Page 150 of If You Claim Me

“Oh, I think I do.”

“You might regret it when we’re alone later,” I warn.

“I’ll take my chances.” She digs her fingers into my ribs, finding the ticklish spot—she discovered it once when she kissed her way across my tattoos. It’s enough of a distraction for her to wrestle the box free. She hops out of my lap and plucks the object from the box, tossing it to Hammer.

Hammer bursts into laughter. “It’s perfect.”

“What is it?” Callie asks.

Hammer holds up the annoyingly adorable, grinning, stuffed sandwich.

More people laugh than I would like.

“Why is the smiling sandwich so funny?” Callie asks, adorably oblivious.

“Connor really loves sandwiches,” Lexi explains.

“Oh.” She nods like it makes complete sense.

“I don’t think the other sandwich was quite so joyous about its situation,” Mildred muses.

“You do one stupid thing as a teenager, and you never live it down,” I grumble.

Thankfully the sandwich discussion ends when Roman announces that it’s time to set the table for dinner.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. My sisters promised to let me know when they landed, but it’s not Isabelle and Portia. It’s a message from my father, bitching about my social media posts. I leave it for now. He doesn’t get to ruin a perfectly good day. I tuck my phone in my jacket pocket and leave it in the front hall. I have Meems, Mildred, the twins, and my team, and that’s all that matters.

Callie ends up sitting between Victor and Roman at dinner, with Everly beside Fee. There seems to be an instant connection among those kids. They all know what it’s like to be without parents. I stretch my arm across the back of Mildred’s chair.

She kisses my cheek. “Thank you for making today so special, not just for me, but for the twins, too.”

I smile down at her. “Are you happy?”

Her eyes sparkle, and she nods.

“Good. That’s all I wanted.”

Again, her expression shifts at my words, but this time, I refuse to panic. I want her to see what’s in my heart.

We eat and laugh and talk. It feels good. I’ve spent so much of my life avoiding connections, afraid to have them and lose them. Now I just want to figure out how to make them permanent.

Meems is tired after dinner, so we thank our friends, gather our gifts, and hug everyone goodbye, congratulating Hammer and Hollis again on their engagement before we leave. The twins help Meems settle in the back seat while Mildred and I load the trunk.

“Do we have to take the twins back tonight?” Mildred asks quietly.

I shake my head. “Not until tomorrow, but they don’t know yet.”

Her eyes light up.

“If they want to stay the night, they can.”

She throws her arms around me. “Thank you. This is the most incredible gift.”

As I press my face against her neck, I want to tell her we can keep them forever, that we can be our own misfit family. But then she’d have to spend the rest of her life dealing with my family on the holidays—and a lot of other days too. And she’s still bound to me by a contract. So I leave that thought inside my head and help her into the car instead.

Everly can’t say enough nice things about Fee on the ride back home. We take Meems to the guesthouse, and when we return, the twins are sitting in the living room, their gifts neatly stacked.

“I guess we should probably get back, huh?” Victor says, working hard to hide the sadness in his voice.