Brunch consists of bacon, eggs, sausages, hash browns, pancakes, mushrooms and toast. And a conversation I never saw coming.
“I’m getting married,” Mum announces halfway through the meal.
“To that guy you were telling us about the other day?” Tyler asks.
“Yes, George.”
I’m not even surprised at her announcement. I would be surprised if it goes ahead. She’s had three engagements over the last ten years that haven’t eventuated. “When?” I ask.
“Oh, I haven’t asked him yet,” she says with a wave of her hand.
Tyler stares at her. “How do you know he’ll say yes?”
She looks at him as if he’s just asked the stupidest question. “Pfft, George will say yes. I think a Christmas wedding would be fun.” She turns to Callie. “Don’t you think, Callie?”
Callie hits Mum with a smile. “It would be amazing. Where are you thinking?”
Mum’s eyes light up. She’s found an ally. “The Whitsunday’s.”
Callie nods excitedly. “Perfect.”
I watch in amusement as they continue to plan the details of a wedding that probably won’t even happen. After a good ten minutes of discussion, in which Tyler gives his opinion and Paris does her best to avoid being dragged into, Mum narrows her eyes at me. “What are your thoughts, Luke? You’re being awfully quiet over there.”
“Why bother with marriage? If you love each other, you don’t need a piece of paper to declare that love.”
Mum frowns. “You used to be all for marriage.”
I lean back in my chair and rake my fingers through my hair. This is the last thing I want to be discussing. “That was before I was screwed over.”
“What does screwed over mean?” Sean asks.
I give him my full attention. “It means that someone does something to you that is very bad.”
“So you probably wouldn’t be their friend anymore?” he asks.
“Absolutely not. And you would do everything you could to stop anyone else ever doing that thing to you,” I say.
“Luke.” Mum’s voice holds a warning.
“What?” I ask her. “He needs to know this stuff for when he gets older. No way am I ever letting anyone mess with him.”
Sadness flickers in her eyes. “Sometimes we can’t stop our kids being hurt. But the last thing we should do is teach them to close themselves off to life.”
“I don’t buy that bullshit. There’s a lot I can do to stop my child being hurt by other people. Number one is to teach him how to avoid being played by scheming bitches.” I shove my chair back and stand. “Sean will never be screwed over by a woman if I have anything to do with it.”
I stalk out of the room, needing some space to breathe. Thinking about my son going through any of the shit I’ve been through causes intense anger in me. I head out to the back deck to get some fresh air.
“Luke,” Callie calls after me as she follows.
I don’t wait for her, but rather, keep moving down the stairs. This isn’t something she can help me with.
“Luke!” Her tone grows more insistent, so I finally stop and face her when I reach the bottom of the stairs. She catches up and says, “Are you okay?”
I blow out a long breath. “You know I don’t like talking about my marriage, but Mum’s always pushing me to fucking talk about it.”
“I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I think you need to. You’re so full of anger and resentment. You need to find a way to get that out so you can move on.”
Every muscle in my body swarms with anger and tension. It punches through me and all I want to do is find a way to smash it out of me. “Talking doesn’t fix anything, Callie. This anger sits in my gut every minute of every day. It’s not going anywhere, no matter how much I talk about it.”