Rosie frowned. “No, but Jo-” Her dad held up his hand, cutting her off before she could finish saying his name. She sighed dramatically. “Fine. The guy who’s name we don’t mention,” she corrected, rolling her eyes. “He was everything you said he was, I knew that at the time. That’s why I didn’t defend him.”

I smiled, feeling extremely proud of myself that she stood up for me, but not Josh. A couple of months ago, she believed I was just like him, but not now.

“Pumpkin, you’re a great judge of character, well, apart from that one person anyway, so if you like this guy, then that’s good enough for me. I was just checking what you really thought of him. And also, pushing him to see how far I could before he snapped. As it turns out, his patience level is pretty high. He’s suited to you, because you’re frustrating as hell,” he said, winking at his daughter.

“I’m not frustrating!” she protested.

I nodded. “You are, Stripes,” I interjected.

She turned to me and laughed, slapping my chest with the back of her hand. “You’re not supposed to agree with him!” she rebutted, shaking her head with mock hurt.

I gripped her hand and pulled her to me. “I’m agreeing with him if it means he’s going to stop trying to kill me with his eyes.”

George coughed the words ‘kiss ass’, and I couldn’t help but laugh. This was the first time I had ever tried to impress a girl’s family, and as it turned out, I had done a pretty good job of it. I could literally feel the happy dance building up inside, I was about ten seconds from pulling my shirt over my face and running around the parking lot with my hands in the air.

Rosie grinned and pressed her lips to mine, kissing me softly. I smiled against her lips and wrapped my arms around her tightly. George cleared his throat loudly again. “Yeah, kissing needs to be under five seconds. Also, the hands need to stay above the belt, please. I mean, hello, a parent is standing right here,” he said, waving at himself in example, laughing.

Rosie stepped out of my embrace. “I’m going to see if I can get your mom to let go of DJ,” she said, winking at me as she walked back into the little hall, leaving me with her dad.

I smiled awkwardly at him. “So, that was just a test then, right?” I asked, rubbing the back of my neck, trying to alleviate some of the tension that had built up in my muscles through the day.

He nodded and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

I sucked my teeth with my tongue. “But I passed though, didn’t I? You didn’t just say that I did because she was there, I actually did pass?”

He smiled, gripping my shoulder. “You passed, Nate.”

Pride bubbled in my chest. I smiled at him gratefully. That was another major relationship hurdle I had overcome.

His smile faded as his eyes locked on mine, and I knew it wasn’t over yet. “You might have passed the test, but I still need you to know that if you hurt my daughter or my grandson, then I’m going to have to kill you,” he warned, looking at me fiercely.

“I understand that completely. I won’t. I really like them both,” I assured him, not looking away from his eyes, showing him just how much I meant it.

He nodded. “Well, I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time. It’s just, after what the prick did to her, I don’t want to see her hurt again. When you have kids, you’ll understand.”

I nodded in acceptance. George really didn’t need to apologise, I knew he loved his daughter and was just trying to look out for her.

“I’m not like Josh, I promise. You don’t need to worry about that.”

He smiled and gripped my shoulder. “I can see that. You seem like a good guy, and from what Rosie tells me about you and your relationship, I don’t think I have much to worry about at the moment,” his grip tightened on my shoulder, “but if you mention that asshole’s name in front of me again, I’m going to have to punch you in the face.”

“I’ll remember that,” I said solemnly.

“Good man. One last thing for the night then. Do me a favour and keep that thing in your pants. I don’t need any more grandkids for a couple of years, okay?” He nodded down at my crotch. “I wouldn’t want to have to chase you down and cut it off.”

I laughed sheepishly. In time, we would probably become quite good friends, once I earned his complete trust. “Even if I did knock her up, I’m a pretty fast runner; I don’t think your old man legs could keep up with me. My manhood is safe.”

He slapped my shoulder affectionately, grinning. “I may be an old man, with old man legs, but I could still take you on the sporting field. You got nothing on me there,” he boasted, puffing out his chest.

