I can’t let you do that, not after all you’ve done already…”
Harry held up his hand. “Seriously, buddy, it’s hardly going to dent the bank balance.”
Evan was quiet.
“And it means we all get to take a breather. Relax into being here,” Harry went on. “It’s been an emotional journey to this point. Not to mention we have three kids to settle into school.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Olivia said before Evan could object. “Thank you, Harry.”
“It makes the most sense. Then when we’re ready, we can get on the horses ourselves, take care of these sheep.” Harry folded his arms and appeared pleased with himself.
“Mmm.” Mason clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. “There is one wee problem with that plan?”
“There is?” Evan asked.
“Aye, me and Lucas can’t ride a horse.”
“You can’t?” Harry’s eyes widened.
“Wasn’t a big sport around our way when we were growing up.” Lucas shrugged.
“Plus I never really fancied it,” Mason said. “Always looks like it would hurt a bloke’s knackers.”
“What’s a bloke’s knackers?” Darius asked.
“Little boy bits,” Mason said, nodding at his own groin.
Amal giggled. “Bloke’s knackers is funny.”
“Don’t repeat that at school,” Olivia said, shooting Mason a frown. “At least not on the first day.”
Mason chuckled. “So I guess we’ll have to learn.”
“I can ride,” Olivia said. “Haven’t for years, though.”
“And you won’t be while you’re pregnant.” Harry set his lips into a tight line. It was one of his expressions she recognized. He wouldn’t budge on this issue.
She wasn’t too worried. At the moment, jiggling about in a saddle would make her throw up anyway.
“I can’t ride a horse,” Banna said. “Neither can my brothers.”
Evan leaned forward. “We can’t be having that. You’re going to be our helpers.” He looked at Harry. “What do you think?”
“I think,” Harry nodded seriously, “that if there’s some stables in the barn, Evan, we could get three ponies for the children to learn to ride on.”
Evan feigned mock surprised. “Wow, we have got stables in there.”
Banna lifted off her seat in excitement. “There’s going to be some ponies, here?”
Olivia smiled and set her knife and fork down. A sense of utter contentment washed over her. She breathed deep and let the evening warmth wrap around her body.
Her sense of contentment stayed with her for several days and over the weekend. The nausea didn’t settle in for as long each morning, and for that she was grateful.
But on Monday morning, there was no lying about. She didn’t have time to worry about morning sickness.
The homestead was a buzz of activity from the crack of dawn. Banna, Amal, and Darius were all anxious about being late for their first day at school.
Two new cars had been delivered. A large black Toyota, four-wheel drive, and a silvery minibus. The Toyota was for the school run mainly, and on the first day it had been decided that Raul and Mason would go. Olivia had wanted to but knew she’d spend the entire journey with her head in a bucket.
“Are you ready?” Harry asked, rounding up the children onto the decking.
“Yes.” Banna touched her hair. It had been washed the evening before with special shampoo, and she was pleased with it.
“Okay, so stand here for a photograph.” Harry held up his phone. “You, too, Amal and Darius. We need a record of your first day at your new school. It’s a big moment.”
Amal grinned. One of his front teeth had fallen out the day before, which had surprised him and Olivia during a story. But he didn’t seem to mind his gappy new smile.
“That’s it. Squeeze in close.” Harry stooped and clicked.
The backdrop of the Australian hills was beautiful. And in their smart red polo shirts, and with eager eyes, the kids looked healthy and happy and ready for a bright future.
“Are you excited?” Lucas asked the children.
“I want to do more painting,” Amal said, hopping on the spot.
“You’ll have to do some writing first, I should think,” Lucas said.
“But bring your pictures home,” Olivia added. “So we can put them on the refrigerator door, next to the other ones.”
“We will.”
“Come on, kids,” Mason called from the car. “You don’t want to be late.”
“I’ve got your lunch.” Raul held up three lunch boxes. Two were blue, the other sparkly pink.
“Michelin-star lunch for our kids, only the best.” Harry chuckled.
“Aye,” Lucas said. “I saw him making it. It’s chargrilled chicken wraps with avocado and his own sweet chilli sauce, secret recipe. Freshly cooked buns filled with sticky toffee goo, and a tropical fruit salad.”
“I can’t wait for lunchtime.” Darius gave Olivia a quick hug. “Bye, Mommy.”
She laughed and stroked his hair. It was the second time he’d called her that.
“See you later, be good. I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
He ran off with Amal hot on his tail.
“Are you nervous, Banna?” Harry asked when she made no move to join her brothers.
“No, not really.”
He stooped. “You’ve done much scarier things. When you sneaked on board Joan D’Arc, that must have been very frightening.”
“Yes, it was.”
“So what is it?” he asked, tipping his head.
“What if I don’t make friends?”
He took her small hand in his big one. “You will.”
“How do you know?”
