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“Go sit on the terrace,” I encourage him. “The sun’s nice this time of the morning.” I point to the glass doors and he goes out and sits on a chair, his face up to the sun. He looks more relaxed already.
My brothers arrive and are wandering around, poking and prodding at things. Then Jackson produces a Fortnum & Mason teapot for two. “We saw this and thought of you.” He says proudly. I grin as I point to the identical tea pot sitting on the worktop. “No way, Jude? Great minds think alike,” he says, hugging me. “Well now you’ve got tea for four. Get that kettle on.”
Jonno quizzes me on the security first thing.
“I used our company, Jonno. Don’t make out you don’t know.”
“I’ve gone into stalking rehab where you’re concerned, Evie. I’m detoxing from following you around. It’s really hard. I’ve needed therapy.”
“Christ, which poor soul are you whipping the hell out of now? I bet you need special permission, even at your place.”
The other two are laughing at him as he puts his lip out and looks all innocent. “Not that sort of therapy.”
“I know that guilty look, Jonno Greystone,” I sigh and tsk, shaking my head at him. ”Poor woman.”
He starts to chuckle, and soon we’re all cracking up over the most stupid stuff.
“I have so missed you,” Jackson says through tears of laughter. “I forgot how funny you are. You always had some quip to have a pop at us with. We,” he sweeps his arm to the others, “are so, so, so sorry about everything, baby sis. Will you forgive us? Let us try to make it up to you and we move forward as a family? We miss you. You hold us all together. We’d just got so used to being with you, we forgot it’s a luxury, not a normal.” They all look at me, three sets of brown eyes, pleading, sorry. Shouting out their love.
“Yes, of course I will. But I’m not moving back in. That’s not to say you can't stay here. And I don’t have time limits on the stays.” We all smile at each other.
“Perfect,” says Jonno, “cos I’m staying tonight if James and Bucky are here. I owe them a card game. Have you got room, Evie?”
“Yeah, the apartment has seven bedrooms. Old habits die hard,” I smirk.
I give them a grand tour. Taking them over to the building next door to show my progress. I’ve added a large glass extension to this building that I’m keen to show off. It’s full height and length, added so you can sit summer and winter and watch the weather change on the Thames. It’s heated in the winter and shaded in the summer, a very ingenious system.
Jude is particularly taken with it. “Are you showing Kenny this building as well?” he asks, having already discussed Kenny’s requests.
“Yeah, I thought I would. It just depends on what we can repurpose and what he wants, size etc. Other than that, he’ll have to wait ‘til I can sort another one out. If they pick one that’s not done, I’ll do it, but Kellen can pay for some of the remodel whilst it’s in progress.”
“Are you back on good terms then? I notice you’re calling him Kellen, and not Marcus. Or even worse, Russell. I thought Xander was going to expire when you called him that!” Jonno says through his laughter.
I look out onto the river and shrug. “I haven’t spoken to either of them. I get a lot of picture messages. Content questionable—especially Kell if he’s had a drink and it's late night in LA. But I don’t respond. I haven’t blocked them or told them to stop, so I think whilst that’s the case, Xander’s on it, so the messages still come. Xander’s are funny, Kellen’s just rude and getting ruder. He must be horny or something. Has his boyfriend left him? The well of new women dried up?”
They all laugh. “No idea,” Jude offers. “I know he messages James and rings a lot. I think James frightened him to death. But, to be fair to Kellen, he didn’t roll over when James was giving it to him. I was a bit impressed,” he says with a nod.
“Wow, Brown. Must’ve been good for you, you’re usually hammering him,” I say.
“I know, but all this has made me think about who I want to deal with and how. I know Kellen’s an idiot, but he loves James and Bucky, and is really good with them. Especially around the music stuff and pitfalls.”
“Well if anyone’s been there, seen it, done it, it’s that lot. I know what you mean, though. And talking about that lot, I want to talk about Isobel.” They all go still. “I know she’s the elephant in the room. I don’t like her, that’s a given. Am I going to ever like her? No, I’m not.”
“Evie, it’s okay. I’m not—” Jude starts.
“Please let me finish,” I interrupt him. “But as much as I dislike her, I love you. I couldn’t be happy if you’re not happy. And if she makes you happy, then you shouldn’t keep her away just because I don’t like her.”
“She tried to run you off the road! It’s not a dislike thing,” Jude says. “She could have killed you and James, she never even fucking stopped to see if you were okay.”
“Yes, she did that,” I say.
“I could never date anyone who would want to hurt you or James,” Jude exclaims.
“And she tried to justify it before we even knew it’d happened,” Jonno adds. “She told us loads of shit at Kellen’s party. How you used to do stuff to her, tried to explain away why she did what she did without ever actually saying what a monster she was.”
“Well, to be fair, I probably did do a bit of shit to her. But she was so mean—about my clothes, hair, anything I couldn’t control. So, in my view, fair game. But yes, I was a pain in the arse to her.”
“Did you try to run her off the road on purpose?” Jude asks.
