Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (20 page)

The evening disintegrated when James and Gavin thought it would be a good
idea to see who could flick Doritos into Novak’s mouth with the most success.
Novak being a fast food junkie
thought this was a
marvellous idea. Kiera on the other hand, had had enough male bonding to last
her a lifetime and decided it was time for her to go to bed. This would be the
first time she had stayed at Gavin’s house and not been in his bed.

Around thre
e in the morning the boys decided to
go to bed, Gavin slept soundly for the first time in ages, happy that he had
been reunited with his friends.

Saturday morning dawned hot and sunny, after a quick breakfast the four
friends climbed into the Supra and mad
e their way to
the meeting place, Pembroke Lodge Car Park in Richmond Park. Gavin noticed
Quinn’s Range Rover complete with trail
ing
jet ski
parked centrally to the Lodge and pulled into a space a little further
down the car park.

“Need a leak
,
” Novak slid
out of the car and headed for the toilets by the entrance
of the Lodge.

Angel had spotted Gavin’s car and started to wonder over to say hi while
Quinn was busy supervising the order in which the cars would travel. She only
made it half way to his
car when
Quinn called her back.

“We only have a few more people to wait for then we can get going
,
” he told her.

Angel removed her shoes, put her feet on the dashboard and scooted down
in the white leather seat.

Gavin, meanwhile had seen some of the guys from the
band he had auditioned for and left his car to join them
passing Quinn’s car on the way, he nodded a greeting at Angel and continued on
his way.

Novak came out of the Gents and walked down the passenger side of Quinn’s
car, looking through the open window
he instantly
recognised the girl he had seen in the picture earlier, smiling to
himself, he stopped at Quinn’s
jet ski
.

“Nice piece of kit
,
” he told Quinn.

“Thanks, it’s only the second opportunity I’ve had to use it this year
.
”

“Fair
weather skier?” Novak
challenged.

Angel watched the exchange in the side mirror, studying the newcomer.
Exceptionally tall with long, thick blond hair tied at the nape of his neck, a
Rip-Curl t-shirt clung to what appeared to be a toned body over Billabong
shorts which came to
his knee, his large feet
spilling out of his flip flops, she noticed the surfer bracelets on his right
wrist and an orange faced Doxa watch on his left.

She looked into the deep brown eyes as he passed her window again winking
and grinning as he went by.

“Seems like a nice chap
,
” Quinn
commented as he got back into the car. Angel looked away as she heard Gavin’s
voice.

“Novak, hold up
,
” he called
quickening his pace to catch up. Already hot and somewhat sweaty, Gavin had
unbuttoned his cream coloured linen
shirt, he removed
it as he jogged to catch up with Novak causing Angel to let out an involuntary
sigh as he passed.

“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked.

“Nothing, just wish we could get going
,
” she replied but she was watching Gavin
from behind her Ray Ban sungla
sses.

Once on the road, the twenty cars settled into a hap hazard formation,
making occasional stops for fuel. It didn’t take long for Gavin to become bored
with sitting three cars behind Quinn’s pimp mobile, deciding to let Quinn see
what the Supra was ca
pable of even fully loaded with
people and equipment. Waiting for an appropriate gap in the traffic, he dropped
the car into third gear and planted his foot on the accelerator shooting past
the two cars in front of him and pulling in just in front of Quinn
’s car. Quinn pressed his hand on the horn and flashed his
lights, grinding his teeth in annoyance; he became more irate when both Gavin
and Novak stuck their hands out of the windows, middle fingers extended.

The occupants of the Supra were most amused wi
th
their little stunt as were most of the other driver’s of the following cars,
starting a trend of overtaking. Glancing in his door mirror then back at the
road ahead of him, Gavin’s smile faded when a wasp shot in through his window.

“Shit, wasp, get it
out
,
” he told Novak
,
who tried vainly to swat it
.
“Bollocks
.
” Gavin fidgeted in his seat, the car
began to sway
.
“It’s gone up
my trouser leg
,
” he glanced at
the road ahead and spied a gravel lay by, indicating, he moved off the road and
hit the gravel at
speed throwing up a shower of dust
and stone
.

“There goes your paint work
.
” James
commented.

