Her Mafia Brothers

Jack is Home!

The day dragged on. Really. Slowly. First there was school. And then, to kill time, Damon let me go to the mall with my friends after school. Bikini shopping for the pool party this coming weekend. Of course I didn't tell Damon that I was bikini shopping, and he didn't ask. He just told me to have fun. We did have fun - we ate donuts and made a game of trying to evade Paul and celebrated when we managed to lose him for a whole minute. It was great! I have no idea how he always managed to find us so fast, but he always did. Secretly, I was glad. It made me feel safe, knowing that Paul was so attentive, and all I had to worry about was normal teenage things.

Back at home, Logan jumped on my trampoline with me for a while and then we played Xbox for a bit, but I constantly had one ear on the door. Jack was expected any minute.

The second I heard his car pull up, I was on my feet.

"Jacky!" I screamed, as soon as the door opened, and I ran towards him. He quickly dropped the bags he was holding and caught me around the waist, spinning around with me high in the air and laughing. He cuddled me in tight and kissed my cheek.

"I missed you, sweetheart. How have you been?"

He didn't put me down straight away, but continued to hold me, and I wrapped my arms and legs tightly around him and squeezed. I didn't ever want to let him go. Well I knew I would, eventually, but I didn't want to just yet. I hadn't seen my favorite brother in three days, and I needed my Jacky fix. He obviously needed a fix of me as well, because he made no move to make me let go. He just stood there and held me.

"I've been okay," I said, glossing over the fact that the first day without him had been a disaster.

"I would never have gone and left you if I'd known the others would be leaving as well. Did Rocco take good care of you?"

I nodded and snuggled in closer to Jack, breathing in the scent of him. I'd missed him so much.

"Yes," I confirmed. "And he even watched The Lion King with me so now Alex is taking me to Disneyland!"

Jack chuckled against my ear. "Disneyland will be fun. You'll enjoy it."

"Rocco said I have to go on the scary rides with him though," I whispered.

"You'll be able to go on the rides with all of us, darling girl. We'll all go with you."

He slid me down then and greeted the rest of our brothers, then he carried his bags up to his room. I followed him. I didn't want to leave his side even for a second.

He didn't unpack his bags, but he did open up one of them and pulled out a pink giftbag with a pretty bow and handed it to me.

"I bought you back a present," he said. "I know Damon already gave you your beautiful bracelet, but I wanted to give you something else. Just something little."

Eagerly, I opened the bag and pulled out a tissue-wrapped object. I tore away the tissue paper. It was a snow globe! Snow was falling inside it from when I'd accidentally shaken it while unwrapping it, coating the Empire State Building.

"Thank you Jacky, I love it!" I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him thanks, and he grinned and hugged me back.

"You're welcome, sweetheart. I hope you like it."

Leaving the empty gift bag and tissue wrapper discarded on Jack's bed for him to deal with, I excitedly ran downstairs to show my other brothers my present. Jack followed close behind me. Everyone was just sitting up at the table, so I joined them on my chair next to Logan. Jack sat down on my other side.

I waved my new snow globe around in the air and set it down in front of me. "Look at the present Jacky brought me back from New York!" I announced.

Rocco reached across and picked it up, shaking it to make it snow.