Chapter Twelve
Eating healthily was indeed the last thing on everyone’s mind when they went shopping.
The twins carried what seemed to be enough chips for a small army, and all the junk food they could carry.
She thought, and not for the first time, that it was a miracle they kept so ripped when they ate so much, so many times.
But it was true she never saw them idle.
What she’d imagined to be a small cabin was in fact a large wooden house with two floors and a balcony. It was situated in a clearing, surrounded by trees and only accessible with a Jeep through a terrain so rough that Tara joked it would make the milk turn to butter inside a cow.
The cabin was adorable, and Freya was glad she’d let them convince her to come.
The ground floor was open space, with a rustic kitchen that was separated from the living room by a table with eight chairs.
There were several rugs on the floor, but thankfully, no stuffed animals on the floor or the walls.
Stairs led to the upper level, where the bedrooms and bathroom would undoubtedly be located.
Tanya said the cabin had three bedrooms, and they’d given her Evelyn’s. They had their own rooms.
“Do you come here often?” she asked, curiously, when the twins were bringing the luggage out of the car.
“Not often enough,” said Ciaran, shrugging sheepishly. “We used, though ... when we were kids.”
She tried to imagine the big lugs as kids and gave up. Her mind was conjuring all kinds of images, but they always ended up with two rowdy kids getting themselves in trouble.
For the first time, she felt ... relaxed.
Not only was she getting more used to the twins being around, but she had noticed that no matter how they bantered with their family, they were the first ones to defend them.
Even Tanya, who had one of the sharpest tongues she had ever met, always spoke her mind and got a playful punch in the arm, at the most. They were big, they were strong, and they were protectors.
They were also acting ... weird. They were always around doing something, but each time she mentioned she needed something, one of them would be around to give it to her.
Their eyes, always so sharp to the outside world, were soft when they looked at her.
One of them, if not both, were always around, and initially she felt the pangs of panic trying to entangle her.
But slowly, she relaxed. They weren’t threatening her, if anything, they were making sure she was relaxed and safe.
Even at work. They seemed to be so in tune with her feelings that they’d even appeared magically by her side when her distress levels increased at a particularly aggressive customer at the gym the day before.
Not that the young man was openly aggressive toward her, but his body language spoke volumes of what he thought about someone as mousy as her being at the front desk.
She was mentally blocked, not remembering how to unlock the register, and the more blocked she became, the more aggressive the stance of the customer was.
The twins had showed him with no uncertainty that she was not to be trifled with. The man ended up wordless, only muttering a feeble excuse. Of course, an elbow to his throat could have helped rendering him speechless, but still...
But despite the violence of the act, Freya didn’t feel threatened by Ciaran.
His elbow was still at the man’s throat when he was apologizing, but Declan’s hand was resting gently on hers, his thumb making small, comforting circles on her wrist. They weren’t violent with her, but for her.
To defend her. And after the small incident was forgotten and the man expelled from the gym, they had both turned to her, worry in their eyes, asking if she was okay.
She was able to give a faint smile, which turned into astonishment when Declan gently kissed her wrist and Ciaran gave her a comforting kiss on the cheek. There was something in both of them that felt ... right.
But it couldn’t be, she couldn’t possibly be, not after everything...
“Hey, baby girl. Pizza?”
“Sorry, what?”
“Pizza. What do you like on your pizza?”
“Besides us,” Ciaran joked, flexing his muscles. Blushing, she turned her eyes to Tanya.
“Pepperoni sounds great.”
“A woman after my own heart,” said Declan, theatrically.
From the depths of the never-ending bag came some frozen pizzas that found their way to the gigantic oven near the sink.
“Hey, baby girl. Saved you a spot.”
Even Tara had picked up the habit of calling her baby girl, and now she was everyone’s baby girl.
Freya sat, only to be surrounded by the twins. Declan kicked Tara off the sofa so that they could sit by her, each with a plate full of cheesy pizza, each feeding her small bites while keeping her entertained. They had so many stories from their time in the military that she couldn’t stop laughing.
The fireplace emitted a lively fire, keeping them nice and warm. As time passed, Freya forgot she was surrounded by powerful men and truly relaxed. But when Tanya ended the night with a yawn, she also fled to her room.