Her Mafia Brothers

Bubbles

Authors note: There's nothing quite like a super tight deadline (on another book) to motivate me to write something entirely different to what I should be writing, right? In case you didn't guess, I'm the Queen of procrastination. I hope you all enjoy this update. In my deadline book I've been writing a really traumatic, sad, emotional scene and it completely drained me. I needed to write something light and fun to cheer me up. This is the result: 

After a while, Jack must have noticed my mood because he put his arm around my shoulders, pulled me in close, and whispered in my ear.

"Don't be embarrassed, sweetheart. Discipline is just part of life in this family."

I smiled up at him, grateful for his reassurance, but I still felt stupid. I knew I didn't have to be afraid of my brothers, but I wanted more than that - I wanted them to like me. I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be one of them.

"How was your swim?" Damon asked, turning the conversation back to me. I was perfectly happy being ignored, wallowing in my shame, but one quick look at Damons piercing eyes told me that wasn't an option. He'd asked a question and he expected an answer.

"It was good, thank you," I answered stiffly.

Beside me, Logan hit my leg lightly, a silent warning to behave. To relax. So I forced myself to smile first at Damon, then around the table at the rest of my brothers. "I had fun," I added. "Logan and Nick swam with me and I had the most fun I've had in a long time. Maybe ever."

At my response Damon smiled warmly at me, flooding my insides with warmth. It was amazing how quickly he could make my mood change. I hated it as much as I liked it.

"That's good," he said. "Is there anything else you would like, that would be fun?"

Immediately, my stomach tied itself up in knots. There was something I wanted, but I didn't dare to ask. Part of me was waiting for this to all come crashing down. For him to jump out from behind the wall and tell me this was all a cruel joke and I wasn't getting anything, I didn't deserve anything. I was worthless.

"Even after....?" I couldn't finish my sentence and my voice choked up.

"After your little outburst, you mean?" Damon asked.

I nodded weakly. He didn't tell me to answer properly and I was grateful because if he had, I probably would have cried.

"Your outburst has been dealt with, and it's finished. We don't need to speak of it again. We're still going to give you everything you want, Carrie. We've missed you and we want to spoil you. We'll deal with any undesirable behaviour as it arises, but that has no bearing on us spoiling you. Whatever you want, we will get for you."

I sat up straighter in my chair, relief washing through me. I ate another mouthful of lasagne and washed it down with some Sprite. It wasn't wine, but it was actually pretty nice. I hadn't had Sprite very much before, nobody had cared enough to treat me to fizzy, sugary, junky drinks.

"I can have anything?" I asked.

Damon nodded.

"Can I have a trampoline? I understand if you say no." I said the last part quietly, but I couldn't keep the doubt at bay. Being given things was completely foreign to me. I'd been told for so long that I wasn't worthy of good things, that I believed it.

"Of course you can have a trampoline," Damon said. "If you and Logan jump online after the meal you can pick whatever one you want. We'll get it delivered here tomorrow. I'll be going out shortly, so use Jack's credit card."

I glanced up at Jack nervously, worried about his reaction to basically being told to buy me a trampoline but all he did was smile gently. Beside me, Logan snorted.

"He can afford it, sis. Jack could buy you a million trampolines and still have money left over."

It astounded me how Logan could read me so well. We barely knew each other, yet it already seemed like he could read my mind. It was scary, but kinda sweet at the same time.

My other brothers chuckled at Logan's brazenness but none of them disputed it, so maybe it was true. The house we lived in was certainly big and luxurious enough for it to be true, but I wasn't used to such extravagance. I didn't know if I ever really would.

"Thank you," I said softly, my smile widening. "I've always wanted a trampoline."

"You're welcome, darling girl," Jack smiled.

Then I turned to Logan. "How do you do that?" I asked. "Read my mind?"

He just grinned at me. "I'm not reading your mind, I'm reading your body language," he told me. "It's pretty easy to do. I can teach you, if you like."

When dinner was over, most of my brothers disappeared and I ended up helping Logan with the dishes in the kitchen. There wasn't much to do, the staff had left the kitchen clean and tidy, so it was just a matter of putting away the leftover food and putting our plates and things into the dishwasher. It should have taken five minutes, but Logan had other plans. He filled the sink with hot soapy water, gave me an evil look, then threw a handful of bubbles at me.

"Aaargh!" I shrieked, flicking him with the tea towel I was holding, before reaching into the sink myself and flinging bubbles back at him.

I'd never had a bubble fight before, but it didn't take long and I was flinging bubbles like a pro and doing my best to dodge out of Logan's way. But he was taller than me with a longer reach, so even when I dodged and ran, he managed to rub bubbles into my hair, splat them against my (his) hoodie, and even get some down my back.

"Ewww!" I shrieked again as the warm, sticky liquid spilled down the inside of Logan's hoodie that I was wearing. "You got me wet!"

Logan just smirked at me and threw another handful of bubbles.

The floor was wet and slippery and we both skated along on it, doing our best to saturate each other, laughing our heads off. I'd never laughed so much in my life, as I'd done today. First in the pool, now in the kitchen. With Logan, both times. He was a lot of fun, and he was teaching me how to play and laugh again. I loved every second of it.

I squealed at the top of my lungs as he put me in a headlock and slid me along the slippery floor closer to the sink, where he splashed handful after handful of bubbles into my hair, rubbing it in thoroughly. Desperately, I reached for the sink, hitting at the water, trying to get at least something on Logan, I didn't much care if it was bubbles or water, I just wanted to splash him as much as I could.

We were so engrossed in our water/bubble fight we didn't hear the heavy footsteps approaching the kitchen.

But we sure heard Rocco's booming voice. "What the hell is going on in here?"

Logan let me go and grinned up at our grumpy-looking brother sheepishly.

I looked around at the puddles on the floor, bubbles dripping down the cupboards, and my saturated socks, and I froze.