“Now, we’re heading to the married quarters, so there’ll be bigger boxes. I’m going to take you somewhere special first though, OK?”
“Where?” I said frowning.
“You’ll find out in a second. It’ll be fine. Just trust me.”
We drove through the admin sector, past a lot of sheds and buildings I was still yet to visit, and then back up the hill. The houses were a lot bigger on this side I realised, with sprawling gardens filled with children’s play equipment. Brandon skipped all of them, heading down the third row and pulling up outside one three quarters the way along the street. He smiled as he got out of the cab. “C’mon.”
We picked up the boxes and Brandon got the gate for me, walking up a pretty white stone driveway to a house with a huge porch running around each side of it.
“Hey, honey!” I heard a feminine voice call out. The door opened and a beautiful woman of slim build with long dark hair arrived at the door. Am I meeting his girlfriend? I thought. That’s something I’d never really asked about, if blokes had multiple girlfriends as well. She was pretty enough to be so, which sent a stab of jealousy through me. Where did that come from? “Did you bring our stuff first again? The neighbourhood is going to kill me if you keep doing this. Especially Phyllis, you know how she is about precedence. Oh, who’s this?” Her eyes flicked to me, and then the broadest smile split her face. “Is she…? Have you…?”
“Mum, this is Julie. She’s the new girl, Finn’s offsider. Julie, this is my mum, Janice.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“Come in! Come in! So you’re from the outside world, huh? Your head must be spinning right about now.” She turned to Brandon, “John and Bill are at the pub, but Adam and Duke are in the den looking over the books. Go and grab them.” He walked down the hallway obediently. “So how are
you coping, honey? I’m a Sanctuary girl myself, but my best friend, Carissa, I still remember when she first came here, poor thing. Her head was spinning for weeks.”
“Spinning would be a polite word for it. The way people live here is just so different,” I said cautiously. I didn’t want to just blurt out that I thought it was weird that she had four husbands and looked only a little older than me.
“The harem thing? I know from Carissa that the way we do things here is quite unconventional. Maybe I should introduce you, might help you adjust?”
“Ah, yeah. And then there’s that full moon thing.”
“Still not telling you what’s going to happen until afterwards? I’ve talked to Kelly about this for years. I don’t think it’s the right way to go about it, but I’m not the matriarch here.”
“You can’t fill me in at all?”
“Not without losing everything. Kelly runs Sanctuary well, and is a fair and reasonable boss, but that is absolutely no go for her. I’m sorry, it’ll be OK though. Once you find out, it’ll probably be a let down, I think.” She saw my face and reached over and rubbed my arm, “I know, honey, it’s not fair. Look, some people are coming around for a BBQ this afternoon. Carissa will be there, you want to come and meet her? She’d have to have a lot of advice about how to cope in the next few weeks.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“So, how’s my son treating you?”
I was giving Brandon a glowing recommendation when two men came into the kitchen. One of the guys was tall and had that big, bulky, muscled look bodybuilders have, with a short crop of greying black hair. The other looked like he could be Brandon’s dad. He had a similar lean build, covered in compact muscle and waving dark hair that fell to his shoulders. Both of them took me in and burst into smiles. “So, this is Julie,” big guy said, taking my hand. “I’m Brandon’s dad, Duke.”
“And I’m his other dad, Adam. Johnny and Bill will be pissed they missed you. Did you have any plans on tonight? We’re having a BBQ.”
“Janice just invited me. Yes, that would be lovely.”
“So, how long have you known our son?” Duke asked.
“Duke, don’t give the girl the third degree,” Adam said.
“You’re going to make the girl nervous,” Janice said.
“Mum, Dad and Dad, I know you’d like to grill Julie, but we have more deliveries to make. Phyllis will have rung the front office and made a complaint right about…” he looked at his phone as it began to ring, “now. I’ll bring her by tonight and you can talk to her, respectfully, without asking a million invasive questions.”
“Son, we just want to get to know the new lady in your life,” Duke said.
“Well, she won’t be in my life if you guys have your way, so cool it. Think back to grandma and the grandpas…” Duke and Adam winced at that. “Exactly, so chill. Anything you want us to bring?”
“Just Julie,” Janice said with a warm smile. “We’ll see you later.”
“Sorry for the parental overkill. Every time I’m seen with a girl, they lose their shit. Duke gets all ‘who are you that wants to see my son’s junk’ and Janice and Adam act like cheerleaders, overexcited by everything. John’s much more low key, he’ll just offer you a beer, and Bill’s usually too stressed out with running the mine to worry about what I’m doing.”
“So, that’s who you grew up with. What happened when you wanted permission to do something? Did you have to ask every single one of them?”