In His Arms

Chapter 10

A thin string of saliva drops onto Danny's soft brown hair as Mr Holt and I separate from our kiss. My mouth is parted slightly as I draw in oxygen into my lungs, my eyes looking right into Mr Holt's trying to figure out his thoughts.

He has a death wish.

Like I had both dreaded and foreseen, Adam is the first one to react, him being the nearest. As if already knowing the backlash that was coming for him, Mr Holt shifts Danny into my arms before Adam forcefully grabs him by the lapels of his suit jacket. Holding Danny on my hip, my body moves on its own, somehow I manage to push Adam away from Mr Holt before either of them can get physical with the other. In defence or not.

"Enough," I snap, standing in between them both, glaring at my oldest brother as he eyes me warningly, being the first to break the eye contact to glance over the rest of my brothers, addressing all of them in my next few sentences. "What are you guys even doing here? I haven't seen all of you in one place like this since high school and to make matters worse this is my workplace!"

"Dad called and said you collapsed," Oliver responds, ignoring my question, and looking at me concernedly. "The second we heard it we all rushed to look for you in the hospital but they said you left."

The word 'rush' means to act with haste. By saying they rushed to look for me in the hospital it means they hurried to come to see me no matter what they were doing but it has taken them three weeks to come to see me...I think my definition of 'rush' differs greatly from theirs.

Mentally glaring at my snarky subconscious as she glares at them from the back of my mind, I sigh heavily, "If that's all you guys wanted to know, any of you could have just asked Dad how I am. I'm sure all of you have busy schedules so now that you've seen me and know that I'm well. Can we have this family gathering on another day?"

"Like when Janette?" Oliver asks in his deep and stern voice that hasn't changed since I was adopted, jutting his chin at Mr Holt. "At your wedding?"

Wedding? Oh...right he was proposing when they walked in.

Biting my lower lip, I open the blue Cartier box under Danny's behind, I slip on the stainless steel square-cut diamond engagement ring on my left ring finger, looking right at William, I return sharply, turning away to walk back into my office, ending the conversation, "Yes, now that I've accepted the ring. So... all of you can go back to wherever you guys came from and expect an invite later."

"Janette!" William implores, giving me a pleading look. "Please don't shut us out."

Scowling, I bite the inside of my cheek, reminding myself to keep my temper as I turn back around to face all eleven of them, responding hollowly, "I don't know what you're talking about William. If I wanted to shut all of you out, I would have called security the second all of you stepped out of that tiny elevator."

Turning back around after that, my hands shake from the adrenaline coursing through my body, it seems obvious as I reach for the handle of my office door, with Mr Holt following after me, I beg that my brothers get the hint to leave.

"Care to explain how you suddenly have eleven brothers?" He starts once the door is closed behind him, sitting on the visitor's seat opposite my desk as I balance Danny on my lap while trying to get my shaking hands under control.

"I haven't seen any of them for maybe four or five years...," I reply softly, my knuckles turn white as I avoid his gaze with the excuse that my hands are still shaking. " I told you before I've only ever kept in touch with my Dad since I went to university so it wasn't only my friends from high school that I didn't keep in touch with."

Leaning back into his seat, Danny suddenly squeals as he sticks my blue ballpoint pen he's picked up off of my desk into his mouth, cooing softly for him to release the item, I take the wet pen away from him which causes him to begin whining, taking a teething toy from my handbag I pass it to him to chew instead.

"Mr Holt, though we will be married soon," I mumble as I watch Danny chew delightfully on the pen's replacement, glancing up to look at him briefly. "I believe we never discussed 'kissing' in any of our terms. I'd appreciate it if something like that didn't happen again. Especially not at my workplace."

Smirking, he reminds me, "We did discuss 'public appearances', Ms Summers and if I remember correctly, you agreed to have any form of physical contact with me in the public's eye which included kissing so I don't see a violation of either of our discussed terms."

With nothing to say in response to his words, he adds rather casually, "Well, I've done what I came here to do. Don't forget to hand in that letter of resignation before you leave tonight. I'm going back to work. Ford will pick you up at eight."

With that, he gets up from the chair and leaves my office without turning back. Breathing out a breath I didn't know I was holding, I felt the full stress of the day since Mr Holt suddenly appeared in my office.

Then there's also the sudden appearance of my brothers whom I have gone to great lengths to never keep in touch with since high school. I made a mental note to remember to ask my Dad about the time he told my brothers about my body crash.

"mm...mm..." Danny sounds, throwing his chubby little arms around my neck in an attempt to hug me. "ngah!"

Smiling softly to myself as I pat Danny's small back, I decided to think about all this when I got back to the apartment later tonight. After all, I do need Mr Holt to tell my Dad that we're getting married.

Call it payback for unexpectedly kissing me in front of my co-workers and my brothers...