CHAPTER 39 - …YOU’RE GOING TO BE PRANCING FIRST

NANCY

This is divine! The only times I’ve seen such an expression on her face was whenever she had to play ‘wife’ or ‘mother’.

“How bloody rude and thoughtless.” Elliott snaps. “Jesus, you two come here claiming you want to be back in the family, yet pull a stunt like this!”

“Stunt? Elliott, this isn’t…” 

“Michael, let’s go talk outside…” Lindsay springing up makes him fall backwards. “…we won’t be long.” 

“Lindz!” He yelps as she treads on his hand in her haste to leave. “What’s the…”

“Michael, please!” She strides out, he quickly follows.

Once the door is shut, we dissolve into laughter. I check where they’re going and find my phone. “Let’s see our bane curtail his nuptial ambitions!” 

“How?” Justin giggles.

“The barn has 24 hour live security cameras, we installed them a few weeks ago.” I chuckle at the mortification on his and Brian’s faces. “It was Daphne’s idea, after Stitch started to get out…”

“…oh, don’t worry!” Daphne snorts. “We learned to turn them off when we see you two heading that way. Though that time you were in there for three hours was a bit much!”

“Three?!” Elliott gasps. “Young pup, are you versatile?!” Justin’s smug smile gives the answer. “And...”

“Grandpa Elliott!” Hunter interjects.

“Sorry, young ones!” He smiles.

“No you’re not!” I laugh. “Back to the dickweeds! Set this up on the big screen, please, Daph and let’s get comfortable!”

“Young ones…” Ronald titters. “…stop teaching her bodily insults!”

BARN 

LINDSAY

He slams the door behind us. “Shut the fuck up!” I bellow at the braying horses. “If I had my way you’d be dogmeat! Why did you do that now, what do you think she’s going to do?!”

“You almost broke my fingers stomping on them like that!”

“Are you calling me fat?!” I scowl.

“That’s mostly my child. I was a big baby according to Ma. Why are we out here now, we should be…”

Mostly?! I am livid, he is, that fucking walrus is calling me fat!  “Now you’ve laid our plans out on the table; she's going to delay the divorce…”

“Our plans…” He smiles slightly. “...so you want to marry me?” 

“Of course I do! But we’ve made her very unhappy over these last few years, so she’s going to repay the favour and then some. I know Mel and how she operates, she will drag this out for months, even years.”

“She wouldn't…”

“This is Mel, look what she did with my clothes. Plus she kept me married by promising things from Justin, but…”

“What things? And why didn’t you ask me for them?! I will give you the world, you know that.”

“I do and you have…” I allow him to rub my stomach. “...the earrings for example…”

“He was getting you diamonds?” He demands, face riven with jealous relief.

“She said it was a push present, but they never materialised. It’s like most promises he gave, they were just words. What…”

“What other promises?! Come on, we need to confront him and…”

“No, no, we can’t!” I tearfully grab his arm. “Michael, please we have to handle this with kid gloves, and the first thing you need to do is…”

“Take back the proposal? Why? We're going to get married, so what difference does it make that we’ve told them now?”

“My rights to Gus, they will take them and…”

“Okay, okay!” He bridles, with one more hateful look at the down the barn, he follows me back to the house. 

LOUNGE - TEN MINUTES LATER

LINDSAY

“That man could bore for eternity…” Emmett declares as I follow him in. He scowls as I retake my seat. “No fiance? Oh there you are, pity. Who’s going to be throwing her away then?”

“You mean giving of course.” Michael demurs. “We're not engaged yet. I got too far ahead of myself. When the time comes, I will ask for the blessing and approval of Ronald and Gus to…"

“Mine?” Gus scoffs. “Why? You’ve never taken me into consideration before.”

“He has a point.” Emmett snipes. “Before you continue on with the debacle of your visit, I need you to sign this.”

“Debacle?” Michael snaps. “And sign what?”

“I was looking through you at Justin…” As he shoulders past him, Michael’s dramatic stumble makes me cringe. “…the insurance needs renewing for Zeus. Obviously we're upping the amount now to include his wife and kiddies...”

“Is the accident report in there, Ems?” Brian takes the file instead, he nods. “Let me check this, okay Moro?”

“Absolutely.” Him looking queasy makes Michael smirk.

“I’m just gonna get another seat so we can…”

“We haven't bought the high chairs yet.” Emmett bitches. I am relieved that although he stiffens he doesn’t reply. “Is everything okay, Brian?”

