Page 69 of No Mistakes
“Just about,” I mutter, leaning against a wall, facing them all. Gunnar tosses me a bottle of water, and I catch it with one hand, giving him a silent thank you with the nod of my head.
Mandy moves across the room towards Ant, who is currently staring out the window, looking at the overgrown garden. The pool is murky, leaves and debris floating on the surface, but the shape of it, the memories of laughter and cannonballs and late-night swims, still linger in the air.
I walk over, joining them. Mandy looks over her shoulder and leans in just enough to speak quietly so the others can’t hear.
“You okay?”
I glance down at her, at the concern in her eyes, and nod. “Getting there.”
She nods back, returning her gaze to the window to admire the garden. “We need to clean this place up. If we’re staying, we can’t live in dust and darkness,” she says.
Gunnar groans instantly at the word ‘clean.’ “You mean we have to work?”
“Don’t start,” Carter says, already halfway through the room, a bundle of sheets wrapped under his arm. “The sooner we get this place more livable, the sooner we can figure out our next move.”
Our next move…
That’s why we’re here. Not to wallow in the past or rip open old wounds, but to take back control. To reclaim what’s been stolen. This house is just the first step.
I look around the room, at the people around me.
My brothers. The women who chose to come with us into the fire.
I smack my hands together, rubbing them as I take the lead of the situation in front of us.
“Get the music on, it’s time to get your aprons, boys,” I announce.
Carter stops immediately, dropping the sheets and running out of the room. “I call dibs on mom’s!”
CHAPTER 29
EVA
The kitchen smells like garlic,butter, and roasted meats. Mandy stands beside me, barefoot, dancing around the kitchen island, listening to ‘Stolen Dance’ by Milky Chance, while stirring a sauce with the confidence of someone who’s always belonged here.
After hours of scrubbing dust off surfaces and throwing out expired cans, we’ve somehow made this house comfortable again. At one point, Mandy and I left the boys to clean while we refilled the house with food, drinks, toilet roll, and the everyday essentials. When we returned, it was like the Ashford brothers had never shopped for food in their lives with the way some of them jumped at the bags.
“I can’t believe we did all this in a day,” Mandy says, tossing a piece of thyme into the bubbling pot and grinning over her shoulder at me. I try and return her energy, smiling and nodding along, but inside of me, something feels wrong as my mind drifts back upstairs, to that room. To Axel.
I saw him sitting on the edge of his bed, his eyes empty as he looked around. Something inside him shifted when he was in that room, like something haunted him, and the need to protect him for whatever it may be grows every second.
“What are you thinking about?” Mandy asks, breaking the silence as she leans a hip against the counter, drying her hands with a towel.
“Axel,” I admit softly, knowing I don’t need to pretend with her. “I saw him in his old room. He looked… I don’t know. Not sad, but broken. Like he didn’t belong in his skin.”
Mandy’s expression shifts, curious but careful. “You think something happened in that room?”
I sigh, “Not just the room, but the whole house. Something bad happened here.”
She doesn’t push. Instead, she just nods, understanding the weight behind the words I haven’t said yet.
I pick up the knife, returning to chopping vegetables, letting the sound of the knife against the cutting board fill the space between us. But even the rhythm can’t drown out the void of Axel’s silence earlier. The way he sat on that bed, shoulders hunched like he was bracing for something to hit him… It stuck with me.
He’s always been unreadable. Secretive, sharp-edged, impossible to figure out. But something changed when we arrived here. This house didn’t just open old wounds. It stripped him bare, revealing a side that I never expected to see, and I witnessed it right in front of me.
I should hate him. I told myself I did. After everything he put me through… The secrets, the betrayal, the way he made me feel like I was just another piece in his fucked up game. I should want to stay away from him.
But I don’t.
