“It’s not our place, Mackenzie,” their father said firmly as Darrin headed for the door, in absolutely no mood to get in a shouting match with his kid sister over Marybeth, again. Not when he was still fucking exhausted because his asshole cousins had refused to leave him alone and had kept bugging the shit out of him about Marybeth until he’d been forced to get up and throw them out on their asses.
As he walked out of the kitchen, praying that Kenzie let it go for once, he considered sneaking up to his old room and catching up on some sleep before dinner. He turned down the back hall to do just that when he heard his brother Danny ask, “Where’s Mom and Kenzie?” reminding him that he needed to help his brother out tonight.
“In the kitchen,” Darrin said as he joined his cousins and brothers in the foyer, his attention locking on the small woman that had his brother wrapped around her little finger.
“Is Marybeth here?” Danny asked, releasing Jodi’s hand.
“That bitch is dead to me,” Darrin said, glaring at the small woman, shifting nervously as she shot hopeful glances towards the front door.
“Uh huh, that’s nice,” Danny mumbled absently as he shifted his attention back to the small woman. “I’ll be right back,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and heading off towards the small hallway that would take him to the kitchen.
“O-okay,” Jodi said, swallowing nervously his brothers and cousins watched her with varying degrees of suspicion.
“So, umm, big family, huh?” she mumbled, shooting another glance towards the door.
“What are your intentions towards our brother?” he asked before she could make a run for it, and judging by the expression on her face, she desperately wanted to do just that.
*-*-*-*
“Please, stop!” Jodi managed to choke out, laughing as they all took turns shoving the most embarrassing pictures they could find of Danny in her face. Once Darrin managed to find the collection of school pictures their mother had organized over the years, he’d dropped them by her feet and walked over to the loveseat in the corner where he settled in for what was no doubt going to end up being a very entertaining night.
“Wait! I found the home videos!” Arik announced triumphantly as he held up the large stack of DVDs they’d made over the years.
“You…Bastards!” Danny snarled as he stormed over to Jodi and snatched the photo album off her lap.
“Oh, come on!” his brothers whined as Danny snatched the rest of the photo albums away from them.
“Betraying bastards,” he grumbled with a murderous glare aimed at the rest of their brothers as he slammed the photo albums down on the coffee table.
“Stop being an asshole,” Duncan said with a roll of his eyes as he reached down to-
“Ow!” Duncan yelped as Danny grabbed his hand and with a simple twist of his wrist, dropped their brother to his knees.
“The next person that shows my girlfriend a picture of me wearing one of Mom’s bras is a dead man!” he snarled, using his hold on his brother’s hand to make his point.
“Let go, you bastard!” Duncan yelled, gasping in pain.
Darrin thought about helping his brother, but…
He was too comfortable to move.
“There’s a picture of you wearing a bra?” Jodi asked, shooting a hopeful glance towards the pile of photo albums that they’d stacked for her.
“Don’t even think about it,” Danny bit out coldly, which probably would have cowed any other woman, but not this one. She glared right back at him, which earned her a series of curses as Danny pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Be nice, Tinkerbelle, or I won’t show you my old tree house.”
“You had a tree house?” she asked, sounding intrigued as Darrin watched their mother walk into the room. Yeah, this should definitely be good, he decided around a yawn.
“Yes, he did and I could only get him to come out for dinner,” their mother said with a huge smile as Danny stepped back to introduce them.
“Sweetheart, this is my mother,” Danny said, leaning down to kiss their mother on the cheek. “Mom, this is my girlfriend…Mom?”
“Mrs. Bradford?” Jodi asked, shifting nervously as Darrin watched his mother’s eyes roll back in her head and-
“Shit!” Darrin snapped when he realized what was happening a little too late and jumped up from the couch. He dove for her along with the rest of his brothers and…
Missed.
Shit!
*-*-*-*
“I’m fine,” their mother, Mary said, waving off everyone’s concerns and gesturing for everyone to eat.
“Honey, maybe we should go to the hos-” their father began to say only to stop mid-word when she turned a furious glare on him.
“My oldest son brought home his girlfriend to have dinner with me and I’m damn well going to have dinner with her!” she snapped at their father, startling everyone at the table.
“Ummm,” his father began to say, swallowing nervously as he slowly, ever so slowly, handed his wife the ice pack he’d been holding against the back of her head where she’d hit the edge of the couch when she’d passed out, and sat back in his chair. “Just let me know if it starts hurting.”
“Uh huh,” she said, shifting her attention back to Danny’s girlfriend. “Would you like any more chicken, Jodi?” she asked pleasantly, noticeably startling the small woman even more.
“N-no, thank you, I’m fine,” Jodi said with a warm smile as she returned her attention to the large plate of food in front of her with a curious frown.
“Are you thirsty?” his mother asked, sounding eager as she gestured towards one of the many pitchers lining the long dining room table.
“I’m fine, thank you,” Jodi said, smiling.
“Are you sure?” Mary asked, gesturing for Duncan to pour her a glass of lemonade.
“She’s fine, Mom,” Danny said, waving their brother off.
“Yes, yes of course,” Mary murmured, looking thoughtful as she absently pushed her mashed potatoes around on her plate.
“This is really good, Mrs. Bra-umm, Mary,” Jodi said with a smile as she took a bite of mashed potatoes.
“So, tell me about yourself,” Mary said with a huge smile as soon as Jodi had food in her mouth.
“You already know all about her,” Danny said, sighing heavily as he shifted the food around on his plate.
Eyes narrowed on Danny, their mother snapped, “I have waited years for one of my inconsiderate sons to bring a nice young woman home to meet me! You will not deny me this moment!”