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“Don’t even start with the short girl names,” I said as I waved a finger at Cole. “I’m not short. I’m average height for a woman actually.”
Harris burst out laughing from the kitchen, obviously having heard the line I had thrown back at him so many times when we were dating before. I looked over to him and smiled affectionately. It was a joke just between the two of us, and I liked that. Plus, who could resist Harris when he gave you the full weight of his handsome smile? He didn’t do it often enough now and that hadn’t escaped my notice. When we were younger he was always laughing and smiling. Life had stolen that from him and I wanted to do all I could to give it back.
“Go darlin’,” Kailan told me as he leaned in close to my ear. “We’ll get the table laid for dinner and try to keep the peace.” He placed a kiss lightly on my cheek before he stood straight and headed back to the kitchen. I blushed as a play by play of what we had almost done in my room just an hour before flashed through my head.
“Come on then,” I shouted way too loud as I jumped to my feet and hurried from the table before anyone noticed how red I had become. The way things were headed, I was pretty sure I may not survive this dinner.
***
“Kailan did a good job with the head wound. It looks good,” Xander told me as we both stood from the sofa to head into the kitchen again. He’d taken a close look at my head, then redressed it, but he seemed impressed with Kailan’s handiwork, which was something I supposed. “That gash on your arm would have been better with stitches though.”
“That’s what Kailan said, but I was too exhausted to go to the ER.”
“It’ll likely leave a pretty gnarly scar,” Xander warned.
“What’s one more,” I shrugged nonchalantly. It would be far from the worse scar I had on my body.
“What do you mean?” Xander grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop before I stepped into the kitchen. “You have scars?” I swallowed deeply as I considered trying to backtrack what I had inadvertently admitted, but what was the point? He’d know I was lying.
I placed my hand over his on my arm and looked up to meet his gaze, the whole time fighting back the tears that burned in my eyes.
“Xand, I was held by a serial killer who likes to torture his victims until they beg for death. I have scars,” I said as plainly and quickly as I could. It was the only way to get the words out before my voice broke.
“Fuck,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, Evie. That’s a bullshit thing to say, but I really am. If there had been any way I…we could have stopped it…” he looked away as his voice hitched and my heart broke to know he was crying.
“I know,” I said as I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist and held him. “I know you’d all have done anything to save me if you could, but you have to understand you guys and Livy are the only reason I’m standing here right now. The strength you all showed me and gave me growing up…it got me through. It made me strong enough to survive with a determination that I would live. I refused to give up and that was because of all of you,” I went on tearfully. “I’m gonna be okay, Xand. It’s gonna take time and I don’t think I’ll ever be the girl I was before, but I will find my way and I will be okay.”
“I know you will. You’re so fucking strong. We’re all so proud of you,” he told me as he crushed me in his arms.
“We should get in there before Kyle kills someone,” I laughed tearfully as I pulled back and swiped at my watery eyes. “Don’t tell them, okay? About the scars. They’re already so on edge. I don’t want to make it worse and what’s done is done, right?”
“I won’t tell them, but they probably already have some idea, especially Kyle and Kade. They’ve been looking into this serial killer for months now. They know what he’s capable of. It’s probably why they’re so on edge,” Xander explained, and that made sense all of a sudden. Don’t get me wrong, all five of my brothers had always been over the top protective, but they weren’t usually quite so murderous as they’d been recently.
I nodded, then led the way into the kitchen, pausing in the doorway and laughing out loud when I saw the situation at the table. My brothers were all sat side by side on the left, with Kyle at one end. Harris was at the other end, being stared down by Kyle and beside him were my other three guys, all sat opposite my brothers and all mid staring competition it seemed. Zack was in his high chair beside Nick, shoveling cut up bites of garlic bread into and all around his mouth between happily chattering baby speak. It was quite the scene.
“Well, at least they’re not killing each other,” Xand uttered as he passed me and headed for the table, settling in the free seat between Kyle and Zack’s high chair.
“Hey there. That taste good, buddy?” he laughed as he gave his attention to Zack. “How old is he?”
“He just turned one last month. He’s started walking but he’s not so forth coming with the talking,” Nick replied as he relaxed in his chair and turned to face Xander.
“Tom was like that, remember?” Cole looked to the others as he spoke. “He walked at ten months, but he refused to utter a word. We were worried he’d never speak,” Cole laughed.
“Yeah, he was almost two before he started saying anything. Livy had that poor pediatrician on speed dial,” Kade agreed.
“He was our first, so we were pretty paranoid about everything he did and didn’t do,” Matt explained as I took a seat between Harris and Kade and relaxed a little.
“Well at least I know he’ll talk eventually,” Nick replied as he ruffled his son’s thick hair. “Shall we eat? It’s nothing special, just lasagna.”
“It smells delicious,” Xander told him as he started to fill his plate with salad. Nick cut into the steaming dish of lasagna and I watched on in surprise as Harris grabbed my plate from before me and held it out so Nick could hand me the first piece.
“Eat, sweetheart. You haven’t had anything since yesterday,” Harris said when I looked to him.
“You want some salad?” Aleks offered as he lifted the bowl and handed it across to me. I smiled gratefully as I took it and added a little to my plate. Harris was right. It had been over twenty-four hours since I last had anything substantial and I was definitely hungry. I stuck in as the others filled their own plates with mountains of food, as always, then a silence descended as they all started to eat.
I ate what I could, which, as usual, wasn’t much, but I felt full and much better for it. When I looked up I wasn’t surprised to find every set of eyes at the table, except Zack, watching me.
“Is that all you’re gonna eat?” Matt asked first.
