Rising up on my knees, I throw my arms around his neck. “Thank you. I love it.”
“You’re welcome, Josie-Posie.” Squeezing me back, he drops his voice to a whisper. “I know this is hard. But we’re all so fucking happy to have you back.”
Fuck. He just had to go and say something sweet, didn’t he? Pulling back, I force another smile for his benefit before turning to the next brother in line and holding out my hand. “Gimme.”
The move earns me a round of laughter from my “family”, but a low growl from the man behind me. “Do you need a lesson in manners, Josephine?”
Heat suffuses my entire body as I smile sweetly up at Dane. “Gimme,please.”
More laughter breaks out around us, and to my surprise, Daddy joins in. “Smartass little brat. I can see your Uncle Axel’s present is going to get a lot of use.”
Twisting around, I glare at my smirking Daddy. “You can’t use that thing on me! You’ll break me in half!”
Now it’s Axel who smirks. “Now, what would be the point in giving your Daddy a present he can’t use? Lanie can attest to it being the perfect size for a naughty Little girl’s bottom since I tested it out on hers when I first made it.”
Lanie wrinkles her nose. “It isnot. It’s horrible and I hate it and if you ever make me one I’m going to throw it right in the fire.”
Ignoring them all, and the sudden throbbing need between my thighs, I turn back to Dane. “May I please have my present?”
To my surprise, Dane almost looks shy as he pulls a stuffed llama from behind his back. “I hope they’re still your favorite.”
For a moment, I actuallyama Little girl, excitement over a new toy pulsing through my veins as I grab the stuffed animal from his hands and clutch it to my chest. “They are! I love her! Thank you, Dane!”
“Uncle Dane,” Daddy corrects me, his voice a low growl once more.
Embarrassment mingles with my excitement, but somehow doesn’t dim it. “Sorry. Thank you, um, Uncle Dane.”
God that’s fucking weird. But seeing the way Dane’s eyes light up when I address him properly almost makes up for it.
Ford steps up next, a neatly wrapped rectangular box in his hands. “Your Uncle Eli’s gift is waiting downstairs in the dining room. A wedding brunch, he calls it, but between you and me I think it’s just an excuse for him to make those chocolate chip muffins he likes.”
Eli grunts and cuffs his brother on the back of the head. “Shut up, Ford.”
While they bicker, I rip the wrapping paper off the box and lift the lid.
And my excitement immediately fades. “You got me a thermometer?”
“I got your Daddy a thermometer, so he doesn’t have to come running to me every time he thinks you might have a fever,” Ford says with a chuckle. “I gave Axel and Lanie the same gift because I know how my brothers get. Remember that time you had the flu in college?”
I do. Despite my parents’ heated protests, Bram parked himself by my bed and refused to leave the entire week I was sick. He fed me, wiped me down with a cool washcloth, even helped me shower, an act I thought might actually kill my mother at the time.
Remembering, I turn to him, and I see the same mix of grief and nostalgia in his eyes that I can feel stirring in my chest. “I remember. You were a bit of a mother hen.”
“You scared me,” he says simply, running a hand over my hair and giving one of my pigtails a gentle tug. “You were so sick, and I was worried you’d never get better.”
“It was just the flu.” But the memory softens something inside me and I lean back against him, snuggling into his side. “Mr. Worrywart.”
“That’s Daddy Worrywart to you, little girl,” he growls, pressing a kiss to my hair.
It would be easy, so fucking easy to give in. To let myself fall back into my role as his girl, even with all the baby stuff. Who knows, maybe I could even talk him into giving up on the diapers and stuff if I pouted and whined enough. And we could live happily ever after the way we always dreamed.
But I can’t. Despite all the happy memories his family’s gifts have drudged up, I’m still furious with him on so many levels. There are too many things I can’t possibly forgive for me to be truly happy here.
So even if there is some small part of me that wants to just forget and move on and spend the rest of my life with the family I thought I’d lost forever, I know I can’t. I have to be strong.
Because I can’t help but feel like my very survival depends on me getting the fuck out of this cabin. For good.
CHAPTER 12
