Shattered Girl (Emmy)

Chapter 169

Shannon's birthday weekend was a lot of fun. Despite the lack of sleep, I enjoyed getting to know Patrick's family better. I couldn't help but laugh at how excited all the kids got when they saw the three different bounce houses set up for them. All the adults laughed when Patrick and I took off our shoes and climbed into one of the bounce houses with the kids.

It was a long day, but Patrick made sure to get loads of photos that he shared in our group chat. As much as I hated to say goodbye to everyone on Sunday morning, Patrick and I were ready to go home. As we backed out of the driveway, Patrick glanced at me. "Did you know my mom actually threatened me that if we didn't take care of you, she would have my dad put out a hit on us?"

Laughter flooded out of me. "That explains why your mom told me to call her if you ever got out of line." Patrick just shook his head.

We stopped at a gas station to fill up, and Patrick went for doughnuts and coffee while I texted the guys. They had planned a family dinner tonight for when we got home.

college, he reminded me that school wasn't the only option and encouraged me to think about what would make me happy. He

own thing. It was finally starting to feel normal. Or at least the new version of normal since the accident. Drew and Mike both slept with me that night. Jake followed me into the shower the next morning just like he always did before the accident. The next few weeks flew by. The weather grew cooler, and the leaves began to turn. Drew and Mike tried to lure me out for a run with them, but after the first

then drove up to a nearby amusement park. It was ridiculously fun. The guys turned all the games into a contest to see who could win the most stuffed animals, and after picking out my two favorites,

chilly but lots of fun, and he decided to make it a family dinner instead of just the two of

a couple of conference calls with my attorney and his computer guy, Dominic, and had passed on all our numbers to him so he could get a hold of one of us directly. So far, tracking down who had sent the threatening messages had proved fruitless, so I reviewed everything I knew again. As far as I knew, my father didn't have any extended family, so I was pretty sure the messages must have come from someone he either worked with or was friends with. Dominic assured me he would be in touch as soon as he found something and would like to set up a time to talk to Patrick about the possibility of reaching out to some of his contacts in law enforcement if his research didn't turn up anything. Halloween was right around the corner, and it seemed like the twins had a major test or project due in every single one of their classes. Helping them both study made me seriously think about following Patrick's advice and putting off jumping right back into classes. We also had our first dusting of snow while it was early in the season, and I was sure it wouldn't stick around. I still squealed at the

told them I was not spending the evening freezing in what passed for superhero costumes for women. We put all our ideas into a hat, and Darren picked out the winning theme. Which is how we ended up going in Medieval garb. The guys looked great in their armor, and

into comfy clothes. Drew and Jake raided the kitchen for snacks,