Stronger with You (With You Trilogy) (22 page)

“Awesome,” I grinned.

“When can I see you?” He asked.

“I’m not sure,” I pouted. “I’ll text you or call you as soon as I know more.”

I spotted Craig coming through the bedroom door and gave him a small wave.

“I have to go, Jason,” I apologised. “I love you.”

“Okay, baby. I love you too. See you soon.”

Chapter 17

Sunday, 27th January 2013

I grinned as I hung up and looked up at Craig. He’d already pulled his sweaty t-shirt off and was just wearing his baggy shorts.

“Good workout?” I asked with a smile.

“Good enough,” he shrugged. “Who’s in the shower?”

“The same person you left in there earlier,” I frowned.

I expected him to look a little guilty but instead he just grinned.

“Thanks for texting Jason,” I said appreciatively, choosing to be nice rather than give him a lecture about leaving Jake like that.

“No worries,” he smiled, pulling his trainers and socks off. “He called me about a million times and I had to shut him up somehow.”

“Sorry,” I grinned, thinking it was cute how much Jason cared about me.

“He’s whipped, that’s for sure,” Craig grinned.

I shook my head in amusement. I thought he had it the wrong way round.
I’d do anything for Jason.

I looked up as I heard movement in the bathroom. Jake stepped out with a hotel towel around his waist. I lowered my eyes to the floor and waited for him to leave. I watched his feet move towards the adjoining door and heard him mutter “asshole” to Craig as he walked by.

“What the fuck did you say?” Craig scowled, shoving Jake back away from the door.

“You heard me,” Jake scowled.

I watched anxiously as the two of them squared up to each other, their eyes locked in a furious staring match.

“Say it again,” Craig dared Jake.

“I said, you’re a fucking asshole,” he growled at Craig.

I was in a state of pure disbelief,
what the hell is Jake thinking?
He was fast but he was also hung over and sleep deprived. He could normally dodge Craig and maybe even get in a couple of blows if he was lucky but he didn’t stand a chance right now.

Craig shoved Jake hard and I felt myself push up to my feet and dash over to them. Craig took a swing at Jake and he ducked. Without thinking, I put myself between the two of them, facing Craig.

“Move, Jelly,” Craig snarled with a look that told me he’d go through me if he had to.

“Craig, it’s his birthday weekend,” I tried to calm him down, resting my hands on his chest and pushing gently.

“I don’t give a shit. The little bastard called me an asshole,” Craig growled, his eyes still on Jake behind me.

“You
were
an asshole,” I said calmly, still pushing on his chest.

“You what?” Craig recoiled, his eyes on me. He looked both furious and shocked.

I was glad that his focus was away from Jake but a little less happy that it was now on me.
Again with the saying stupid things
, I scolded myself.

“You left him in there,” I reprimanded.

“So what?” He shrugged, pushing my hands away from him.

“What do you mean so what? How could you just leave him there like that? Couldn’t you see how uncomfortable he was?” I continued, questioning whether or not I could be classed as a masochist for provoking him like this.

“Watch it, Jelly,” he warned with a growl. “I gave him his fucking insulin.”

“Oh, well, that makes it okay then,” I snapped angrily. “Doesn’t matter if he’s tied to the shower as long as his blood sugar is okay!” I was shouting now and I saw the rage flicker across Craig’s face.
That was stupid
.

He grabbed me and span me around, putting me in a loose reverse choke hold.
I hate these
. No matter how many times Jason tried to help me, I never seemed to be able to get out of them properly.

It felt more than hopeless with Craig holding me. If I couldn’t get out of this hold with one of the MMA guys from Leeds, there was no way I could get out of it if Craig was holding me. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try though. He was holding me tight but not so tight that I couldn’t breath. He used his spare hand to dig his finger in between my ribs and I squirmed uncomfortably.

“Let go!” I demanded, beating my fists against his forearm.

“You need to watch your mouth,” Craig whispered in my ear, digging his finger in again.

I was stood facing Jake now and could see him stood staring at us gormlessly. I let my elbow smash back into Craig’s chest but I knew I’d barely made an impact. He didn’t even flinch.

“Let me go!” I demanded again.

