Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 151384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
“Hey!” Sampson said. “I heard that.”
Jenner carried her down the stairs and Abe started passing around coffee as Isaiah joined them wearing his Christmas pajamas.
Every year she bought them new pajamas. This year they were white with red cuffs and red reindeer all over them.
“Want to start opening gifts?” Jenner asked.
“We can’t. Tobias isn’t here.”
Should she go get him? Did he not want to wear the pajamas she’d given him last night? But then he stepped into the living room, in his pajamas.
“Tobias! You’re here!”
Tobias couldn’t believe he was doing this. If the guys he worked with could see him in these ridiculous pajamas . . .
But then he took in the huge smile on Immy’s face and he knew he’d wear them again just to see her that happy.
Jumping to her feet, she ran over and threw her arms around him. “Tobias! You’re here!”
“Course I am. Where else would I be?” he asked.
She took hold of his hand. “Come and sit down. Your gifts are in your stocking.”
He’d been amazed when she’d given him the pajamas and a stocking last night. And he hadn’t expected anything to be in the stocking come morning.
Turns out he was wrong.
His stocking was overflowing with gifts. It was insane.
He sat next to Abe and just stared around in shock.
“We never got to celebrate Christmas when we lived at the Camp,” Abe explained quietly. “So now we go a bit overboard.”
Right. He guessed he understood that. While he and his mom had never had much, she’d always decorated for Christmas and he always got gifts. Even if she had to work twice as hard to provide him with that.
He couldn’t imagine the life they’d all lived. He watched Immy as she flitted around everyone, then sat next to Jenner to open her gifts. She was radiant. Almost glowing.
Tobias watched as they went around in a circle, opening gifts. It seemed like they almost took more pleasure in what other people were opening.
Immy excitedly opened Harry Potter themed mugs and pajamas and slippers. Her pile of gifts seemed to be bigger than anyone else’s.
Which he approved of.
Tobias was surprised that everyone had bought him gifts. Not that he hadn’t done the same for them.
When there was a lull and people were tidying things up, he walked over to Immy to hand her his gift.
She took it with a smile. “Thank you, Tobias!”
It amused him to watch her rip off the wrapping paper, then stare down at the jewelry box. She opened it up and gasped. Then she jumped to her feet and wrapped herself around him.
“You like it?” he asked. It wasn’t anything big or extravagant. But he’d thought she would like it.
“I love it! Will you put it on me?” She held the box to him and he took it.
Then she turned and gathered her hair up. He saw Jenner watching them closely, but he didn’t say anything as Tobias put the gold necklace on her. It had a wizard’s hat, a heart, and a small cat on it.
Immy turned back when he was done and smiled again. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sweetness.”
With a shy look, she turned and ran off to Jenner who picked her up and carried her out of the living room.
Tobias couldn’t help but feel happy and sad at the same time.
It was a weird feeling. Then Sampson clamped him on the back. “Come on, time to stuff ourselves silly. It’s not truly Christmas until you’ve fallen into a food-induced coma.”
Yeah. That he could agree on.
“Immy?” Jenner called out. “Immy, where are you? I’ve got your smoothie for you.”
What?
Oh, heck, no.
She was not going to drink that disgusting thing! She was putting in a silent protest.
No more smoothies!
Down with smoothies!
Green smoothies were gross!
It was really sweet that Jenner had made her one . . . actually, no it wasn’t. All of the guys had become incredibly overprotective after Cat had been kidnapped. Even more protective than they had been after Maeve.
Likely because they had hoped that any connection with the Deity and Children of the Divine had died with Maeve’s stalker.
Now, it turned out it hadn’t.
But a month had passed and nothing had happened. Christmas had been amazing. She’d even gotten Tobias into Christmas pajamas. For a very brief moment.
However, the guys hadn’t eased off.
Especially Jenner and Tobias. It felt like they were all over her. All the time.
Well, Jenner sometimes went out to his studio to create music. But Tobias was here all the time . . . always on her case.
It wasn’t that she wanted to go anywhere, she didn’t. But she didn’t need him to hover. Although, no one was hovering worse than Jenner when he was home.
For some reason, he’d seemed to decide that he needed to take over watching what she ate, how much sleep she was getting. He had some app he was using to monitor her food and water intake.