Page 77 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“You okay there, Elim? Do you need a hand, too?” Chris was laughing hard as he held me.

I pulled my head up and peeked at Elim, who looked white as a ghost. A hand was resting on his chest and he was breathing very rapidly. I giggled, happy to see I wasn’t the only one that got scared. I looked up at Chris, who was still laughing at both of us.

“You knew what was going to happen. Have you seen this one before?” I asked.

“I watched it the other night,” he admitted.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve chosen something else.”

“It’s a good movie. I was okay watching it again.” He was still chuckling as he talked, and the vibration of his chest felt good.

So much so, that it started waking up parts of my body I wasn’t used to. That was when I became keenly aware that I was sitting on his lap. I scrambled off awkwardly, my face burning with embarrassment.

“I’m going to go change my underwear.” Elim broke the awkward silence in the room with a chuckle. “Thanks for the movie. I’ll be sure to ask for an extra pillow to hug if I end up having nightmares.”

“Some assassin,” I giggled.

“Enforcer,” he corrected. “At least, that’s what Aunt Kassie is making everyone call it now. Goodnight, Violet.”

“Night!” I called out. I turned to look at Chris, narrowing my eyes at him. “You only watched that because you knew about that last jump-scare, didn’t you?”

Chris tried to hide his smile, but it just made him look like he was puckering his lips for a kiss.

“Maybe,” he finally admitted with a chuckle.

“Uncool.”

“So, it wouldn’t be funny if I told you I set up my phone to record the reactions?”

I narrowed my eyes at him again. “Elim on there?” I asked.

“Probably,” he answered with a twinkle in his eye.

“Can I see?” I asked.

Chris chuckled and grabbed his phone from where it was standing on the window sill. I walked over to watch it with him, and was doubled over laughing as I watched Elim jump about two feet off the chair.

“Am I forgiven?”

“You’re forgiven,” I managed to reply as I caught my breath.

“I’ll clean up and let you get to bed.”

I grabbed the tray Elim had brought and passed it over. It still had a few treats in there, but I ate like half of the stuff Chris brought and got full. As he was heading to the door, we started hearing people stomping up the stairs and Cade calling Bells’ name. Chris froze and looked at me. The two of them were arguing very loudly.

“Should we go see?” I asked, wanting to give my sister some sort of backup.

Chris shook his head and sat down on the bed again.

“Not our monkeys, not our circus. We’re just here to provide a few bananas.”

“I’ve never heard that last part before,” I giggled.

We sat on the bed in silence for a few minutes, and when the arguing had stopped long enough to let us know they weren’t still in the hall, Chris stood.

“I think they’re done,” he said, making me nod. “I’ll be right back. Do you need anything from the kitchen?”

“Water.”

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