Chapter 6

First we do the coffee. Then we do the Christmas.

-Soren to Nola

Soren

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived home with Nola in tow, but to say that I got what I expected would be a total lie.

When I arrived, all three of my brothers were on the front porch waiting for us. They’d also recruited my parents.

“I think that they’re expecting you,” Nola said from the passenger seat beside me.

I reached for her hand and squeezed it.

“They’re stalkers,” I told her. “We have that Life 360 app. I’m super awful about answering my phone while I’m at work. I don’t know if you know this yet, but the signal there is shit. And since I can’t get signal, there’s really no reason to carry my phone around seeing as you need signal to do anything on a phone that’s worth it. Which then means that my brothers don’t know where I’m at every second of every day, and for some reason, that’s just not acceptable to them.”

She snickered. “My sister and I have that, too. Right now it shows that she’s in the middle of the ocean. But she’s really on a fishing expedition with her husband.”

She then proceeded to show me the app.

I hadn’t actually been in the app myself.

My youngest brother had set it up and handed it back to me without a word.

I’d left it on because I hadn’t really cared whether they knew where I was at any given time… until today.

“Are they twins?” Nola asked, dragging me out of my thoughts and back to the present.

“Yes.” I paused. “Johan and I are twins, too. Per and Mikael are seventeen years younger than Johan and me.”

She shook her head, looking flabbergasted. “That’s just insane. I don’t think I can handle multiples. Do you know how hard it is just to birth them? But to have to raise them after you birth them?”

I was chuckling as I got out of the car.

But before I could make my way around to her side of the vehicle to help her out, Per was there, offering his hand.

Nola took it with a smile. “Thank you. Which one are you?”

Used to the question, Per grinned. “Per. And you’re Nola.”

Nola’s smile widened. “I am.”

Per reached into the back seat for her overnight bag, leaving mine directly next to it, causing me to roll my eyes.

“You could get mine,” I suggested.

“I could,” Per agreed. “But then how would I offer my free hand to your lady?”

Giving an exaggerated roll of my eyes again, I reached into the back seat for my own bag.

I arrived at the top of the walkway that led into the house just in time for my brother to introduce my mother and father.

“Mom, this is Nola. Nola, this is my mother and father, Maja and Albin,” Per said.

My mother started to cry. “Oh, I hope that you stay with him. You’re so beautiful.”

My mom wasn’t lying.

Nola truly was beautiful. When I looked at her, I saw a woman that would make the prettiest babies. A woman that I’d wake up to in the morning and be in awe at the sight of her laying on the pillow next to me.

I wanted that.

I couldn’t wait to have that.

Was it too soon to ask her to marry me?

The thoughts must’ve been going through my head and were visible and plain to see on my face, because my father started to grin.

My father and my mother had gotten married within a month of knowing each other. They called it calf love. That instant connection between two people that can never be recreated with another.

I wasn’t sure why it was called calf love. It was just something that my parents had always said.

But for some reason, that was the term that I was using when I thought about the woman now standing in my other brother’s arms.

“I’d love to be able to hold my own girl,” I murmured to Mikael.

Mikael batted his eyelashes at me. “You had her all the way here.”

Nola looked at me over her shoulder, her eyes shining with mirth.

“Can we go inside?” Johan shivered. “My entire body seems to be one solid icicle. We’ve been out here for fifteen minutes waiting for them to arrive.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have cheated and looked at the app,” I suggested. “Maybe you should’ve waited for me to pull up like a normal person and then come outside when my car showed.”

My brother wrinkled his nose. “Now why would I want to do that?”

We all entered into the house then, and Nola gasped at the sight of all the candles.

I looked at all the candles myself, seeing it through another person’s eyes for the first time.

All the candles had always been a normal thing for Christmas around my house. The hundreds that lined the shelves, walls, and every available flat surface did look quite intimidating.

But at least they didn’t all smell differently.

As it was, my mom typically chose to stick to the unscented ones to avoid overwhelming everyone with her typical Swedish traditions of decorating in candles.

“This is absolutely gorgeous!” Nola gasped as she looked around the house. “I feel like I’m in a fairy tale!”

That’s when my mother took hold of her hand and started leading her around the room, showing her everything that had become a tradition since the four of us were babies.

“She’s hot as…” Per said just as my father tossed him a ‘you better not say it’ look. Per grinned, looking unrepentant. “Hot as all get out.”

“She’s beautiful,” my father agreed. “Your brother said you met her at the gym?”

“I did.” I paused. “Kind of? I actually met her when I started to deliver to her address one day. Per called in sick like the little bitch that he is, and we were scrambling to get stuff delivered due to the holidays. So I offered to do the shift one day… and ran into her.”

“And then he started picking up the shift every chance he had time just so he could deliver to her address, make moon eyes at her, and then dream about her for the rest of the night.” Johan chortled.

“What are you all laughing at?” my mother asked, soft-spoken as always.

“We were laughing about the fact that your son,” my father said cheerfully. “Has met himself a nice woman that he would like to spend…”

“Dad!” I called out, interrupting him. “I haven’t even told her yet!”

Dad rolled his eyes. “Well do it already so I can tell your mother.”

With that, he caught Per and Johan by the heads and tugged them with them to the other room.

My mother caught up Mikael, and then they were all gone, leaving me alone with the woman that had no clue just how far gone I was for her.

“So you have a thing for me?” she teased.

I grinned. “I have a really big thing for you.”

Her eyes sparkled with mirth as she glanced down at my crotch. “Well, I have a place for your really big thing.”

I burst out laughing and pulled her into my arms, laying a soft kiss onto her lips.

When I pulled back, I reached into my back pocket where I’d stowed her gift as we were coming inside, and swung it around to hold in front of her.

She looked at it with wide eyes.

“I got you a present,” I said as I held out a box for her to open.

She stared at it curiously.

“What?” she asked as she ripped it open. “And I didn’t get you anything. I feel kind of bad now.”

When she opened the box, she all but doubled over in laughter when she saw the shorts that I’d gotten her, all just as funny as they are the same ones she’d ordered to wear to her first CrossFit workout.

“Now everyone will know that you’re mine,” I jeered.

Because on those shorts that would fit her like a glove was a photo of my face pasted onto the fabric in a bunch of different directions.

There would be no way that someone could mistake her for anyone’s but mine.

“Will you do me the honor of becoming my girlfriend?” I teased.

She looked up at the mistletoe above her head and grinned widely. “Of course.”

Then she kissed me, and I kissed her right back.