“I told them we wouldn’t be back for a few days. I want you to myself some more.” he whispers as his lips kiss my cheek.
My overly emotional eyes tear up again because he can read my mind so well. “Thank you,” I whisper gratefully.
He pushes the hair from my forehead as he looks at me. “I think that it’s you who needs to be spoiled for a while, my beautiful girl.”
I smile shyly as my fragility hits home. “Maybe I do,” I whisper.
True to Joshua’s promise I have been just that, spoiled rotten. We have stayed at the hotel for an extra five days in our own little love cocoon. Joshua has been dealing with the paternity news and me… well… I don’t know, but for some reason buying those wedding rings on Monday has opened a can of worms and had me thinking all about my father and his absence from my life. I’m sad to my bones that both Joshua and I have lost what we have always known. Things will be forever different from here on. Joshua and I are healing each other; we have talked for hours and hours. From deep, deep soul-searching conversations to the mechanics of female contraception. I actually think he’s a better therapist than me and this is exactly what we have needed: time alone to regroup. Unfortunately our love bubble finishes today. Joshua is at the gym and then returning to take me to our home. Today he has to make a decision on what he is going to do about James Brennan. The asshole hasn’t returned the money, exactly as I thought. Thankfully though, our long daily discussions have made Joshua much better prepared to deal with the situation than he was last week. My phone rings, the name Brock lights my screen and I smile. I have been trying to get him all week but I have had to wait for him to call me back from Afghanistan. My nerves flutter in my stomach—this is an important conversation.
“Hello, Brock.” I smile.
“Hi, Tash,” he replies softly, and then a silence falls on the line.
I’m just going to come out and say it: “Brock, I don’t want to fight with you anymore.” A lump in my throat forms. “I miss having you in my life.”
He sighs. “Tash.”
“Joshua makes me so happy, Brock, and I know you two have had your issues but that’s because you are so alike.” I blurt the words out in a rush to get them off my chest.
“We are nothing alike,” he snaps coldly.
“Brock, I love both of you and I know both of you. You are alike whether you want to admit it or not.”
He stays silent as he listens.
“He’s going through a lot right now,” I whisper.
“Like what?” he asks.
I puff out my cheeks in nerves. “He has just found out that Robert is not his biological father.”
“What?” he replies.
My heart drops and I nod. “It’s true,” I whisper. “Margaret had an affair and I killed our father for nothing,” I add through tears.
“Tash, you didn’t kill Dad. Stop it. I don’t want you thinking that,” he replies quietly.
I am silent as the tears run down my face and I swipe them angrily from my face. “You said that I killed him,” I then blurt out, silently angry that he said that to me at such a dark time in my life.
“Tash, I didn’t mean that shit. I was being a fucking idiot. I don’t even know what I was saying back then.”
I stay silent as I listen.
“You’re not cousins,” he replies and I can hear him deep in thought.
I shake my head. “No we are not.” And I feel excitement rise a little in my stomach now that he knows the truth.
“Doesn’t change anything. I still can’t stand him,” he mutters.
My heart drops. “Brock, I swear to you on Mum’s life that when we were young I wanted this relationship just as much as he did. He never pushed himself onto me. Not once. Brock, we fell in love and we couldn’t help it.”
He stays silent.
I need to get him on my side. “I’m so happy, Brock. He adores me and he treats me so well,” I continue.
“He’s a womaniser, Natasha,” he mutters.
I shake my head. “Brock, no, he’s not. I mean he was, but he isn’t anymore.” I screw up my face as I hear how that would have sounded. God, I’m blowing it. “He loves me and spends all of his time trying to make me happy. You know we are getting married, right?” I ask.