Page 70 of The Winning Ticket

“Jake. What’s going on? You’re being weird. Of course I’m going to sleep in there with you. How else will you have your wicked way with me in the morning?” She smirks, and I can tell she’s trying to chase away the weird feeling that has overcome me.

I force the thoughts away and pull her to me, nuzzling into her neck, and she arches into me. “Why wait until the morning?” I ask, lifting her off the ground, and she wraps her legs around my waist while she giggles.

“There he is,” she says, looking me in the eye with a soft smile.

I crush my lips to hers as I walk her into the bedroom and kick the door behind me before showing her how wicked my way can be.

Once we are dressed again, I grab my keys and head out to my ute.

“Where are we going?” Bri asks, stopping to clip Maddie’s lead to her collar before she follows me down the front steps.

“I figured we could head out to the brewery for dinner. Might as well do some fun stuff while you’re here.” I hold her door open, offering my hand to help her climb inside.

She puts Maddie in first, then grabs the handle to effortlessly pull herself up on the step, throwing me a smile over her shoulder.

“I might be a city girl, but I can get myself into a ute without help, big boy.”

I laugh and shake my head. “Apologies, I’ll stop being a gentleman now.” I start to walk around to the driver’s side.

“Yes, please,” she yells through the open passenger window.

We drive a little out of town, and I glance over at Bri, checking to see why she’s so quiet.

“I forgot how relaxing it is out here,” she says quietly, looking out the window.

“I don’t notice it, actually.” I pull into the car park and turn back to find her looking at me, that same look on her face from earlier that I still can’t decipher. “Why do you keep giving me that look?”

She shakes her head as she undoes her seatbelt. “Just wondering why you’ve been so determined not to get too attached to anything here, that’s all.” She climbs out of the car, lifting Maddie down before closing the door, leaving me to ponder what she’d just said for a moment.

“What do you mean?” I ask when I join her, resisting the urge to take her hand in mine while we walk towards the outdoor dining area.

“Well, you said you only bought the house because it was convenient, even though it’s cute as hell. From what I can tell, you won’t let yourself feel at home in town either. I’m trying to work out if that’s the reason you don’t like it out here or if it’s because you don’t like it out here.”

We wait to be seated for a few moments, and I follow behind her when the waitress leads us to a table with a great view of the sunset. Bri busies herself, getting Maddie settled under the table with her dinner and a bowl of water while I continue running her words through my head.

“I'm sorry, Jake. I didn’t mean to upset you,” she says once she’s sitting across from me.

“You didn’t. I’m just trying to work out what you meant.”

“Well, you’ve made it pretty clear that you don’t love being out here. So I’m trying to work out if it’s because you just miss Brisbane or if something about this place makes you hate it. I mean, I’ve never lived out here, but from what I can see, it’s beautiful. You were never a party animal, and I know you like the bush, so it can’t be that you miss the city life.”

The waitress arrives to take our drinks order, and I absently order one of their sour beers while Bri orders a local cider. Once the waitress leaves again, Bri turns her attention back to me, and I look away momentarily while I try to respond.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to answer. I shouldn’t have overstepped.” I feel her withdraw, and I shake my head.

“You didn’t, Bri. I’ve just never had anyone ask me that. Not outright, anyway. I don’t think the others ever really noticed.” I open the menu to have something to look at rather than holding her gaze. “Do you remember much about my brother, Sam, who passed away when we were kids?”

Bri is quiet for a moment. “A little. He moved out here with your Dad when your parents divorced, right? We were really young, so my memory of him is pretty sketchy.”

“Yeah, he wanted to stay with Mum, but because he was Dad’s kid, Mum couldn’t get shared custody of him like she could with me.” I rarely talk about my brother, and I can feel the bitterness setting in.

“I hadn’t realised he wasn’t your Mum’s. I wondered why he went with your Dad. It seemed weird to split the kids up, but that explains it.”

“Yeah, Dad’s first wife died when Sam was just a baby, and he met Mum a few months later. Dad decided to move away from the city when they divorced, so they set up out here. His family was from here originally. Sam was five years older than me, so we didn’t hang out a lot when we got older, but when he hit his teens, he begged to come back to Mum’s. Dad wouldn’t hear of it.” Long-held resentment for my father rises within me, and I find myself gripping my fork. I let it drop to the table while I force myself to unclench.

“Why didn’t he want to stay here?” Bri’s eyes fall to my hand, and I can see the concern in her eyes.

“I didn’t really understand much back then. I was in my own world most of the time, but Sam struggled to fit in. He was really artsy, made no friends, and kept to himself a lot. Whenever I was around, I hung out with the kids my age who lived near Dad, but Sam just stayed in his room. When Sam was sixteen, Dad started pressuring him to start his apprenticeship so that he could work for him, and Sam withdrew even more. I only learned about this later when Mum told me.” I stare down at my hands, unable to look at Bri any longer. “One day, Dad came home and found Sam unconscious in his room, a bottle of sleeping pills empty beside him along with a bottle of his whiskey.” I look up when Bri brings a hand to her mouth, understanding showing in her eyes.

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