“You want me?” Jodi asked with a watery smile.
“More than my next breath,” Danny swore as he gripped her chin gently between his fingers and tilted her head up as he leaned in to-
“Hey! You’re holding up dinner, asshole!” someone yelled with a bang on the driver’s-side window.
Sighing, Danny pressed a kiss against her forehead and said, “Let’s get this over with.”
“Ever hear of a phone, asshole?” Darrin asked even as he pulled him into a hug. “Mom was about to send us to go find you,” he whispered low enough so that Jodi, who was standing nervously nearby, couldn’t hear.
“I’m fine,” Danny said, squeezing his arms around his little brother one last time before he pulled back and took Jodi’s hand back in his. “Just got a little delayed.”
“I can see that,” Darrin murmured, looking Jodi over. With a smile, he nodded towards the house. “Why don’t we head inside?”
“I should have called,” Danny said, shooting Jodi a glance, noting the way that she was worrying her bottom lip.
“And warned Mom that you were bringing a woman home to meet the family for the first time ever?” Darrin asked brightly, chuckling when Danny shot him a homicidal glare. “Now, why would you want to do that?”
“Umm, maybe I should wait in the car? Or walk home?” Jodi asked, slowing down a bit. “I can walk home. It’s really not that far.”
“It will be fine. I promise,” Danny said, raising their hands so that he could kiss the back of her hand.
“But I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. I don’t want to interfere,” Jodi said, looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here.
“It’ll be fine,” he promised her. “Besides, I want you here.”
“Fine,” Jodi said on a drawn-out sigh with a miserable little pout that had him stopping so that he could lean down and kiss her. “No worries, Tinkerbelle. Everything will be fine.”
Oh, he was a lying bastard, Jodi decided five minutes later as she pressed back against the wall and out of trampling distance of all the large men yanking Danny into bear hugs. Even Jason and Trevor pulled Danny into a hug, seeming very pleased to see him and acting like they hadn’t just spent all day with him at work. It was really sweet, she thought with a smile that disappeared when all the large men in the room suddenly stopped talking and as one, turned around to look at her.
“Ummm,” Jodi murmured, awkwardly clearing her throat. “Hi,” she said nervously, adding a little wave to try and make the moment less awkward.
“Who’s this?” Darrin asked, making her frown because she’d just been introduced to him ten minutes ago.
“This is my girlfriend,” Danny said, pushing the men surrounding him out of the way so that he could come to her side and for the first time since they’d arrived, she realized that he wasn’t happy about being here.
He came to her side and reached for her, but before he could save her, someone grabbed her other hand and pulled her away from the safety of her wall. “This is Jodi,” Aidan said, smiling hugely as he released her hand and threw his arm around her shoulders, yanking her closer. “Also known as Tinkerbelle to our little Danny.”
Instead of looking happy to meet her, every man, except for Trevor and Jason, that is, stopped smiling to glare down at her. Aidan gestured towards Darrin, “This is Reese, Darrin’s twin brother,” he said, solving that mystery for her before he gestured to the next man glaring down at her. “This is our brother Duncan,” he said, pointing to a rather large and rather angry-looking man glaring down at her before he moved on to the next three angry men. “This is Garrett, Arik, and Lucifer,” he said, ending with the angriest man that she’d ever seen. “And I believe you already know our cousins, Jason and Trevor.”
“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Jodi said, trying to force a smile, but she couldn’t quite pull it off, not with all of them glaring down at her.
“Where’s Mom and Kenzie?” Danny asked, sounding tired as he reached down and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze that really didn’t help at all.
“In the kitchen,” Darrin said, walking back into the room. The cordial smile he’d worn when he’d first met her only minutes ago was completely gone and replaced by a scowl that matched his brothers’.
“Is Marybeth here?” Danny asked, releasing her hand.
“That bitch is dead to me,” Darrin said, his glare intensifying on her with each word.
“Uh-huh, that’s nice,” Danny mumbled absently as he released her hand. “I’ll be right back,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and heading off towards the small hallway to the left of the stairs before she could come up with a reason to go with him and she desperately wanted to come up with a reason to go with him.
“O-Okay,” Jodi said, swallowing nervously as the men’s eyes narrowed dangerously on her.
She looked over at Jason and Trevor for help, only to find their smiles gone and their eyes just as narrowed as their cousins’. Aidan released her to join his cousins and brothers in their glaring party, leaving her to step back until her back hit the wall and she realized that she had nowhere else to go.
“So, umm, big family, huh?” Jodi mumbled, shooting a glance towards the door. Maybe if she moved really fast, she could-
“What are your intentions towards our brother?”
