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“Ready for a glass of wine. How was your day?”
Abby filled her in, giving Demi a chance to pour a glass of wine and recalibrate now that Flynn was down for the night.
“It really doesn’t bother you that Scott is away so much?” Demi asked after Abby explained he wouldn’t be home this weekend.
“I miss him, sure, but we’ve never been that way.” Abby rose from the couch and headed to the kitchen, intent on refilling her glass.
“What way is that?” There was a hint of accusation in Demi’s question.
“I don’t know.” Abby knew she needed to tread lightly here. It had only been four months since Jake had announced he was done and walked out on his wife and child without a backward glance. “Dependent on each other.”
“And what’s so wrong with depending on someone, Abs?” Demi sighed into the phone. “It’s alright to lean on someone and know they’ve got your back.”
“I lean on plenty of people,” she protested, opening the refrigerator and grabbing the bottle of sauvignon blanc. “I know you’ve got my back, just like I will always have yours.”More than that dropkick husband of yours.Removing the cap, she poured herself another full glass.
“Absolutely, but Abs, it’s okay to need more.”
Abby put the bottle back in the refrigerator, then leaned her head against the closed door. “I really thought you, of all people, would spare me the push towards marriage.”
“Who said anything about marriage? I just mean that if you keep holding Scott at arm’s length, one day he might slip through your fingers all together.”
“Scott and I are fine.” How did this conversation become about her relationship?
“I thought Jake and I were fine,” Demi whispered.
Abby’s heart hurt for her friend, who was such a kind and decent human being and didn’t deserve what was happening to her. “Not everyone is cut out for fatherhood. Jake could have done you a favour and worked that out before Flynn came along, like my darling daddy did.” She took her glass and went back to the living room.
“But then I wouldn’t have Flynn. Besides, you never knew your father–”
“And if Jake never shows his face again, neither will Flynn.” Abby took a breath, settling back onto the sofa. “Look, I know it’s not what you planned, but in all honesty, I don’t feel like I’ve missed out in any way by not having a father.”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure I’m cut out for single parenthood. I mean, Rachel is amazing.” Demi’s voice caught.
“So are you, Dee! You’re not in this alone. Mum certainly didn’t raise me all by herself. She swears it takes a village to raise a child and I completely agree. I wouldn’t change anything about my life.”
Throughout her childhood, Abby had watched many of her friends’ parents separate, divorce and cause each other pain, and she’d been secretly happy never to have lived through her family being torn apart. Her mother never spoke of her father and Abby could only assume he’d been some fleeting love interest. Rachel had never bothered with relationships beyond the physical, and nothing that had stood the test of time. But their home and their hearts had always been full.
“We’re all here for you, and for Flynn.” She could hear Demi crying softly and her heart broke for her friend. They had a tight knit circle of friends who would continue to rally around Demi and her son.
“What if Jake comes back?”
Abby bit the inside of her cheek, swallowing her initial reaction to that scenario. Demi didn’t need a man like Jake in her life. “So, he comes back. I’ll still be here for you. If you two figure it out, excellent. If you don’t, it’s all good too. I’ve got you, Dee. Always.”
They talked until Demi’s tears stopped and Abby was satisfied she wouldn’t crawl inside a bottle of wine and wake with a raging hangover. She ended the call, her mind turning over the conversation. It had been Abby and Rachel from the beginning. A strong, inseparable mother-daughter team. That hadn’t been Demi’s experience, nor was it Flynn’s start in life.
Deep down, Abby got it. Demi had had certain expectations—dreams even—about how her life would be. She just wished she could give Demi the certainty of knowing that her life would still be wonderful, even if it had taken a dramatic turn in the opposite direction.
Demi’s pain had been caused by men who’d left and hadn’t looked back. First, her father. When her mother remarried, she’d moved to Brisbane with her new husband, assuring Demi she should get on with her own life as she was then eighteen. And now Jake had left her.
Watching her friend’s devastation was awful, but it also showed the exact problem with depending on a man as some kind of security blanket in life. It was an illusion, and one Abby would not be buying into. She never wanted to experience that level of pain and heartbreak.
Chapter 3
“Just because none of Isobel’s crew have left Victoria, doesn't mean he hasn’t sent in other associates.” Zep sat at the head of the table in The Devils’ makeshift boardroom in the shed at the back of the property in Broulee. Thirty brothers, all wearing their cuts, sat around the table, hobbled together with twenty-foot timber planks screwed into concrete besser blocks. He hated that this meeting was taking place—that the hidden details of his life were now exposed.
“I still can’t believe you’ve got a kid, Prez.” Dodge, nicknamed for his ability to dodge the cops, had been with the club for over fifteen years, and part of the inner circle for ten years. There was an aggrieved undercurrent in the question.
“And I bet you’ve got cousins I’ve never heard of,” Connor growled.
