Cursive - By Phoebe Lane Page 0,44

her hand inside the front of his pants to touch him, the knocking at the door began.

"You have got to be kidding me," Jace said, frustrated. Aislynn didn't even register what was going on at first. She kept at it, now trying to wrap her hand around his hard, warm skin, while the knocking became more insistent.

"What the hell?" she said, finally coming to her senses.

Then they heard the knob rattle and the door open. "Jace, I know you're in here!"

"Damn it," Jace said and sighed in frustration when Aislynn removed her hand from around him. "It's Alex. Wait here."

"There you are! What's up, man?" Aislynn heard Alex say, his voice moving closer to where she was standing, wearing only her bra and jeans. She quickly went into Jace's room and grabbed a t-shirt from his dresser.

"Alex, I want my key back," Jace said, irritated.

"Why? What happened…" Alex trailed off, as he watched Jace button his jeans over his obvious erection and pick up two shirts from the floor, one of them obviously smaller and more feminine. "Oh, man. I'm sorry. I can go—"

"Hi, Alex," Aislynn said walking back into the living room.

"Seriously, I’m giving you a three seconds running start before I start pounding on you," Jace threatened.

"Oh, come on, I’m sorry, dude."

"Three…two…" he seethed.

"It’s okay," Aislynn whispered softly in Jace’s ear as she non-accidentally let her teeth nip at his earlobe. "I have plans to make this up to you, and I promise it will be worth the wait."

"That really didn’t help. Now all I want to do is kick him out, lock you up in my room, and find out exactly what you mean," he said, the anger slowly disappearing from his expression.

Yes, please.

He finally turned back to his brother, his hand extended with the palm up. "Seriously. I want my key."

"Fine, fine," Alex said as he took the key off his keychain and dropped it in Jace’s hand. "So sensitive." Apparently he didn’t value his life very much.

"Alex, your brother has news to share," Aislynn said, putting her arm around Jace's waist and snuggling against him.

Alex looked at Jace expectantly. "I'm fine. All the tests came back clear," Jace said with a triumphant smile.

"Hell, yeah!" Alex yelled, pulling Jace into a bear hug. "Fantastic news, brother! Did you tell everyone else already?"

"No, we just got the call a few minutes ago. We weren't even expecting to hear back from the doctor so soon."

"So you just found out…and you were busy celebrating," Alex said, things finally clicking for him. "Sorry again about that, but I’m sure you'll have time to, umm, celebrate later."

Jace rolled his eyes while Aislynn blushed. "We need to tell the family."

All three of them got on their phones at the same time and bombarded everyone’s lines with calls, voicemails and texts. After getting the news, Nina immediately went into mama bear mode and demanded her whole family convene at her house for an impromptu celebration dinner.

"I don't care if we have pizza or bowls of cereal, I want you all here," Aislynn heard her say over the speakerphone.

"Are you up for it, babydoc?" Jace asked softly, outside of speakerphone range.

"I don't want to intrude. It's a family thing," she said softly.

"And you better bring Aislynn, Ellie, and Evan with you, or no beer for you boys," Nina interrupted.

"I think the decision has been made for you," Jace said, kissing the side of her head. "We can continue our celebration later."

The scene at the Quinn's house was moving. When they arrived, Nina gave Jace the most heart wrenching mom-hug Aislynn had ever witnessed. She then turned around and gave one to Aislynn as well.

"Oh, sweetheart…" Nina said softy, wiping Aislynn's tears away. It didn’t escape her how much the scene reminded her about the recurrent nightmare she had been having weeks before.

What is it with the Quinns and my inability to keep my emotions in check around them?

"I'm sorry. I think I've been holding it in, and it's finally coming out," she said, trying to compose herself. "I'm just happy." Aislynn couldn't deny the fact that Nina's hug meant a lot to her. Pam had never been the kind to express affection openly.

"Come inside. Let me feed you guys," John said, appearing at the door with five boxes of pizza and several six packs of beer.

Aislynn realized two important things during dinner. One, this family was obviously well off; the house was huge, the cars were expensive, and the art on the walls was