He paused for a second, then, “Because you’re a really nice person. You’re caring and kind, you smile a lot and think of others. Plus, you’re brave and dependable. That all adds up to making you a fine friend for anyone to have.”
She suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. “Thanks, Harry, see you later.”
“You will. I’m picking you up, with Evan.”
“Okay.”
After giving Olivia a quick embrace, she rushed toward the Toyota, her new shoes crunching on the gritty driveway.
“Come on, Little Miss,” Mason called. “Hop in.”
Olivia pulled in a slightly shaky breath.
“You okay?” Lucas asked.
“Yes. I just really want them to be happy and settle in. We’ve brought them a long way from their real home.”
“This is their real home,” Lucas said, slipping his arm around her. “And Harry’s right, they’re tough kids, they’ve been through a lot, but they’ve come out the other side relatively unscathed.”
“I hope so.” She looked at Harry. He’d stepped away and was on his phone again. “What are you doing?”
“The pictures of the children are cool. They’re super cute in their uniforms
.”
“They are.” She paused. “You’re not putting them on Twitter, are you?”
He didn’t answer.
“Harry.” A swell of alarm went through her. The last thing she wanted was Harry’s millions of followers seeing her children. Instinctively she knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. “Harry, don’t put their images on Twitter. I mean it.”
Still he said nothing but continued to swipe on his phone.
Lucas released her. He stepped up to Harry, plucked the phone from his hand, and hurtled it into the air.
It spun over itself, the sun glinting off its golden surface. Higher and higher it went, seeming to gather momentum rather than slow.
“Hey!” Harry said, staring at the shrinking phone he loved so much.
Whoosh.
It landed in the reeds, down by the river.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Harry spun to face Lucas.
“Olivia doesn’t want the kids’ pictures on Twitter. And for that matter, neither do I.”
“I wasn’t posting their pictures on Twitter.” Harry’s eyes flashed. “What do you take me for?”
“So why didn’t you answer?”
“I was about to.”
“No, when you’ve got that thing out of your pocket you’re a zombie, you’re no good to anyone.”
“I’ve used that thing to make this house what it is.” Harry stepped closer to Lucas, his fists clenched. “I don’t see you complaining about that, MaCadam.”
Lucas squared his shoulders. He raised his eyebrows in a go-on-then-try-it look.
“Here.” Evan shoved a long stick in Harry’s direction. “You’re going to need this.”
“For what?” Harry frowned, his attention still on Lucas.
“For beating away the snakes when we go and get your phone.” Evan bent and pulled on a pair of knee-high green boots. “And a pair of these, there’s some more by the side door. Should stop fangs.”
Harry took a pace backward and circled the stick in his hand like a baton. “Can someone call my damn phone so I at least have a clue where to start?”
“I haven’t got your number,” Lucas said.
Harry frowned.
“Come on, mate?” Evan said. “Shouldn’t take more than an hour, as long as we don’t come across too many browns; they’re nasty buggers.”
Harry’s eyebrows were tugged low and his jaw was tight. “I guess this is a time I could use your English expression, oh bloody hell.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Three months later.
“It’s smaller than I thought it would be,’’ Mason said, licking the top of his strawberry ice cream.
“Aye, same.” Lucas stroked the tip of his tongue up the length of his mint choc chip cone.
Olivia bit into her wafer and stared at The Sydney Opera House. Her husbands were right. It wasn’t as big as she’d expected. But that didn’t stop it being any less beautiful. The angular architecture and the sun glinting of its smooth surface was mesmerizing.
“Guess we’ll get to see the inside tomorrow.” Mason continued to walk slowly, his right arm held at an angle so Olivia could rest her hand in the crook.
“Do we have to go?” Lucas said with a sigh.
“It was kind of Raul to get us Carmen tickets,” Olivia said. She was looking forward to it. The opera was something completely different to her usual routine. “And it can’t have been cheap to get us a box.”
“Aye, but this trip is our birthday treat.” Mason chuckled. “I don’t think he had me and Lucas uppermost in his mind when he booked it.”
“Mmm, I’m sorry about that.” She wasn’t too sorry.
“We should grab a cab to the port,” Lucas said. “If we’re going to have any time out on the water.”
“Aye, let’s go up this way.”
“I was just wondering…” Olivia glanced at a café ahead.
“What?”
“If we should get some food to take.”
Lucas laughed—one of his lovely deep chuckles she didn’t hear often. “You’re still eating and you’re worrying about the next food stop. Not only that, you’ve just had ice cream for breakfast.”
She pouted. “I can’t help it, I’m hungry all the time.”
“Aye, and it’s showing.” Mason gently rested his hand on her expanding belly.
“Cheeky,” she said, shoving him.
He laughed. “And getting sexier by the day.”
“I don’t think so.”
Lucas’s smiled dropped. “Never doubt you’re sexy, Olivia. You’re everything to us. All we want.”
“And you’re all I want. But I’m going to be glad to get my body back to normal soon.”
