Authors: Kate McCarthy

Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary

Give Me Strength (40 page)

Sam giggled again.

Later that morning, closer to lunch, we arrived
at Jared and Evie’s house for the Sunday barbecue. They’d finished
renovating five months ago and I was honestly surprised with how
well Jared did. I’d taken one look at the house and thought it
would have been better to drive a bulldozer straight through the
middle of it. The two story structure was painted weatherboard in
stone with white trim and lush green lawns and hedges. I saw Quinn
eyeing the landscaping with frustration.

“Must be nice to have a lawn,” she murmured
longingly. “The soft scratchy feel of grass between your toes. The
smell of freshly mowed lawn on a warm afternoon.” She opened the
passenger door of the Subaru and sucked in a lungful of air for
effect. “Pretty flowers making everything…pretty. Space to kick a
soccer ball without tearing apart a clean house.”

“You know we can’t do anything until the
excavators come in and start digging for the retaining wall.” Out
of the car, I unbuckled Sam’s car seat and settled him on my hip.
With a wink at Quinn, I beeped the locks and we walked up the
driveway. “You can always come over here when you feel the need to
be at one with nature.”

She snorted, juggling a cooler of beer and
container of biscuits baked this morning while I cleaned the chaos,
and rang the bell. Someone yelled to “come in.”

“If I did that, Jared would tell me I had to mow
the lawn or weed the gardens for the privilege.”

Through the door, Mum ran towards us as though
we’d been schlepping lost through war torn Afghanistan for a year
and returning home alive had been doubtful.

“Mum,” I warned when she kissed both Quinn and I
on the cheek and reached immediately for Sam. Sam burrowed into my
chest, latching his little arms around my neck.

Undeterred, Mum smiled wide at him and asked him
if he wanted to go for a swim in the pool. Not looking at her, he
shook his head.

“I’ll take him swimming later if he wants to,
Mum.”

“Okay.” She sighed, taking the bags from Quinn
as we walked further into the house. “Did you bring him something
to swim in? I was at the shops yesterday with Mackenzie and saw the
cutest little boardshorts. They were on special. I had to buy
them.”

I raised my brows at her in reply.

“Just a couple of pairs. I’ve left them in the
guest room, okay?”

Holding Quinn’s hand, Sam in my arms, we
wandered outside where everyone was gathered around the outdoor
seating, pool, and barbecue.

Mac swooped in. “Where have you been? You’re
late, you lazy assh—”

I cleared my throat.

“Lazy people,” she amended.

She grabbed Quinn by the elbow after pressing a
kiss to Sam’s forehead and patting his back softly. He squirmed but
otherwise seemed to enjoy the affection.

“Evie’s been busy. Busy throwing up all morning.
Tonight is the biggest night of Jamieson’s life. They have to play
at the awards in eight hours.
Eight hours
,” she hissed, her
voice slowly fading out as she dragged Quinn away.

Grabbing a beer, I stood chatting with Dad,
Jared, and Mitch by the barbecue for a few minutes before Jared
dragged me away.

“Listen,” he said. “Evie and I…” He folded his
arms. “We uh…”

I chuckled because he looked nervous. “Spit it
out, mate.”

“We haven’t told anyone yet because we only
found out this morning. I didn’t want to spring it on you, but…Evie
and I are having a baby.”

Shock punched through me until I smiled slowly,
feeling it overtake my face. I pulled him towards me and slapped
his back. It was a little awkward because I was still holding Sam,
but I offered my congratulations.

Jared looked worried but it eased a little into
relief as I asked him how Evie was, and he told me she’d been green
for an entire week and it didn’t look like letting up anytime
soon.

“I appreciate you telling us first,” I told him,
“and…well, we haven’t told anyone this yet either. Quinn and I saw
a specialist a few months back. Turns out they
might
be able
to reverse some of the damage with surgery but…” I glanced down at
Sam. He appeared to be dozing off a little. “…with all the
weddings, renovations, the foster parenting process, Quinn busy at
work with Jamieson’s two singles going platinum, there’s been no
time to organise it.” I paused when I heard Mac swearing loudly
from somewhere upstairs. Jared rolled his eyes. “Anyway, we’ve got
Sam. He’s our focus for now.”

“You’re going to adopt him?”

I nodded. “We’d like to if we can.”

Quinn could now be heard swearing loudly from
upstairs. “What the hell is going on up there?”

We wandered inside as Henry tore down the
stairs, phone to his ear. Taking our questioning glances in, he
muffled the speaker and said, “It’s Frog and Cooper. They’ve been
in a car accident on their way here,” before returning to his phone
call.

