Fulfillment(25)

I knew the sound of the engine did not belong to the quads or the chopper.

“Jake is here,” I said, lifting my eyebrow while taking a sip of my cup of tea.

“Is he alone?” Jen asked, sarcastically.

“Can’t see,” I replied, “probably not.”

My older brother Jake was not married, and unfortunately I didn’t think he ever would be; he was just not the ‘settling down’ type. He was a truck driver and constantly on the road, not liking to tie himself down to anyone or anything, and he seemed more than happy to have a new girlfriend on his arm each time we saw him. And I use the term girlfriend very loosely.

His Harley Davidson Fat Boy roared up the gravel driveway alongside Nate—who was on his quad—leaving a dust cloud behind them. Charli was on her quad following, with her mouth closed and a not so impressed look on her screwed up face. Jake jumped off the bike and removed his helmet, then laughed at Charli who was choking on some dust.

“Now that is what I call ‘eating my dust’, Kiddo.”

“You could’ve waited, Uncle Jake. I had to close the gate,” she spluttered between coughs.

He walked over and patted her on the back. “If I had waited, I wouldn’t have won, would I?” He smiled, gave her helmet a light tap with his hand then headed in our direction.

“I didn’t know it was a race,” Charli called out, unimpressed.

“Ah, there are my two baby sisters.” He enthusiastically leapt up onto the veranda then uncomfortably squeezed in between me and Jen, putting his arms around our shoulders and pulling us in for an embrace. “Hey, Steve,” he nodded towards Jen’s husband, who was reading the paper.

“Jake,” Steve acknowledged, in a brief and unperturbed manly kind of way.

“So, where are your rugrats?” Jake asked Jen.

“Asleep.”

“Too easy,” he replied, retracting his hands from us and crossing them behind his head. Jen elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey, I’m kidding,” he winced with a chuckle. “So, Lex, where’s that good for nothing, son of a bitch husband of yours?”

“Jake, shhh,” I hushed him, looking around to see where Nate and Charli had gone. “Don’t speak about him like that around the kids.”

“It’s the truth though,” he responded angrily. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

“No you won’t. And regardless, Rick is still their father and they love him so please be careful what you say around them. Anyway, he is spending Easter with Claire because I told him to. I didn’t think having him here while I was introducing you all to Bryce was a very good idea.”

“Oh yeah! So where is this Bryce?” He tilted his head back to look inside.

“Up there,” Jen said as she pointed to the sky.

“What? On the roof?” He stood up and walked to the edge of the veranda looking up, confused.

My brother was not the sharpest tool in the shed but he looked intimidating. He was a big build—quite solid. He had tattoos up both his arms and across his chest. His hair was a colour in between my blonde and Jen’s brown, and he always had a few days growth of beard on his face. But it was his kind, gentle blue eyes that gave away his softer side.

“No,” she mocked him. “In that helicopter flying around, Dad wanted an aerial view of the farm, so Bryce has taken Mum and Dad for ride.” Jen’s grin widened as she noticed Jake’s expression.

“Fuck off. He’s flying that thing?”

“Yes,” I butted in sternly. “He is a helicopter pilot. We flew here to cheer the kids up, they were miserable about not seeing Rick.”

Jake pulled the ‘not-bad’ face then put his hand to his forehead to shield the sun’s blinding rays from his eyes. “So, am I gonna like the guy?”

“I don’t care if you like him or not. I like him a lot, and that’s all that matters.”

“No it’s not. You know you need your brother’s approval.” He pulled out a cigarette from the squashed pack in his pocket.

“I do not need your fucking approval. Now behave, it’s hard enough for him to try and fit in as it is. It’s not easy having the stigma of billionaire following you around.”

“Oh...poor him,” Jake pouted with his smoke hanging out of his mouth. “Shit, I’d just hate to be a billionaire, too.”

“Shut up, Jake, you know what I mean. All I’m saying is he’s normal just like you and me, so treat him that way.”

“Yeah normal alright, just ignore the shit load of money he has,” he mumbled as the chopper approached to land.