Alec

My heart warmed as I laughed. "You mean you love me to the Moon and back?"

Alec shook his head. "Nah, Neptune is the furthest planet from Earth in our solar system so the greater the distance, the greater my love."

Oh, wow.

I teased. "I thought Pluto was the furthest planet from the sun?"

Alec shook his head again. "Pluto isn't known as a planet anymore; it's a dwarf planet meaning neither planet nor moon."

"How do you know that?" I murmured.

Alec put his arms around me and looked down at my now tear filled eyes. "I told you, I watch the Discovery Channel."

"I'm so hot for you right now," I declared making Alec laugh.

I wasn't joking.

I leaned up and kissed him.

God, I was lucky.

When our kiss broke I said, "I love you to Neptune and back, too."

Alec beamed and said, "Good, I expect nothing less from my future wife."

Wife.

"Holy fuck, we're gettin' married."

"Yep, and since it's in serious haste, I say we do everything ass backwards. How do you feel about getting knocked up tonight?"

I burst into laughter. "Slow down, Romeo, let's just deal with the knowledge that we're gettin' married. Babies can come later... much later."

Alec shrugged. "Fine by me, I get to keep you to myself for longer."

"Alec, Keela... dinner!"

Alec slapped my behind. "Come on, she gives away seconds when she is in a good mood."

I chuckled and followed Alec into the kitchen. I sat down next him and winked at Kane who was on the other side of me. Everyone was silent then and still as statues, everyone except Aideen who reached for the mashed potatoes first.

"First!" everyone shouted making me and Aideen jump with fright.

"What?" I asked.

"Aideen reached for dinner first so she has to say grace."

Oh, nice.

Aideen groaned. "That's not fair, I didn't know you lot did that!"

"Say grace, please," Nico pleaded and stared at the food on the table.

I snickered at him.

"Okay, fine."

Everyone held hands and lowered their heads.

"Hey God, it's me... Aideen Collins. I know we haven't spoken in a long time, since you took me ma away from me when I was a little girl. The Slater’s are making me pray to you so I can eat their food. I don't want to be rude so I'm doin' as asked, I hope this is good enough because I've no idea what else to say to you... Oh, I know, bless this house and everyone it in it. Thanks. Amen."

"Amen," everyone chorused.

I covered my mouth with my hand as my shoulders began to shake.

Alec and Kane were both the first to laugh out loud, and everyone quickly followed suit.

"I hope you don't lead morning prayers in your classroom, Aideen," Alec laughed.

She rolled her eyes. "I pick different kids every day to do that actually."

"Thank God," Kane murmured.

Aideen cut her eyes to him and snarled, "This is exactly why I'm such a bitch to you!"

"What is 'this'? Do you have a list of reasons or something?" Kane asked, amused.

Aideen's eyed twitched. "Yeah, I've two reasons as to why I’m a bitch to you. Number one, you're fuckin' stupid. Number two, see number one!"

I burst out laughing.

"That was just rude," Kane said and shook his head.

We all chuckled and dug into the food Branna made for us, and let me tell you it was so good. We discussed random things all through dinner, there was no mention of the previous week's events and that couldn't have made me happier.

"That was amazing, Bran. Thanks." Nico beamed and leaned back in his chair, more than stuffed from the looks of things.

Nico caught me staring at him so he winked and blew a kiss which made me laugh.

"Leave the girl alone, she doesn't want your nasty arse makin' kissy faces at her."

Nico looked at Bronagh and grinned. "Every girl wants my sexy ass making kissy faces at them."

Bronagh rolled her eyes. "Is that so?"

"It is."

"Too bad all those girls don't have to deal with your man-child arse."

Nico snorted. "They would happily deal with me if they knew that I have to deal with your phat ass all by myself."

Oh, no he didn't.

"Nico, you bastard, you don't ever say a girl has a fat arse. Are you fuckin' serious?" I snapped.

All the males looked to me and groaned.

"A phat ass is a good thing!" they stated in unison.

"On what universe is sayin' someone has a fat arse a good-"

"Alec! Sort your woman out and explain it to her. I cannot go through this again, it took me years to convince Bronagh I'm not insulting her. I’ll fucking cry if I have to go through that again."

"I'll explain later," Alec murmured as he watched the couple across from us.

Bronagh turned to Nico and glared.

"One, two, three, four, five-"

"Dominic leave the room," Ryder murmured.

Nico was already on his feet and all but ran out of the room.

"-Nine, ten." Bronagh finished counting and opened her eyes.

She blew out a big breath and said, "I'm goin' for a run on the treadmill."

When Bronagh left the kitchen, I looked at Alec to find he was rubbing his face with his hands. "What the hell was that?"

Alec removed his hands and sighed. "That was Dominic and Bronagh, kitten."

I raised my eyebrows. "They have short fuses."

"You don't know the half of it."

"Have they ever thought of anger manag-"

"Bronagh starts classes next week," Branna cut me off.

I nodded my head. "Good for her."

"Yeah, but God help that class when Hurricane Bronagh blows through," Ryder murmured.

"I heard that!"

Ryder widened his eyes and shouted, "Just kidding."

I chuckled and looked at Kane and noticed he didn't eat much. "How are you feelin'?"

Kane looked to me with tired eyes and smiled. "Good."

I gave him a frown that he chuckled over. "It's just the flu, I'll be fine."

Branna huffed. "It's been almost three weeks, it's not the fuckin' flu. You need to go to the hospital."

Wow.

He was that ill?

"Bran, it will pass-"

"You aren't a doctor so don't try pacify me, Kane."

Kane sighed. "If it will make you feel better, I'll go to the doctor during the week to get seen, okay?"

Branna stared Kane down. "I'm goin' with you."

"Oh for the love of God," Kane muttered. "Fine, okay."

Everyone lightly chuckled, but I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I looked at Kane.

I hoped he was all right and that it was just the flu.

Alec put his arm around my shoulders and grinned getting my full attention.

"Welcome to the family, kitten."

"We have to get a bigger place," Alec murmured to me as I wiped down my kitchen table.

We were both in the kitchen and bumped off each other about ten times as we cleaned.

I sighed. "It's annoyin' I know, but we can start looking after I get a new job, I still can't fucking believe I got sacked for staying out a day longer than I said I would. Why would they even want me there on the tills? I'll only scare the costumers with my face bein' so messed up."

Alec frowned. "Why don't you just focus on writing and let that be your job?"

I laughed. "Because I actually need an income to support us. That's why."

"Keela, you know I have a lot of money... right?"

I looked at Alec. "You do?"

He nodded. "We can buy own place outright tomorrow if you want too."

I widened my eyes. "That much money?"

"I earned a lot working for Marco and I'm not a huge spender. I have close to four million Euros sitting in my bank account right now."

My finger was around a cleaning spray bottle, and when Alec said that high number, my fingers automatically pulled on the spray trigger.

Holy fuck!

"Why do you live with you brothers if you have so much money?"