His response was to dig his knuckles in harder and I squealed from the pain and frustration.
That’s enough of that
. I swung my leg backwards quickly and felt my foot make contact with his groin.

He wasn’t expecting that.
I almost grinned as he released me but I knew I didn’t have long to react. Craig cradled his battered genitalia and fell to the floor and I dodged behind him, putting my knee on his back and holding him in position the way Jason had shown me.

“What the hell are you doing, Jelly?” Craig coughed, wriggling a little to test how well I was holding him.

“I’m sorry,” I cried, realising that there was probably no good way out of this situation.

“Get off me,” he said calmly, removing the hand that was cupping his balls and trying to use it to push up from the floor.

“No,” I shook my head. “Not unless you promise not to hurt us,” I pleaded, my voice a little shaky.

“Jelly,” he said with a wicked grin. “I’m not gonna warn you again.”

I didn’t move, I just kept a firm grip on his arm and thumb with both my hands.

“Fine,” he sighed. He moved quickly and flipped me off him – I had no idea how he did it, but I guess I should have expected it. He quickly reversed the situation and I mentally cursed myself for not just apologising whilst he had me in the choke hold. “You are hilarious,” he laughed, holding me in place so that my face was mushed against the floor.

“I’m sorry,” I apologised, knowing it was too late but finding I didn’t have too many options.

To my surprise, Craig just chuckled and let me go, pushing himself up from the floor and pulling me up with him.

“I’m assuming Jason taught you that?” He said wryly, turning me round to face him once more.

I nodded uncertainly, trying to figure out his mood. He seemed genuinely amused, which was somehow ten times worse. I’d rather he was furious than find my defence attempts laughable.

“I’ll kick his arse for teaching you that next time I see him,” Craig grinned.

I scowled and took a step back, bunching my fists by my side. “Yeah, because it was wrong of him to make sure I could try and defend myself if somebody tries to rape me again,” I retorted.

I watched the happiness disappear from Craig’s face and snapped my eyes and mouth shut firmly, already hating myself.
That was such an insensitive thing to say
. It would have been bad enough if I’d just said it to Craig but Jake was in the room too and that made it even worse.

I heard Jake thundering past me and the door slamming behind him. I sank to the floor and rested my head in my hands.
Great
. Any good I might have done by freeing him had just been completely undone.

Craig must have slipped past as well because I heard the shower turn on. I mentally kicked myself a few more times just for good measure and decided to get changed and slip down to the lobby so I wouldn’t have to face either of them on my own for a while.

The lobby was busier than it had been the previous evening, people were happily bustling around and going about their business. I sat on one of the brightly coloured sofas and waited patiently for my brothers to show up.

“Hi, Jelly,” a soft female voice said from behind me.

“Elise?” I span around to see if I was imagining things. I wasn’t, she was stood right behind me. I jumped up and gave her a hug. “What are you doing here?” I grinned.

“Thought I’d surprise you all. I just got here,” she smiled. “Where are your brothers?”

“They’re around here somewhere, we’re meant to be meeting here in fifteen minutes,” I explained.

“Okay,” she nodded and took the seat next to me. “Did you guys have fun yesterday?”

I nodded and told her about the laser tag and Karl’s victory over Ian which had her grinning. I gave her vague details about the evening’s activities, unsure of how familiar she was with my brothers’ birthday rituals and traditions.

“Did they tie Jake up?” She laughed. Clearly she was more familiar with them than I was.

“Yeah,” I nodded glumly. “I found him in the shower this morning.”

“Bless him,” she laughed. “Is he okay?”

“I think so,” I smiled weakly. “He had enough energy left to try and start a fight with Craig at least.”

“Sounds like Jake,” she shook her head with a smile. “There he is,” she grinned and stood up suddenly, seeing Karl and Matt approaching us. Karl didn’t seem surprised to see her at all so I figured he must have known she was coming.

He scooped her up off her feet and lifted her up for an unusual display of affection. He kissed her and I watched Matt make pretend faces of disgust behind their backs.

I smiled happily at them. I loved seeing them like that, they were so perfect together. I followed the three of them into the restaurant to a very large table that seemed to have been made up just for us. I noted that there were nine chairs so somebody must have known that Elise would be coming.

