“Four months?” I blinked. “Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
“I ... uh ... I guess I knew you wouldn’t be happy about it.”
Damn right.
“Listen to me, and listen well,” I said sternly. “Sex is off the table until you’re an adult. Now, with that being said, I know my warning may be ignored when the opportunity is presented to you over the next few years, but if you have sex, you better wear a condom or God Himself won’t be able to help you. I’ll kick your ass if you get a girlfriend pregnant or catch an STI. We clear?”
Jules cheeks were flaming red, and he said, “We’re clear.”
“I’m serious, Jules,” I said. “Responsibility comes with sex.”
“Da,” he groaned. “I hear ye’, and trust me, at the rate Avery wants to take things, I’ll be a virgin until I’m thirty. Ye’ really don’t have to worry about me.”
Something in my heart told me that I didn’t have to worry about him, so I accepted that with a nod.
“Go clean up your eye, then talk to Nixon,” I encouraged. “Bring an ice-pack with you for his lip. Tell him what you just told me, and both of you will be cool by the end of the day.”
Jules nodded, then said, “Ma will be a harder hurdle to tackle.”
I snorted. “I’ll handle your mom. You go and find Nixon.”
Jules bumped fists with me and left the room armed with an ice-pack for his brother. I went in search of my wife, and after finding Israel playing in the bathtub on his own, I went into my bedroom and found Branna lying on our bed with her eyes closed.
“Tough day, Mama?”
She grunted. “Is it too late to put the twins up for adoption? Because I’m seriously considerin’ it.”
I crawled onto the bed beside her, chuckling. “I think we’re a little passed that, don’t you?”
Branna opened her eyes and looked up at me as I settled next to her.
“They scared me, Ryder.” She frowned. “Jules almost hit me when I tried to separate them. They are only fourteen, and they’re already bigger than me. Can ye’ imagine when they in their twenties and fight? I’ll still try to stop them and will probably get a broken nose for me troubles.”
“That’ll never happen because I’d break their bones before they ever get a chance to break yours.”
“I’m not playin’.” She shook her head. “Today was the first day that they didn’t listen to me when they fought, and it really scared me, Ry. I was on me own with them, and all I could think of was throwin’ water on them.”
I realised then that my wife was crying, so I bundled her in my arms and rested her against my body.
“I’ve spoken to them both, and trust me when I say they both feel like shit. Expect apologies from them before the day is up.”
Branna sniffled. “I’m so mad at them. They could have really hurt each other.”
“I know, and they know that now, too. It was misunderstanding over a girl, but Jules is apologising to Nixon as we speak. You’ll be next.”
I had barely finished speaking when a light knock sounded. Both Branna and I looked at the open doorway of our room, and found Jules and Nixon standing side by side, their eyes locked on their mom, and an identical frown on their faces. Jules’s eyebrow was cleaned and had stopped bleeding. Nixon lip was still a swollen knot but icing it for a few hours would help.
“Ma.” Jules swallowed. “We’re really sorry for fightin’, we didn’t mean to upset ye’.”
“Yeah.” Nixon nodded. “We were wrong. We shouldn’t have fought at all. We’re really sorry.”
If I didn’t know any better at that moment, I’d say my twins were my twin brothers. Their white hair was inherited from Damien, and their mannerisms were most definitely thanks to Dominic. They looked very much like me, but so did my brothers, so in a way, they resembled them, too. It freaked me out for a minute.
“I accept your apology, but both of ye’ really upset me. Today was the first day ye’ scared me, and it’s not a feelin’ I enjoyed at all.”
The second the words left my wife’s mouth, my son’s eyes widened, and they walked into the room and crawled up onto our bed. I was pushed aside as my sons replaced me and cuddled my wife.
“We’re sorry,” Jules said.
Nixon nodded. “We love ye’, Ma. We’d never ever hurt ye’. We’re sorry we scared ye’.”
Branna hugged them both while I was sitting on the edge of the bed completely forgotten about.
“Both of you guys upset me too, if you want to offer me hugs.”
Branna giggled, making my sons laugh. They both released their mother, turned to me, and without a word, they jumped on me and tried their hardest to pin me against the mattress. They almost succeeded. Almost. I flipped Jules onto his back, which he found hilarious before I shoved Nixon against him and pinned both of them to the bed by lying on top of them.