Chapter Four – Nico
By the time I return to the kitchen, I find Felix is alone, no longer playing house with Noelle.
Not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed she retreated back to her room or whatever; I was looking forward to seeing her.
I always am. I always want to see her, spend time with her. No amount of time is ever enough.
I eat the leftover bacon and wind up sprawled on the couch. Should probably try to get some sleep since we pretty much drove through the night, but nah. I’ll save the sleeping for tonight, when I’m wrestling with the fact that Noelle is here and things would be so much better if she was in my bed.
Yeah. It’s going to be hard as hell to get any sleep here.
Matteo comes out after a while and cooks himself some pancakes. It’s a while—hours, in fact—before the other girl in the house makes her presence known, and when she sees the three of us in the living room, she walks down the stairs with pep in her step.
“I didn’t know you guys were here,” our sister says, surveying the three of us on the couch. Her hands are on her hips, her head cocked. It’s actually pretty early for her to be up, all things considered. “Honestly, I’m still surprised your jobs let you take extra time off.”
Matteo works as a grunt for Alabaster Security, while Felix and I work for our dad’s firm—not as lawyers, but as analysts.
Obviously, we can pretty much take whatever time off we want; it’s Matteo’s job that would have kept us there longer.
For some reason, Matteo needs to use his hands; he’s not content with just telling people what to do and overseeing things.
He likes being in the thick of it, so he applied and got a job at one of the biggest personal security firms in the city, much to our parents’ irritation.
“Yeah,” Matteo says with a grunt. “You wanna tell us why you didn’t warn us you’d be bringing Noelle?”
Our sister smirks. It is a devilish smirk, one that we’ve come to know really well over the years. It’s her I-have-a-plan smirk. “The same reason I didn’t tell her.”
“Which is…” I trail off.
Miranda stands with attitude cascading off her in heaps. “Please. You know exactly why. You guys are so… so…” For once, our sister is speechless, and it takes her a good while to come up with a way to finish that sentence. “So stupid with the way you guys pretend nothing’s going on.”
Matteo glares, while Felix says, “But nothing is going on. We haven’t done anything.”
“Yeah, exactly. You three losers haven’t done anything. Why not?”
It’s clear none of us were expecting that to come out of her mouth, because we all glance at each other after that. I know I, for one, am wondering if I heard her right. The way she said it, it sounds like she wants something to happen between us and Noelle, but that can’t be… can it?
“The clock is tick, tick, ticking,” Miranda goes on. “That girl is less than six months away from her first heat, so you guys need to get your butts in gear, unless you want her to have her first heat in our parents’ house.”
“Uh…” I say. “Question here. Just for clarification purposes, what, uh, what exactly are you talking about?”
She pinches the bridge of her nose. “I swear you guys don’t even have three brain cells to rub together. I’m talking about Noelle and the fact that you guys love her.” The way she tosses out that word, that big, heavy word, so easily, catches the three of us completely off-guard.
I choke on air, temporarily forgetting how to breathe, while Felix rubs the back of his neck and looks away.
And Matteo? He’s the only one who has the balls to speak: “What makes you think we’re in love with her?
Is it just because we’re comfortable with her?
You bring her around all the goddamned time—” The look our beta sister gives him stops him from saying anything else.
Yeah, not many betas could claim to have power over an über, but our sister is one of them.
“Uh-huh,” she goes along with him, “and that’s why you’re twenty-five and have never even thought about courting another omega?”
“Hey,” I say, acting hurt, “I’m only twenty-three.”
“Yeah,” my twin says, “me too. Uh, obviously.”
Miranda groans. “You guys are so stupid, I swear. I don’t know what she sees in you and frankly, I think she’s way too good for you, but after all these years, I’m tired of everybody dancing around it. You three better get your act together, because by the end of this trip, I want results.”
“Results?” Matteo echoes, stunned.
“Yes, you heard me, meathead. And since our mom and dads aren’t here yet, you better make the most of it, because by God, I’m so sick of you four avoiding each other.
Make a freaking move.” Her words completely go against the little chat we had earlier in between ourselves, when we first arrived, and I don’t think any of us know quite how to respond to her or her instruction. “Have you seen her yet?”
“Uh, yeah,” Felix says. “She was very confused about us being here. I don’t think she—”
“She does,” our sister interrupts with a frown.
“Trust me, she definitely does. And while I don’t want to hear or see anything, I’m mature enough to acknowledge the fact I want you to be happy.