I noted the challenge in his voice and threw my arm around his shoulder, deciding to make light of this whole situation. “Whatever you say, George. Let’s just start over, huh? You like golf?” I asked, as we walked back into the function room.

“Actually, yeah, I do.”

“Awesome. I’ll pick you up at nine tomorrow morning. Boys’ golfing day it is then. Me, you, and DJ. Loser buys lunch.”

He nodded in agreement, clapping me on the back affectionately as we headed back inside to find the girls and DJ. I was now about to enter into the arduous task of wrestling DJ from my mother’s ‘Nanna clutches’ – she wasn’t going to let the kid go willingly.

Chapter Thirty-Two

“And you’re sure you can’t come with me somehow?” I checked for the hundredth time.

“I’ll be there in spirit,” Rosie replied, shrugging sadly.

I sighed dramatically. This was all Josh again. He had failed to pick up DJ this weekend, ruining our plans to go out with friends tonight. My sister, Paige, and her best friend Coraline were in LA for the weekend, so we were supposed to meet them out for a drink. But no, Josh had to go and cancel a couple of hours ago, saying he was ‘too sick with the flu’ to come and get his son. Too sick my ass, we both knew he was lying but no one said anything about it.

The great dad routine had lasted a grand total of five weeks after I gave him the money for DJ’s ticket. Exactly three weeks after Cameron’s christening, Josh ‘forgot’ to turn up when he was supposed to. He left DJ and Rosie sitting there on a Friday night, waiting for him to arrive, with not even a phone call to explain. She had called him after an hour, and it turned out that he was away for the weekend with some friends, and had neglected to tell her about it. Of course, DJ was upset at first when the regular phone calls stopped, but after a week or so he bounced back and seemed to get over it. No doubt it was doing some psychological damage deep down though.

I hated Josh with a burning passion, and the feeling was certainly mutual. Every time we were in the same room I struggled to control my hands so that they didn’t choke the life out of him.

On the up side, Rosie and I had been together for a grand total of four and a half months now. Every single day was more incredible than the last. It was like she was weaving some sort of spell over me, almost like I wasn’t quite in control of myself when I was around her. All I could think about were her and DJ. They were the most important things in the world to me.

By any man’s standards, Rosie was probably the best girlfriend that had ever lived. She supported me in everything I did, listened to me, encouraged me, made me feel better when I had a shitty day, and she didn’t even mind when I went out with my friends. All my life I’d thought that girls went all crazy possessive bunny boiler once you made a commitment with them. I’d always thought that they didn’t let you out, that they didn’t like you to talk to other girls, that they wanted to be around you twenty-four-seven. Clearly, I couldn’t have been more wrong about that.

“I don’t suppose I can come back here after going out?” I asked, wincing, knowing I shouldn’t ask. I just really wanted to spend the night in the bed with my girl. I hated sleeping on my own and, whenever my shift pattern would allow, I stayed at hers. If Josh was standing in front of me in that moment, I would kick him in the balls for, yet again, ruining her night. Rosie had been talking to my sister on the phone all week, planning this night out, but now she couldn’t even go.

She smiled and tapped her finger on my nose. “You have your sister and Coraline staying at your place. You need to go home and host.”

I groaned and let my head drop onto her shoulder, nuzzling my face against the side of her neck. She made that sexy little purr, and my excitement jumped up a level. Just as I playfully sank my teeth into her delicate little neck, a heavy lump dropped into my lap, making me grunt from the shock and groan because DJ had just jumped on my balls. I pulled away from Rosie and winced.

“Careful, Kid. You don’t want a brother or sister?” I joked, shifting him on my lap so that I was more comfortable.

He frowned, looking at me with an adorable confused expression on his face. “Huh?”

I smiled and shook my head, knowing I shouldn’t have said that in front of him. Rosie didn’t seem to mind my commitment comments or anything though. Clearly we were both headed in the same direction. She knew I was totally crazy about her. I hadn’t let the three little words slip out again since that accident at my parents’ house, but I wanted to. I was just scared of how they would be received. I wasn’t sure if I had her completely hooked yet, so I was going to let her say it first. She was, after all, the one that said it was all too fast and that she needed time. Therefore, I was letting her have time to figure it out herself.

