Saviour (32 page)

I
reach out and touch his face, he is on his knees so I climb onto his lap and straddle him, I wrap my legs and arms around him, holding him tight, he wraps his arms just as tightly around me.

“
I never want that feeling again baby. Last night I witnessed what it would be like to lose you and it was nearly more than I could stand”

I
look into his face, “Don’t move” I say

My
legs are feeling steadier as I head to the bathroom and brush my teeth. When I return, I sit back as I was before.

“
What are you doing?”

“
I cleaned my teeth. I want to kiss you but not with vomity morning breath”

“
Lauren, I would have kissed you regardless, I love vomity morning breath, as long as it’s yours”

“
Yeah I know you would, but seeing as I have just chucked up all over your carpet, it’s the very least I could do”

We
kiss, we both taste salty from our tears, and it makes me smile for some bizarre reason. I need to get my shit together; I think it has only now finally hit me that my marriage is over, what Jason did to me last night is totally unforgivable, I am now ready to draw a line under my life with Jay and now ready to move on and start my new life with Gabe, I need to move on from this latest little drama. It was a nasty, spiteful and vicious attack but I need to get over it, I refuse to let Jason have any more control over me, I can't have Gabe feeling guilty and I can't have him worrying about how last night’s events have impacted on me. I just want normal!

“Who’s
in the kitchen with Jemma?”

“Zac,
he’s just come from the solicitors, Jason was given bail but we got an intervention order against him, he can’t come within two hundred meters of you, He’s been charged with home invasion and assault, not sure when the court date will be”

Whoa,
right, okay, so he can’t come near me, good, that’s good then, that’s all I want, I don’t care about all the rest, I just don’t want that man anywhere near me. The thought that there is now something in place to guarantee this makes me feel better but then really, it will only work if Jay abides by it, shit, I am so over all this drama, I just want to get on with my life. Marriages break up all the time, is it always this traumatic?

I finally eat a bacon sandwich and wash it down with a cup of tea, which Jemma brings to me in bed. She cleans up the carpet, gives it a scrub and gets rid of the towels and then comes and sits back on the bed with me.

“
You got lucky with him Loz, he's a star, and he is so in love with you, he was as much of a mess as you were last night. He was, traumatised, would probably be the right word. It was all Jo and I could do to stop him going out looking for Jay and part of me wanted to let him go find the fucker, then Jo called his brothers and they came out to the hospital and calmed him down”

“
His brothers came to the hospital?”

“
Yeah, Cooper is it? He stayed last night and the other one, Zac; he’s back here now. Fuck Loz, they’re a good looking family and they seem to think a lot of you”

Despite
all of this new information whirring through my brain, I smile at what she's said.

“
Yeah, there a hot bunch of boys, Stella's a gorgeous too; Ava looks a lot like her”

Gabe
appears in the doorway.

“
Did you eat all of that?”

“
Yes” I open my mouth like a child, showing him it’s empty as he shakes his head, saying

“Nice
Lauren, very mature”

I
flip my middle finger and smile sweetly.

“Oh
and so ladylike too, remind me again why I love you?”

“Because I have great tits and give a blinding blow job” I reply with a smile. His mouth drops
open as he looks from me to Jemma. He shrugs his shoulders and grins at me “This is true baby, this is true”

The
buzzer goes for the intercom and Gabe goes off to answer it, shaking his head as he does, only to be replaced by Zac in the doorway, it’s like Piccadilly Circus in here this morning!

“Well
helloooo” Jemma says quietly beside me. I feel like we are fifteen again, back at school as I try not to giggle.

“Hey
Lauren, how you doing?”

“Come
in Zac, come in. Yeah I’m okay, my chin and jaw hurt and I have lovely bump on my head but apart from that, I'm fine”

He
comes in and sits on the bed, he looks exactly like Gabe, but in a much more rugged, manly way, his denim blue eyes are soft as they look at me.

“Jimmy
tried his best to keep the fucker locked up but he was able to come up with the bail money and they were happy to let him go with the intervention order in place, sorry about that”

“Don’t
be daft Zac, it’s nobody’s fault, hopefully getting the police involved this time will do the trick and keep him away” God, why is everyone else apologizing for something that my arse hole of  a husband has caused. I decide to use the opportunity to ask about Gabe “Zac, how’s Gabe doing, really? I hear he was a mess last night?”

“Yeah,
look, he’s okay, he was spewing last night, we thought we were going to have to get the doc’s to give him something to calm him down, if he had got hold of your husband, he would have killed him for sure but once we got word that the police had him, he calmed down. Cooper stayed over last night just in case there were any problems, I spoke to him this morning, they sat up for a while talking and he said Gabe had a good cry, which is good, with all the shit that’s happened in the past, we know he’s no good when he bottles things up. I spoke to him just now when I got here and he’s just worried about you now”

“I’m
ok Zac honestly, it’s all been more of a shock than anything, although it did scare me last night, but look, as long as I have Gabe, I will be fine”

“He
loves you Lauren, he really does, I have never seen him like this, none of us have, except with Ava of course, I am so glad that he’s found someone”

“Yeah,
just a shame I have to come with a shit load of baggage though, shame he couldn’t have met himself a nice normal girl”

“Lauren,
you met our family last week, you had a baptism of fire, so you know what a fucked up bunch we are, if you were normal you wouldn’t have fitted in so well. The ol’ man hasn’t stopped going on about ya, you’re good for Gabe and as long as your good to him, that’s all that matters to us”

Jemma
is still sitting in bed with me and I know she will ask questions later about Gabe’s past, she doesn’t miss anything and will have stored Zacs comments away for another time. She climbs out of my bed and collects up my plate and cup and heads off to the kitchen with them.

