Page 190 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

Chris chuckled and surprised me by walking and standing next to Violet. When he saw my surprise, he smirked.

“You’re not the only one who had to take line dancing.”

I laughed and started showing the steps to Adam. I would never admit it out loud, but I was having fun and laughing so hard by the end of the song.

“Alright, Mom’s winded. Let’s watch a movie, now.” I huffed, falling onto the couch before they made me teach them to square dance. I pointed behind me without looking and added, “I see you swiping more chocolate, my little chocolate thief. Grab me one and let’s watch.”

Adam giggled and grabbed a handful of Hershey’s kisses. He dropped half of them as he ran toward the couch, making Chris chuckle and follow behind him, picking them up. Adam jumped up to cuddle next to me, and Chris handed the stray candy to me.

“Consider this my apology,” he said.

“Apology for what?” I asked, confused, making Violet start giggling behind him.

“Don’t tell her yet!”

“Tell me what?”

“Sorry, Bells. She’s the boss,” Chris smirked.

“I change my mind. You guys aren’t cute, you’re mean,” I huffed, grabbing the remote.

We ended up watching Monster House on Netflix and even Hugh showed up to watch with us, though Adam said he couldn’t have any snacks, because he didn’t have a costume on.

I couldn’t remember much of the movie to know if it was really safe for Adam, but thankfully, I didn’t have to find out because he was out after like fifteen minutes. We continued to watch the movie, though, because why not?

Violet got up to use the restroom halfway through the movie and when she came back, she stopped in front of me, pulled out her phone, and took a picture of Adam cuddling beside me.

“Send that to me?” I whispered.

Violet nodded and went back to Chris’ end of the couch. Once the movie was over, I carried my monkey up to his room and tucked him in, removing his costume without waking him. I put his hat on his headboard, knowing he’d look for it first thing in the morning.

I went downstairs to help clean up, but with Hugh helping, they were almost done by the time I got there. Hugh bade everyone good night, and I went to make sure we weren’t leaving anything out that might attract critters or ants. When I saw everything was clean, I went back into the kitchen.

“Violet, can you send me the picture?”

“I already did,” Violet answered.

I tried to pull my phone from my pocket, but it wasn’t there.

“Shit, can you call my phone? I don’t know where I left it.”

“Sure thing,” she replied.

I heard my ringtone and followed the sound to under the couch. When I finally managed to snag it out, I saw three notifications on the lock screen. The first was the missed call from Violet. The second was the picture text message. I smiled as I looked at the picture and set it as my background right away. The third was a text message from Chris. I clicked on the attachment and as I started hearing the music coming from the video, I realized why Chris had apologized earlier.

“VIOLET! CHRIS! YOU LITTLE RATS!” I screamed, rushing toward the kitchen. Violet was giggling by the time I arrived and,when she saw me, she and Chris took off running up the stairs. “IF ANYONE SEES THIS, I’M MURDERING YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!” I yelled after them. I couldn’t chase them in the damn boots.

“I already sent it to Mom! It’ll be all over Crescent Moon and Guardian Moon by the time the sun is up!” she yelled back.

“I’m going to get you for this!”

“No, you’re not, because you love me, and Adam loves me, and I’m the best aunt ever!”

I shook my head and realized she was right. After all the fun Adam had today, my humiliation at being recorded line dancing was a small price to pay.

I watched the rest of the video and realized it wasn’t that bad. I still had some moves, and Adam looked so cute in his costume. I walked up to my room, removed my costume and got ready for bed. After an hour of tossing and turning, I snuck into Cade’s room again, and I was finally able to sleep.

The next morning, we were going through more rooms when my phone rang.

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