“Got a few months yet.”
“A few months of growing.” She tried not to think about how big she was going to get.
They headed past the Opera House. The sun was climbing and the air heating. Olivia was aware of a familiar longing, one she hadn’t been able to give in to for a while. The open water. The sea breeze. The lure of the ocean.
“I can’t wait to get out there,” Mason said, as if reading her thoughts.
“Me neither.”
“But don’t think you’re doing anything, Olivia,” Lucas said. “No hoisting sails.”
“Oh, come on. I’m pregnant, not disabled.”
“Pregnant with twins. There’s a difference.” Mason’s voice was firm.
“Aye, can you imagine the shit we’d get from the others if we let anything happen to you?”
She couldn’t argue with that.
“Talking of the others,” Mason said. He glanced at Lucas, who caught his eye for a moment then looked away.
“What?” Olivia asked.
Mason cleared his throat. “Have Evan and Harry got some kind of bromance going on?”
“Bromance?” She popped the last of the ice cream cone into her mouth.
“Aye, it’s like they’re attached to each other’s side. You see one, then there’s the other.”
Olivia set her concentration on the path ahead.
“They used to fight like cat and dog,” Lucas said, “but not so much these days.”
“I guess they’ve settled into their relationship. No more vying to be top dog.” She paused and thought of an argument they’d had the week before about teaching Amal and Darius how to light a fire. Evan thought it was time they learned, Harry didn’t. “Well, most of the time.”
“Mmm,” Lucas said.
“What?” she asked. Had Mason or Lucas picked up on something Harry and Evan were trying to keep private?
“It’s just Raul said…” Lucas started.
“What did he say?” Olivia turned to him.
He shrugged. “That he thought there was something more between them.”
Olivia sifted through the thoughts whirling in her head. What Evan and Harry did when they were in bed with her was private, they’d asked for that to be the case. It wasn’t her place to share information about her husbands’ desires. But equally she didn’t like keeping something from her other husbands either.
“What do you think, hen?” Mason asked.
“If you’re asking me if I think they prefer each other to me,” she giggled to lighten the conversation, “then that’s a definite no. They’re both pretty hot for it even with me blowing up like a balloon.”
“You’re not a balloon.” Lucas touched her cheek.
“Thank you for saying that.” She paused. “As for what I think about their bromance as you called it. They’re two very different people, with different backgrounds, and they’re from opposite sides of the world. Their relationship was never going to be conventional.”
“Aye,” Mason said. “Harry had everything, including loving parents. Evan had nothing; it’s a wonder he turned out to be such a cool guy, he could have been a real screw-up.”
“I agree,” Olivia said. “And only Harry really knows what went on in Evan’s childhood. Evan hasn
’t fully opened up to anyone else, not even me. Said he doesn’t want to upset me with the details.”
“Aye, he’s barely said anything to me about it,” Mason said. “Enough for me to know it was a shit way for a kid to grow up, with a father who, and I’m guessing a bit here, pushed him and his mother around.”
“Not his mother,” Olivia said. “Only Evan. He took all the hits to protect her.”
“Typical Evan.” Lucas sighed. “Poor bloke, though.”
“Aye, shame his father’s dead. Wouldn’t mind giving him a taste of his own medicine.” Mason tutted. “Arsehole.”
“So they are close,” Olivia went on, “because Harry knows stuff about Evan no one else does. And I’m pleased. I didn’t want Evan keeping it all bottled up. It would eat away at him. As it is, he’s happy, content, and I hope as the months go on the demons that lurk in his memory and the dark corners of the house will move out.”
“He should know he can always talk to us,” Lucas said. “We love him like a brother, don’t we, Mason?”
“Aye. Goes without saying.”
“Perhaps he only needs one person to talk to about it, be vulnerable in front of.”
“Why would it make him vulnerable to talk about it?” Lucas asked.
“Think back to when you were bullied at school,” she said. “You don’t like talking about that, do you?”
“Nah, I’d rather forget it.” He nodded at Mason. “Was a crap time in our lives, wasn’t it?”
“Not like now. Being here is bloody good.” Mason grinned and pointed ahead. “Look, there’s a taxi rank. Let’s hit the port.”
A group of school children in yellow polo shirts raced past them, phones held aloft and chattering excitedly. Two slightly stressed teachers rushed up behind them, glancing about for stragglers.
Olivia was glad Mason and Lucas hadn’t pressed her further about Harry and Evan. She was certain their physical relationship only occurred when she was there. That’s what they’d told her, and she trusted them implicitly, but if there was the odd kiss or caress when they weren’t in private the others would spot it eventually.
Flying Jane was a sleek, black boat with dark-gray sails. At thirty feet long, she was perfect for a day out at sea.
Olivia sat in the shade of the bimini, wearing her bikini. With her feet up, she sipped sparkling water, and relished the cool sea breeze on her hot skin and the way it lifted her hair from her neck.
