AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Is that true?”
I nod.
My twin advances on me. I back away until a long arm is looped around my waist. The heat of Luke’s body acts as a wall to contain me and a shield to protect me. He holds me in place as Sander rages at me, inflexible when I try to escape, yet he also soothes me with gentle strokes on my hair.
Always on Sander’s side yet always the pacifist peacemaker.
Luke Hayes is the best bits of all of us rolled into one beautiful soul.
“You’ve gotta concede this fight,” Luke murmurs when Sander stops screaming at me long enough to draw breath. “Alex is a trigger for Sander.”
“And you?”
From behind me I can feel Luke nod. “There’s a reason he was booted from the team all those years ago.”
I vaguely remember something going down when Sander and Luke joined the basketball team at the beginning of high school, however it was kept reasonably quiet since Alex and the other boys involved left to attend their final year at the posh boys school in Perth not long afterward. At the time, I was dealing with becoming a woman in a house without a maternal presence, since Charlie didn’t live with us at that stage, the drama wasn’t on my radar.
Alex hasn’t really been a topic of discussion since then.
Turning in Luke’s embrace, I lift my eyebrows in a silent request for him to explain.
Angry or not, I won’t do anything to hurt Sander.
My dad emerges from the town hall with Charlie. There’s a pack of Shamrocks trailing after them. They’re all drunk, loud and obnoxious. Some of the single brothers have picked up local women, and the tenor of the group shows the signs of devolving into an orgy. As is his way, Dad sucks all of the attention toward himself, and whatever else Luke was going to say is halted when Charlie squeals in laughter, her delicate features lighting up as my father slaps her ass.
I roll my eyes at their antics.
“Righto, Mayberry kids... party’s over. Here at least,” Charlie announces before she gestures to the pack of drunks behind her. “This lot are continuing on at the farm. Everett, you’re in charge of getting your brothers home. Lilianna, you’re driving your father’s truck. Everyone else can find a seat in one of the vehicles, order a taxi, or call it a night.”
I can’t say that I’m unhappy when Sander chooses to go with Luke and Everett.
Just like I can’t say I don’t feel like a coward when I feign sleep when my brothers try to barge into my room an hour later. Eyes screwed shut, I allow Nadia to shoo them away, deciding that I’d rather face their wrath tomorrow than deal with them when they’re drunk and stoned tonight.
“Dad! Alexander Kingsley’s at the door,” Everett yells just after midday the next day.
“Told you he’d come,” Nadia whisper-shouts.
She slept over like she usually does, waking me an hour earlier, determined to make me “presentable” for when Alex popped over to ask me out later today. I wasn’t so sure he would come, but my best friend was adamant.
Turns out she was right.
“He wants a replay of your tongue down his throat.”
“I didn’t—”
“Sure. Sure.”
My shoulder throbs, reminding me that he bit me.
Am I willing to play games with someone like that?
Seeing that I’m not in the mood for her teasing, Nadia makes quick work of touching up my lip gloss and opening an extra button on my shirt. She’s still fussing with my hair when Charlie knocks on my bedroom door and requests my presence on the back patio.
There’s reluctance in my step as I follow her deeper into the single storey farmhouse. Once Charlie walks past me and into the kitchen, I check my reflection in the hall mirror. I look as good as I’m going to after a late night spent worrying about the mess that is my life.
“Go and get him, tiger.” Nadia slaps my arse before she pushes past me to rummage in the fridge for something greasy to cook. “Make that idiot kiss your feet.”
“Or you could use your fuckin’ brains,” Everett snarks from the doorway of the pantry. “And stay away from the pervert.”
