Page 54 of Grin and Bear It

Could I, though? There would be time, sure, but would my brain play ball, dropping into that timeless space where I digested the kids’ work and then saw all that was there, all that it needed be and how to get there?

“This is important, El. Seriously,” she told me, holding out the phone and the cardie, and that’s what got me moving. We had a hoe-code that had been forged through years of friendship and all the assorted bullshit we’d seen each other through. When one of us said something was important, the other one paid attention.

Which meant that when Colleen turned off the main road into the area where Dale and his friends all lived, I was there beside her, quietly rubber-necking at the gorgeous old houses set on big yards. No McMansions here.

I lookedup and down the street, wide-eyed, as we got out of the car after Colleen had found a place to park a couple of doors down from where the barbie was happening. I was sure the same expression of amazement was still on my face when we walked up to the driveway and along the drive. This was the opposite end of town to where we lived. Sure, the houses here were old, but they’d been constructed in the classic period of Australian architecture, using the kind of money that had provided quality materials so that the whole construction had aged well, unlike my heap of shit. The house was expansive, with a peaked roof, shingle-like tiles, crenelated fretwork along the roofline and then a cute Federation style facade. Although I felt a little out of my depth coming here, especially when there would be a lot of people I didn’t know, the sound of music and the high notes of little kids’ laughter coming from the backyard set me a little more at ease.

Because in the end this was just a good old Aussie BBQ. We walked around the corner of the house to see groups of people spread around the yard. Many of them called out and waved to Coll and she waved back, but steered me over to where Dale and his mates were all clustered around the grill, focused on the serious business of turning the meat over.

“Hey, baby.”

Colleen had met Dale when they were at uni, becoming inseparable almost immediately. That had worried me at first. I’d assumed they would just form an insular little bubble, and that my flatmate and best friend would be subsumed by her relationship. But that hadn’t happened. Dale thrust the pair of tongs in his hand at one of the other guys then backed away from the barbie to wrap his arm around Colleen, smiling wider when he had her next to him. Then he turned to me.

“And Ellie! How’s tricks? Coll tells me there’s some blokes coming a-calling around your house. Do I need to get the shotgun out and make sure their intentions are pure?”

I snorted at that. “And what’re you gonna do if they aren’t? There’s four of them and only one of you.”

“Four, huh?” He got a twinkle in his eye then looked down at Colleen, eyebrow quirked. “You forgot that part.”

“I figured I’d break the news when we got here,” she replied, beaming up at him. “It's why I brought El round, to meet some other people with the same… relationship dynamic.”

“Relationship dynamic. Is that what we’re calling it?” He smirked at her. “Alright, then. Who are the lucky guys?”

“Nash Walker and his crew. He wants to fix up her house and everything.”

“Nash Walker?” Dale’s eyebrows shot up, then he turned back towards the barbie and nudged one of the guys there in the ribs. “Hey, dickhead, doesn’t your brother run with the Walker crew?”

The guy that turned around had a cast to his features that was instantly familiar, yet not. His dark hair was cropped short and his blue eyes were almost grey, but there were enough similarities to make me know who he was related to.

“You’re Cole’s brother?” I asked.

“Yeah, Mark.” He held his hand out and I shook it. “So you’re Cole’s m—”

“She’s not Cole’s anything right now,” Colleen interrupted smoothly. “He’s made it clear he’s interested in our Ellie, but she’s still undecided.”

“Yeah?” Mark’s eyes sparkled and his expression took on the same malicious smile a lot of brothers seemed to sport when hearing of their siblings’ misfortune. “Well, let me set you straight. You don’t want to couple up with that prick. Bloke’s a bloody wanker and I’m sure he’d be a dud in the sack.”

The other guys all turned around and cackled, sensing an imminent pile on.

“How would you know?” I asked mildly, and the guys all howled at that. Mark shook his head, grinning.

“Yeah, alright, you got me there. It’s good you’ve got a sharp tongue.” He nodded to me. “You’ll need that dealing with Cole. Got a bloody temper, he has, but a quick word from you will put him in his place.” Mark’s grin widened. “I’d pay good money to see that.”

“So you wanted to find out a bit more about how people manage a poly relationship?” Dale asked, steering us away from the barbie. “I’ll introduce you to Nat. She moved up here a bit over a year ago with her guys. From what I’ve heard, it was all a bit of a shock, having four big, burly”—Colleen looked up at him abruptly—“blokes falling all over themselves to make her theirs. She’d be a good person to talk to.”

“But you didn’t want that life?” I asked him. I looked around me, noticing now there were disproportionately more men than women, and, by and large, the men were clustered in small groups, each around a woman.

Dale didn’t answer for a moment, drawing my attention back to him, and I saw that his smile had faltered, which made me wonder how he really felt about it. Then he pulled Colleen closer in to his side.

“I couldn’t share my Coll. She’s mine.” Something flashed in his eyes then, hot and decisive. “And only mine. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to live like that.”

He led us up to a group sitting off to one side. A pretty woman with long gingery red hair gazed down at a baby she was cooing too, the small child kicking its legs and smiling back at its mother.

“He definitely looks like me,” a guy was saying, holding another baby in the crook of his arm. The man totally looked like some hot Native American dude, with olive skin and long dark hair, but his accent was all Aussie.

“No, he doesn’t,” argued another man, who had to be the first one’s identical twin. “Kai is too smart to look like you.” He scooped the child out of his father’s arms and then swung him up, the child’s arms going wide, then he nestled the baby in close to his chest. “He looks like me.”

“You’re both identical fucking dickheads,” a massive man with ice blue eyes said, flicking a bottle cap at the first guy. “Kai looks like both of you, but not my Sven.” He was sitting down but was so big that he still had to bend over the woman, to beam down at the baby in her arms. “Those blue eyes? You’re one hundred percent pure pol—”

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