Page 164 of Somebody's Watching Me
Unc.
Not Uncle.
Every time she’d heard the kids say Unc over this past week, it had killed her a little. As an only child, Liam had taken the idea of being someone’s uncle seriously and wanted to be called Unc instead of Uncle. “Once I’m your husband, then they can call me Uncle Liam.”
“Yeah, he seems to be attached to me these days.”
“I like that.” Giving her a curt nod, a move eerily reminiscent of something her father would do, Harper took the smaller bathing suit from Evie. “I’m going to take this to Theo and get a status update on the case.”
Harper buzzed out the door, and Jamison shut it to give them privacy. The thing was heavy as hell and with a set of locks that rivaled the exterior entrances of the house. Another one of her brother’s purchases from the days of Toby’s trial. The door was bulletproof and pretty much impenetrable. The closet, which served as a panic room, had a similar setup, as did the girls’ bedrooms.
Jamison had thought he was crazy to overhaul the house to this degree. The security system, the panic room, the shutters that dropped to cover every panel of glass if the alarm was triggered, all of it had seemed so unhinged in the beginning.
But now, not so much. Evie and the girls were safer here than anywhere else.
Once the door clicked closed, the serene smile Evie had in place collapsed, and she promptly burst into tears. Jamison rushed over, listening to the incoherent rambling spewing out of her sister. Pam. Zanmi. Samuel. The girls. The hysteria came in spurts, shooting out like water through a cracked dam until there was too much, and everything broke free.
“I can’t do this.” Evie’s entire body shook as she cried. “I’ll go into labor early if I don’t calm down, and Samuel will freak out even more.”
“You and the girls are his whole world. He has a right to be upset.” Jamison pulled her down to sit on the edge of the enormous bed. “But we do need to be mindful of the little man you’ve got in there.”
“A boy.” Evie rested her head on Jamison’s shoulder. “I’m going to have a mini-Samuel.”
“That’s super scary, and now I kind of want to cry.” Jamison wrapped an arm around her. “Are the girls happy?”
“They are and stayed up half the night talking about names.” Evie sniffed, sucking in her tears. “Samuel is making them sleep in the bed with us, and when they finally went to sleep, I still couldn’t get any rest. Theo snores like you do.”
“And you can’t get your daily dose of dick if the girls are sleeping in here.”
“He won’t touch me.” The tears made their return, and Jamison silently cursed herself. She had been hoping to get Evie to smile. “It’s like he’s scared I’m going to break.”
The door swung open, and Samuel narrowed his eyes on the two of them scrunched together. “Did you make her cry?”
“No, that’s all on you,” Jamison shot back. “Asshole.”
“What?” He slammed the heavy door behind him. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s fine.” Evie wiped her face and nose. “I’m fine.”
Jamison poked her sister’s shoulder. “Tell him the truth.”
“One of you better start talking.” Samuel stalked across the room to kneel in front of his wife. “Tell me how to make this better.”
That’s all he ever wanted. To make things better for Evie. To give his little family the world. No matter what anyone else thought, the love her brother and sister shared was one of the most beautiful things Jamison had ever witnessed.
Evie shrugged, keeping her gaze lowered. “You haven’t touched me.”
“What do you call this?” Samuel squeezed his wife’s thighs. “See, I’m touching you.”
“You know what I mean.”
Samuel blinked a few times, the tension visibly leaving his body as it came to him. “It’s been less than twenty-four hours, Evangeline.”
“Don’t laugh at me!” Evie growled, her frustration only making him laugh harder. “It’s not funny being controlled like this! Everyone is all surprised because I’m having a boy, but not me.” She scrunched her freckled nose at him. “It’s not at all surprising that it’s some Fairweather male forcing me to act like a sex fiend!”
Samuel’s face turned red, and tears gathered in the corner of his eyes as he completely dissolved into hysterics. She couldn’t be positive, but Jamison was pretty sure her brother never had—in his entire life—laughed as hard as he was doing now.
“I honestly thought something was really wrong, and you weren’t telling me.” Samuel’s laughter tapered off, but only slightly. “Like you were already in labor or something.”
