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“I don’t know why you’re saying that’s horrible. That’s what your second did,” Callum replied helpfully.
Nico launched what looked like a half empty water bottle at his head, which Callum deflected easily enough.
He wasn’t prepared for the bag of chips that I launched shortly after Nico’s water bottle, and it hit him in the face and chips exploded all over the floor.
“Now go get me some more, you big raging asshole. I can’t believe you’d do that to me,” I whined.
He laughed and got up to head to the door, but when he opened it, he couldn’t get out because a wall of muscle was blocking his way.
That wall of muscle being my baby brother Banks.
Well, he wasn’t much of a baby anymore, at twenty three, but he was still younger than me, and always would be.
He clapped his twin on the back and walked inside.
I couldn’t breathe.
Awkwardly, I got up out of the most uncomfortable bed in the world and hurried quickly to my brother.
He looked good.
He was in the ugly BDUs that the Air Force wore, but he was still extremely handsome. And he’d put on a little weight, as well as a lot of bulk.
Which I found out after I launched myself at him.
He caught me easily and lifted me off my feet, hugging me to him snugly.
“I missed you, sissy,” he whispered.
I laughed at the nickname he’d always called me. All my brothers did it, but he did it the most consistently.
“How are you here?” I cried into his neck.
He was supposed to have another month of deployment left. I’d even made arrangements to pick him up at the airport already!
He laughed. “I asked for emergency leave, but they said I could just head home. We were supposed to be leaving in a week, they just hadn’t had the chance to tell us yet. So I came home. Couldn’t miss my sister’s babies’ baptism, now could I?”
Tears scalded my cheeks. “I love you, Banks.”
His arms squeezed me a little tighter and then put me back down on my feet. “Now let me meet these babies.”***I walked to the door, curious as to what’d kept Nico out there so long, and was startled to see he was talking to someone.
“… was disinherited when he did something the kingpin didn’t want done. We’re not a hundred percent sure, but from what we can tell, there won’t be any retaliation. In fact, if I’m understanding right, there’s no controversy whatsoever. They’re happy that you took care of everything that they’d been trying to do for years now,” a man in a suit said to Nico.
Nico had his broad back to me.
His arms were crossed, and he was looking down at his boots as he listened to the man talk.
He nodded his head, and as he spoke, I saw the visible difference in him after he heard the words.
“So I don’t have to go into Witsec? I’m married now, you’d have to take my family with me,” Nico said, somewhat desperately.
I felt my heart get heavy at the tone of his voice. The poor man.
Here I was thinking about myself all the time Nico was away, but what must Nico have gone through?
Had he laid awake worrying about me? Missing the smell of me like I missed the smell of him.
He practically missed the entire pregnancy. My God, that had to have killed him.
Nico was probably torn up inside.
I opened the door all the way.
The man I guessed was some sort of cop looked up, but Nico was deep in thought, and didn’t notice me until I wrapped my hands around his waist and pressed my belly against his back.
His arm came back and pressed me to him slightly harder as he leaned back and kissed me awkwardly on the top of my head.
The cop smiled at me. “Congratulations. I hear you had twins.”
I smiled widely at him. “Yes. They look exactly like their daddy, too.”
I could practically feel the pride emanating from Nico’s body.
He loved them both already, even after only hours of them being born. And if I had to guess, he loved them way before that, too. Even when he thought there was only one.
The man smiled at me, winking and said, “Well, I’ve kept you long enough, son. I’ll be going. Let me know if there’s anything I can do. I’ll keep you updated on the family, but I honestly don’t think you have a thing to worry about. It was nice to meet you, dear.”
And with that, the man left, walking quietly down the darkened hall, disappearing into the shadows once he was four doors down from our room.
Nico turned in my arms and pushed us back until he could close the room of our door, then he wrapped his arms around me squeezed so tightly that my breath squeaked out in a wheeze.
I let him do it, though, realizing on some level that he needed that right then.
So I just hugged him back, relishing in the fact that he was there with me to do it at all.
His grip around me loosened after a few more long seconds, and I felt him take a long, deep shuddering breath before letting it out slowly.
“I was lost without you,” he admitted quietly.
I laid my head down at his shoulder, until my lips were resting against his neck, and said, “I missed calling you during the day. I missed going to sleep with you. I missed watching you chop wood because I said something to piss you off. I missed you leaving your dirty underwear just outside the laundry room where you dropped them on the way. I missed how you’d open my jars for me. Which, might I add, I have about ten of them on the counter at home just waiting for you to open.”
He started laughing, which was what I’d wanted him to do.
“I’ll open them as soon as we get back home. But we’ll have to move them back to my house,” he rumbled. “You don’t have the room for two kids.”
