Fulfillment by Golland, M. (best large ebook reader .txt) 📕

“Yep and proudof it.”

“Well, we’llsee how arrogant you are on the weekend when you have to deal withan entire house filled with Blaxlos. My family are not timid, youknow. You might not be so arrogant then,” I warned with a secretivesmile. He leaned over and pulled me onto his lap so that I wasstraddling him.

“Bryce, stopit. The kids could come back out here.” I tried to hop off but heheld me there.

“You ‘Blaxlos’don’t scare me. You’re putty in my hands.”

“Ha, youhaven’t met my brother Jake, yet.” I pushed off him and got up,making my way to the toilet for probably the tenth time that dayand looking over my shoulder at his still arrogant, albeit sexyface.

***

The morning ofour trip to the farm, Bryce had all of a sudden become rather quietand slightly anxious. For the most part of the morning he seemed tobe lost in thought and distracted, to the point where I stoppedasking him questions because I’d had to repeat them again when hedidn’t answer me the first time. The kids had also been somewhatmiserable, knowing their Dad was not joining us, instead spendingthe holiday with Claire and RJ.

On our waydown to the basement carpark, I asked Bryce which car we were goingto take. Again, he hadn’t been focused enough to answer me, onlygiving me a ‘huh?’. So when the elevator doors opened, I gentlygrabbed his wrist.

“What’swrong?”

“What?Nothing, why?” he answered dismissively.

“Bryce, you’vebeen away with the pixies all morning, and because of that I havebeen having conversations with myself.”

“What are youtalking about?”

“For example,‘what car are we taking?’... ‘huh?’” I sarcastically mimicked him.He looked out over the cars parked in the garage, let go of thesuitcase he had been dragging and scratched his head.

“I don’tknow,” he answered softly. “I’m not sure which one is best.”

All of asudden, I noticed just how nervous he really was. I looked betweenhis worried face and the kid’s sullen expressions and sighed. Ahfuck it. Take one for the team, Alexis! “Actually, do you mindif we take the chopper?”

Bryce shot anastounded look at me, and Nate’s and Charli’s faces lit up.

“Can we?Really?” They both glanced between me and Bryce.

“If it’s okaywith Bryce, and Poppa gives us the all clear to land withoutspooking the cattle, then yes.”

Bryce appeareda lot less agitated now. “Sure, if that’s what you all want todo.”

I could see hewas trying to make out that he would fly us only because that’swhat we wanted. I could also see he was now over the moon at nothaving to choose which car would impress my family the most withoutit being over the top. Instead, the over-the-top arrival in ahelicopter could now be blamed on me, not him, which was exactly myintention.

“Okay, let’shead back up. I’ll ring Dad to find out where to land.”

***

We made ourway back up to the apartment, and while Bryce prepared the Crow fordeparture, I called my dad to get the all clear and instructions asto a suitable landing spot.

Mum and Dadhad over 60 head of cattle spread across their numerous paddocks.They farmed beef cattle and always had mothers with calves orpregnant heifers amongst their herds. Dad was a bit shocked at myrequest at first, mumbling something about ‘what’s wrong with abloody car’ and telling my mum to ‘shhh’ as she stood in thebackground and asked what I was talking about. It wasn’t until Iexplained we were flying there as a way to cheer up Nate and Charliover not being able to spend Easter with Rick, that Dad dropped theannoyed and put-out attitude, instead instructing us to land in thepaddock next to the shed.

Bryce buckledus all in and handed out the headphones. Charli automaticallystarted shouting in a tone that resembled a banshee, making my earscurl up and cringe. Nate was using every word of the month he hadever come up with, speaking in what sounded like and entirely newlanguage.

“Sick! I’mstoked. This is gonna be totally epic!

As Bryceprepared the chopper for take-off, I tried desperately to calm downmy kids. “Okay, Nate, please speak English. And, Charli-Bear, loweryour voice a little. The headphones do actually work, youknow?”

“Yep, yep,”she squealed again and bounced a little in her seat as Bryce beganraising the chopper.

“Charli, quietdown while Bryce brings up the collective.”

“This is sosick!” Nate slurred with excitement. “What’s a collective?”

Iautomatically answered my son, as I had secretly researched alittle of helicopter avionics. “It’s that stick thing Bryce ispulling up in his left hand. It controls the squashplate—”

Bryceinterrupted with a loud laugh. “It’s called a swashplate. Notsquashplate.” He kept chuckling.

“That’s what Isaid,” I snapped. I’m sure that’s what I said. Stupidswash/squash plate/bowl helicopter lift thingamajig. I decidedto shut up after that, Bryce was in a far better position toexplain to my son—who now seemed very interested in piloting achopper.

Bryce hadlooked over at me numerous times during the 40 minutes it had takenus to fly to my parents’ property, obviously still amused at myattempt to gain more knowledge of how helicopters fly. I hadstubbornly tried glaring at him in response, but the cheeky lovinggrin he had on his face was hard to be pissed at. It wasn’t until Ipointed to the spot where he needed to land on the farm that ourfacial expressions traded places. Now I was the one smirking smuglyat him, and he was the one displaying agitation, together withwiping his palms on his jeans every so often and muttering underhis breath ‘friggin’ sweaty palms’.

As he placedthe chopper down with perfection, I waved to my family, who werestanding not too far from the shed. Bryce jumped out and gave akind but subtle wave in their direction, and as he did, I noticedmy mother’s wider than normal grin—she may have been 62, but shewas still a woman. I watched him walk around the front of thechopper—his eyes meeting mine for a second—forcing a shy smileacross his face.

He opened theback door and let Nate and Charli out. They ran towards my parentsand wrapped their arms around them while Bryce came around to mydoor and unbuckled my belt. He shot a