“I am a little confused.” His gaze ripples over me. “Remind me, where were you and Michael when they had their accident?” 

“We were in the house, and…”

“It was at 1427…” He flicks through. “…Gus said you were already calling 911 as you rushed up, so where were you rushing from?”

“At the house, Lindz, we weren’t in.” Michael puts his chair as close to me as he can. “We’d just come from shopping, and…”

MICHAEL

“Why did you say you were in the house?” I don’t like the way he’s looking at us. 

“She made a simple mistake.” I seethe. “What’s this about?” I moderate my tone at Lindz’s kick. “And what’s that?"

“As we said, the insurance stuff for our horses.” Brian replies. “As for the about, we've had the accident investigated; there are some questions that need to be answered…”

“Who and what…”

“Michael.” Ma sighs. “Letting Brian finish might get you the answer to your questions. If not, then ask.”

“Thanks Ma…” His sickly smile turns my stomach. “…for the investigators.”

BRIAN

I focus on the pages, letting the silence stretch on; I look up at the throat clearing.

“The investigators want to know what?” Lindsay asks.

“Answers that only you two can provide.”

“I see.” She glances at Michael. “Please give them my contact details, then I can arrange an appointment with them.”

“Us.” I return to the papers. “We need to be there too.” I close the file. “So how is the new place…”

“Why do you need to be there?” She asks; he twitches and shifts.

“If this gets you gone quicker...” Hunter huffs. “…Dad is going to be there for both of them as Pops is going to find it stressful. Aunt Mel can’t be there for the same reason. Auntie Em, remember to contact Dr Steele.”

“Oh, well reminded, Hunter. Will do that now, so insure Zeus and Odin for twenty each and the kids for ten? Then there’s the other horses we're looking to get, which will be stabled in the new place.” He winks as he takes the file. “Stitch and Ariel’s ownership certificates need to be notarised.”

“We want to contribute to the insurance payment too.” Ronald declares. “For the...”

“We’ve got that covered, Ronald.” Mel interjects.

“I know, but if you think we're missing out on part owning twenty mil worth of horses, you can think again!” 

“Okay, okay…” Mel giggles. “I will leave it to you and Ems to sort that out.”

“As you should!” Ronald claps his hands on his knees. “Right, you two as Hunter said, get you gone…”

“Gone? But we…”

“Michael, let's go. We’ve got to honour their wishes, do things at their pace and in their time.” As Lindsay pulls him up, she looks around the room. “Thank you for seeing us, especially Gus and Mel. Mother, may we come around tomorrow, please?”

“Why?” Nancy frowns.

“We need to discuss your new grandchild to be.” She rubs her stomach.

“Fine. Come at twelve, leave by two, we’ve got plans.”

“Thank you, Ronald, thank you Nancy.” Michael simpers as he rubs too.

“Let me see you out. She may be Mother, I, however, am Mr Peterson to both of you.”

THIRTY MINUTES LATER

ELLIOTT

Ronald is crunching on the cookies that Gus brought in. He's slowly calming down, first there was their woeful delaying tactics then she tried to hug him goodbye. 

“What’s the betting…” He rolls his neck. “...they will suddenly want to contribute to the payments too?”

“Of course they will!” Debs exclaims. “So what’s next?”

“Well first…” Gus giggles. “...we let Mom have a good scratch!” We titter as Mel removes her ‘bump’ then she and Maya go to town. “Better?” 

“So much!” She sighs. “When do we see them next?”

“In about a month.” I declare smugly, feeling very pleased indeed that the ruse that Mel is pregnant worked. They will be so busy obediently jumping through hoops they won’t see the final denouement when it happens. “Then I start to drop hints about the other thing I found out.”

“Hang on!” Mel pours a large glass of wine, we wait for her to drink half. “And that is?”

“Young ones, out you go for now. I will call you when you can come back in.” Huffing they slowly depart, I wait for them to get to the garden. “He cheated on her…” Sly smiles start to spread. “...in her 2nd month. Apparently she wasn’t letting him near the goodies…”

“How did you find that out?!” Maya gasps.

I chuckle. “He came to get his car serviced and got his own tune up. It was a quick fumble behind the shop.”

“Ewww!” Debs cringes. “You saw that?!”

“No! Apparently your son has a talent for…”

“Elliot, I caught the life show!” Mel grumbles. “Why not just say it?”

“Two reasons, one because he will be extremely nice to Debs to ensure my silence and two...” I smirk. “...his baby mama knows.”

“How?!” Mel gapes.

“The engineer was bragging about it, when she came to pick his car up.”