AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ehhh... Lucien is one of the guards,” James said.
“What? How come he’s allowed and I’m not?” I pouted to James.
“Pregnant lady request.” James shrugged. “I wasn’t about to make her cry.”
“Fuck! We really are suckers for all of them, aren’t we?” I laughed.
I mind-linked Dad to let him know what we were doing and to invite him over, but he just laughed at me and said Uncle Gillian and Uncle Danny were planning on doing the same until Uncle Helios, Uncle Lalo, Elias, Uncle Theo and Uncle Sebastian could join them in the evening. He did put in a request for some snacks, so Jo and I grabbed a bunch of stuff from the grocery store in town.
While there, we ran into Paolo, who I hadn’t seen since that night of the full moon. Uncle Helios said he requested some time off to visit friends out of state to cool off, so he must have just gotten back. The man gave me the stink eye, and his jaw ticked when he noticed the mark on my neck, but walked past us without a word. I held in the shit-eating grin I wanted to give him as he was pushing past us because I knew he would be able to smell my scent mixed with Evie’s. If the situation were reversed, I wouldn’t want it rubbed in my face.
“That dude needs to get laid so he can get over Evie,” Jo shook his head.
“As long as he keeps away from her, I don’t care what he does in his downtime,” I answered.
“You’re a better man than I am. I would be wanting his fucking blood after what he told Evie.”
“Because I might have tried the same. Hell, I was hoping Evie would give up her chance to meet her mate when I headed over to her house to ask her to choose me. How’s what he said any different?”
“That’s because you were her mate. You felt that connection to her even before it snapped into place and that was driving your motivations.”
“Maybe, or maybe I was so in love with her that I was willing to bind her to me in any way I could. Either way, I can’t judge Paolo for falling in love with someone as extraordinary as Evie. As long as he has the message now, I don’t have any beef with him,” I said.
We dropped off the items Dad wanted and laughed when I saw the three men looking moody in front of the TV.
“Good to know we’re not the only ones looking pathetic without their women,” I laughed, dodging the empty can of soda Uncle Danny threw my way.
We got back to Zi’s and indulged ourselves in comfort food and junk while we decided what to watch. It boggled my mind when James started arguing with Molly about what movie to watch. Molly was insisting she wanted to watch Frozen Two while James was outright refusing.
“Dude, what the hell, she’s four. Let her watch Frozen Two,” Jo said, trying to take the remote from James.
“Look, Molly, there’s a lot better movies. How about Ice Age, wait no. Not, that one. How about...” James tried to convince the four-year-old.
“Frozen!” Molly yelled, crossing her arms and giving him a look very similar to Zi’s when she was mad.
“Dude, just let her watch her movie,” I growled.
“Fine,” he grumbled and pressed play. Despite his grumpiness, James melted when Molly gave him a big hug and sat down next to him. Still, once the movie started, I could see James’ body was stiff with tension.
“Why was it so hard to accommodate a four-year-old to keep her happy?” Jo demanded.
“I have been very accommodating!” James gestured to the movie as the Disney intro started.
“Not happily! She was almost in tears!” I accused.
“Yeah, well, I’ll be the one in tears shortly,” James mumbled under his breath, confusing me. The confusion cleared when I found out exactly why James didn’t want to watch the movie as he starting sniffling.
“This is your fault, so not ONE. FUCKING. WORD,” James said through gritted teeth when he heard Jo snickering beside me.
After the movie, James insisted that we cook dinner for Molly, but by the time we were done cooking breakfast for dinner, Molly was sugared up and full. We struggled to get her to bed, and she had a temper tantrum as her sugar crash began. By the time she fell asleep, we were exhausted and wondered how Zi did it all on her own for four years.
“Well, I guess next time we stop the candy early,” Jo laughed.
“Next time, nothing but damn veggies and fruits,” James corrected.
“Now we know why Zi always has containers of berries around for her,” I agreed, taking a swig of a beer now that Molly was asleep.
I smiled when I heard my phone ping. Evie had sent me pictures and texts all through the evening, and this was another one. This one was a picture of everyone at dinner, waving at the camera or holding up their drinks.
