Page 83 of Hale's Pawn
She glares at me but offers a small smile. She wipes her tears. I come around to her and hug her. “Too tight,” she complains.
“Shut up and look after your food, Tinker Bell.”
I let Ainslee go and she looks at me. “Tinker Bell?”
I nod. “Small, little-ass fairy. You remind me of her when she gets upset.”
“Whatever.” Ainslee rolls her eyes, trying to hide her smile. “My brothers are going to be here soon and these are their favorites, well, dad’s favorite but, you know...”
I kiss her head and place my chin on top of it. “Are they ruined?” I ask.
Ainslee snickers. “No. They’re good.”
“Great. I missed you today,” I confess. “Shit, I’ve missed you for months now.”
Ainslee moves her head back and kisses my chin. “I missed you even more. It’ll never happen again. How was your day?” she asks me.
“Good. How was yours?” I ask her.
“It was okay. I filmed a video today.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I wanted to announce that I was back and that I had a great surprise,” Ainslee answers.
“You uploaded it yet?” I ask.
“No, not yet. Can you watch it for me and tell me if you like it?” she asks me.
I’m honored that she would ask me to do so. “I’ll do you one better, how about you film it again and this time, we announce it together?”
Ainslee halfway turns to look at me. “You’d do that with me?”
I nod. “I’d do it for you.”
Ainslee smiles as she goes back to what she’s doing. I reach out for an empanada that’s already done and Ainslee swats my hand. I swat her ass cheek as payback and grab an empanada anyway. “I’m going to freshen up. Be right back.”
AINSLEE
When the doorbell rings, I skip over and open it. My brothers are standing there in their typical all-black attires. I smile hard because I know Markos is the second in command for Mikonos. “You guys…” I say and pull them into a hug.
“Hi, little one,” Markos says and kisses the top of my head. “Thank you for inviting us over.”
I snicker and get out of his hold. “Shut up,” I say.
Mikonos and Markos pass the foyer and meet Oran in the kitchen. “What’s up guys?” Oran greets them.
“Hi, I’m Orion Moralis, it’s nice to finally meet the man who our little bird chose over ‘the life’. Thank you.”
“She what?” Oran whispers. Oran looks at me.
“I know you didn’t ask me and I know you would have supported me in anything, but I wanted to do this. I wanted to choose you and Rory.” Oran is speechless and I can tell he wants to say something, but I don’t think he can put it into words right now. I smile at him and take his hand, kissing the back of it. “When you’re ready, we’ll talk.”
Oran clears his throat. He nods.
Markos smirks, distracting Oran. “And I’m Phoenix Moralis, her second older brother. It’s nice to finally have a brother-in-law with common sense.”
Oran stares at them. “Are you guys going by your middle names? Or?”
