Need Us (17 page)

I feel Jamie tense against me and I cringe. “What does she mean, most of the time?” my dad asks.

“I didn’t mean anything by it, Dad. Can we please go eat dinner now?” I’m about to lose all my cool. I’ve heard stories about each of these men every day of my life. I’m going to start pointing out their own problems if they don’t shut up and take a chill pill.

“Maribel decided she didn’t want to be with me a couple of weeks ago. So I moved on a little too fast for her liking, but we’ve talked that through and gotten over it.” I close my eyes and put my face in his back. I can’t believe he just admitted that in front of all these overbearing men.

The silence is deafening around here now. Until I hear someone coming up the stairs. We all turn our heads to see my Aunt Rachel standing at the top of the stairs. “Really? Let the boy be. You all knew this was coming, just like we all knew Max and Maggie were coming. You’re all idiots. I just can’t.” Then she throws her hands up in the air. “Paisley! Wesley! Get your asses up here, right the fuck now!”

Then she turns back to us and locks eyes with me. She gives me a wink and I grin. Aunt Rachel always saves the day.

Mom and Aunt Paisley run up the stairs. Now, Paisley and Channing aren’t really my aunt and uncle in case you were getting weirded out because of Max and Maggie. We just call them that.

“What in the world is going on up here?” my mom asks with her hands on her hips. She’s a tiny little thing but she still splits the crowd as she moves through them. When she sees me pressed up against Jamie she bursts into tears.

“What the fuck, mom?” I say, freaked the hell out. If she doesn’t approve of Jamie then I swear I’m moving to fucking Alaska. No Hawaii, Alaska is way too cold for me.

She grabs my face while Jamie turns around and gets me by the hips. He doesn’t have to worry though. “I knew this day was coming. I just wasn’t ready at all.” She smoothes those hands over my face and just stares at me. “Both of my babies are grown up now.”

“I’m not moving out of the house, if that’s what you’re freaking out over. Besides, I’ll always need my mom. Even when I’m old and grey,” I tell her, pulling her into my arms and snuggling against her. “I didn’t tell you because you can’t keep anything from Dad. Max and I have always had a pact, that we would never tell each other’s secrets. And Dad would have gotten all overbearing,” I make sure I’m looking at him and glaring, “along with everyone else in this family. You people make it hard to do anything.”

“We just care about you so much. But don’t think for one second any of these idiots will stop you and Jamie. Your dad just likes to posture. We all knew you’d end up with him,” she says into my hair.

“How did you figure that?”

She laughs and pulls away. “Because you two used to sneak eyes at each other when you thought no one was looking. Though you and Jamie were better at it than Max and Maggie.”

“Score!” I say, laughing. “Can we eat now? Seriously, I’m hungry,” I state, looking around at the five men standing guard between my food and me.

My dad nods and I grab Jamie’s hand and pull him down the stairs, behind most of the women in my family, and into the kitchen. “You lie so well. You had me convinced,” Jamie whispers in my ear and I laugh.

Yeah, he’s a year older than me and we’ve been together since I was seventeen, as in my seventeenth birthday. Max isn’t the only one good at hiding something. Actually I’m better at it.

“Well, I don’t want you to get castrated. Just be glad your dad isn’t here. There might have been a massacre.”

One by one the men in my life come down the stairs. First there’s Asher, my older cousin, who finds his wife and goes to her. BeeBee holds their son in her arms. He’s only four months old. She shows him off to her sister Paisley and they laugh at the face he makes.

Damien comes down next and winks at me before going over to Ashley. My cousin Cora is away at college and I know they miss her. Hell, I miss the shit out of her myself. Damien and Ashley rub noses. Then she whispers something in his ear that makes his eyes light up. I shake my head.

