Page 117 of The Revenge Plan (Forbidden Descendants 1)

Wick shouted out a laugh only to follow it with a curse. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” he warned. “Three against one? Well, watch this, losers.”

Swinging around unexpectedly, he caused Izzy, who was clinging to his back, to bump into Darcy, knocking them both off-balance and tumbling toward the floor. Meanwhile, he focused on tickling Charlie and causing her to shriek in giggles as he plopped her on top of the other two.

But Darcy caught him around the legs, bringing him off-balance enough to fall on Izzy, and all four of them ended up on the carpet in a heap.

I started forward, gasping, certain someone must’ve gotten hurt in the tangle. But then they started laughing in tandem, rolling off each other and onto their backs, holding their stomachs as they chuckled at the ceiling.

Slowing to a stop, I gaped at them, amazed. Must be some kind of sibling talent; being able to roughhouse without hurting each other. I shook my head and smiled. It looked fun. Wick was laughing so hard and smiling wider than—

Hey, wait a second.

Wick was smiling.

Wick was freaking laughing.

I stared at him, stunned, trying to remember if I’d ever seen him truly, honestly full-out smile before. Or laugh.

And most surprising of all, I don’t think I had.

So weird.

He was beautiful when he smiled. He looked happy and relaxed; I almost wondered if he was the same Wick I’d been living with for the past few weeks.

“Hey, bubby,” Charlie finally greeted, rolling over to plaster a loud, smacking kiss to his cheek. “I’ve missed you.”

Smiling with genuine warmth, he reached out and ran his knuckles over her hair, giving her an affectionate noogie in return. “Yeah, you too, kiddo. You ready for spook night?”

“Oh my God, I’m so ready,” she cheered. “I’ve been waiting for this for months. I hope this year’s as awesome as last year was.”

“I hope another ghost at the spook house grabs Wick’s butt again,” Darcy spoke up. “The look on his face when he jumped as if he’d been goosed was classic.”

“Yeah.” Charlie snorted. “That ghost must’ve been majorly desperate for some if she was reduced to hitting on Wick.”

As the sisters laughed, Wick scowled. “Hey, leave the poor horny ghost alone. That was the most action I’d seen in a long time.”

Grinning when he caused his sisters to laugh even more, Wick started to untangle himself from the pile of siblings. “I’m going to take my shit to my room and change real quick, then—”

The moment he caught sight of me standing there, watching them, he broke off abruptly, looking as if he’d just swallowed his tongue.

“Oh,” Izzy announced, noticing me too. “We made Haven a surrogate sister tonight, so she’s tagging along, too.”

“Uh…” When he just continued to stare at me in shock, his mouth fallen open, Darcy cleared her throat.

“You okay with that, bubs?”

“What?” He turned to his older sister in a daze, only to suddenly shake his head. “I mean, yeah. Fine. It’s totally fine. Whatever. I just…” He turned back to me. “I thought you were going home this weekend.”

“Yeah, about that.” Blushing with a rueful cringe, I shrugged. “I called my mom at noon to let her know I was coming, only to learn she and Dad had already left for a surprise getaway trip, just the two of them, so… Surprise! I’m staying in town this weekend after all.”

“Oh,” he said, still just staring at me.

“Hey.” Charlie smacked him on the butt, which made him jump and whirl toward her, scowling.

“What?” he muttered.

“Well, go change already.” She motioned him along. “I’m ready to get this night started.”

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