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“You all know, don’t you? You just don’t want to say. Was it to do with sex? Was Marcus having sex with somebody in front of James?” They all look at each other again. “Fuck me, it was. What a moron. Can’t keep it in his pants for fourteen days!”
“Xan’s in tears, and Gabe’s on suicide watch. Xander said he’s leaving the band,” Jonno says.
“Who? Gabe or Xan?” I ask, confused. “What’s Gabe got to do with it?” Again silence. “You have got to be kidding me!” I’m screeching by the end of that sentence. I feel faint. What the hell is Marcus thinking? Or not. “Well I don’t care about any of them. The only people I’m interested in are James, Bucky, and those boys. So let’s get a plan. And can we get James on the phone so we know where his head’s at?” I take a breather and then carry on. “Marcus hasn’t rang, I suppose? What a coward.”
“He’s not got up off the floor, he’s catatonic,” says Jackson.
“Probably the drugs,” I say with disgust. Jonno and Jude are smiling at me now. “What’s up with you two?”
“You,” says Jonno. “We love your resilience, E.”
“It’s not resilience, it's love. If that idiot goes near my sons without their invitation, I’ll kill him. I mean it, Jonno. He better not do one thing to piss James and Bucky off again. If they tell him to get lost, he’s gone. Along with the rest of that band and any connected parties. Agreed?” I look at them all.
“All of them, Evie? Even Xan and Bug?” Jonno queries.
“The lot, all gone.”
“Agreed,” they all chorus.
“Let’s speak to James and see what tour the little shits booked. Who gave him the credit card?” I look at my brothers, they all look at each other. “Jackson then.”
“How does she do that?” Jackson asks, banging the table with his hand.
“Witchcraft,” laughs out Jude.
I hear James on the speaker phone, and he sounds fine. I detect a slight quiver in his voice, but don’t say anything, intending to ring him separately on facetime after this call.
Marcus is clearly off the floor, as he’s calling James nonstop. So is Xander. James is adamant at this point he does not want to speak to them, saying he needs some time to process everything. He seems more interested in the bus tours and helicopter flights he’s booked, along with some yacht party they’ve planned.
Jackson arranged for some old army buddy to take them on a mega helicopter safari, out to Vegas and the Grand Canyon and then back, before they’re due home. I laugh at Jackson’s face when James tells him it’s ‘all first class,’ all secure as he’s used Jackson’s credit card, and ‘not to worry,’ followed up by, don’t bother sending any planes. He’s asked Darryl to book them business class flights back from LA on the fifth January.
“That’s my boy,” I laugh at Jackson, who is fanning his face and clutching his chest at the cost.
I leave them all and head to my room to facetime James alone.
“Mum?” he rasps out, looking a bit weary.
“Mr. Tubbs has knocked up Pinky the pony,” I tell him lightly. “She was on house arrest but she escaped. Mr. Tubbs’s pheromones were calling her. We’ve had to have the vet as she’s nearly twenty years old. I feel certain it’s a menopause pregnancy.”
James is grinning ear to ear. “You’re barking.”
“I know, but it’s all true, I swear.” Throughout this little gem of a conversation, I’m checking his face out.
“Why don’t you just ask me, Mum. I’d tell you if I wasn’t okay. Ask you to come out.”
“Are you, son? Would you though? Was it really bad?” I’m shaking my head.
“Probably in hindsight not as bad as it could have been. I didn’t see his dick.”
“Yeah, that’d have been a disaster with that piercing,” I mumble, not for his ears, but of course James misses nothing.
I flush bright red, with embarrassment when he shouts, “Mother, really. TMI. STOP.”
I grin at him. “Right, I can see you actually are okay, so I can go now.”
“Has Tubbs really knocked up Pinky? Do I need to go speak to him?”
“All true baby, all true.”
