After coming back from the night away in the city for Phoebe's gig, Kyle had barely spoken to Brax since before he left. The rift between them was made bigger when Phoebe moved into Kyle's room without either of them asking Brax first, and Brax couldn't understand what had changed. Phoebe hadn't exactly been making an effort to get to know Kyle's family so they weren't going to either, but they knew that would have to change now she lived with them.

Brax didn't like how quickly things were moving between Kyle and Phoebe but he knew there was nothing he could do. Kyle was still annoyed at him for not letting him swap his shift, which he bailed on, and then he was annoyed when Brax questioned him over moving Phoebe in without consulting any of them first. His relationship with Phoebe was a lot different to his one with Victoria, he just couldn't work out why and neither could his brothers or the girls.

Summer Bay Beach

It was just Kyle and Phoebe at home that day, so Brax decided to go for an extra long surf so he wouldn't have to be around them. He was planning on taking Ricky for lunch during her break, but knew that wasn't for a while yet, so decided to just chill on the beach after his surf. It was then that he was approached by the last person he expected, but he was quite glad about it.

"Hey, Brax." Victoria lightly smiles, shuffling awkwardly in front of him.

"Vic, hi. Wasn't expecting to see you around the Bay again." Brax comments.

"Neither was I but I just wanted to clear the air with some people here, you being one of them." Victoria says, shielding her eyes from the sun.

"How come?" Brax asks as she then sits down next to him.

"I just wanted to apologise for how rude I was when I quit my job at Angelo's. I shouldn't have taken it out on you, I don't even know why I did. I was just angry at Kyle for keeping secrets from me about Phoebe, not that he was going to be honest about it with me still." She shakes her head.

"Don't worry about it, I know things must have changed a lot for you after that. I don't hold it against you. And I'm not taking Kyle's side with the break up, I don't want to get involved, but it's best that those secrets are kept secret." Brax says, Victoria frowning at him.

"You know what they are?" Victoria frowns, having forgotten that Kyle told her he did as she was too angry at the time.

"Yeah, he's spoken to me a lot about it since he moved in with us. Trust me, it's not something you want to know about but it's not nothing to do with you, or him and Phoebe's past. It's just some bad stuff that happened in his childhood and it's up to him who he wants to tell. It wasn't that he didn't trust you, it was because he's not ready for more people to know yet." Brax says.

"Well now I feel like a bitch for how I reacted if you're saying it's something I shouldn't have been worried about. It's just Phoebe said some stuff to me beforehand and it just got me thinking about a lot of things. I took it to heart because I was having a bad day and I thought I was doing well spending the morning with Kyle. She just knew how to get inside my head and I made some bad decisions." Victoria sighs.

"Do you regret breaking up with Kyle?"

"Yes and no. Don't get me wrong, I loved Kyle so much and I thought he was going to be the man I would marry one day and start a family with. But on the other hand, he started to change since Phoebe turned up and then I found out he was keeping stuff from me… I should have sat down and had a proper chat with Kyle instead of having a go at him like I did, but I don't think the outcome would have changed."

"He tried calling you after the break up but he said you weren't answering his calls."

"I heard he had been looking for me, so I decided to go and find him so we could talk. When I did find him, he was outside the diner with Phoebe all cosied up together and then they went inside, so I left. That made a few things clear for me that maybe we couldn't fix things between us because she is always going to be around getting between us." Victoria says.

"Well if you didn't know already, they got back together last week and she moved into Kyle's room at the weekend." Brax says, not sure if she would have known or not.

"Wow, they moved fast!" Victoria shakes her head. "I guess there's no point in me going to clear the air with Kyle then, it will just be a waste of time. Although I'm not really surprised about that, thinking about it, she had always made it clear it was her goal to get back with him."

"If it makes you feel any better, I much preferred you and Kyle together. I don't think this chick is good for him like you were. You were a pretty good employee as well, that's why I was willing to make you manager if Kyle didn't want the job." Brax says. "And the job's always there if you want it back, instant promotion." He lightly smirks.

"But Kyle's your manager, why would you promote me?" Victoria asks.

"He basically quit the position because I wouldn't swap a night shift so he could go into the city with Phoebe. He bailed on the shift anyway so we were pretty stretched at the weekend." Brax says.

"I'm sorry if it didn't help that I quit on you. But that doesn't sound like Kyle, he always went above and beyond to do well as a manager for you." Victoria frowns.

"It's fine, you did what you had to do. He's changing since Phoebe turned up, and not for the better. I'm going to give him another chance as a manager and hope that he was just having a bad day, but if he does something like that again, then I'm going to have to look for a new manager."

"Well if things were different maybe I would have taken my old job back, but I need to start fresh somewhere else. This new job in Yabbie Creek isn't the same as working at Angelo's but it's enough to keep me going for now."

"It's great that you were able to find something new, and you can't hold back just because you don't want to hurt Kyle's feelings or whatever. He moved on with Phoebe just after you two broke up, so if you find someone new, I say go for it. You deserve to be happy as well."

"Thank you, and thanks for hearing me out over all of this, it's really helped. You were like the brother I never had and you've really helped me out over the years. I've lost a lot, but I'm glad I can leave things on a good note with one of you." Victoria lightly smiles.

"If there was ever a chance you and Kyle could get back together, would you?"

"No, it's already been proven that he never really loved me. If all that stuff wasn't said, maybe things might be different. It's time I move on and focus on making a new life for myself now." Victoria says as her phone goes off. "I need to go. Just know there's no hard feelings between us."

"Of course, I never doubted it." Brax smiles as she stands up.

"Thanks." She smiles before she takes off up to the beachfront.

Brax was glad he was able to have that chat with Victoria, it cleared things up for him more than he thought it would. He'd had a good relationship with her since getting to know her when he took over Angelo's, and they became good friends over the years. When she got with Kyle, he saw her as family and thought things were finally looking up for his brother. He had grown so much since being with a girl that treated him right, and made him realise what a real relationship was like.

Brax knew things weren't going to be like that with Phoebe. She wouldn't help him through past abuse from an ex without even realising she was doing it, and he was sure that she would be the girl to make it worse. Kyle was changing since being with her, and none of them were sure why it was happening but they didn't like it. Brax just hoped that maybe Kyle would start talking to him and opening up to him again so he could find out what was really going on.