Having avoided Phoebe since she kicked him, Kyle had found it hard trying to hide it from his brothers and was glad to see the bruises were already starting to fade. Although he was finding it hard as well as they were spending time down on the beach as the girls had decided to go for a shopping trip together. Phoebe had laughed when they invited her and instead she stayed at home to get some music written ready for her next gig.

Summer Bay Beach

"So Denny texted me saying they're going to stay for drinks and dinner after shopping, so that means they're not going to be back till late. That gives us the entire day instead of a few hours." Casey says as he chucks his phone down on his towel.

"Sweet, I was thinking about getting another surf in." Heath says.

"But you said you were going to get us another crate of beers?" Kyle frowns.

"Alright bro, I'll go now." Heath rolls his eyes before heading up the beachfront to get it from Angelo's.

"What's up with him now?" Casey frowns.

"When is there a time that Heath isn't annoyed about something?" Brax scoffs. "Now what's planned for the rest of the day now we don't have to bring our surf forward?"

"What about teaching Kyle to surf?" Casey suggests.

"Definitely not." Kyle quickly shakes his head, knowing they'd see the fading bruise on his ribs if he had to take his shirt off. "But maybe another time, maybe." He adds, hoping they'd leave it for today.

"So you would take it up to join us out there?" Casey asks.

"No, but…" Kyle mutters, unsure of how to get out of it.

"Maybe next time, we don't have a spare board with us today." Brax says.

"Yeah." Kyle smiles, knowing he could just talk himself out of it next time. "Anyway, back to what we can do instead. We could go and play a game of pool. Whoever loses pays for dinner as usual."

"Sounds good. Us two against Heath and Casey." Brax says, knowing they'd be the winning team, they always were when they teamed up together.

"That's so not fair! I never win when teamed up with Heath, he has anger issues when he doesn't win and then I end up paying." Casey moans.

"What's different about Heath's mood?" Brax laughs as they notice their brother walking back down towards them with the beers.

"Here." Heath says, taking one from the crate before putting them down by the towels.

"Come on, Heath, we're meant to be having a brotherly day and we're ruining it being so moody. What's happened now and why can't you get over it for the sake of us?" Casey asks his older brother.

"Bianca's started spending more time with Zac again and is being really secretive. She promised she wouldn't be like this again." Heath huffs.

"I thought you said you were going to start trusting her considering you're the one she chose to marry?" Kyle asks as Heath turns to face him.

"What, you think I don't trust her?" Heath glares.

"Well no… It's just it doesn't sound like it. I never meant anything bad about it, it's just that you're getting defensive about it, so why are you getting like this?" Kyle mutters.

"Because everyone is always questioning my loyalty to Bianca when I don't even look at other women romantically, but no one ever questions Bianca even though she's acting the same way she did when she had that fling with him. I don't see why she can't just tell me if she doesn't want to be with me anymore." Heath shakes his head.

"It just sounds like you don't trust her and you're trying to find any excuse to cause problems." Kyle says.

Heath saw red at Kyle's reply, clenching his fist as he started to raise it. Kyle suddenly held his breath as fear took over, having a flashback from the last time he was punched by his father, before he found his brothers. He shielded his face with his arms expecting to be punched by his brother, flinching hard back into Brax, who held him steady before glaring at Heath.

Heath didn't know whether to be angry or hurt by Kyle's reaction. He would never have punched him, not really, he was just worried about whether Bianca was really going to choose someone else over him. He really loved her and she was great with Darcy, he didn't want to lose that.

"Go cool off." Brax glares at Heath before moving Kyle towards the dunes to talk to him in private.

"Sorry, I don't know what that was about." Kyle mutters as the both sit down.

"Don't apologise, Heath's the one with the problem. He was meant to be working through things with Bianca, they did work through things, so I don't know what that was about. Wanna tell me what that was about?" Brax asks.

"No, I'd rather not." Kyle sighs.

He knew if he was to tell Brax the truth about why he thought Heath would punch him, it would come out about what Phoebe did to him days earlier. There were many things that would go wrong with that, it would make Brax more angry than when he found out about the abuse he got before he lived with them, and Phoebe would go mad at him if she got to him first. He knew what she was capable of and he had to stay away from that side of her.

"So you're telling me that was over nothing?"

"Yeah."

"What if this is going to do more harm to you than good if you keep it to yourself?" Brax asks.

"I'm not talking about it, Brax. I don't need you to be a therapist for me when it really was nothing." Kyle moans.

"And how am I meant to believe that when you don't talk to me about this stuff anymore?"

"Seriously, I'm fine. Sometimes I just have moments where I forget that I'm past all of that now, and I'm not being abused by people I thought I could trust. After having it happen to me for so many years, it's a lot to get used to that it's not the same with you guys now, but I am. That was just a moment of weakness." Kyle says, and he didn't want to lie about the kick he got from Phoebe, but he was hoping she had a moment of weakness as well.

"Well you've definitely grown from the quiet kid that moved in with us, that's for sure." Brax smiles.

Brax felt proud of how far Kyle had come over the couple years he'd been living with them. He had also noticed how well Kyle did when their brothers would play fight. In the beginning he freaked out not realising it was a play fight and Brax had to calm him down and make him see that it wasn't real. He never had to do that anymore and saw the funny side to them, even joining in on the teasing.

"Yeah, I guess I have. And I'm glad we're speaking again, I don't know why we weren't in the first place but it's been a relief since we started again." Kyle smiles.

"I know why we weren't, but I think it's best I don't say in case you stop talking to me again." Brax lightly jokes.

"No, just say it." Kyle says, glancing over at him.

"You sure you want me to, cause you haven't been happy the other times I've said it." Brax says.

"Right, it's Phoebe." Kyle realises, and he did agree, he just didn't want to agree out loud.

He was cautious about a lot he was saying now, he had to prove to himself that she made a mistake and wouldn't do it again. He had to face her at some point and talk to her about it, he just wasn't ready for that conversation with her. There were two ways it could go, and the worst would be her going back to her old ways and abusing him again. He hoped that wouldn't be the case and she'd apologise for real so they could move on.

"Yeah. I really don't get a good feeling about her. You would tell me if there was a problem there, wouldn't you?" Brax asks.

"You've got nothing to worry about. I know she hasn't given the greatest impression, but I think it's just a huge change for her having come from a big city to a small town like this. Just give her some time." Kyle says as Heath walks over to them with his head hung low.

"Mate, I'm sorry for getting angry like that. I didn't mean to aim my anger at you, I was just being stupid as usual." Heath says.

"You're not wrong there." Kyle says, smiling at Heath's face. "It's fine, you don't need to explain. But I think dinner is on you now." He smirks as he stands up.

"Yeah, sounds fair." Brax nods as he also stands up.

"It doesn't, but whatever." Heath shakes his head as they all walk back over to where Casey was sitting on his towel.