Page 135 of The Storm Boys Series Collection

I considered going up after him but thought better of it. With a sigh, I gave it back to Dad. “I could make it look like an accident.”

He rolled his eyes. “Get the next board.”

I held the plyboard in place, realising that now Dad and I were alone, it was probably a good time to talk.

“Look,” I started. “About today. I’m sorry I dragged the business into it. I’m sorry for the shitstorm I created. It negatively impacts you and Mum, and everyone, I guess. I just didn’t think. I saw them and I was so freakin’ pissed off, I wanted to strangle them. I didn’t even think about the shirt I was wearing.”

He nailed the board into place. “What’s done is done. I accept your apology, and I do understand. Your mother explained it to me, and I get it. At first I was mad because it was reckless and unprofessional, but she told me what was really going on, and she asked me what I’d do if the media treated her like that, and I get it. Yes, it created a media stir, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. We have a legal team—”

“I’m sorry,” I said. But I was also confused. “Mum explained what to you? What’s really going on?”

Dad fired another nail into the next corner of the board and looked at me. “That you love him. You were protecting someone you love.”

The world tilted a little and blood pounded in my ears.

What?

“Pardon?”

“I mean, we were all kinda shocked with how you behaved with him in front of us. We ain’t ever seen you be like that with anyone, all cute and smiling, touchy-feely and whatever.” His cheeks ran pink. “I guess I just thought it was... fun and exciting, or physical. Or whatever. But you’re living together already, so...”

None of anything he was saying was making sense.

He studied me. “Ah jeez, Tully,” he said. “Are you telling me you don’t? Because your mother is a good gauge at these things. You know she said that Rowan would marry Diah from the second he saw her because of some look in his eyes. I dunno, I didn’t see it. But she did. Same with Zoe. Said her and Chris’d be married within the year because of the way Zoe looked at him. Guess she saw it in you and the way you look at him. I dunno how these things work, but she hasn’t been wrong yet.”

I tried to swallow.

“How... how did I look at him?”

Dad sighed and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Are you saying you don’t have feelings for him?”

“Yeah, of course I do,” I whispered. “I... I love him. I haven’t told him that yet though, and I didn’t expect to hear it from you. But I’ve never felt like this about anyone. He’s... he’s amazing, and I want to be with him all the time. The idea of not being with him makes me feel sick. I could spend every minute of every day with him and it’s still not enough. I... want to do everything I can to make him happy.”

Dad smiled at me, a little proud, a little teary. “Sounds like love to me.”

CHAPTER SIX

JEREMIAH

Dinner with Tully’sparents and his two brothers was not what I’d been expecting.

I’d been expecting them to rebuke him for the public tirade whilst wearing a company shirt thing. I had been expecting that because Tully had been.

Especially from his father and perhaps Rowan.

But it never came.

Instead, they boarded up all the glass doors and windows while his mother got dinner ready. She made me help, with which I was no help at all, I’m sure. But while we busied ourselves in the kitchen, she asked me about the office and the new job, and if I was happy to have left Melbourne.

She asked me how I was finding Darwin and the terrible heat. She asked me if I actually enjoyed my time at the bunker in the middle of Kakadu or if I was just saying that to make Tully happy.

She was horrified and somewhat dismayed when I told her I’d loved it. That I couldn’t wait to go again. She’d sighed dramatically, and said it was no wonder Tully was so smitten with me.

I certainly hadn’t been expecting that.

We ate dinner at the dining table, and while it was an informal dinner, I did feel a little scrutinised. Especially by Rowan. He was polite, of course, but he was also curious and asked me about my doctorate and dissertation, and even though it was general conversation, it somehow felt as if I was being interviewed.

To see if I was good enough for his brother.

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