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My brow shot up. “Me?”
She nodded. I smiled. It was about to be Holly’s birthday, but it sure felt like I was the one getting the gift tonight.
“Well.” I made sure she was looking at me. “There is room in my bed for two of you.”
“Three.” Winston was always on alert for things like that. “I don’t want to wind up ghost food in that creepy-ass mansion you call a home.”
I snorted a laugh and nodded. “All right then. We will make it work.” I looked at Holly and she was smiling brightly at me. “You good, Babe?”
“This is the best night of my life.” She reached for my hand, and we swapped partners. Autumn went to Winston, Holly came to me, and I had a feeling this was exactly how my life was going to be moving forward.
Then a crash of dishes brought everyone’s attention to the direction of the noise. Essie. She looked at her dress, looked around the room, and then shouted, “Watch where you’re going!”
She then turned around and ran out of the room.
I looked at Holly and smiled. “Might be the best night of my life, too.”
Holly
I gulped and tried to maintain the smile on my face as my parents walked into the room. Tomorrow was my birthday. After sleeping in a very large bed with three other people, feeling safe, settled, and truly happy for the first time in my entire adult life, I could feel the sense of freedom, peace begin to unravel with every step my father took in my direction.
“You got this.” Stormy slid his arm around me, his hand resting at my waist. “I won’t leave you alone with him.”
I looked up at the man glaring at my father. My father was not as tall as Winston, and a slight frame that made him even smaller to me now. My mother looked at Torden Storm and smiled brightly at him then me as though this was the best thing she had seen in years. She hurried ahead of my father and said to me in a whisper, “Oh, Holly. I knew you could do it. I’m so proud of you.”
I didn’t have time to speak before my father did some sort of hand gesture and made a noise that…I shook my head. No. No he would not get my full attention. That was the signal for it. I remembered that now. I crowded into Stormy’s side and he pulled me tighter as he said, “Dr. Ringwald, whatever you just did, don’t do it again.”
My father stopped, frowned. “Excuse me?”
“I know you know who I am. I know you know who my family is and what my father does for the…other Chi Iota Chi legacies.” Storm looked at me, at my mother, then to my father and said, “So…stop before I put a stop to you.”
My father gulped, my mom squeezed my arm and said, “He’s a keeper.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, so confused by that conversation. What did his father do? I thought it was business, but…Apollo made sure Harper’s business had no interference, so…what did I know? Why should I care?
“You”
“No.” Stormy shook his head. “She didn’t do anything. I did.”
I gripped him harder.
"Me, too.” Winston nodded at my mother and then moved to stand behind me.
"Plus, me.” Autumn held up her hand. “Holly is our family now, too. So. No more games or you will know just how badly this particular lady will behave. I have no ties. No family. Nothing to lose but them.”
I let go of my mom’s hand and reached for Autumn’s.
Winston put both of his hands on my shoulders and said to everyone, “I think they just started the appetizers. Let’s act like civilized creatures and eat, shall we?”
My mom was lit up like a Christmas tree. She said, “Yes. What a lovely idea. Come, young man, escort me and tell me what you are majoring in.”
Winston waggled his brows at me as I looked over my shoulder at him. I snickered. Stormy passed me off to Autumn, who linked her arm in mine and said, “I’ll escort your father to his seat.”
I was not about to argue that. I don’t know what they talked about because they didn’t move from that spot until we were halfway through the appetizer banquet line. Autumn had piled up quite the plate and I was eyeballing her because she didn’t normally eat like that. “You okay?”
She laughed and handed the well-stocked dish over to Stormy as he approached us. “This isn’t mine.”
But when he smiled at her, I knew better. Knew he was hers as much as he was mine. They both were. She was theirs, too. Stormy said, “Thank you.”