Leaving the engine running, Gavin dove out of the car and began to remove
his three quarter length trousers. Novak had got out of the passenger side and
was
watching his friend disrobe with an amused grin
as the rest of the convoy pulled in behind the Supra accompanied by cat calls
and wolf whistles at Gavin’s impromptu strip tease.

“What is he doing? Quinn asked
.
“Besides drawing even more attention to himsel
f?”

Gavin had managed to remove his trousers and threw them over the car at
Novak
.
“Kill it
,
” he told him as he checked his legs to
make sure the wasp wasn’t there.

Novak dropped Gavin’s trousers onto the floor and proceeded to stamp all
over them,

“I said
kill the wasp not my trousers
,
” Gavin protested as Novak picked up the
now dust covered garment.

“It’s not even in there, good job you wore your trunks dude
,
” Novak laughed as Gavin was now only
dressed in his baggy swimming shorts and flip flops. The jee
ring from the occupants of the other cars had let up.

“I’m allergic to wasp stings
,
” Gavin
explained to the waiting teenagers spreading his arms, shrugging and grinning
broadly before grabbing his Oakley shades and getting back into his car.

Quinn’s mood d
eteriorated further as Angel had
begun to laugh at Gavin’s antics, having outright bursts of laughter at some of
the more graphic cat calls and loving that Gavin simply shrugged them off with
a huge smile as he stripped.

“I can’t believe you find that amus
ing
,
” Quinn tutted.

“Oh come on
,
” Angel chuckled
.
“It’s a little funny
.
”

The convoy of fast, powerful cars didn’t take too long to reach their
seaside destination where on arrival a group decision was made on the best
possible place to spend the day and pr
oceed to unpack
their cars amid laughter, joking around and the odd argument.

“Do you want to stop messing around with that thing and give me a hand
unpacking the car?” Angel asked, hands on hips.

“You can see I’m busy
,
” Quinn snapped
.
“You sort the car ou
t
,
” he went back
to unhitching his
jet ski
and lined it up on t
he nearest slip with the other
jet ski
’s then he went to talk to his usual
Sloane crowd.

Angel huffed, grabbed an armful of blankets and marched down t
o the beach where she
dumped them
and returned to the car. Pulling the heavy cold box towards her, she
braced herself as she prepared to lift it off the tail gate. Holding her breath
and heaving the box into the air, she jumped as a strong hand wrapped around
the handle and took the box f
rom her. She recognised
the watch and the scent of the person behind her.

“Thought you were
keeping your distance?” she asked
, her back still to him.

“I don’t have the willpower to do that
,
” he replied
.
“Let me help you
.
”

She turned to discover that he was
closer than
she had thought, she took a step back
.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,
Quinn will go nuts if he see’s us together, he hasn’t stopped going on about me
staying at your house, he’s convinced that we’re at it like rabbits
.
”

“You should have st
uck to the story
.
”

“I did and he almost bought it but he saw the love bite and you
apparently have scratches on your back
,
” she answered
.
“He saw them in
the changing rooms
.
”

“Ah, that would explain the extra scowls that were directed at me. I
don’t care a
bout Quinn and I’m not doing anything
wrong by helping you
.
”

“No, you should go back to your friends
.
”

“Angel...”Gavin began.

“Please go
.
”

He saw the pleading in her eyes and let go of the cold box
.
“I hate this, we’re friends, we should
be able to talk
.
”

“We can talk, just not like this, not when there’s no one else around
,
” she glanced over Gavin’s shoulder
.
“Please go
,
” she repeated
,
watching him as he walked away and
re-joined his friends. She sat on the tail gate of the Range Rover, refusing to
move an
y more items until Quinn helped her.

Within the hour the huge group of teenagers were largely settled, many
braving the sea, several barbecue’s had been fired up and were throwing smoke
into the air to mingle with the scent of sun cream and the odd whiff o
f cannabis.

Novak, sitting beside Gavin, grabbed the latter’s battered acoustic
guitar and began to tune it.

“You need to take better care of this thing
,
” he chided.

“I will
,
” Gavin replied
before laying back and stretching himself out in the sun. With
Kiera dragging James around the large group of people,
introducing him as she went, Gavin and Novak had some time to talk.

“How are you doing Gav?” Novak asked, tiring of the guitar, he laid on
his front next to his friend. He had been witness to Gavin’s g
rief over the death of his mother and the subsequent blind
rages that had added to his criminal record.