Channing walks down next. He gets to Paisley and puts his forehead on hers. They seem to be having a serious converstation. Then they both look up at Max when he gets down the stairs and goes right to Maggie. He grabs her hand and they stand close together. Her head falls to his shoulder and I see a look I’ve never seen on his face before. Pure and total happiness. He’s always been happy but this is different. It’s like he finally found the thing he’s been searching for the most.

Pierce jumps down to the bottom stair and finds Rachel in the crowd. He kisses her neck and she bites her lip at him. They have a serious problem with PDA themselves.

Finally my dad makes it to the bottom. He goes to Max first and puts his hand on the back of his neck. He says something to him that makes Max relax against Maggie. Then he comes our way. He picks me up in a hug. I smile and throw my arms around his neck.

“I love you sweetie. Even when you’re giving me grey hair and maybe setting me up for a heart attack.” He kisses my hair and then sets me down on my feet.

“I love you too Daddy. Even when you’re being a pain in my ass.” Jamie tenses behind me when Dad makes eye contact with him.

“You ever hurt her, I’m going to kill you, bury the body and pretend I don’t know shit.” Then Dad nods at Jamie and goes to find my mother. That’s when they start making out again and I feel a little vomit rise up in my throat.

“Do your parents make out all the time?” I whisper at Jamie while he holds onto my stomach from behind.

I feel his head nod against my head. “They are worse actually. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked in on them fucking or about to fuck.”

I feel my lip rise up at that. “Yeah you have it worse. At least mine know how to lock a door.”

“I have that problem too. I even got home late one night while they thought I had already made it inside. They were in Dad’s car and they were naked,” Seth says right beside me.

“That’s nothing. Did I ever tell you the time I was supposed to be in my room but I snuck out? Yeah, when I got back they were in the pool and they were more than just naked. I had to hide in the bushes until they went back inside,” Maggie throws in. “Two hours later.”

I look at Max and he shrugs. “Thank God we didn’t have it that bad.”

Thank the lord we didn’t.

Even though they are weird and disgusting, I love each and every one of them. They had their hard times and their good times all before we came around. We just made everything better. Or worse.

I do know they weren’t happy before they found each other. And now they are so happy they subject their children to their sex lives. But what did you expect with this group?

There is a kind of madness to their lives, what with all the drama, but each of their children’s childhoods were amazing and each of us knows how much they love us. Each of us knows how they struggled for each other and how they lost some people along the way. We are truly blessed to have them as parents. I know I wouldn’t trade them in for anything.

The End

Acknowledgements

When it comes to thanking people, I get a little emotional. So many people have helped me with this series. I remember while looking back a year ago how much Make Me meant to me. I was in love with the characters and I was so excited to write it out. So it’s an honor to have help from each of these people and thank you for enjoying this series.

Lisa Kane, who probably loves Channing and Paisley more than I do. I thank you for checking up on me when I’ve gone radio silent. Thank you for always sharing my books on your blog. Thank you for being an amazing reader and fan. And hopefully you didn’t need too much alcohol to read this book.

Tamsyn Bester you are simply the best. I know I haven’t spoken to you in a while but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. Thank you for being there when I needed someone to lean on while writing Sleepless Nights. And thank you for loving this series and always being excited for the next book. <3 #Duchess

Nicole Bailey, I can’t thank you enough for all that you do. Before I found you, or did you find me? Either way you’ve been the biggest gift in my author life. I’ve been cheated, bullied, and ripped off by every other editor I’ve had. So thank you for being an angel. Thank you for going over these books with their bad grammar and badly spelled words. Thank you for always picking out the things I screwed up in my plots. And thank you for being the nicest person I have met in this industry.

Veronica Franco, thank you for your love of my books. Thank you for anyways making my teaser pics because I can’t make them to save my life. Thank you for being my biggest fan and biggest supporter. You mean the world to me!

For my family. Michele and Mom I know for a fact will probably read this. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for reading these books and actually liking them. On the days I feel like a failure and I just want to quit it all, I remember that you want to read what I write, so I have a purpose again. I couldn’t ask for anything else.