Page 91 of Stay Toxic

She snickered and went back to texting, then hit Send.

She flipped out of the messages and went to settings, then to the Face ID section.

She held my face in front of the screen for a photo ID, then added herself to my Face ID.

“There are things,” I said softly. “That’ll be on my phone…”

“I’ll stay out of it, mostly. And I promise not to get into anything I’m not supposed to be in,” she promised.

“I don’t care if you’re in it or not, just know that sometimes you may not always like what’s on there,” I admitted.

My phone started going crazy then with text messages from my family.

She turned away and read every single one before responding.

Shortly after that she handed me back my phone and said, “I just added myself to the family group chat. I don’t need it anymore.”

I pocketed my phone and watched as she went into woman-with-a-mission mode.

“Hey, McCoy, Shasha’s family is coming because they haven’t ever had a Thanksgiving before. We need the leaf added to the table and more chairs brought in from the storage room!” she cried.

I pulled out my phone when more texts poured through and was unsurprised to find that every single one of my siblings were coming.

Even Maven.

I smiled and tucked my phone back into my pocket.

It took them all of ten minutes to arrive.

Dima and Milena were first, followed by Nastya, and finally Auden and Maven with their two children, Lola and Brando.

Brando was a little over three months old and had the same eyes as his mother.

It made my heart hurt to see, because the baby looked exactly like Maven did when she was a baby.

She smiled at JJ, who’d let them in, and then found me in the crowd of people.

She walked directly to me and wrapped me up in her arms. “Thank you for thinking of me. Thanksgiving food is my favorite.”

I didn’t squeeze her like I wanted to, seeing as we had a squirming, not-too-happy-about-his-position baby in between us.

When she pulled back, I reached down for Brando and pulled him up to my face.

He smiled his gummy little smile at me and reached a wet hand that’d previously been in his mouth toward my face.

Slobber skirted down my cheek where he touched me, but I didn’t move to wipe it off.

“Hey, buddy.” I smiled.

He drooled and smiled some more.

He was one happy baby.

I pulled him in close to my chest, then dropped down onto my haunches so I could see the little girl hiding behind her father’s legs.

Lola, my sweet niece, didn’t like crowds.

Just like her mother.

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