I raised my brows at her in reply.
“Just a couple of pairs. I’ve left them in the guest room, okay?”
Holding Quinn’s hand, Sam in my arms, we wandered outside where everyone was gathered around the outdoor seating, pool, and barbecue.
Mac swooped in. “Where have you been? You’re late, you lazy assh—”
I cleared my throat.
“Lazy people,” she amended.
She grabbed Quinn by the elbow after pressing a kiss to Sam’s forehead and patting his back softly. He squirmed but otherwise seemed to enjoy the affection.
“Evie’s been busy. Busy throwing up all morning. Tonight is the biggest night of Jamieson’s life. They have to play at the awards in eight hours. Eight hours,” she hissed, her voice slowly fading out as she dragged Quinn away.
Grabbing a beer, I stood chatting with Dad, Jared, and Mitch by the barbecue for a few minutes before Jared dragged me away.
“Listen,” he said. “Evie and I…” He folded his arms. “We uh…”
I chuckled because he looked nervous. “Spit it out, mate.”
“We haven’t told anyone yet because we only found out this morning. I didn’t want to spring it on you, but…Evie and I are having a baby.”
Shock punched through me until I smiled slowly, feeling it overtake my face. I pulled him towards me and slapped his back. It was a little awkward because I was still holding Sam, but I offered my congratulations.
Jared looked worried but it eased a little into relief as I asked him how Evie was, and he told me she’d been green for an entire week and it didn’t look like letting up anytime soon.
“I appreciate you telling us first,” I told him, “and…well, we haven’t told anyone this yet either. Quinn and I saw a specialist a few months back. Turns out they might be able to reverse some of the damage with surgery but…” I glanced down at Sam. He appeared to be dozing off a little. “…with all the weddings, renovations, the foster parenting process, Quinn busy at work with Jamieson’s two singles going platinum, there’s been no time to organise it.” I paused when I heard Mac swearing loudly from somewhere upstairs. Jared rolled his eyes. “Anyway, we’ve got Sam. He’s our focus for now.”
“You’re going to adopt him?”
I nodded. “We’d like to if we can.”
Quinn could now be heard swearing loudly from upstairs. “What the hell is going on up there?”
We wandered inside as Henry tore down the stairs, phone to his ear. Taking our questioning glances in, he muffled the speaker and said, “It’s Frog and Cooper. They’ve been in a car accident on their way here,” before returning to his phone call.
Mac followed behind him, Quinn behind her. “It’s a goddamn disaster. The awards tonight and Evie is up there looking like death city, throwing up a lung and a kidney, and now Frog and Cooper.”
I grabbed Quinn’s hand as she reached the bottom step.
“They’re okay. Some idiot went through a stop sign, but they weren’t going fast. Cooper has a couple of scratches but Frog’s broken his arm.”
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
“Shit is right,” she agreed.
“Fuck shit,” Mac growled. “It’s a goddamn disaster. This is the biggest night of Jamieson’s life and Frog’s gone and cocked up his arm and Evie, well…” She threw up her hands.
Mum came in from outside just as Casey came through the front door. “We’ll be out of beer soon, can one of you go?”
“Mum,” Mac shouted. “We’ve got bigger problems.”
“What could be bigger than being out of beer?” Casey chuckled as he did the rounds of kissing Mum, Mac, and Quinn on the cheek in greeting. He reached for the stirring Sam in my arms, and Sam went willingly, having taken to Casey the couple of times he’d visited the past week. He swung Sam onto his hip and tucked his tired head under his chin, and I wasn’t about to admit that my arms were a bit tired from holding the little champ.
“Actually, we have a replacement bassist for Frog all lined up thanks to Henry,” Quinn told us. “Maybe you can pick her up from the airport and grab the beer at the same time for us?”
“Airport?” I asked.
“She’s dropped everything to fly in from Melbourne for us. Would you mind?”
Casey sat the now fully alert Sam at his feet and jangled his keys. “Blocking the Subaru in.”
I nodded my head towards the door. “You can drive then. You’ll be right with Sam, Quinn?”
Quinn took hold of Sam’s hand, passing over the printed flight details in the other. “Of course. Mac and Henry are going to collect Cooper and Frog, and Sam and I are going for a swim in the pool.”
Sam looked up at me with wide eyes. I ruffled his hair. “Be back soon, bud, okay?”
He nodded.
Ducking my head, I took hold of Quinn’s chin gently and touched my lips to hers and whispered in her ear what I wanted to do to her later tonight that I’d missed out on doing this morning. “Later, sweetheart.”
“Later,” she breathed, her cheeks flushing pink.
With a grin and short wave, Casey and I left for the airport. The flight from Melbourne to Sydney only took an hour but we arrived with ten minutes to spare and stood waiting as passengers started flowing in from the arrivals gate.
Towards us came a girl with a guitar case slung over her back. Deep red tangles of hair flowed down her back and a colourful tattoo wound along the length of her bare arm and towards her neck. Encased in tiny black leather shorts and a sleeveless shirt, she strode directly towards us.
“Holy fuck,” Casey breathed beside me. “Do you think that’s her?”
I checked the photo of her that Quinn had messaged through and checked the girl coming towards us again. The tattoos weren’t in the photo, neither was the smoky eyes, painted lips, and wild red hair—just a fresh faced girl with dark brown hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose.
“I think so.”
“Who is she?”
“Henry’s sister apparently.”
I chuckled at Casey’s open mouthed expression. “Close your mouth,” I muttered. “You’ll catch flies.”
“What did Quinn say her name was?”
I checked my phone and looked back up.
“Grace.”
The End.