Chapter 60: Give Me Wide Ground to Run

(Pixies)

When the car left the city and arrived on country roads, it felt like she started breathing again for the first time in more than fifteen years. She had missed those green pastures, those low stone walls covered in blackberries, with the peaceful cattle and sheep. This was the landscape of her lost childhood, where she would run and play all day with the twins.

She took a deep breath. Maybe, just maybe, the Lord would grant her a lasting happiness this time. Not just stolen moments in between hell-on-earth.

Annabelle finally pulled over near a nice little house, far from any neighbours. Aideen straightened up, searching for her boys' beautiful faces. Though only Noah came out to greet them.

"That's the new house they bought," Annabelle explained as she parked. "It's perfectly big enough for all of us, but the little pricks insisted they wanted to settle in the barn. It's fucking madness! When ye'll see it, ye'll come running right back here with us, I'm telling ye! And don't worry, I might let those two little wankers freeze their arses outside, but there'll always be a room for ye."

Aideen thanked her with a grin; Annabelle had always had a soft spot for her, even when she was tearing a strip off her sons for their misdeeds.

When they got out of the car, Noah grabbed Aideen's arms and put a small kiss on her forehead. Then, he whispered:

"When I asked ye if ye'd die for them, I didn't mean for ye to prove it, me dear."

She chuckled. Though he was serious when he breathed out: "Thank ye."

She hadn't even thought about it. But she was glad she was the one that had got hurt. If one of them had taken a bullet because of her, she would never have forgiven herself.

After she'd thanked them profusely for their welcome, she walked up the hill to the hidden barn. She had insisted on going alone. Neither parent had told the twins she was coming today, as they hadn't been sure she'd be able to come back here and hadn't wanted to give them false hope. Thus,the boys were somewhere out there in the fields. So, she just enjoyed the walk to her new home. Looking around and taking in the scenery. A moment of reverent silence. She needed to commit all of this to memory.

When she got to the house, she understood what Annabelle had meant. It was an old-school one-level stone house. When she got quietly inside, she saw there was only a single big room under the wooden beams. The toilets must have been outside, and a bath was sitting on a corner. With a small kitchen and a big wooden table, a huge fireplace, a comfy couch facing it, and a king-size bed with lots of pillows and covers. There, she could discern each side where the boys had slept, leaving a huge gap in the middle just for her. Otherwise, there was no sign of electricity nor even running water.

Yet, she loved it. It was rustic but all she had ever needed. Tears welled up in her eyes just thinking she would get to live here with them. At least until her father's trial.

Suddenly she heard a thumping sound outside. Then another. She peered out the window to catch a glimpse of the ones she couldn't live without.

Sweating bare torsos, strong arms with defined muscles were chopping wood behind the house, unsuspectingly. Obviously, they had made it into a competition, racing each other to the end of their stacks.

She almost revealed her presence before changing her mind. She went to the kitchen where she had spotted a kettle and warmed some water. She prepared a perfect Irish tea with some milk and sugar, like they used to drink at Father McKinney's house in Boston. Then, she put everything on a tray and silently stepped outside.

Behind the house, there was an old metal bench, with a flattened grey rock instead of a table where she put down the platter. A tree with low branches above her head cast a nice shade. Down the hill, she could see a little river crossing the field where they would undoubtedly go swimming when she'd have her sutures removed. Then, nothing but pastures all the way to the horizon.

She stretched. Enjoying the view. The boys were focused on their task, heads down and eyes on target. She could detail them at will, biting her lips in anticipation.

They didn't realise she was there until she had sat down on the bench, waited for both their axes to be down—in case they jumped in surprise—, and loudly yawned: "I think it might be time for a break, don't ye think my loves?"

They both briskly turned to her.

She had expected they'd be a bit shocked, but she wasn't prepared for the sheer emotion that appeared on their faces.

"Good fucking Lord, Tine…" Connor's hands came running through his hair. He blinked a few times as if he was trying to wake up from a dream. Or maybe he was just blinking back tears.

