Chapter 26 ~ #2
My mother blows past that, offering us some of her chicken and potatoes. Remembering Rory hasn’t seen the house yet, Mama tells us to go check out the progress while she plates some up.
The house is two stories. The spare bedrooms, kitchen and living room are on the ground while our bedrooms are on the second level.
Rory slowly walks up the hardwood stairs, looking at some of the group photos Mama must have framed and hung.
There’s one of the six of us guys on Christmas at Helen and Devon’s last year. Then another of us at the lake a few months ago. We’d gone bush while we sorted out hiding Luc after the whole Hades thing happened.
Rory smiles softly at the photos before continuing up the stairs.
I’ll have to ask Alec to print some with Rory in them.
“Wow,” Rory murmurs when we go into the first room.
The room’s are a decent size with three rooms and a bathroom on one side of the hall and four rooms on the other.
The week at the hospital gave the contractors enough time to finish up the upstairs rooms.
Before Rory, her room was a second bathroom. It didn’t take long for us to change the plans.
Our rooms are white, per Alec’s instruction, because the rest of us are hopeless with this shit.
Rory glances around one of the twins' rooms. Mama’s been shopping apparently because the bed’s made with grey sheets and a dark grey doona.
The rooms have built-in closets and huge diamond windows with thin shades.
We peek our heads into the other rooms, similar to the first.
“That’s Luc’s room.” I point out the room opposite to the door I’m opening. “And this is yours.”
Rory gasps, freezing in the doorway. I nudge her in with a hand on her back.
Her walls are a light grey with pastel pink trim—the only room Alec couldn’t convince us to leave plain. The poster bed’s fucking massive, with enough room for the seven of us. The wooden frame was my design so it’s sturdy and won’t break from certain activities.
“That’s a huge bed,” Rory says lightly, trying to hide the emotion in her voice.
“If there’s anything you don’t like, we can change it,” Alec tells her.
She shakes her head. “It’s perfect,” she whispers.
As Rory walks around, her fingers brushing over everything she lays eyes on.
She opens the door to the ensuite bathroom and sighs when she sees the claw foot bathtub. We pulled that straight from the Pinterest board.
I lead her over to the massive walk-in wardrobe.
“Your closet and Luc’s double as panic rooms,” I tell her, watching her reaction. “Ideally, we’d have all our bedrooms like that but there isn’t enough space.” I explain to her how to use it and Alec reminds us of the combination to unlock it.
“When the panic room is activated and when it unlocks, it will send an alert to all our phones,” Alec informs Rory.
“Mk.” Rory walks over the big ass diamond shaped window overlooking the yard. Her fingers rub across the white, wooden window frame as she peers down.
Luc and I lock gazes and I tilt my head towards Rory. He nods. Out of all of us, Luc’s been in the closest thing to Rory’s situation.
Luc slowly walks over and entwines their fingers.
“Hey, Butterfly,” Luc says softly.
Rory lays her head on his shoulder. “Hey, Luci.”
Alec and I smile at Luc’s nickname. I’m not sure Rory understands how good that nickname is for Luc. He needs a constant reminder that he’s not ‘The Slayer.’ That he can simply be just Luc.
“We’ll meet you guys downstairs,” I tell them. Rory nods.
As Alec and I enter the hallway, Luc starts quietly talking.
Alec braces his arm as he slowly walks down the stairs. When Flynn asked him what colour cast he wanted, Alec picked blue. To him, it’s an orangey yellow colour.
There’s many drawings from Benji and Elsie scattered over it along with our names. He’s weirdly proud of it.
Mama glances up as she rests a few plates of chicken on the wooden countertop.
“That girl’s wounded deep,” Mama tells us.
I know her well enough to know Mama’s not talking about physically.
I nod slightly. I haven’t told Mama the full story. I wanted to talk to her before she ambushed Rory.
“She’s got scars that haven’t healed yet,” Mama says softly.
“We’re hoping being here will be better for her. And us.” I kiss Mama’s cheek, accepting the plate of chicken she hands me.
“And Jace?” Mama questions, raising her eyebrow.
Alec murmurs his thanks when he gets handed a plate.
“Jace is fine, Mama. So are the twins,” I tell her.
Before she can launch a full-on investigation, the sound of a horse whinnying draws our attention.
“Ah,” Mama wipes her hands, “that’ll be your father.”
I set my plate down and head out the front door as footsteps clamber down the stairs.
. . .
Rory ~
“We’ll meet you downstairs,” Dom tells us.
Luc waits until Dom and Alec are out to the door to how I am.
“I’m okay, Luci.”
Luc looks like he doesn’t believe me.
I stare out at the mountains and cows in the paddocks in the distance. “I feel like this is a dream,” I tell him.