“Sam
will be over later to see you, if that’s okay?”

“Zac,
shit, does everyone know, do they all know what he did to me?”

“Well
yeah, why?”

“Because
it’s embarrassing, I feel so ashamed”

He
holds my hand “Lauren come on, this is no more your fault than what happened to Gabe was his, you have nothing to be embarrassed about, we’re family, the rest of the world won’t know all the details, only us and we should know, that way we can help. We learned a lesson with Gabe, so we don’t keep secrets in our family, you may have noticed we tend to say exactly what’s on our minds”

I
laugh, yeah, he’s not wrong there but before I get chance to reply, Gabe puts his head around the bedroom door. He has a soft beautiful look in his eyes and a smile on his face.

“You
have a visitor, let go of her hand Zac, come on out, let’s give her some privacy, you perv”

Zac
kisses my hand as he flicks Gabe the bird, ahhh such children. As he leaves, Ryder comes through the door, my beautiful baby boy, my tears are instant. He literally fly’s across the room and into my arms.

“Mum
, I’m so sorry, I should have come sooner, I should have returned your calls, Dads just been such a mess, I felt sorry for him. I didn’t realise how bad things were, why didn’t you say something, why didn’t you tell us what he was doing to you, we knew he had a temper but you always seemed to be able to manage him and keep him under control”

He’s
crying into my chest as he talks and I stroke his hair and breathe him in, God I have missed my children so much.

“Shush
, its okay Ryde, no one knew, I told nobody, it was my choice. I could always handle him but the past couple of years, he’s just gotten worse and I just wasn’t prepared to put up with it anymore, I didn’t leave him for Gabe, I was already planning on leaving him, then Gabe and I met in the pub the night Dad hit me and he’s just been here for me since then, I didn’t mean to fall in love with someone else so soon, that’s just the way it’s turned out. I’ve missed you so much bubby”

I
brush his tears from his face as I look down at him and kiss his hair

“He
seems like a nice enough bloke Mum and he obviously loves you, can I ask, how old is he? He looks young”

Shit,
oh well, here goes “He’s thirty five”

“Shit,
thirty five? Fuck, my Mother’s a cougar”

“Ryder,
language”

We
sit on the bed and he tells me all about the state Jay has been in at work, turning up drunk on the days that he does turn up at all and that Ryder has been holding the fort and running things pretty much single handed but he’s okay with that and is more than capable. He stays for an hour or so and promises to stay in touch, I get up to see him out and am pleased when he shakes Gabe’s hand and apologises for his dads behavior. Gabe pats him on the back, saying

“Look
mate, it’s not your fault, but just make sure you let him know to keep away, I won’t be calling the police next time I will deal with him myself”

I
give my boy a last hug and wave him goodbye. God that visit has made me feel so much better. As we close the front door, I can’t help but look around the hallway, thinking about what happened the night before. I feel Gabe’s eyes on me and turn and give him a cuddle. He pulls me in tight, almost stopping my breath.

“I
love you Lauren”

“And
I love you Gabriel, are we good?”

“We’re
good, everything will be alright, all this shit will come to an end, you know that don’t you? We won’t always have all this drama”

“I
hope so Gabe, this past few weeks have just been a rollercoaster but you know what, as long as I have you, it will all be fine, I’ve taken a leaf from your book, I will no longer give a fuck about what ever anybody else thinks about me or us. I love you and we’re together, if any one else has a problem with that, well then that’s their problem, not mine”

“Lauren, you fuckin amaze me, you really do.”

We
walk up the stairs with our arms wrapped around each other. The house is quiet now after all of the visitors over the past hours.

“
Back to bed you anyway, a day of complete rest the doctors said”

“Bed,
noooo I’m bored, you come to bed with me?” I whine like a child

“No
Lauren, if I come to bed with you I will want to fuck you”

“Good,
I want you to fuck me, come on, there’s no one here, just you and me, let’s have an arvo sesh”

I
drag him towards the bedroom as he shakes his head. “Really? An arvo sesh. Is that an Essex term?”

“I have no idea, why do you like it?”

“I love it, do you promise to call me Governor in that sexy accent of yours?”

“Too fuckin right I will G
uvnu. Now get your strides off. I want some afternoon nookie”

As
we come through the bedroom door my mobile starts to ring, it’s my GP’s surgery, shit my appointment. I make my apologies and reschedule for Saturday morning, the only slot they have left. Gabe tells me he is going fishing on Saturday morning with his dad and brothers but that’s no problem, I am more than capable of getting myself to the doctors.

We
have a couple of hours back in bed and as we lay snoozing, the buzzer goes, Gabe gets up to answer while I pull on some clothes, he calls for me to come down. More visitors? He is waiting at the bottom of the stairs by the front door, looking very pleased with himself, he puts his hand out to me so I take it, he opens the front door, and there on the drive is my new car. Despite all of my previous protests, I am now super excited, it’s sort of a metallic white colour and just beautiful and then I spot the number plate, I had noticed all of Gabe’s family have personalised plates. Gabe’s Ute says WILDE 5, his BM says GWILDE, and now here’s My, well the company’s new car and the plates read,