Damien’s swallow was audible.
“I’m nervous as hell to see her. What if she blows up at me?” he questioned.
“What if she is completely okay and greets you like a normal human being? That shit between you both happened years ago, she’s probably forgotten about it.”
Was Kane not in the room months ago when Alannah left the house when Damien was on a FaceTime call in her presence? That girl hasn’t forgotten a damn thing.
“Maybe,” Damien mumbled. “Coming back here has me all kinds of messed up. Not in a bad way, so you can stop frowning at me, I just mean it’s so surreal. It feels like I never left.”
“You’ll want to leave after a week in our house. It’s never empty, and the girls are so loud.”
Cheeky pig!
“Worse than just Bronagh and Branna?” Damien chuckled.
“Way worse. Keela and Aideen are like their hype girls, they make them even louder.”
Damien laughed. “I can’t believe the four of you are in steady relationships. I’m the only single one. How fucked up is that? You all used to be scared of the word ‘girlfriend’.”
Kane snorted. “I’m still scared of it, scared of her, but just of how much I love her. It’s terrifying to me that something could happen to her and she wouldn’t be here anymore. I almost lost her last night, bro. I’d cease to exist if I didn’t have her, and I’ve no doubt that feeling will triple when she has the baby.”
I heard a patting sound. “We’ll protect her, and the baby.”
“We have to, they’re both my life.”
“She’s a Slater, we take care of our own.”
I heard the pride in Kane’s voice when he said, “Yeah, I guess she is a Slater.”
“She is, and so are the other three. Bronagh, Branna, Keela and Aideen are it for you guys, I can tell just by the way you all talk about them.”
Kane sighed. “Ryder and Branna are struggling.”
Silence.
“Dominic mentioned he was worried about them,” Damien murmured.
“It’s bad, and I don’t think they’re going to come out of it still together.” He lowered his voice more. “Don’t say that to any of the girls, God only knows what they will do if they knew Ryder and Branna might break up for real.”
I inwardly rolled my eyes.
We weren’t stupid, we knew things with Ryder and Branna weren’t good. We were just more optimistic than the lads that they would work it out. I had faith in the pair of them. Everyone has their bad patches, and this was Ryder and Branna’s.
I opened my eyes and moved when I heard a voice outside the door of my room. It sounded similar to Damien, which meant it was Nico.
“That’s Nico,” I rasped.
Kane looked at me with surprised eyes before he switched his attention to Damien and jerked his head in the direction of the door. Without speaking a word, Damien leaped to his feet and shot over to the door and hid behind it.
Kane rubbed his hands together and looked to me. “Ten euros he cries.”
I snorted, but didn’t take the bet.
Kane and I looked to the door when Nico stepped into the room, pocketing his phone.
“Hey,” he smiled at me as he slapped hands with his brother. “I thought you’d be sleeping.”
“I’ll sleep later,” I whispered.
A shadow moved behind Nico, and with a hidden smile, I watched as Damien crept up behind his brother.
“Are you feeling better?” Nico asked me, his eyes filled with concern.
“Of course she is,” Damien responded. “She finally saw my face in person, and that makes everything better.”
Nico swung around so fast he almost tripped himself up.
“Damien!” he roared. “What the fuck?”
Like lightening Nico sprung forward, and dove onto Damien who was laughing as he opened his arms wide. Nico’s chest collided with Damien’s and his arms wrapped around his twin while his face dropped to Damien’s shoulder.
Damien was smiling as he clapped his hands against Nico’s back, but he soon lowered his head to Nico’s shoulder and they let their emotions out.
I let my emotions out too; I was in tears watching them.
“You’re both making Aideen cry, you assholes.”
Both Nico and Damien laughed as they separated and wiped their eyes discreetly. They only parted for a second though, because they quickly hugged again. They patted each other on the back a lot and called each other crude names.