” That frown of hers turns upside-down when she adds, “Plus, then she’ll really be my sister if she’s a part of your pack. I’ve always wanted a sister.”
That’s what this is about? Our sister wanting a sister for herself?
Or is there more to it, does she genuinely see something between us and Noelle?
Miranda said enough to get our minds turning, and she says nothing else as she turns to leave the living room, heading to the kitchen to make herself something.
“Well,” Felix starts, and I finish for him, “Shit.”
Well, shit. That’s exactly what’s on our minds. So much for giving her space, for making sure we don’t do anything inappropriate. Now that our sister is in our heads, it’s obvious our initial plan was never going to work.
Is it that obvious? I mean, I never really thought about it like that, but… maybe Miranda is right. Maybe it isn’t just a fondness for her friend. Maybe it is more.
Love. Shit.
“What are we going to do?” Felix asks no one in particular.
Matteo leans forward and rubs his hands on his face. He must think it over some, because it’s a minute before he answers, “We don’t do anything stupid, no matter what she says.”
“Yeah, I mean, how do we even know that Noelle likes us and Miranda’s not playing some sick joke on us?” I say, but as I say it, I can’t fight the way my whole body argues with the possibility. Like, it makes me physically sick to think Noelle can’t possibly care about us.
“I don’t think she would,” my twin says, hurriedly adding, “Miranda, I mean. I don’t think she’d play a joke like this on us. As for Noelle, I… I don’t know. I don’t want to mess anything up.”
Miranda joins us in the living room with a bowl of cereal even though it’s damn near lunch time.
“Looks like it snowed all night,” she remarks, shoving a spoonful of dry cereal into her mouth, the absolute madwoman.
“Why don’t you guys invite her to build a snowman or something?
It’ll be fun. It’ll give you guys some time together while I stay nice and cozy in the house. ”
My brothers and I share a look. Build a snowman, huh?
That… that actually sounds like it might be fun.
We can pretend we’re kids or some shit, forget about all the responsibilities and pressures that come with adult life.
That’s what this week is about, isn’t it?
Traditions, unplugging from social media, having fun.
But would she want to?
I leap up. “Only one way to find out.”
“Huh?” Felix asks.
“Oh, I was answering my own question.” I walk with a purpose, stumbling over the guys’ legs until I make it past the couch. Once I reach the stairwell, I hurry up it and find the only closed door in the hall. My hand curls into a fist as I knock and say, “Message for one Noelle Winter.”
Seconds pass, and I wonder if, perhaps, she’s going to ignore me.
Thankfully she doesn’t, and soon enough her pretty face is staring up at me after she swings open the door.
“What’s the message?” she asks, thoughtful and so stinking cute.
She still wears her pajamas; she looks so cuddly, I can’t imagine her wanting to brave the cold, snowy outside world and build a snowman with us, but stranger things have happened, I suppose.
For a moment, I forget why I’m there, what my message was supposed to be. Standing there, less than two feet away from her, I’m struck by how badly I want to reach for her and pull her in close, how I want to wrap my arms around her and never let her go.
Fuck. Who was I to try to say Miranda was wrong? She was so right. She was so right it’s laughable.
Noelle blinks up at me with those big, beautiful blue eyes. “Hello? Are you in there?”
I snap back to reality and blurt it out in a rush: “Do you want to build a snowman?”
She cracks a grin, a wide, toothy smile that would easily knock lesser men to their knees. Me? My legs do feel wobbly all of a sudden, but I’m sure it’s not related to that smile. “You should’ve sung it.”
“Huh?”
“You know, do you want to build a… never mind.” She bites her bottom lip in a gesture that is way too tempting.
Watching her bite that lip makes me want to lean down and bite that lip for her.
Never have I wanted to do anything more than bite that freaking supple lip and hear whatever moan she’d breathe out in response.
Shit. Need to stop that train of thought before I get hard.
“You’re really going outside to build a snowman?” she asks.
“Yeah, maybe we’ll even get crazy and build more than one. What do you say? You want to join us in the wintry wonderland out there?”
Noelle looks as though she’s thinking about it.
At first, when Miranda said it, I thought she was crazy, but being outside might just be the escape we all need.
Out there, we’ll be too busy freezing our asses off and building a snowman to pay too much attention to just how delicious the omega smells, and maybe seeing her trapped in a puffy jacket will help keep our minds out of the gutter.
One can hope. One can pray. One can plead.
A minute passes, and just when I think she’s going to say no, her smile widens and she says, “Okay. Let’s do it. Let’s build a snowman.”