Bad Desire: New Beginnings - Fast Forward

Chapter 30

"Where's Mum?" Jack asked Connor as the pair were getting ready to play football. "I've barely seen her since I got here."

Every year at this BBQ, they would always play one huge family game and considering Dan and Louise had the biggest garden, it meant they could make the most of it.

"She was just with Estee in the kitchen. I think she's coming out in a second." Was Connor's response as he crouched down the moment he was charged at by his son Lucas.

"Don't you think she's been acting weird?"

"She's been a bit quiet yeah but maybe her and Dad have just been arguing." Connor smirked, bringing back memories from their childhood days.

Whenever their parents argued, they would always make every effort to listen in. They would press their heads against the door so they could catch every word, just so they could tease them about it later on.

"I don't know, it seems more than that. She hasn't been herself."

Connor was usually the one who easily picked up on things like this however, this time he hadn't shared the same concerns as Jack. He had noticed her being slightly quieter but other than that, he didn't see the issues.

Jack on the other hand was worried because not only was she not engrossing herself in all the atmosphere like she usually would, she also seemed in the clouds, as if her mind wasn't there in the moment.

"You're thinking into it too much, bro." Connor shoved his side, bringing Jack back down to the present and as much as it was still in the back of his mind, he accepted Connor had a point and got straight back to the game.

Him, Connor and their cousins alongside Jack's employees were those currently covering the garden ready to play. However, it didn't take long to persuade the other adults surrounding to take part too before moving onto their beloved children.

Harvey was charging over with no reluctance, ready to show off what he had been learning at his club and Jack could see just how tempted Mia was to join in too. She was holding back due to her shyness but Jack wasn't going to allow her to miss out because of it.

"Mia, babe. You wanna be on my team?" He held out his hand as he waited for her to take it.

Looking over to where everyone was gathered in the background, she looked a bit reluctant before her eyes met her dads.

"Yeah." She nodded her head before placing her hand in his.

"Where's James and Hunter? Are they playing?" Jack then went onto ask her before scanning his eyes looking for them.

He knew Hunter was likely to be eager to go already with the confidence striking through him but James would be quite the opposite. It was then he noticed him sitting off to the side with Juliet, obviously too shy to take part.

Pulling Mia up into his arms and placing her on his shoulders he then began running over to him.

"Hey, man, you wanna play too?" He asked as he crouched down to his height.

Looking to Juliet, James was unsure.

"It'll be fun." Juliet urged, yet you could see the fear over his face.

He had always been the shyer one out of them and it was always quite difficult to push him into doing things he wasn't sure about. He'd usually much rather stick to what and who he knew and with the large amount of strangers already gathered, the six year old showed pure reluctance.

"Go on James. It will be fun." Ellie began trying to urge him and he quickly turned to face her.

If there was one thing or one person that could be pretty persuading when it came to James, that was Ellie. He seemed to listen to her more than anyone else and she always seemed to be happy enough to boost him up with some of her own confidence.