Page 36 of Possessive Doctor

“It’s me, James. It’s good to see you.”

My cousin shakes my hand with vigor and turns his attention to Amy.

“This must be your wife, then. I’m James.”

“Amy. Nice to meet you, James.”

“Come on in. There are a lot of people waiting to finally meet you.”

Amy squeezes my arm and smiles. Alex spies a group of small children assembled in the parlor and tugs on my arm. “May I?” he asks me.

“Sure, go and play,” I tell him and he skips off to meet his cousins.

Amy and I, a child in each of our arms, follow James into the dining room where my Aunt Rita sees us and rushes over to greet us.

“Amy, I know you’re the one who convinced Andrew to come. He’s turned down every invitation until now,” Rita tells her and kisses her on the cheek.

“I’m glad we made it. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone,” Amy beams.

Aunt Rita hugs me and whispers, “She’s a beauty. I’m so happy for you.”

“Everyone, look! Andrew and his family are here,” she shouts and my relatives line up to offer handshakes and hugs. Soon, the girls are scooped up by my cousins, and Amy and I are free to mingle. As much as I dreaded coming, my wife was right again. It is nice to see my children getting to know my family.

The kids rush out the back door, and Amy and I follow so we can get a breath of fresh air and a moment to ourselves.

“So, what do you think?” I ask Amy.

“Everyone is very nice, and this place is just amazing. I’m a little envious. I would have loved to grow up in the mountain air.”

“We’re not moving here,” I joke.

“No, but now that we’ve made contact, we can come back and visit. Maybe your Aunt can come and see us, too.”

“Alright, I’ll take that compromise.”

We sit down on the wooden rockers and listen to the sound of laughter coming from the children in the yard below. I reach out and take Amy’s hand in mine and ask myself how I ever got so lucky.

This girl is the mother of my children and the love of my life. As the years pass, I only fall harder for her. And fuck, I did it all—claim her, marry her, and bind her to me forever with not one but three kids. In truth, if she told me she wanted to move here tomorrow, I’d start looking for a house. What Amy wants, Amy gets. Period.

“Tomorrow, after you take Alex fishing, we should go for a ride around town. I want to see your high school and all the places where you snuck off to get drunk in the woods with your friends,” Amy tells me.

“We can do that. The pizzeria where I hung out and played video games is still here. We can stop there for lunch. There’s no better pizza around.”

“That sounds like fun. If they still have video games, I’ll challenge you.”

“You can’t beat me, baby girl. There wasn’t much to do here as a kid so I became a master at all of the classic games.”

“Ah, yes, but you’ve never seen me play,” she laughs and her face lights up with that childlike exuberance I love so much.

“Alright, I’ll let you win a round or two if it’ll help me get in your pants.”

She swats my arm and chuckles. “Between the car ride and all this excitement, these kids are going to be out cold tonight so you may just get your wish.” She looks away and bites her lip, heat rising to her cheeks.

Well, damn. I guess that alone makes this trip worth it.

“I love it when you do that,” I tell her, lowering my voice and grazing her jaw with my finger.

“Do what?”

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