The rest of my brothers filed into the room just before eight and I noticed that Jake and Craig both avoided making eye contact with me, not that I was surprised. Danny sat on my left and Matt on my right.

“Sleep okay, Jellybean?” Danny grinned.

“Yeah, could have done with a few more hours, though,” I smiled at him.

“Jake didn’t make too much noise then?” He laughed, glancing at Jake.

“You knew he was in there?” I scowled.

“Of course,” he smirked.

I shook my head at him.
Were all of them in on it?
Stupid question, of course they were.

“You two switched shirts last night, didn’t you?” I accused, looking back and forth between him and Rick on his other side.

“How dare you accuse us of such a thing?” Danny said in mock protest.

“Would we do something like that?” Rick shook his head firmly.

“Don’t tell Ian,” Danny whispered conspiratorially, his face behind his glass of orange juice.

“Pfft!” I scoffed. “Firstly, I’m not keeping secrets for you two. Secondly, if I noticed, then there’s no way Ian missed it,” I grinned wickedly and glanced over at Ian who was most definitely watching the three of us.

“I didn’t,” he shook his head with a grin. “But Jake did, so it doesn’t matter.”

“I did what?” Jake asked, his eyebrow raised.

“You missed the fact that the twins switched shirts last night so that Danny didn’t get shitfaced when you kept making him drink shots,” Karl smirked.

Jake turned his head to the twins and gaped at them, his mouth hanging open. “You bastards!” Jake accused, his lips curving up in a smile.

Rick reached over and slapped the back of his head firmly but fondly.

We fetched plates of food from the breakfast buffet and ordered more freshly squeezed orange juice. As my brothers all noisily tucked into their food, I stared around at them. I noticed Karl wasn’t actually eating, he was just staring at Elise and had the strangest goofy expression on his face. Ian had noticed too but he carried on eating as he observed them.

Eventually, they broke off their silent exchange and Karl banged his spoon against his glass of orange juice. The others all looked up as Karl stood up at the table. They kept on eating but all had curious expressions on their faces.

“We have an announcement,” Karl declared, pulling Elise up gently to stand by his side. He positioned himself behind her, all the while looking straight into her eyes. He wrapped his hands around her and rubbed her stomach gently before glancing around at us all with the biggest, goofiest grin I have ever seen.

“No way!” The twins declared in unison.

I gaped at them open-mouthed and literally heard the penny drop as my brothers all caught on.

“Yep!” Karl grinned. “I’m gonna be a Dad,” he said proudly, there may even have been a hint of a tear in his eye.

There was a lot of rustling and chair scraping as my brothers all rose to congratulate the two of them. Ian hugged Karl firmly – I’d never actually seen them hug before – and slapped him firmly on the back, clearing his throat slightly as he congratulated them. I rushed over to give Elise a hug as soon as I had the chance.

“I’m so happy for you!” I grinned at her and she grinned back, rubbing her stomach with her eyes full of wonder.

I was the last to hug Karl, I squeezed him so tightly I thought my arms might snap.

“Aunty Jelly. Got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” He grinned, squeezing me and lifting my feet up from the floor.

“Aunty Jamie?” I offered, pouting slightly.

“Not a chance,” he grinned, setting me down again.

“You’re going to be an awesome Dad,” I beamed at him. I meant it. I knew Karl had a short temper but never with Elise. I’d not heard him raise his voice at her or seen him threaten her ever. I don’t think she’d let him live it down if he did. They were going to be amazing parents.
I’m going to be an aunty!

“When’s Carter Junior due?” Matt asked, his hand still wrapped around Karl’s shoulders.

“Around the beginning of July,” Elise smiled.

“Am I getting a niece or nephew?” Danny demanded.

“Too soon to tell,” Karl grinned. “But it better damn well be a boy,” he warned Elise with a grin.

“If you say that one more time, I’m going to turn your testicles into a paperweight,” Elise warned him.

Karl grinned but I could tell he was nervous. Not about his testicles, they were often the target of Elise’s threats but they were obviously still functioning since she was pregnant. No, I could tell he was nervous about the prospect of having a daughter.