Chapter 48
Roman walked down the stairs slowly. Ella had cried herself asleep again and asked him to wake her for the BBQ. He found the twins and Angel had been placed in the playpen and the toys had been bought out for Brett and Amy-Belle. He looked at Mike who was supervising the children and smiled at him.
Jacko and Pete walked over to him and handed him a beer. He looked at the bottle for a long moment before drinking.
"She told me what happened." He said quietly to them.
Jacko nodded.
"What are you planning Hardcore?" he asked him.
"Nothing." Roman answered. "If I kill him then he won't pay the price for what he did."
George walked over to them.
"She coming down?" he asked gently.
Roman nodded.
"She told me." He said still sounding shocked. "Everything."
"How did you react with her?" George asked quickly.
"I held her and told her I loved her." Roman told him quickly. "What did you expect me to do?"
Jacko put his hand on Roman's arm to pacify him.
"Exactly that." George said softly.
Roman took a step backwards and felt himself calming down. He eventually went and sat on a chair at the end of the garden. After a while Aden came up to him and sat next to him.
"You being there for me after you found out about my Granddad, well it meant a lot to me. You never judged Roman." Aden told him.
"Because it was never your fault." Roman told him. "And I know that it isn't El's fault. I just don't know how to be around her when I know how much pain she's in. I thought that we were getting through this."
He took a long swallow of the beer emptying the bottle.
"Sometimes you never get through it." Aden told him. "I can be next to Belle and it has been the most romantic and satisfying experience and I just want to shower and get clean."
Roman looked up quickly.
"Are you saying that El…" he started to ask.
"I don't know Roman. I think you two love each other so much you can come through anything. And you are proving that. You didn't kill me for one thing. You held her all night after the attack and kept her calm just telling her you loved her." Aden looked at the other man making eye contact. "I wish someone had been there for me when I was going through it." he added.
Roman stood and pulled Aden into his arms.
"I love you." He said to him. "I couldn't ask for a better son and I hope you know that."
Aden tried to pull away, the guilt of kissing El still with him.
"You aren't planning to kiss me again are you?" Aden said to cover up his feelings.
Roman grinned.
"Maybe you'll get lucky again." He told him.
Aden laughed.
"Ok, I think I'm screwed up enough, I kissed my mother and my father." Aden grimaced.
Roman chuckled.
"Don't forget your sister and then there was also your brother-in-law!" he added.
Aden looked up quickly.
"I thought we had a pact never, and I mean never, to mention Geoff's stag night again."
Roman chuckled again.
"Lets get the lights and the BBQ out of the shed and get the cooking started." He said to him.
They strung up the rope lights that El had bought to put in the garden and hung up the colourful lanterns lighting the candles inside them. The CD player came out and Roman found Nic glaring at him.
"Ok Nic, I promise not to sing." He said to her.
She grinned at him.
He lit the BBQ and went inside to collect the food.
Jacko and Pete brought out a cooler filled with beer and another cooler filled with soft drinks.
Belle and Nic began chopping vegetables for the salads and vegetable kebabs.
Roman left them to it and went upstairs.
He put on the bedside lamp and shook her awake.
"Hey." He called softly.
"Hey." She said sleepily.
He lent down to kiss her and paused.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I won't break." She told him.
"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I just feel a little scared right now. I just want to hold you and take away your pain." He confessed.
"That's funny I expected Jacko to wake me up to say you were arrested for murder." She told him with a half grin.
"Well I was going to but then Jacko gave me a beer." He confessed. "I just mellowed after that."
She hugged him close and whispered.
"I know you, my husband, you will never hurt me like that." She kissed him gently feeling his hands touch her at last.
She gave into his passion and felt him kiss her harder and longer until she wanted to tell everyone to go home and just go to bed with him.
She felt him pull away.
"Well." He said after a minute. "Do you think they'll notice if we don't go downstairs?" he asked.
She grinned at him.
"I think we might be missed." She said.
He helped her to her feet and pulled her into his arms holding her as close as her belly would let him. He put his hand in-between them and felt the baby kick against him.
He grinned.
"You know that Bump does that every time you touch it don't you?" she grinned at him.
"Of course. You know your daddy don't you?" he said to her bump.
She giggled.
"I can't believe you started talking to it in the supermarket queue the other day. That was so embarrassing."
He smiled down at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling.
"I can't believe that Bump can text so soon." He commented.
She laughed and rested her cheek against his shoulder.
