Then again, did he really want to miss taking a call from Dev when he was actually sitting in Dev’s ancestral seat? Well, on Dev’s uncle’s lap in Dev’s ancestral seat, which sounded dead pervy when he thought about it.
He grinned as he answered. “Yo, bro.”
“Hey, how’s it going?” It was noisy in the background, like Dev was ringing from a café with hard, echoey floors and a lot of loud people in it.
Mal raised his voice to make sure he’d be heard. “Good, yeah. Fell down a hole in the ground last night and had to be rescued, but apart from that, I’m good.” He shared a glance with Jory, who was wincing a bit. Hopefully from the reminder about last night and not cos he thought Mal had a bony arse.
Dev laughed. “Never change, mate. Never change. Listen, I’m ringing from the services on the M5. Me and Kyle are driving down. Set off early to beat the traffic, so we should be with you in a couple of hours.”
“What, today? Thought it was gonna be middle of next week.” It was fucking aces to hear he’d be seeing Dev again so soon—but that was, like, really soon.
“Yeah, well, Kyle got fed up hanging about at home when we could be hanging about by the seaside.”
“How’s he doing?”
“Knackered from the crap meds, but he’s good. He says hi. Or he would if he wasn’t . . . you know.” Mal did know. When a nap attack hit, Kyle could sleep anywhere. “So, yeah, we’ll be down the pub when we get here, or I will be, anyhow. Kyle’s gonna see how it goes.”
“Can’t wait to see you, mate.” Oops. A bit of emotion might have slipped through there.
Dev’s voice softened. “How you been? Apart from falling-down drunk?”
“Uh . . .” Mal glanced at Jory. “It’s complicated? But, uh, mostly good.”
Jory gave him a look.
Mal melted. “Scratch that. Fucking awesome.”
“Do I wanna know? You can tell me tonight. Tash been taking good care of you?”
“Christ, yeah. For the love of God, tell her to lay off when you get here, yeah? I can iron my own kecks. If I wanted me bloody kecks ironed, which seriously, who even does that? Mum’d have a right go at her for not letting me do it all myself.” He hesitated, but if Tasha wanted Dev to know she was pining over Ceri, she’d probably rather tell him herself. “Even old Jago keeps being nice to me. It’s doing my head in.”
“You love it really. I gotta go, but I’ll see you tonight.”
“Counting on it.”
Mal hung up. “So, that was Dev.”
“I kind of gathered.” Jory stroked Mal’s hair, which was so bloody sweet he could hardly stand it. “I guess I won’t be seeing you tonight.”
“Not this afternoon, neither. They’re only a couple of hours away. Um. I know you wanna meet Dev soon as, but—”
Jory was shaking his head. “I can wait. I’ve waited twenty-five years. And I’m more concerned about you right now.” He paused. “But you’ll mention me to him?”
Mal nodded. “Can’t promise he’ll go for it. That sister of yours did a proper number on him. But I’ll do me best, yeah?”
He tried to sound confident, but inside he was a tangled mess of nerves. Yeah, of course he was going to be glad to see Dev again, but . . . timing, much? He’d have felt a lot better with at least a couple of days to get him and Jory sorted before having to introduce the bloke to Dev.
What if Dev didn’t want to see him? That was going to be well awkward.
Shit. Mal was starting to remember all the reasons why getting involved with Jory had seemed like a bad idea.
But no way was he going to give him up now.
When Dev walked into the pub around lunchtime, Tasha let out a squeal so loud they probably had complaints about it over in Ireland. “Oi, careful.” Mal rubbed his ear on the side nearest to her. “I think I just lost an eardrum.”
Tasha shrugged. “Meh. You got another. Dev! Babe, it’s been so long.”
Dev sauntered over as she slipped out from behind the bar so he could give her a hug, a proper one, her feet off the floor and everything. “Looking good, Tash, looking good.”
“Your hair’s longer. And, ow, your stubble’s got sharper. Oi, lemme go.” They were both grinning wildly.
Mal held back, cos Dev might be his best mate but him and Tash were family. It wasn’t long, though, before Dev let go of his little sis and turned. “Mal, my man. How’s it going? Whoa, check out the pimp cane.” He eyed the walking stick propped up against the bar.
“Up yours, mate. And it will be if you don’t watch out.” They shared a hug that was a lot manlier—no squealing, just bro-type back-slapping—while Tasha ducked back behind the bar and started pouring Dev a Coke.
“Where’s Kyle? You leave him back at the cottage?”
“Nah, we walked down together. He’ll be here in a bit. Wanted to give Zelley a good run around on the beach after all those hours cooped up in the car.”
Huh. Mal kept forgetting some people had pets they could take with them when they went away. “How’s he doing? Now he can’t hear you telling me.”
“He’s good. Seriously. He was pissed off about the meds, but he’s a lot more chill about that sort of stuff than he used to be.” Dev smiled soppily, the big soft git. “So how’s it been with you? Really?”
“Uh, good. Well, you know. Swings and roundabouts . . .” Mal dried up. Which was in direct contrast to his hands, which were sweating harder than an overweight pig that’d taken up marathon running. In Hell. He wiped them on his jeans.
Dev narrowed his eyes. “Come on, then, what
