Feral!

Chapter 3

3

Laura Platt couldn't believe how judgmental her husband was sometimes; he was awful. He'd not met the new neighbours yet, and already he was convinced they were out to cause trouble.

That wasn't how she viewed them. While Nigel was in the lounge listening to records through his headphones, she'd watched the comings and goings next door, too. Hannah had joined her, as it was her bedroom.

"I don't understand your dad sometimes, love. They seem like perfectly ordinary people to me."

"Oh, I don't know. He looks anything but." She grinned, gesturing to the youngest lad, who was helping to carry boxes from the removals van.

Ignoring her daughter's overactive hormones, and fully aware of her meaning, Laura ignored her comment and studied the husband / dad. He was muscular, strong of body and facially attractive in a Neanderthal, massive-jaw kind of way. If history had taught her anything, it was that she wasn't suited to these kinds of guys. But there was something about this one.

"Oh s**t!" He suddenly looked up at her from his driveway.

Turning and dropping to the carpet, her head below the windowsill, she and Hannah laughed, hoping and praying he hadn’t seen them fall to the floor. Once their laughter abated, she sat up. "Right, enough of this. Let's go and introduce ourselves, yeah? This is silly. I feel like a naughty schoolgirl."

"It's dad's fault. He was all like, 'We're not going to be nosey neighbours.'” Her impression of Nigel was spot-on. She made the same funny noise in her throat, too.

"The best impersonation of him yet. You've found your calling, honey," Laura said with a giggle.

Getting up, she walked out of Hannah's bedroom into the lounge, where her husband sat listening to his vinyl. She tapped the top of his headphones, surprising him. "Come on, we're going to introduce ourselves. Are you coming?"

"You what? No, we're not. Forget it. We'll say hello when we actually bump into them, alright?" He put his headset back on.

Standing with hands on her hips, Laura tapped her foot, waiting for him to see the impatience on her face. Irritably, she whipped his headphones off. "Come on, you're joining us, too, Nigel. You can come back to your music later. Frank Sinatra will still be here when you get back."

Her husband's love of the crooners tickled her, especially as he couldn't hold a note himself if his life depended on it. "Come on! Up you get." She held her hands out.

With a grumble, Nigel got up. "Fine. But if we're going out there, at least let me go out first and act like I'm going to the garage or something. It'll look more natural."

It was all about appearances to her husband, always had been. Since she’d met him at college, he'd always been into labels, decent cars, the latest gadgets, even jewellery. She loved the way he’d looked back then. He'd since filled out, had a slight paunch. It suited him, the extra weight. "Fine! If you must."

Downstairs in the hallway, she put her shoes on while Nigel ventured outside to the garage “for some tools.” Waiting in the porch with Hannah, she heard him talking to someone. When no signal came, she nodded at her daughter. "Come on!"

On their driveway, Nigel was speaking to the father. "Honey, did you find the hammer?" she asked her husband. She smiled at her new neighbour. He was taller in person, towering over her and her husband. "Oh hi! Laura Platt. Pleased to meet you." She held her hand out.

The huge mountain of a man took hold of her hand in his massive slab and shook it for a bit longer than was necessary. "Callum Bowman, and the pleasure's mine." He winked at her so fleetingly, she almost didn’t see it. "Let me introduce you to my lot."

She stood next to Nigel as Hannah ventured out and joined them on the other side of her. When her neighbour bellowed at his family to come out, the whole street seemed to take note. Callum was a very charismatic man. She could tell from shaking his hand. While waiting for his r****e to come out, Laura introduced her daughter.

"Wow! Such striking women. You're a lucky guy, Nige." Callum put his arm around his wife. "This blond beauty is Sarah. These are the Platts, honey. This is Nigel, Laura, and their beautiful daughter, Hannah."

"I adore your hair, both of you. That ginger, it's so natural. Quite stunning." Sarah Bowman shook Laura's hand, smiled, and stood back as if she was on display.

Her new neighbour was pretty, except she wore too much makeup, which detracted from her beauty. Up close, though, using her imagination, Laura could see a stunning woman beneath the cosmetics. "Sarah, you have such a beautiful smile. Doesn't she, Nige?"

Maybe she was overdoing the sickly sweet, but to hell with it, she wanted to get on with them. They'd had a rather lacklustre relationship with the previous tenants of the house. Her husband smiled, agreeing with her.

"And this tall streak of piss here, is our oldest, Pip. It's Philip, but don't ever call him it or he'll smash your teeth in." Callum laughed hard. "No, but seriously, don't, or he will beat the s**t out of you. The last bloke who called him Philip was in hospital for two weeks drinking his dinner through a straw."

Laura chuckled with him, wondering if Callum was joking. She assumed he was, although she had a problem understanding people's sense of humour sometimes, even Nigel's, and she'd known him since she was sixteen. "Hi! Pleased to meet you."

The eldest sort of smiled, then strolled over to the van and took another box before going back inside. He was another six-footer, Laura guessed. No charisma, though, not like his dad.

"Here he comes! Rob, get your arse over here, boy." Callum grabbed his son and presented him. "Our second oldest, Robert. He goes by Rob, but hates Bob.”

Callum's second eldest followed his brother's lead, grabbing a box and heading indoors.

"It was nice meeting you." Laura received no reply.

"And finally, we have the twins. They're not really twins, obviously, but we call them that—they've always been put together. This is my youngest son Ben, or Benji. He's about Hannah's age, I think. You're seventeen, right, my love?"

Her daughter nodded. "Eighteen next month."

"Benji's eighteen in May, so you're a few months older."

"Hi!" Hannah hid half her face behind her long ginger hair.

Laura almost said something when Benji wandered over to the van to pick up a box. She thought it rude he didn’t acknowledge Hannah’s greeting. She felt bad for her daughter, who was being polite. "And who might this be?"

"Laura, meet Katie, our youngest. Katie's fifteen, going through her GCSEs. She's been predicted sevens, eights, and nines. We're expecting big things from you, aren't we, Katie?"

The affection in Callum's face showed Laura everything she needed to know. Here was a good man. He might be a little rough, talking about his eldest beating people up, but beneath that gruff facade was a genuine man. "Hi Katie. Hannah finished her GCSEs a couple of years ago, didn't you, honey? Like you, she came away with eights and nines."

Nothing. Callum's “darling daughter” continued chewing her gum while looking her up and down like she was a piece of s**t on her shoe. Katie gave Hannah the same treatment before her dad let her go and retrieve a small box from the van.

"You have a beautiful family." Laura smiled as best she could.

"As do you. Is Hannah your one and only?" Callum put his arm around Sarah's shoulder, then turned his attention to Katie. "Don't pick up a heavy one, honey. Leave those for the boys. And tell them to get a move on, will you?" He turned back to Laura.

"Oh no. Anthony, our eldest, he's at work until lunchtime." She turned when a car beeped its horn. "Speak of the devil. Here he is now. Nige, would you tell him to find a space further down until the van moves, please."

It would have been common courtesy for Callum or Sarah to apologise for their removal van covering the entrance to their drive, but they didn't. Callum smiled at her, to which she reciprocated, while Nigel ran over to their son's old Fiesta, leaned in the passenger window, and asked him to park elsewhere.

"Where does Anthony work?" Callum appeared interested.

Laura felt funny about telling him. "It's just an in-between job while he's considering his options. He works shifts at the Tesco Express over by Guildhall Square."

"The one by the station?"

"That's the one."

She noticed a smug look of satisfaction on Callum's face.