"I don't want to go back tomorrow." She told him.
"I know love, but it's nearly done now." He told her softly. "I will never let him near you again." He promised.
She wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his lips.
"I know that." She said.
He led them downstairs the cat following behind.
"Come on Cookie." She called to her.
Roman looked down at the very pregnant cat who glared at him malevolently.
"We are giving those kittens away aren't we?" he asked her.
"Well if you'd caught her sooner she wouldn't be having kittens would she?" El said totally avoiding the answer.
"El." Roman muttered. "I am not going to have her breeding an army of kittens who hate me." he warned.
"Then start being nice to her." El told him walking into the kitchen.
Cookie waddled in between them and he nearly tripped over her. He looked down at the cat who seemed to be grinning at him.
"Cookie." He said warningly and went outside to check on everything.
"Why is your cat called Cookie?" Belle asked.
"Her name is actually Cooking Fat." El sighed. "Roman named her." She added.
"Cooking Fat?" Nic asked in confusion before realisation hit her. "Oh …"
"Don't say it" El warned. "Not in front of the Bump." She added with a grin patting her belly.
Nic laughed.
"I have something to tell you actually." She looked at the two women.
"Wait." Belle said.
They looked at her.
"You too?" Nic asked.
Belle grinned.
"Just coming up to 12 weeks." She confirmed. "Aden is completely panicking already." She grinned at Nic and Ella.
Nic smiled.
"8 weeks." She said.
"Oh my god. Do you have to copy everything I do?" Ella asked and they all burst out laughing.
She held open her arms and they walked over to her for a group hug.
"I hope you two know you'll be like this soon don't you?" she asked noticing how they were struggling to get close next to the bump.
"Are you sure you're not having twins?" Belle asked cheekily.
"I better bloody not be because I think I'm going for a natural birth." She told them and they laughed.
She looked at her daughters and smiled.
"I hope you two know how much your support has meant to me over the past few months." El said emotionally.
"We know Mama." Nic told her. "Was only fair the amount of times you picked me up and helped me."
El grinned.
"Shall we go and see the men?" she asked them.
They smiled and went out the back.
She went over to the swing set and sat on it. Mike came and sat next to her and she held his hand. She motioned for Pete and Jacko to come over and join them.
"You know that these men knew your other dad don't you?" she said to him.
He grinned.
"They already told me all about him. Although I suspect that some bits were edited." He smiled at her. "For example they didn't tell me why he had the tattoo of Tweetie Pie."
She laughed.
"No I am so not telling that story ever." She told them all.
"What story?" Roman asked, joining them.
"Why Mike had the Tweetie pie tattoo" Jacko said.
Roman took a swig of beer.
"That's easy it was his forfeit wasn't it?" he said to El.
She blushed.
"How the hell?" she began to ask.
"I can read lips remember, and when your brother lifted you onto the bar and told you that you would have to dance on it, I read his lips, he said it was less embarrassing than carrying around a Tweetie Pie tattoo." Roman told them.
She smiled at him.
A slow blush still washing over her.
"So you know why I had to do the forfeit?" she asked.
He grinned even wider.
"Of course. That was an interesting conversation you two had." He said smugly.
"I hate you Roman Harris. " she said to him.
He laughed.
"No you don't. I'm the love of your life and you just want to be with me, is that so hard to accept." He said reciting something she'd said to her brother.
She glared at him.
"I was 19 and I was drunk." She defended. "Turning the tables here you do know that these friends of yours warned me that you got your nickname of Hardcore from the pornography collection that you kept under your bunk don't you?" she asked.
He glared at Jacko.
"You so did not?" he groaned.
Jacko grinned.
"A young beautiful woman on camp of course we did everything we could to split you up."
Pete chuckled.
"Eventually we realised she didn't have any brains and her contact lenses were defective." He said.
Roman laughed before taking a swig of beer,
"Roman Harris." She cautioned.
"Oh yeah …er she has perfect eyesight and her brains are wonderful I love her brains most of all." He said quickly. "And… er guys.. she is hormonal so be careful"
Jacko and Pete laughed.
El shook her head.
"I can tell a few stories about you Roman Harris, you know!" she warned him.
"Uh huh." He grinned. He handed his empty bottle to Jacko and held out his hand to El.
She eased up slowly and he pulled her into his arms and started slow dancing with her. She sighed softly, feeling so totally at peace for the first time in a long while. If only tomorrow didn't come, she thought, as she moved in time to the music with her husband.
