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"Chris," Izzy said with a put out sigh, "put me down. I can walk."
"It took me an hour to lure you off that bastard's lap with a candy bar. I'm not about to go through that bullshit again," Chris snapped at his mate, somewhat surprising Jill since her brother normally went out of his way to keep his cool around his mate.
"It doesn't count!" Izzy snapped, pointing an accusing finger at Kale. "He took it!"
"You took my cake, woman!" Kale snapped back, which wasn't at all surprising since the two sugar addicts were constantly coming to blows over something.
"And I'll do it again, you bully!"
Chris rolled his eyes in exasperation as he made his way over to the desk and pulled the chair out with his foot and sat down, quickly rearranging Izzy on his lap so that she could lay her head against his shoulder while he laid a possessive hand on her large stomach.
Jill couldn't help but smile at the sight. For a while there, she thought her brother was going to doom himself to a life of misery by sending his mate away, but thankfully Izzy convinced him that she was worth the risk. She was happy for him and for Izzy. She was especially happy with her little niece, Jessica. She loved that little girl as if she were her own.
When Chris wasn't carrying Jessica around she was with Izzy and if for some reason Izzy couldn't watch her, then her father and Madison, Eric and even Kale watched her. Jill would have loved to have at least filled in as the baby's nanny while she was here. It would have made sense since she had no other duties and really hated not having anything to do, but it seemed that she wasn't the only one who fell in love with the little girl.
Sometimes she felt like she had to take a number just to spend any time with her adorable niece. Of course, it made the time she did have with her niece more precious. It didn't really matter because one day she planned on having a houseful of children that she could love and cherish.
She would make sure that her children always knew how much she loved them. She would do her best to be like Madison, who had done whatever it took to raise them and always let them know how much they meant to her even when Jill acted like a spoiled little brat. One day she'd find a good man and settle down and she'd make sure to cherish every minute of it.
"Don't worry about packing her up, Dad," Chris said, drawing her attention and gaining her undying gratitude. At least she could count on her brother to see reason, because sending her away would be-
"I have four Sentinels waiting by the elevator to escort her home. She still has some things at the old house, so there's no need to pack her things just yet," Chris said, leveling a glare on her that dared her to argue and if she was anyone else other than his sister that look would actually frighten her.
"That's not your decision to make, Chris," she said firmly. If he thought that he was going to boss her around and intimidate her like he did everyone else then he had another thing coming.
"Chris,-" Izzy started on a sigh only to get cut off by the man Jill fully planned on having a word of her own with when they no longer had an audience. She no longer did the drama nonsense, not like when she was a kid. Now she kept her cool and her tone soft and friendly as she told him to go to hell.
"I'm not arguing this about this, Munchkin, so save your energy to give me a proper goodbye in about an hour," he said, pressing a kiss against Izzy's temple as she openly glared at her mate.
Jill wasn't exactly surprised when Izzy didn't listen to her mate. "She's not going," Izzy said stubbornly as she struggled to get off Chris' lap.
"Yes, she is," Chris said, trying to bite back a smile as Izzy continued to struggle to get off his lap, but her large br**sts and equally large stomach prevented her from doing very much other than cause her to get good and mad as she kept dropping back on his lap every time she made even slightest bit of progress. Even Jill had to admit that it was kind of amusing to watch the woman shoot her mate a murderous glare as tried to rock hard enough to give her the momentum to jump off his lap.
"Help me get up so that I can kick your ass, Chris!" Izzy snapped.
"Yeah, let me get right on that," Chris mused as he pulled his mate closer to him and made it impossible for her to do much more than pout.
"Just so you know, I'm kicking your ass the first chance that I get," Izzy muttered as she tried to fold her arms over her chest, but her large br**sts and stomach got in the way.
"I'm quaking with fear, my little Munchkin," Chris said against the top of her head as he kissed her.
”Look, I know everyone's mad and I understand why," Jill said, deciding that this might be the best moment to get a word in before her brother or father started yelling.
Her father opened his mouth, but it was the shifter that spoke. "You don't know who you're dealing with, little girl," Kale said, surprising her since the man had barely acknowledged her existence since they met months earlier.
"I'm not dealing with anything," she said, shooting her father a pleading look. "If you'd just let me explain you'll see that this is just a misunderstanding," she said, using the same calm tone she used to use when she counseled clients down at the shelter.
"You're going home, Jill. End of story," Ephraim said firmly and she knew that her only hope was getting to Madison and talking this over with her. Madison would help her. Madison was-
Madison was going to kill her, Jill decided exactly ten seconds later when she watched the very pregnant woman come storming into the room, Madison's eyes lit up in a fiery red as she went right for Jill, her little brother running behind her as he tried to catch up with his mother.
"Tell me that your brother was wrong," Madison said as she waddled over to her.
"Madison, I-"
"You're going home to your grandmother," Madison said and Jill would have argued except for one thing.
She used the tone that Jill hadn't heard in years, not since she was a fifteen year old drama queen screwing up her life and disappointing everyone around her. It felt like a physical blow, knowing just how easily her family readily saw her as the same old screw-up.
Maybe they never truly saw her as anything more than a screw-up and all these years they'd just been waiting for her to mess up. All her hard work to change herself and to grow into a better person was for nothing. The first time she screwed up in years and her family was ready to write her off.
Maybe it was for the best if she left and gave them time to cool off. She could go back to her old life where she felt useful and didn't need to depend on a vampire to feel needed.