Murphy couldn't. He had to look away as he choked up.

Connor smiled when he heard his brother sob, but didn't mock him. He clutched Murphy's shoulder and pulled him in for a hug. Ruffling his brother's hair roughly, he saw Aideen take a few shaky steps towards them and let him go with a slap on the back. Then, he hurried up the hill to reach her.

With his hands encircling her face, touching her somewhat devotedly, as if she was the most precious thing he'd ever seen.

"Are ye really here, love? I'm not dreaming, am I?"

She could only nod through the knot in her throat and smile through her own emotion. And when he kissed her, she laughed in delight.

"God, I love ye," he breathed against her cheek.

She hugged him tight in response. "I love ye too Connor," she whispered in the crook of his neck. Once again, she had been too close to lose them. And she felt like, if she let go, she could lose them again.

She felt Murphy's hand press shyly against her back and she tore herself away from Connor to turn to him. His breath was quivering and his eyes kept darting to the ground. She would have expected him to engulf her in his arms, make her twirl and lose her mind, as he'd always done before, but he didn't. And when she pulled him to her, he just put his forehead on her collarbone, unable to raise his head, and she's the one who embraced him.

One hand wrapped around his shaky shoulders while the other went to caress his nape soothingly. She kept murmuring in his ear: "I'm okay, Murph'. I'm here. We're alright."

When he was finally able to look up in her eyes, he searched for something there.

"God, Tin', ye jumped in front of a fucking bullet now…"

"To be honest, I didn't expect him to fire…"

"Just promise me ye'll never do that again."

She bit her lip. She wished she could, but the truth was, she would gladly do that again if it meant neither of them got hurt. The only thing that had changed is that she understood the value of her own life. She wanted to live. Though, right now, she wanted to live to be with them. So, she borrowed his own words to her:

"I promise nothing." With an apologetic smile.

He groaned in frustration before his lips came crashing on hers. He kissed her hungrily and possessively grabbed her hips to flush her against himself.

She hissed in pain.

"Careful, ye fucking eejit!" she heard Connor scold him behind her.

"Fuck, sorry…" Murphy lifted her shirt to take a look at her bandages. "It still hurts?"

"Not thatbad." She grabbed him by the belt to pull him back to her with a smile. She had to take a bite of that broad bare chest, no matter what. And her free hand had to blindly search for Connor's tight and warm one behind. She needed them to understand that she was certainly not hurt enough to deprive herself of them.

"We're going to have to go extra gently then, brother." Connor said, and she could hear the wide smile in his voice.

Murphy nodded at him: "And slowly."

Suddenly their hands became light as feathers on her body. On either side of her neck, their lips barely brushed her skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.

"I guess our tea's going to get cold then," she quipped before she lost the ability to form words.

"And softly…" Connor's breath tickled her.

"Delicately…" Murphy's whisper made her insides tingle.

Her knees were already weak. She wasn't sure she was on board with that; she could barely stand waiting at all. She grabbed both their hair and pushed them brusquely against herself. She wanted to feel them all.

However, Murphy shook his head, "Nuh-uh." And: "Tsk… Easy now, love." Connor chuckled, grazing the lobe of her ear with his lips.

His hands now leisurely tugged her top up her sides, and Murphy pulled her arms above her head so they could rid her of it. Though, when the shirt reached her wrists, and Murphy had distracted her with his tongue lazily skimming her open lips, Connor swiftly tied them up.

Only when she realised she couldn't bring her arms back down did she understand he had attached her hands around a branch of the tree above them. She noticed Murphy's cheeky smile detailing her chest. And turned her head briskly to Connor with a frown.

"Hold on to it, love; we wouldn't want ye to fall down, would we?"

She then saw him nod at his brother and turned back to only feel Murphy place a cloth on her eyes. She then felt Connor tie it behind her head. Now she could neither touch them nor see them.

"Ye've got to be kidding m-"

And she gasped when four hands simultaneously brushed her bare skin.