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“But why me?” I sighed. “I’m no one special.”
“You know that’s not true,” Noah gently admonished me.
Hazel sighed. “I’m not sure yet, child. I wish I had the answers for you. I have a feeling we’re all learning and relearning as we go. But I do know this, you were destined for greater things.”
“Miranda wants to come over on Christmas Eve to give the children their gifts,” I stated as I placed tape on the present I was wrapping.
Several heads snapped up and looked at me.
Earlier, we had started wrapping gifts after making sure the children were down for the night. Well, technically Noah, Jace, Drake, and I were wrapping presents. I’m not sure what one would call what Remy, Jaxson, and Troy were doing with wrapping gifts.
Despite Megan’s insistence, we still felt we should get the children ready for bed from time to time so that she and Will could have some alone time. They were trying to rekindle their relationship, and it warmed my heart to see how cute they were together. They were right for each other. Both had lost their hard edges and seemed genuinely happy. It also helped that they both treated my siblings like their own children.
When Will got us the new apartment, he had gotten one right beside ours and told us he would continue watching over the children for us. It was hard enough for Will to convince Paul to build us a seven-bedroom apartment. There was no way he would have been okay with giving us more space, even though there was more than enough room here.
“Do you think the kids will be ready for that?” Remy asked hesitantly, pulling my attention back. He’d spent a lot of time with Micah. Through his tutelage, my tall and skinny brother was gaining muscles. He took training with Remy seriously
and even started a diet that Remy had put him on so he could ‘bulk up’. Remy had already explained to him that his body type may never allow Micah to get as big as him, but maybe the additional protein would help.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I meant to tell them tonight, but they were so excited about Christmas, I didn’t want to…dampen the mood. She’s not leaving anytime in the near future, and they should have the right to form their own opinions and not base them solely on my own.”
“Sounds fair to me,” Drake agreed. “We’ll be there, and Miranda does seem like she’s a changed person.”
Jace looked pensive. I figured Remy, Jace, Drake, and Jaxson would have the strongest feelings about the whole situation. They all, in essence, had been abandoned by their mothers. Noah’s parents had chosen their work over him, but they had died overseas doing their job. The other guys still had a mother out there somewhere; Jace and Jaxson’s mom was shacking up with Horatio, Remy’s mom had chosen to stick by his stepfather’s side, and Drake’s mom had chosen her career over her children.
“Might as well get it over with,” Troy stated. “They do have a younger brother that might like to get to know them.”
“I don’t think Harry is even aware of who they are or where he really is,” Noah stated dryly. “But I think it’s been long enough.”
“Alex has started to feel him,” Jaxson admitted quietly. “Harry’s locked in there, but he’s perfectly aware of his surroundings.”
“What!” I exclaimed in surprise. From everyone else’s expression, it was news to them, too.
“Alex is too young to understand exactly what’s going on, but he hears him screaming in his head from time to time,” Jaxson shifted uncomfortably. “He told me that today, when we were planting seeds.”
“I don’t even know where we could start to even help him,” Noah said before hastily looking over at me. “That is if-.”
I gasped. “Are you implying that I may not want to help him if I could?”
“Well,” he shifted uncomfortably. “I know you weren’t happy to find out she had another child.”
I sighed and put the present I had been wrapping off to the side. “At her. Not him! He’s innocent in all this, and if I had full use of my gifts, I would love to help him out, just as long as I had little to no contact with her.”
“If you don’t want contact with her, then why are we allowing her to have contact with the kids?” Jace asked drolly.
“Really,” I groaned. “I already got the third degree from Jemmy and Dawn. I was hoping for a little support from my connections. I formulated my opinions on her. The children should have the right to do the same.”
“We’ll support whatever decision you make,” Jace stated with a raised brow. “I’m just playing devil’s advocate.”
“Or maybe you should have talked to us before making that decision,” Remy grumbled. I turned and gaped at him and his lips curved into a mischievous smile. “Remember you’re not fragile and you want us to be open with you.”
I groaned as I stuck my tongue out at him. “Touché. I am sorry that I didn’t talk to you guys first. She cornered me in the hallway before we were leaving, and I didn’t have the energy to fight her.”
“We can tell the kids at breakfast tomorrow,” Jace stated as he began to pick up some of the gifts that we had wrapped. We were going to hide them, and on Christmas Eve, after the children went to bed, we were going to drag them all back out.
“Are you going to make me my favorite white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for Christmas Eve?” Jaxson asked Drake hopefully.
Since his earlier outburst at the dinner table, Jaxson seemed to be trying to bounce back. He even seemed excited about wrapping gifts. He was mangling the paper, wasting a lot of Scotch tape, and his wrapping skills needed help, but at least he was having a good time doing it.