“I know what you mean. That’s how I felt first seeing it.” Luc squeezes my hand. “But it’s not. You’re here—with your boyfriends.”
I smile like a fool. “I like that.”
Luc kisses the top of my head. “Me too, Butterfly.”
My arm curls around his waist and his arm drops over my shoulders.
I feel like ‘boyfriend’ isn’t a strong enough word for how I feel for them. They’re perfect. They’re mine.
I think that term—boyfriend—it just doesn’t feel like what I feel for my guys.
“What do Dominic’s parents know about me?” I ask Luc.
“The basics. Nothing into much detail,” Luc assures me. “Dom would have told them you’re Dec’s sister, I’m assuming, but we didn’t tell them a lot. We had to tell them about the car accident when we were late but that’s all they think it was.”
“Okay,” I murmur. “It’s not that I don’t trust them, it’s just…” I struggle to find the right words.
“Force of habit,” Luc says knowingly. “They’re Dom’s parents but they’re still strangers.”
“Yeah.” I sigh, grateful he gets it.
“Dom understands. He won’t say anything you’re not comfortable with,” Luc tells me as a loud noise echoes up to us before there’s barking.
I glance up at Luc in confusion before looking out the window for whatever it was.
“Come on, baby.” Luc grins, squeezing my hand.
My eyes take in the room one more time before I follow Luc as he takes the stairs in twos. I laugh at his excitement and race after him.
Alec shakes his head, smiling at us as we enter the kitchen.
“Follow Dom,” Alec tells me.
Before I overthink it with Alice there, I kiss Alec’s cheek and follow after Dom.
I’m thrown onto my ass after a few steps out the door. The air is knocked out of me. I freeze when I take in the animal on top of me.
“Abbie!” Dom whistles.
The German Shepherd ignores him. His front paws are on my shoulders from where he’s jumped up, knocking me over.
He’s looking straight into my eyes like he can see into my soul. And he just…stares at me. I start getting a little nervous about Dom’s dog potentially eating me.
“Abraxas.” Dom growls and Abraxas just wags his tail before he starts licking my forehead.
I start laughing. I can’t push him away because he’s on my arms so I just take it until Dom pulls him off.
An older man who looks way too much like Dom to be anything other than his father, helps me to my feet.
“Sorry about that, Love.” Dom’s father checks me over. His Australian accent or rather, his lack of an accent, is a strong contrast to Dom and his mother’s southern accents.
“Sorry, Sweetheart,” Dom apologises. Abraxas slides up against my legs like a cat.
“He’s okay,” I tell Dom. I lean down to pat Abraxas. His tail taps against my leg when I find a good spot.
I glance up at Dom’s father and see him smiling at me.
“Hello, Rory. I’m John,” Dom’s father introduces himself.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” I smile awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.
John simply smiles at me. “You too, hon.”
The screen door opens. Abraxas doesn’t leave to greet Luc and Alec—his tail just thumps harder against my leg.
“How’s it going, boys?” Dom’s father greets Alec and Luc.
“Hey, John.” Luc shakes his hand. Was I supposed to do that?
I don’t focus on that and focus on the gorgeous dog at my feet when he rolls onto his back, wanting a belly rub. I laugh when his tongue lolls out of his mouth with what I can only describe as a doggy grin on his face.
I hear that odd noise again and look to my left. Tied to the porch railing is…a horse.
I straighten and Abraxas goes to Alec for his next source of pats.
It’s a brown sort of reddish horse with white bits on its legs that go up to his or her knees.
It nickers—a melodic noise.
Dom laughs softly at my gaping. His hand slips into mine and he tugs me towards the horse.
They are a lot bigger when you’re standing beside them.
Dom undoes the lead from the porch rail and just lays it over the horse’s neck.
“Won’t he or she run away?” I whisper to Dom like the horse can hear my words and might take the opportunity to flee.
Dom grins. “She. And nah, Red likes pats too much.” He scratches behind her ear like a dog.
The red horse’s name is…Red. “That’s not very original,” I tell him.
Dom shrugs. “Just keepin’ things simple.” I swear his drawl got deeper just being near the horse.
I’m distracted by that when Dom grabs my hand and directs it to the horse. He gives me a reassuring look when I freeze. I relax and let him place my hand on Red’s neck.
Oh. I let my brain process the soft feeling of her coat. Dom’s shows me how to pat her and I brush my hand up and down her neck.
She nickers and flings her head up and down. I’m surprised by her sudden movement and jump away, stumbling back.
“Hey, hey.” Dom steadies me, his arms coming around me. “It’s okay, baby. It means she likes it.” Faint concern fills his eyes as he rubs my arms.
My heart pounds, flush creeping up my neck. I let him lead me back over.
I feel Luc and Alec step up behind us. They don’t come over, just stand a few metres away.