Mac followed behind him, Quinn behind her. “It’s
a goddamn disaster. The awards tonight and Evie is up there looking
like death city, throwing up a lung and a kidney, and now Frog and
Cooper.”

I grabbed Quinn’s hand as she reached the bottom
step.

“They’re okay. Some idiot went through a stop
sign, but they weren’t going fast. Cooper has a couple of scratches
but Frog’s broken his arm.”

“Oh shit,” I muttered.

“Shit is right,” she agreed.

“Fuck shit,” Mac growled. “It’s a goddamn
disaster. This is the biggest night of Jamieson’s life and Frog’s
gone and cocked up his arm and Evie, well…” She threw up her
hands.

Mum came in from outside just as Casey came
through the front door. “We’ll be out of beer soon, can one of you
go?”

“Mum,” Mac shouted. “We’ve got bigger
problems.”

“What could be bigger than being out of beer?”
Casey chuckled as he did the rounds of kissing Mum, Mac, and Quinn
on the cheek in greeting. He reached for the stirring Sam in my
arms, and Sam went willingly, having taken to Casey the couple of
times he’d visited the past week. He swung Sam onto his hip and
tucked his tired head under his chin, and I wasn’t about to admit
that my arms were a bit tired from holding the little champ.

“Actually, we have a replacement bassist for
Frog all lined up thanks to Henry,” Quinn told us. “Maybe you can
pick her up from the airport and grab the beer at the same time for
us?”

“Airport?” I asked.

“She’s dropped everything to fly in from
Melbourne for us. Would you mind?”

Casey sat the now fully alert Sam at his feet
and jangled his keys. “Blocking the Subaru in.”

I nodded my head towards the door. “You can
drive then. You’ll be right with Sam, Quinn?”

Quinn took hold of Sam’s hand, passing over the
printed flight details in the other. “Of course. Mac and Henry are
going to collect Cooper and Frog, and Sam and I are going for a
swim in the pool.”

Sam looked up at me with wide eyes. I ruffled
his hair. “Be back soon, bud, okay?”

He nodded.

Ducking my head, I took hold of Quinn’s chin
gently and touched my lips to hers and whispered in her ear what I
wanted to do to her later tonight that I’d missed out on doing this
morning. “Later, sweetheart.”

“Later,” she breathed, her cheeks flushing
pink.

With a grin and short wave, Casey and I left for
the airport. The flight from Melbourne to Sydney only took an hour
but we arrived with ten minutes to spare and stood waiting as
passengers started flowing in from the arrivals gate.

Towards us came a girl with a guitar case slung
over her back. Deep red tangles of hair flowed down her back and a
colourful tattoo wound along the length of her bare arm and towards
her neck. Encased in tiny black leather shorts and a sleeveless
shirt, she strode directly towards us.

“Holy fuck,” Casey breathed beside me. “Do you
think that’s her?”

I checked the photo of her that Quinn had
messaged through and checked the girl coming towards us again. The
tattoos weren’t in the photo, neither was the smoky eyes, painted
lips, and wild red hair—just a fresh faced girl with dark brown
hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose.

“I think so.”

“Who is she?”

“Henry’s sister apparently.”

I chuckled at Casey’s open mouthed expression.
“Close your mouth,” I muttered. “You’ll catch flies.”

“What did Quinn say her name was?”

I checked my phone and looked back up.

“Grace.”

***

A HUGE thank you to my
readers for reading my books. I hope you find them as entertaining
to read as they are to write!

To my husband for your encouragement.

Terrena and Julie—two of the most beautiful
women in my life. Your enthusiasm, love and ability to cut through
the bullshit makes you both two very rare gems that I am so lucky
to have.

Max, Max, Max. Holy shit woman. No words except
no one will ever take you away from me. You’re mine.

BJ Harvey. PTFD and SMYD. I am so blessed to
share this journey with you.

To Trisha Rai and Tammy Zautner. The two of you
got me through this book. I wouldn’t have survived it otherwise.
Thank you both so much for being you. I love you both so very
dearly.

To Claire Haiek—the superwoman of the
proofreading world. Remember—you were mine first.

To my beta reading team—thank you for being on
board the crazy train! Your feedback kept me going and made this
book so much more than it could be.

To the bloggers who are willing to take on board
and read an ARC from indie authors like myself, thank you. To
Devoured Words, Reviews by Tammy & Kim, Must Read Books or Die
and Give Me Books, the most supportive bloggers an author could
hope for.

To my group of super fantastic sexy ladies—my
counsellors, friends and cheerleaders.

Thank you to Sarah at Okay Creations for putting
together a cover that I couldn’t love any more than I already
do.

***