Never Safe ✔︎

Chapter Twenty

"'Bout time you guys got here," I hear as a gorgeous middle-aged woman walks down the stairs and up to our group. "Ah, you must be Ari and Wynter. My name is Laura," she says, walking up to me and Ari in particular.

"Yes ma'am, I'm Wynter and this is Ari," I say pointing to Ari. She gives a shy smile and a small 'hi'.

"Well, it sure is nice to meet you young ladies," she says while pulling me into a tight hug which causes me to smile at how welcoming she is. After she hugs Ari, she ushers us into the kitchen where we sit at the table. "Ryder, can you get Cali from the playroom please."

Ryder quickly disappears up the stairs but returns moments later with a little girl on his hip. Once they reach the bottom of the stairs, he sets her down and she practically runs over to the table.

"My names Cali, what's your name?" the little girl says once she reaches me.

"Well, my name is Wynter and this is Ari," I tell Cali.

"You're real pretty," Cali tells me, which makes me smile.

"Well, thank you. You are too," I respond, which causes her to break out into a fit of giggles for a few seconds. I smile as she walks over to her brothers and gives each of them a hug, including Cade, who actually smiles when he hugs her. While that is going on, a man walks in from outside and I can immediately tell he's their dad. Cade is like a younger version of the man who just walked in. I remember his name is Zeke from when Ryder was telling about them a while ago.

"Oh honey, look who's here," Laura says to Zeke.

"I see them," he answers bluntly. Well, now I know where Cade gets his bad attitude from. It's definitely not his mom who is a literal angel. The man walks into the living room and sits in one of the many chairs.

"Let's go sit in the living room," Laura suggests as everyone puts the presents for the secret Santa exchange in a pile, while I just sit on the couch and lean my crutches against the couch. Carter and Luke sit next to me on the couch, while everyone else finds a spot in the living room to get comfortable.

"I promised Cali we could open presents once you all got here, is it okay if we start now?" Laura says, directing the question towards me and Ari. I nod my head yes and smile at her before she bends under the tree to start dividing presents. It took about five minutes before all the presents were sorted due to the massive amount there were. Cali got the most by far, but me and Ari have a decent share as well, along with Carter.

"How about we let Cali open the first present then we can do our secret Santa exchange," James suggests. Cali nods her head really fast in agreement, which causes everyone to laugh. She rips open her biggest gift first and grins when she sees it a barbie doll house.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Cali screams as she hugs both her parents. Once she settles down, Jason gets up from the couch and announces he's going to give his gift away first. He goes over to the pile and picks up one of the smaller wrapped gifts. Anyone of those gifts could be mine, I have no idea as to who drew my name. Jason walks up to James and hands him the gift. James smiles and unwraps the gift to find a velvet box. He flips it open and inside is a gold knife. Down the side it read 'protect at all costs'. James had a huge smile on his face as he thanks Jason.

"'Protect at all costs' is the organizations slogan if you will," Carter says next to me. I nod my head in understanding. That's actually a really sweet goodbye gift for James.

Next, it's James' turn to give away his gift. He goes up to the pile and picks up one of the many big presents. He takes the gift to Ryder, who opens the gift excitedly. Once the present was unwrapped, I can tell it's some kind of car part, I think. My thoughts are corrected when James explains that Ryder is fixing a motorcycle and is looking for certain parts. Ryder sets the part on the ground and makes his way to the pile and gets one of the few smaller gifts left. He brings it my way and I think this one is mine. Unfortunately, I'm wrong when he hands it to Luke instead. Luke opens it and I can see that it's a jewelry box. He opens it and reveals a silver watch. Based on Luke's face, I'm guessing he like the gift. He puts it on his wrist before grabbing one of the average sized presents and handing it to Jason. Jason unwraps his gift and reveals a box of Legos. This gift confused me, until Luke explained it.