“Red has no idea what she’s really here for, does she?” Crusher asks, taking his eyes off the football game that’s blaring on the television.

“Not a one.”

“You think that’s smart?” Dragon asks, helping his oldest son, Dom to the floor to go play with Matty and Dakota. “Women like to prepare for shit. Especially something like this.”

“Hell if I know, Drag, man. I just know there’s no way I’m going to risk what happened when you and Nicole planned out your wedding.”

“Amen,” Dragon says, and for a minute he gets a look on his face that’s full of regret. The day Dragon and Nicole were originally supposed to get married was a fucked up mess and almost made the two of them break up. The thought of surviving one day without Carrie terrifies me. I’m keeping her glued to my hip.

“She’s not curious as to why your mom decided to have a family dinner the day before Valentines?”

“Not really, though she had no idea that you assholes would be here.”

“Looks like you’re going to have some explaining to do,” Crusher says, and I shrug. As long as I pull this off and give Carrie the wedding she deserves tomorrow, it’s all good.

“Daddy said a bad word!” Jazz cries. She’s sitting in Bull’s lap, playing with the chain he’s wearing.

“He did, didn’t he kitten?” Bull laughs, shooting me a look that has me itching to flip him off, but since my daughter is watching, I refrain—barely.

“Mommy spanks me when I’m bad.”

“We’ll have to make sure she spanks Daddy then,” Dragon laughs. Fuck. They’re all laughing.

“Jesus,” I mutter, rubbing my hand over my mouth and jaw. “You haven’t been spanked a day in your life, Jazzy.” She hasn’t. Carrie insists on time outs and since I know next to nothing about having a mother and father to guide me, I leave that up to her. Truth is, Carrie is all that is good in the world. If Jazzy turns out just like her, then that’s a fucking good thing.

“Does too!”

“Does what?” Carrie asks, walking through from the kitchen with Nicole and the other women. Each of them are carrying food that they place on the table. Then Carrie makes her way over to us.

“Nothin,” Jazzy answers, curling deeper into Bull’s arms. She leans into his ear to whisper, but doesn’t really whisper at all. “Don’t tell!” The little wildcat. I swear, she may be the death of me. I reach up and grab Carrie before she has a chance to get away, pulling her down into my lap. She’s wearing jeans paired with a green sweater today, and she looks gorgeous; the sweater matches her eyes. Still, I find myself wishing we were alone, with all our clothes rumpled in a mess on the floor, and my dick deep inside of her….

“Right, Jacob?”

“What’s that? Sorry Care, I was distracted,” I answer honestly, visions of me plunging inside her body, still haunting me.

“Nicole and the girls want to take me out tonight, but I was telling them we had plans to turn in early,” she says. Instantly, the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I look at Nicole first. She’s smiling and doing her best to appear innocent, but she won’t look me in the eye. Skye is just smirking. She doesn’t even attempt to hide it. Then, there’s Dani. She’s over there in Crusher’s lap and she’s laughing. Oh hell. I know that look.

My eyes narrow on her. “Where are you going?”

“We’re taking carrot top out to celebrate,” Dani smirks.

“And just what are you celebrating?” I ask, never taking my eyes off of her.

“Love. Isn’t that what Valentine’s Day is all about?” she asks, as if daring me to correct her.

“Your old man doesn’t keep you under enough control,” I grumble.

“I kind of like her out of control,” Crusher jokes, and he’s rewarded by Dani kissing him.

“Gross!” Matty grumbles, watching them kiss.

“You don’t say it’s gross when you’re trying to kiss Chloe,” Skye reminds him. “Chloe is a girl in Matty’s class he’s sweet on,” she explains to the rest of us.

“Yeah, but mom…you guys are old! You aren’t supposed to kiss.”

“What are we supposed to do?” Bull asks.

Skye is draped across the arm of his chair. Bull has Jazz cuddled on his chest, and his other arm is wrapped around Skye, with his hand firmly planted on her ass.

There are so many reasons I really like Skye, but the best one is that she has my brother completely wrapped around her finger. Which is good—more than good. It keeps his ass away from Carrie.

“I don’t know. Mom’s bake cookies and things, and dad’s lay around watching television and burping. Sometimes they scratch their balls,” he shrugs.

“Matthew!” Skye cries, her face glowing red.

“Jesus Christ,” Bull mumbles, kissing Skye’s shoulder.

“You and Skye live a party life for sure there, brother,” Crusher says, laughing his ass off.

“Damn, Bull. You need to get to the doctor. Shit, maybe find some of those little blue pills,” Dragon tells him.

“Dragon!” Nicole whispers.

“What Mama? I’m just trying to help.”

“Fu…”

“Bull!” Skye yells, putting her hand over his mouth. He gently grabs her hand, kissing her fingers, and even sucking on the tips before giving her a wink.

“Screw you, Dragon,” he says, but his eyes are totally on his woman. “Me and Doc get along just fine,” he adds, his voice dropping down. “Ain’t that right, Doc?”

“That’s right, honey,” she says quietly, and for a second, it’s like they’re in their own world.

“You can take Carrie out, Mama. Me and the boys got plans anyways.”

“We do?” I growl, not wanting Carrie out of my sight.

“Yeah, asshole. We got things to do.”

Dragon’s right. There are things I want to make sure get done, so that everything is perfect for tomorrow. I had planned on doing it after Carrie fell asleep later tonight. Seems like I’m being outvoted though, and I don’t like it, not one bit. Anything could happen to them.

“I’ll go with them,” I decide, fear of something happening to Carrie without me runs through my blood. I need to be there to protect her—keep her safe.

“It’s a girl’s night doofus, no men allowed,” Dani says, and if I didn’t like her, I could hate her.

“He’s right, Hellcat. You need someone to make sure you women don’t get into trouble.”

“Get over yourself, Zander,” Dani responds, rolling her eyes.

“That’s why I’m going,” he interrupts.

“You’re going with us to a strip joint?”

“What’s a ‘trip joint?” Jazz asks.

“It’s—”

“It’s where people go and there’s a show. You know, like when Mommy and Daddy took you to watch Princess Elsa on Ice,” Carrie interrupts me.

“I wanna go!” Jazz yells excitedly.

“Well done, Care Bear.”

“I panicked!” she grumbles, elbowing me.

“I’m sorry baby, you can only go if you’re older,” she tells Jazz.

“Yeah Jazz, and you don’t have balls to scratch, and you never bake cookies,” Matty adds helpfully.

“Zander, I don’t want you to go—”

“Too bad. I promise to only look at the dancers when I have to,” he vows over every one of us laughing at Matty. He gets up and carefully stands Dani on the floor.

“If you look too closely, I’m going to be worried. They’re all male.”

“Motherfucker!”

“Zander!” The women all cry as the rest of us men only laugh. Carrie leans into me and kisses me along the side of my face, leaning up to whisper in my ear.

“I don’t want to go.”

“I don’t want you to either, Care Bear. But I’ll be here waiting for you when you get back.”

“I love you, Jacob.”

“I love you. I’ve always loved you, Carrie. I always will,” I tell her, and I notice immediately when the tears form in her eyes. She stops my words with her lips. She kisses me gently, but with so much emotion I feel it from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Love. Carrie gives me that.

Unconditional love.