Surf Club - Angelo's
"Good afternoon my favourite brother in law." Emily grins as she walks up to the bar.
"What do you want?" Brax asks, jokingly rolling his eyes.
"I've just spent the last few hours doing some more work and I've caught up quicker than I thought I would. Turns out I wasn't as far behind as I thought." Emily says. "Kyle said he was hanging out with Blake today, are they still here?"
"No, they left earlier on. I think he might have gone into Yabbie Creek with Lucas." Brax says.
"I just saw Lucas down on the beach with Casey as he decided not to go. They were saying Heath wants to get everyone together again tonight for some sort of announcement, but they had no idea what it was about." Emily says as Ricky walks in from her break.
"Oh hi Emily." She smiles as she walks behind the bar.
"Hi! You haven't seen that boyfriend of mine anywhere have you?" Emily asks.
"No, I haven't. Have you tried calling him?"
"Yep but it was going to voicemail so I figured he might have still been here." Emily says. "I might head home and get a few things sorted, can you tell him to call me when you see him?"
"Sure." Brax nods as she walks out.
"She seemed like she was in a good mood." Ricky says.
"Yeah, she said she finished all the work she was behind on. Have you heard about this family meeting Heath wants to hold tonight?" Brax asks.
"Uh, I don't think so. I briefly saw Bianca on my break and she was in a really good mood about something before making an excuse to leave. Maybe it's got something to do with it." Ricky suggests, having found the encounter weird.
"Well I haven't heard anything from Heath, and he hasn't been up here yet, so I can't ask him. I don't understand this with Kyle though. He always answers his phone, especially when Emily calls him." Brax says, thinking to himself. "He didn't have a counselling session today did he?" He asks Ricky to see if she knew, sure it wasn't that but he couldn't think of anything else.
"No, I think that's tomorrow if I remember right." Ricky says. "I'm sure there's a simple explanation, like his phone being flat or not hearing it going off."
"I doubt it." Brax mutters. "I might go and look for him."
"Brax, what happened to letting them live their own lives? If there was something wrong, Kyle would have called you." Ricky says.
"Would he?" Brax questions. "The last time Kyle didn't answer his phone to anyone and was off the radar like this, he had been kidnapped."
"Right, stop jumping to conclusions like this. If you're that worried, go and see if one of your brothers have seen him, if not then check at home to see if he's there and fallen asleep. There's no need to fear the worst without checking first." Ricky says, knowing most of the time he worried for no reason when it came to things like this, but she could understand why.
"Fine." Brax huffs, knowing she was right about not jumping to conclusions. "Will you be okay here in the meantime?"
"Yes, I can call Lucas in to help out if I need to." Ricky nods as Brax walks out.
Summer Bay Beach
"The birthday night out you put on the group chat is already going off! I feel like it's going to be the best night out we've had for a long time. It's looking likely that everyone can get the night off, so it's just trying to convince Brax to let you and Kyle to have the same time off that weekend." Casey says.
"Luckily for us, we've got a couple weeks to get it sorted. And even if we can't, I'm sure we can swap with someone." Lucas says. "I know Ricky said she'd help out so we can both enjoy it."
"How are you feeling about spending your first birthday as a triplet?" Casey asks.
"I'm really looking forward to it. Kyle's still working through the fact he's three weeks older than originally believed but he said he's looking forward to it as well. It's going to be so weird having another person to celebrate our birthday with but it's also really exciting." Lucas smiles.
"Have you decided if the family celebration is going to be before or after our night out?" Casey asks, still not sure what they decided on.
"I think it's going to be before if everyone can be there. I know Heath has been busier lately trying to get everything ready before the baby comes." Lucas says.
"Yeah, I can't believe how close the due date is coming. I just hope they tell us the gender soon cause it's been ages now!" Casey groans.
"Kyle tried getting it out of Brax but Ricky put a stop to it, so we can't find out that way. Maybe it could be the announcement Heath wants to make tonight." Lucas says.
"Then surely it would be an announcement they'd both want to make, not just Heath?" Casey frowns.
"Good point." Lucas mutters. "I have no idea then. Maybe if we annoyed him enough, they might decide to tell us. We need to find out what things we need to buy for them."
"Emily said we should buy a few gender neutral things for now which was a good idea. I just don't see why we can't know if we're having a niece or nephew." Casey says. "I mean this is Heath, he's never been able to keep something a secret for this long."
"He could just be doing it to wind us up, he knows it's working." Lucas says. "But in other news, Tyler said him and Brax managed to get rid of our mum, so we can finally move on from it."
"I told you Brax would sort it if she was still here. Kyle's become his new favourite brother, so he'll do anything for him." Casey says.
"I sense a little jealousy." Lucas mutters, staring at him.
"I'm not jealous but it used to be me and Brax. Kyle had Heath when he moved here, now he's got both of them." Casey says, then realising how it sounds. "Okay, that sounded like I am jealous but I'm not… Not a huge amount anyway. The good thing to come out of it is I don't have Brax watching my every move now. He's letting me have more freedom in my life and not making me choose things or whatever."
"Choose things?" Lucas frowns.
"He made me focus on school work as it got closer to my HSC's, then it was choosing a university to go to. In the end, I didn't need to go to uni to do some boring course that I'd struggle with, cause I could work at the gym." Casey says. "Being able to work at the gym, and get my qualification at the same time was the best thing I did."
"Yeah but just because Brax did that, it doesn't mean he was taking control of your life, he just wanted you to have a good chance in life." Lucas says. "And you still did and it's easy to see how proud he is of you even if he's never told you that."
"Yeah, I guess I wouldn't have got the job at the gym without him, but don't tell him that. I don't need him getting a big ego if he thinks he did even more good for us than he thinks." Casey says.
"You really think that would happen?" Lucas chuckles.
"I wouldn't put it past him." Casey says. "Just look how he was after that fake wedding he held to cheer Kyle up, and then all these counselling sessions Kyle has. He knows stuff we don't because of those sessions, it made them closer."
"What do you reckon is said in them?"
"I'm not really sure. I think it's stuff about Kyle's childhood, just in a lot more detail than we know. Although I can understand why he doesn't want to tell us, I can't imagine growing up in care was the best time of his life." Casey says.
"Yeah, the few things I've heard from him haven't been great." Lucas says, frowning as he hears someone calling over to them.
"Boys!" Heath shouts, running over to them.
"Slow down, what's the emergency?" Casey asks.
"I need you to listen to me and not panic, okay?" Heath says, trying to catch his breath.
"Listen to you about what?" Lucas asks.
"It's Kyle, he's been hit by a car and is in hospital. Brax has just got there and has been told it was quite bad but doesn't know anything else, so I can't tell you much." Heath says, hating how pale they had just gone.
"But he's okay?" Lucas whispers, tears forming in his eyes.
"I don't know. I've found cover for you, Case. Let's go." Heath says, them all running back up the beach to where Heath had parked his car, and also where Tyler was waiting impatiently for them.