She nods. “Sorry, it’s only that I want you to win her back, your whole life has been about her, and she has no fucking clue.”
Shelly walks back into the kitchen, and I follow her to the door looking around at the mess. Reaching up to the top of the doorframe, I stretch my body out. “What the fuck are you doing in here?” I ask, looking at the disaster before me. She shrugs and her cheeks start to pink. I’ve never, not once, seen Shelly embarrassed. “Shel?” I push.
“I’m making scones.”
Chuckling, I step inside the kitchen and reach out to touch one of the sticky blobs waiting to go into the oven.
Shelly slaps my hand. “Don’t touch!”
I grin. “You don’t eat cakes, and you definitely don’t bake. Who are these for?”
“No one.”
“Bullshit.”
“Just leave it, Isaac.”
“You poke your nose into my business, tell me who they’re for.”
“Toby… they’re for Toby,” she whispers, and her usual self-assured presence disappears.
“Hey, what’s up?” I question, moving closer to her.
Shelly looks up at me. “There’s so much uncertainty in my life, Isaac,” she spews the words out like a release. “I have no family. Only you. I liked Toby from the moment I first saw him. But I’m basing the next part of my life on the possibility of him and me, and that’s not who I am. The trouble is, I don’t know who I am without the team, without the missions.”
“Fuck,” I murmur and pull her into me. She clings on tight, and I do the same. “Shelly, you’re like a little sister to me, and before you hit me, I mean that earnestly. Toby would be lucky to have you. I’m pretty sure he knows that, and although the two of you are very new, I want you both to be happy, and for what it’s worth, I think it will work out.”
Shelly pulls away from me and goes back to the scones putting them in the oven. “We’ll see where it goes.” She shrugs like it’s all the same to her.
I leave her to it and head to the gym hitting my phone as I move.
“Isaac.”
“Toby.”
“What’s up?”
“This thing with Shelly, you invested?” I ask him.
My question is met with silence. “Toby?”
“Why are you asking?” his voice is laced with suspicion.
“Don’t get the wrong idea, Toby. Shelly has been part of my team for years. I know her, and I care about her like a little sister. You’re my brother, and I love you. I would love nothing more than for the two of you to live golden. I know where her head’s at, I’m asking where’s yours?”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know I like her. I’m aware she’s been through stuff I’ll never understand. I also know she has no one, so I’m not in this to fuck it up.”
“Good.”
“What about Liv? Where you at with her?” he returns, and I smile to myself.
“I’ve told her where we’re at, now she just needs to get her head on right,” I offer.
“So you didn’t speak soft, you didn’t go in calm and slow and ask for some of her time? You bulldozed your way in…”
“You think she’d expect anything different from me? You think if I pussyfooted around her she’d think I was serious?”
“Point made,” he concedes. “So what’s your plan?”
“Well, I need to make a statement to her. To the family. One week I said, so next Saturday at Mum’s birthday.”
“Is that really the place to do it?”
I shrug even though he can’t see it. “Our family loves us. If they see fit to be angry or go against this, then I don’t need them in my life. Mum and Dad know how I feel, they support us. Uncle Dane and Aunt Libby are gone now, no one’s looking to lose more family.”
“True.”
“Right, I have to go. When you see Shelly later, pretend you like scones, okay?”
“Erm, sure,” Toby answers confused.
“Later,” I return and cut the call.
I’m giving Via her week. I’m hoping she asks me any questions she wants answers to, but either way, next weekend I’m claiming her for good, forever.
LIV
“So, pizza?” Helena asks walking through the door.
“Mmm… smells lush,” I reply as my tummy groans in agreement.
We sit side by side on the sofa and scoff through the whole large Hawaiian pizza and obsess over two episodes of Sons of Anarchy before I can’t take the tension anymore.
“Okay, spill,” I spit out turning to face her.
“What?” she asks wincing.
“We both know you’re here to tell me something, you’re moving in with Noah, right?”
Helena crinkles up her nose. “Yeah,” she mutters.
I pull her body into mine giving her a hug. “It’s okay,” I whisper before pulling back.
“I thought you’d be pissed at me.”
“Why?”
“Because… I don’t know.” She shrugs
“You’re a nutcase.”
We both giggle, and the tension dissipates.
“You can afford this place by yourself? If not, I can stay until you find another roommate,” she offers.
“No. I can afford it.” I smile.
“Good.” Helena takes a sip of her lemonade and smiles. “So, what’s new in your life?”
“Isaac’s back,” I blurt out the words. Since his visit last night, or more precisely the early hours of this morning—after which I had little sleep—my brain has been on overdrive.
“What?” she exhales.
I nod. “Yeah.”
“How… what… explain!”
I grin, but it quickly drops off. “He wants me back, but I’m not sure I can ride that rollercoaster, not again.”
“Don’t dismiss him, babe. There may be plausible reasons for all of his behaviour.”
I purse my lips, but say nothing in response.
“More SOA?” she asks, and I nod.
I need to forget about him, at
