[///ON HOLD///] Animal House (Rendezvous #2)

Chapter 19

Nora arrived home later that night to find both Ace and Dane still wide awake, playing video games. Thankfully, Denora was nowhere in sight so she assumed her daughter was fast asleep.

"What are you two still doing up?" she scolded.

They both turned to look at her and simultaneously cringed.

"Ugh! Gross! Nora!" Dane shouted.

She startled. "What? What is it?"

"You come back looking like that? You shouldn't have come back at all!"

Nora looked down at herself. "What are you talking about?"

Ace pointed at his neck before pointing to hers in the same spot. One side of his upper lip was pulled up at a strange angle. "You got something."

She glared at them with furrowed brows before turning to the full sized mirror that hung on the wall by the entrance of their loft. Her eyes immediately landed on the dark red spots that dotted her neck and collar bone. Blood warmed her cheeks as she slowly turned to look at her brothers, their eyes still on her.

Her hands immediately shot to cover her neck. "It's not what it looks like," she started.

Dane snorted. "Oh, c'mon, Nora. We're not dumb!"

"You could've just stayed out, you know? It's the weekend," Ace said, but the sneer of disgust was still on his lips.

Nora felt as if she would combust into flames. Were her brothers seriously suggesting she should've stayed the night with Declan for sex?

"I did not meet Declan with those...those...intentions! We were just supposed to talk!"

"Obviously, more than talking happened," Dane muttered.

"So?" Ace said. "How did the...talk...go?"

Nora took a deep breath to calm herself. Her brothers purposely spoke to get a rise out of her—Dane more obvious than Ace. They were trying to get an honest answer out of her by making her annoyed.

"It went fine." They had no immediate response and their thousand-yard stare only made her more nervous. "What? I'm not lying."

"We know," her brothers replied before Ace added, "We're just letting it sink in."

"Let what sink in?" she asked.

"That he was right."

Nora waited, but groaned when she realized she would have to pull answers out of them like teeth. "Who was right? About what?"

"Your boyfriend," Dane answered. "Said we'd be calling him 'big brother' soon."

"He's not my bo-boyfriend."

"Sorry. We meant the father of your child," Ace corrected with a flat tone.

Nora walked to stand in front of them and placed her hands on her hips. Their eyes focused on the hickeys on her neck again and her sudden confidence faltered, but she didn't try to hide them again. She wouldn't let her little brothers intimidate her.

"Look, I know you guys don't like Declan. And that's partially my fault. I put thoughts into your head that he was some horrible guy and a bad influence on Denora, but he's not. Declan is a genuinely great guy and we simply got off on the wrong foot. The two of us had misunderstandings that we've cleared up."

"Yeah, we could tell." Dane nodded, glancing at her neck once more.

She blushed again. "Okay, can we stop bringing up the hickeys? You two are mature enough to know and understand the situation."