Author's Note: Over 1000 reads!! Never in a million years did I expect that many people to be reading one of my stories. I can't thank you guys enough and I hope you're enjoying it.

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Charles spent the day at the table reading. I washed the floors and waited on him whenever he asked for something to drink. Other than that, he didn’t talk to me much.

His eyes stayed on the book, but I was paranoid that he was watching me as I worked. I didn’t know if I was doing something wrong, and I didn’t want to be punished if I was. I had never had one of them in the house as I was cleaning before.

It was dark outside, and I had already finished cooking before Jimmy and Tommy came in. Tommy was the first to come in. He slammed the door behind him and stormed up the stairs and I heard his bedroom door slam shut.

Jimmy came in a few minutes later. He rake his hand through his hair and let out a deep breath. His cheeks and nose were red and I felt a cold breeze come into the kitchen. It was hard to judge what the weather is like when you’re stuck inside a house. But my suspicions were confirmed that winter was soon coming.

He came over to me and slipped his arms around my back. I could feel his cold fingers through the thin fabric of my shirt. He pressed his lips against mine.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked me.

“I’m good,” I said.

I curled my lips into a smile and watched as Jimmy’s did the same.

“Are you really?” he asked me raising an eyebrow. “I need to know the truth. It’s the only way I can help you.”

“I feel great,” I told him. I got up onto my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck. His arms tightened around me as our kiss deepened.

When he pulled away from me, he kissed my check. I slid my hands down onto his chest.

“We should eat before it gets cold,” I told him.

“Yeah,” he agreed letting go of me. He turned around and began to slide his jacket off his shoulders and down his arms. “Tommy probably won’t be eating.”

“What happened?” Charles asked.

He closed his book and moved it over to the edge of the table. I sat down in my spot. I had put the food one the table as soon as I had finished cooking it. Jimmy hung up his jacket on the hook by the kitchen door.

“Tommy’s being Tommy,” Jimmy said as he walked over to the table. He sat down in his chair and reached over to grab the bowl of potatoes and began scooping them onto the plate. “He’ll find any reason to throw a fit.”

“What was it about this time?” Charles asked as he reached out to the plate of meat.

“There was a couple of people,” Jimmy said passing the bowl of potatoes over to me. “They were across the road in that field. He told me that we should go over there and take them. There was six of them so I told him to leave it alone. He wasn’t happy about that.”

“It was the right decision,” Charles agreed.

Charles passed me the plate of meat and I set it down in the middle of the table. Jimmy looked at me and shook his head and pushed the plate back over to me. It clanged against my plate and I felt my stomach twist.

“You didn’t take any,” Jimmy told me.

“I’m not very hungry,” I said.

“You told me you were feeling good. Were you lying to me?”

“No!” I said, my voice was drenched in panic.

“Then take some,” he ordered me.

I put a slice of the meat onto my plate and looked up at Jimmy for his approval. He shook his head at me.

“You know, Juliet,” Charles began to say. “That you probably should be gaining weight. It’s not healthy to stay that skinny.”

“We just want you to be safe,” Jimmy added.

I picked up another piece of meat and dropped it onto my plate. They were still staring me intensely, so I reach out and grabbed another piece. They relaxed into their seats after that.

“Make sure you eat all of it,” Jimmy told me.

His voice sounded threatening, but I knew that he didn’t want to punish me. He only ever did it to help me get settled here.

“I will,” I said. “Thanks.”

We began eating in silence. All I could hear was the sound of forks and knives clanging across the plates. I started eating the meat first so that I could get it over with. Chewing it became easier, but swallowing it and forcing it down my throat was still a struggle.

“I’ve been talking to Noah,” Charles told us. “He was shocked that we were willing to come so early. They’re proud of you, James.”

“Thank you,” he said quietly. I looked up quickly to see that his face had started to turn red.

“We’ll leave here in two weeks and stay with them for a week,” Charles said. “I’ll tell Tommy later tonight. That’ll put him in a better mood.”

Dinner was quickly over and I washed up the dishes after. As I had my hands in that hot, soapy water, Jimmy came up behind me. He brushed my hair over to one side of my neck and put his hands on my hip.

“Come up to our room after you’re done,” he whispered to me.

“Okay,” I whispered back.

He kissed my cheek and patted my hip before I heard him go up the stairs. I washed the dishes as quickly as I could and put them away. I dried my hands on the towel and headed up the stairs.

Our bedroom door was still open, so I closed it behind me as entered. He was sitting at the foot of the bed. His lips curled into a smile when he saw me and held his hand out in front of him. I walked over to him and took his hand in mine.

He pulled me over to him and pulled me onto his lap. My knees were on either side of him and he wrapped his arms around me to keep me pressed up against him. I put my one hand on his shoulder and the other up on his cheek. I traced his scar along with my thumb.

“I can’t wait to show you off,” he told me.

I bit down on my lip and I felt the heat rush up to my cheeks. It caused Jimmy’s smile to grow even bigger.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. “You’re such a good girl.”

“Thank you,” I said leaning in for another kiss.

“You’ll love the rest of your family,” he told me. He pulled away and straightened up his back. “Taylor is pretty much my best friend. We always got along great ever since we were babies. His girl, Emme, I haven’t met her yet, but what I’ve heard about her you’ll like her too.”

Jimmy’s smile managed to grow as he talked about his family. I hadn’t heard him mention much about them before, but I’ve almost never seen him this happy before.

“Gabe is the oldest of us and his girl Lindsay is really nice. They’ve got two sons now. Dylan is the youngest of us, only a couple years younger than Tommy. My Uncle Noah is a lot like Dad and Jenny is the best. We used to look forward to going over because of her cooking, but that doesn’t matter as much now because we have you.”

Jimmy rolled over so that I was on my back and he was leaning over me. He had his elbows down on the bed near my head and supported his weight so he wasn’t crushing me.

“I don’t know much about your birth family, but I’m certain you’re going to like your new family a lot more,” he informed me.

I couldn’t help but let myself smile.

“I’m positive I will,” I told him.

“Why?”

“My birth family wasn’t really there.”

“Well they were dead.”

I started to giggle and Jimmy laughed along with me. I reached up and ran my hand underneath his shirt, feeling his muscles with my fingertips.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said still laughing. “They were always busy. My parents were always at work and they couldn’t afford a babysitter or anything, so my grandmother use to look after us, but she was an alcoholic. She drank herself to death. They actually died in the car accident while driving home from the funeral. Isn’t that ironic?”

Jimmy was looking down at me. His big eyes were looking so soft and warm. He leaned down and brushed his lips against mine.

“We will always love you,” he told me.

“I love you all too.”