The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(74)

“Uncle Ell.”

A smile spreads wide across my face, and I turn. “Yes, Ellis?”

“We go out on lake?”

“I didn’t think you wanted to go?” I tell him, watching as Mason’s eyes lift to me in warning.

“Frey said she make me crumble.”

“That crumble is mine, boy.”

I pick him up and stand him on the counter. “Get in your waterproofs, and I’ll think about it.”

His face transforms with excitement. “You go really fast over bumpy bits gain?”

This time it’s Nina’s eyes burning into the side of my head. I lean in and whisper into Ellis’s ear as he shuffles his arms into the all-in-one suit. “Mum will go postal if you carry on, and then neither of us will get crumble.”

“No, Mummy and Auntie Scar went to the post office after school. To post the letter for Lance.”

I shake my head and laugh at how perfect that came out of his mouth. “Alright, down you get.”

Mason doesn’t say a word as I usher his son out the door. He knows I wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

We walk across fields and to the other side of the meadow to the lake. I put Ellis in his life jacket then set him in the boat. “Go sit on the seat until I get in, mate.”

“Okay!” he toddles off down the slippery boat, his hands balled into fists.

I pull out my phone and call Luce as I work on untying the rope.

She answers on the second ring. “Hi.”

“You’re up.” I smile.

“Yeah, I’ve been up for a while,” she tells me, her tone softer than usual.

“Did you have a good night? The girls said you were up early. I thought you were going out with your friends.”

“I did. I ended up coming home early.” She pauses. “We started at lunch, so…yeah….”

I rub at the back of my neck, frowning over at Ellis, who gives me an equally perplexed look. “Everything okay, Luce?”

Silence. Nothing but a heaviness that travels through the phone and falls on my shoulders.

“I just get a feeling that you’re not okay. You were up in the night.”

She blows out a ragged breath. “I’m fine, Ell. Did you all have a good night?”

“Yeah, it was good.” I roll my lips, my eyes still glued to Ellis. “We missed you, though. Wasn’t the same without you.”

“It wasn’t?” she asks.

“No. I mean, It didn’t suck completely. I won’t lie to you, we had more fun than we have in months—”

“Good. That’s good. Are the kids okay?”

My brows pull in. “I was about to say that it won’t ever be the same, not when you’re not there. We all missed you.”

“Maybe another time,” she mutters, and the way she says it makes the hairs on my arms raise.

“Yeah—”

“Uncle Elliot!”

“Hold on, Luce.” I move the phone away from my mouth and put one foot in the boat. “Ellis has me out on the—shit!” My foot slips on the muddy bank, sending my front foot, the one planted in the boat, forward. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

“Elliot! Did you just say Ellis? Is he there? What’s wrong?”

The gap between the boat and the bank gets wider and wider, and I try to reach forward to throw myself onto the boat, but it’s no use, my foot slides up the bank, and before I allow my crotch to be split in two, I collapse sideways and into the water.

“Uncle Elliot!” Ellis cries, reaching for me with his little arms as I surface.

The water isn’t overly deep, but it’s enough to soak me right through. I look at my phone, which is lit up for all of five seconds before it flashes black, then white and then to nothing.

“Hand? Hand?” Ellis reaches.

“It’s okay, mate.” I stand, pulling the boat back to the bank. “I’m okay. Are you okay?”

He nods, his lip curling.

“What’s funny?”

He shakes his head.

“Tell me, or no crumble.”

“Your arms were flappy.” He starts to flail his arms around.

“We aren’t telling anyone about this.” I point at him.

“You said fuck.” My eyes close in mortification. “Tree times.”

“We aren’t telling anyone about this,” I reiterate.

Ellis nods, watching me quietly as I climb in. I start the boat and drive it around to my parents’ estate, letting Ellis think he’s steering the entire time. It’s not far, and it would be more convenient to walk the fields between the two properties, but where’s the fun in that? Ellis loves this little bit of us time. In the summer, we plan to teach him to swim out here.

As we approach my parents’ dock, I see my mother rushing down the garden. She’s panicked and throwing her hands about.

“They’re here, they’re okay,” she says into the phone.

Leaning down, she takes Ellis from me when I lift him out to her. “What happened? Lucy phoned Nina in a panic.” She eyes my soaking wet clothes. “You fell in?” she exclaims.

“Elliot said fuck. Tree times.”

My mother looks at Ellis’s two fingers then back at me with wide eyes.