“That’s silly. She’s fine and she hasn’t slept in it since we moved out of my mother’s house. You can sleep in the guest bed.”

“But I want my bed, in my room,” she complained with typical seven-year-old urgency, and Lucy rolled her eyes.

“Angela, come on—”

But Benji was there, lifting her up and onto his shoulders. “It’s really no big deal. We can grab everything that we two can get,” he said then and smiled at Lucy. “Don’t be mad. I want this to be fun, and if we would have planned better, she would have her bed.”

Lucy glared. “Stop spoiling her.”

He grinned. “But I spoil both of you.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’ll bite you in the ass when she’s sixteen, I promise you,” she warned, but all he did was laugh. Rolling her eyes, she turned and headed down the hall to get her bath box, the last box that was downstairs. She heard Angie say something about playing, but she ignored them, thinking they were going to drive her up the wall. She knew he didn’t mean any harm, but he couldn’t just roll over for that girl. While it was sweet and adorable, Angie had that man wrapped around her finger, and Lucy would need to untie him before Angie had him building her castles in the skies.

Knowing Benji, he’d do it.

Fool man.

And boy, did she love him.

As she walked through their home, she felt good. She felt complete and already thinking of little things she would hang to add pieces of Angie and herself to the home. She couldn’t wait. A part of her was sure she’d designed it in a way she liked so that when she finally gave in and moved in, like she had wanted to do from the beginning, it would be hers.

And it was.

Grinning, she grabbed the last box and headed upstairs, but she heard Benji’s voice full of shock as he gasped, “Um, Angie, I don’t think Mommy wants us playing with these.”

Her heart dropped.

Please, God, no.

Rushing up the stairs and down the hall, she turned the corner just as Angie swung one of her dildos at Benji’s face. “It’s a sword! A weird looking sword, but come on. I like this one ’cause it’s longer, but yours is sparkly.”

Benji, bless him, was trying not to laugh, but Lucy was horrified. “Angela Lynn!”

Throwing the dildo in the box, she spun around, her eyes wide. “Mommy, I just want to play!”

“Go to your—er, the guest room. Right now! I’ve told you twice not to touch those.”

Angie looked back at Benji as he held Lucy’s sparkly vibrator in his hand. Inwardly, Lucy died as Angie looked to him, but he just shook his head. “She told you twice, dude. I can’t help you.”

“Ugh,” Angie complained, stomping past Lucy and into the guest room, hopping on the bed and letting out a wail of protest. “I just wanted to play!”

Ignoring her, Lucy looked at Benji, her face beet red as she pointed to the sex toy in his hand. “Put it in the box, and please, for the love of God, forget this moment right now.”

He didn’t hold in his laughter as his head fell back, the rough sound filling the room as Lucy died a little more. “You’re into sparkling cock?” he said in a low whisper. “Want me to throw some glitter on my dick? Would that turn you on?”

“I swear to God, I will stick that thing down your throat if you don’t put it in the box right now,” she warned, his laughter running up her spine. Shaking his head, he leaned over, throwing it in the box. But when he came back up, he had her longer one.

“And this one. Jesus, I know it doesn’t fit,” he said, swinging it around playfully. “I barely fit!”

Mortified, her eyes widened as she shrieked. “Benji!”

“What? It’s like a python,” he said, jabbing it at her.

Batting it away, she cried, “It was a gift. Please put it away.”

“A gift?! Who gave you a giant cock?” he asked, making sure to keep his voice down. “I guess it is the gift that keeps on giving. If you can get it to fit…”

She couldn’t help it, she dissolved in laughter, bending over as she wheezed with hilarity. Only Benji could make her laugh so hard she cried. When she looked up and he was holding it to his leg, shaking his head, she couldn’t take it. This man was a mess. Fixing his glasses, he made a face as he tried to wrap his hand around the girth of it. “I mean, who could this fit in?”

Unable to speak, she just closed her eyes as her happy tears leaked out of her eyes and down her face.

She loved this adorable man.

Her dorky, inappropriate geek.

After getting everything set up the way they wanted, and even stopping by the warehouse to get Angie’s bed, they made their way to Luther Arena for the Assassins’ Christmas party for the families. When Benji asked her and Angie to go, she hadn’t hesitated to say yes, but now as they started up the many stairs to the arena, a little nervousness settled in her stomach.

She was just the girlfriend with a kid. A kid who wasn’t Benji’s. What if everyone thought it was wrong of him to bring them? What if they didn’t accept them as part of him? Of course, she knew some of them because of Jayden, but they were his sister and his niece. They weren’t coming as that; they were coming as Benji’s family.

Crap on a cracker.

She looked over at Angie, who was oblivious to Lucy’s internal struggle, bouncing around, hockey stick in one hand and skates in the other. She was so excited to play with Shelli and Posey, along with all the other Assassins’ kids. There were a lot of them, for sure. While Lucy was thrilled for Angie to play and have fun with the rest of the team, her own nerves about being accepted were almost a little too much to handle. Which she didn’t understand. She’d never cared what anyone thought about her. But then, it wasn’t about her, it was about Benji.