Of course, my wise best friend told me I was being stupid and that I should just tell her that I was totally and utterly in love with her, but I was too much of a pu**y for that. Under all of my bravado, I obviously wasn’t as confident as I always thought I was.

I turned back to Rosie, smiling sadly. “Why don’t you go out with Paige tonight and I’ll sit DJ?” I offered for the hundredth time. We’d already been through everyone asking them to babysit him for the night, but no one was available at short notice.

She smiled and sighed, looking at me so softly that it made the skin on my arms prickle. I loved it when she looked at me like that. It was kind of like she was just marvelling at something, but I had no idea why she would be.

“I’ll go next time. Tell Paige that I’ll catch up with her tomorrow, okay?”

DJ smiled. “Is Auntie Paige gonna come play with me tomorrow?” he asked.

That kid was as much in love with my family as they were with him. Even Lisa adored him. I’d never seen anyone wrap Lisa around their little finger, but DJ had managed to do it almost instantly. We’d been to my parents a couple of times since the christening.

“She might do, Kid. Why don’t you call her cell phone nice and early in the morning and ask her,” I suggested, chuckling darkly. I was working tomorrow lunchtime, and Paige was probably planning on spending the day in bed to sleep off the hangover she was sure to accumulate tonight.

DJ grinned and nodded, pointing at the train set that was scattered all over their lounge floor. “Wanna play trains? You can be the red one,” he suggested, raising his eyebrows hopefully.

“I’m red!” Rosie stated, jumping off the sofa, diving for the red locomotive.

I sighed dramatically, faking exasperation. “Momma likes to steal all the best things.”

“Agreed. I stole you, after all, didn’t I?” she replied, winking at me. I laughed and scooted off the sofa, holding DJ on my lap as I settled onto the floor next to her. The three of us setting up the track on the floor like a proper little family.

“On three,” Paige slurred, nodding down at the shot in her hand.

I rolled my eyes. She was drunk already, and we’d only been here for a couple of hours. She was one of those drinkers that got drunk quickly, then sobered up, then got drunk again. Usually I found this hilarious; tonight though, not so much. She was flirting with every guy in the bar, and I could feel the stress building up inside me. If one more guy looked at my little sister with those ‘I-want-to-fuck-you’ eyes, I was going to have to jam my fingers into their eye sockets and pull them out. Sometimes I hated being a big brother.

“One…Two…” Paige counted.

“Three,” I chimed in, knocking back my shot in one large gulp.

So far, the night was fun. I hadn’t let loose and been wasted for a long time, usually I stayed relatively sober so I could make the most of my girl’s drunken flirting. I was definitely enjoying myself tonight. While Seth was flirting and trying his luck with a load of girls, I had my arm around Coraline’s shoulder as we laughed and joked around. The music was loud, you couldn’t talk without shouting in each other’s ears.

I took a glug of my drink, laughing as some of it missed my mouth and dribbled down my chin. Coraline laughed and wiped it for me with her hand. That was my cue to stop drinking before I puked. I’d already made a fool out of myself enough for tonight – the drinking games were not working in my favour. My eyes were slightly unfocussed; everything seemed hilarious to my drunken brain.

Coraline put her cheek against mine, leaning on me heavily, almost making me stumble. “It’s such a shame Rosie couldn’t come tonight. She’s so hot,” she shouted in my ear.

I grinned proudly and nodded in agreement. “That she is.”

She giggled wickedly. “If you two break up, I’m making a move. Once you’ve been with a woman, you never go back!”

I laughed at her statement. “Don’t even think about making a move on my girl. I’m gonna marry her one day. I don’t want no lesbian messing things up for me,” I joked, tickling her, making her giggle and thrash around. I’d known Coraline forever and felt just as close to her as I did one of my sisters.