Chapter Nineteen
Liam didn’t knowhow to react when Sam appeared in the living room and installed the unconscious Lazarus in the recliner situated not far from the still naked fir tree.
The moment Sam appeared with his package, the brothers reacted as one, ready to defend and protect the man. One second later, reassured, they just gaped, unsure what to do.
All the men froze in the middle of the room, as the women, Lucas, Cary, and Ted jumped into action. It wasn’t until Isabel turned up the Christmas carols that Liam shook himself and took Catriona’s arm. “What are you doing?”
As if Catriona was the only person holding the answers, they surrounded her. Liam wasn’t sure if she was courageous or just not aware of how dangerous the men surrounding her could be, but she smiled innocently.
She looked at the brothers like she was in the middle of a circle of teddy bears. “I want to make you all realize how lucky you are.”
Archer snorted. “I wouldn’t call us lucky, little nun.”
Liam hadn’t seen her so fierce and determined before and he admired her even more.
“You overcame so much, you survived poverty, violence, and you became good men. Don’t you see what’s in front of your eyes? You have each other, isn’t that worth celebrating?”
Laughter bubbled up from outside the circle, Cary calling her name. With a nod, she slipped under Liam’s arm and rejoined the party.
Sam came by to his side and shrugged. “I don’t know what to think. Of this, of what she said.”
Liam looked down, but words failed him. “She’s right.”
Amidst the general merriment, gloom stuck the brothers.
Sam didn’t seem to agree. “There was no luck, we fought our fucking way out to survive.”
Liam didn’t wholly disagree with him. “She wasn’t saying we didn’t work our asses off, just to appreciate what we have. If only for tonight, we can do that. She’s right, we have a lot to be thankful for, if only the fact we’re alive and found each other.”
Each of the brothers looked at the women and children sorting the decorations at the foot of the Christmas tree, a happy dog barking, and their brother looking as if he were sleeping in the middle of it all.
Liam’s eyes went to Catriona, as she talked to Cary, helping him untangling a string of lights. It was the first time he saw the little boy for what he was, a child, and not one forced to act as the responsible adult.
In the middle of this mayhem, Ted didn’t say a word, but smiled, which was so much more than Liam had hoped for the little tyke. So often, when he’d walked the streets of the neighborhood riddled with violence and poverty, kids looked like frightened animals in the best cases. The others had a look in their eyes as if they’d seen a monster.
Like Cary and Ted, the bastard brothers had experienced and seen too much as children. Images popped in his mind, even as Liam tried hard not wallow in the past. One tiny hand sliding inside his big one made the visions disappear.
Ted was there looking up at him, tugging at his hand in a determined and silent plea.
So, as an example to his brothers, he followed the little boy’s lead. Ted dragged him beside a big box and pulled him down.
From the corner of his eye, he saw his brothers slowly thawing to the idea of Christmas.
Kai went to Isabel and took her into a twirl, making the blond beauty giggle.
Archer, who didn’t like to be second, reached for his red-headed wife and baby girl. From the way he acted, his brother had found his purpose in the family he was building for himself and how he wanted it to be for them.
Aleksei, brooding as usual, grabbed a cookie on the coffee table and offered it to Deva, who took a bite out of it, and gave him a wink.
Sasha returned with her book and a coffee, smiling at the small assembly before resuming her seat by Lazarus’s side.
Only Sam remained alone, stranded in the middle of the room by himself, hesitant. Lucas went to him, and Liam was thankful for the insightful teenager.
Trimming a tree had been so foreign to Liam, to all his brothers, it was clear that they needed to work that rust out.
It was a discomfort, like soreness after a workout, and the only way out was to move it. Stretch and experience the pain until it faded away.
So, they stayed in that room for the rest of the day. Liam started to relax, as the women, especially Catriona, Cary, and Ted, included each and every one of them into their small celebration. It was his family circle, among the larger one that included his brothers.
