Teagan picked up where Ro left off. "Stubborn, snooty. Ow! Ro, that hurt!" Glaring at her sister, Teagan rubbed her arm.
Ro wagged a finger at her. "You're being mean. Stop it."
"I was just teasing!" When Ro continued to glare at her, Teagan relented with a roll of her eyes. "Sorry, Evie."
"It's fine. I am stubborn and snooty." She picked at the comforter. "Did you know I speak five languages?"
Ro bounced excitedly. "Seriously? Cool! Say something."
"Mes soeurs sont ma vie."
"That sounds romantic." Ro sighed dreamily. "What does it mean?"
"My sisters are my life."
"Oh, Fancy." Throwing her arms around Evie's neck, Ro accidentally smacked Teagan in the face in the process. "We love you, too."
"I'm just going to go back to my room if you're going to keep beating on me," Teagan grumbled. But when Evie held her other arm open, Teagan snuggled back in with her sisters.
"Ma vie," Evie whispered before they all drifted off to sleep.
* * *
Evie wokebefore her sisters and somehow managed to extricate herself from the tangle of limbs without waking either of them. After a quick shower and some light makeup, she made her way downstairs.
The men were already up and in the kitchen. Which, while not the least bit surprising, was a bit unnerving. She could handle any of them one on one, though Luca could be intimidating. Taking on all three at once, without her sisters, was more than she was prepared to handle.
She'd just decided to slip back upstairs when Trident turned his head and barked at her. All three men turned as a unit to face her. Trident stood and stretched before trotting over and bumping her hand with his nose.
"Morning, sleepyhead," Octavius said with a grin. "Our girls still in bed?"
Rubbing her hand down Trident's neck, she nodded. "I hope you don't mind," she said with an apologetic smile. "I wasn't sleeping well."
"Of course, we don't mind." A scowling Luca jabbed a finger at Jason. "You. Get her to stop doing that."
Baffled and a little hurt by the irritation in his voice, she turned to Jason. "What did I do now?"
"Let's take Trident for a walk,tesoro." Holding out a hand, Jason waited for her to accept before leading her and the dog outside. As soon as the door opened, Trident broke into a run and headed straight for the woods.
"I always worry he won't come back."
"We're his family. And we feed him," he added with a chuckle. "He'll come back."
"Hmm. I suppose. Why are we out here?"
Humor danced in his eyes when he looked over at her. "Can't a guy want to take a pretty girl for a walk in the sunshine?"
"A guy? Yes. You? No."
His easy laughter helped to settle the nerves dancing in her stomach. "Fair enough. About what Luca said—you don't need to ask permission or ask if every little thing is okay with us."
"I just didn't want the girls to get in trouble."
"Evie." Stopping by the railing of the deck, he turned her to face him. "You know O and Luca. Do you honestly think they would be upset with your sisters for comforting you? For spending time with you, when you needed them most?"
Twisting her shirt around the fingers of her free hand, she shrugged. "I suppose not. I guess I didn't see it that way."
"I know. And I know it's going to take time for you to learn to think about things differently. But those men in there?" He nodded toward the house. "They'd rather cut off an arm than hurt your sisters. Or you. They understand how much you all need each other right now, and they're not going to deny you."