Falling Into You

Gimme Shelter

"Hi. You're pretty." Gracie said softly.

"Not as pretty as you." Taylor smiled.

Gracie grinned and smiled at the blonde. They became instant friends. Gracie took Taylor's hand and started to aske her a million questions as we mad our way to the back deck. Gracie gasped as soon as she saw the ocean.

"You live at the beach?" She asked completely shocked.

Selena laughed. "Yes."

"Can we go play in the water?"

"Of course." Joe answered. "Let's all get changed and we'll head down to the water."

"Sounds like a plan." I grinned.

We got changed and made our way down to the shoreline. Joe and I had gathered a bunch of buckets and small plastic shovels so we could build a sand castle. Halfway through building the castle, Gracie stood up, made growling noices, then proceeded to smash the entire thing. Once she had completely flattened it she insisted we dig a hole and bury Joe. After several sand fights and forced swims in the water, we had Joe buried up to his neck in sand. She nonchalantly walked away and left him there. I couldn't stop laughing. She was an asshole.

She ran over to Selena an Taylor and brought her chaos to them for a while. She kicked sand all over the place and tried tickling them as they laid there attempting to tan. I meanwhile dug Joe out of his sandy grave.

"She's a handful." He laughed as he dusted himself off.

"She's definitely a Russo." I grinned as we both watched her terrorize Selena and Taylor.

"This is nice." Joe smiled. "It feels like we're a family."

"We are a family." I said as I walked toward the girls. "Come on."

I ran over and grabbed Gracie. She screamed and laughed as I covered her face in kisses and held her up above my head. I lowered her so our foreheads were touching and our noses were smashed together. Without warning, I tossed her in the air and she let out a surprised squeal. By the time I finished my assault on her, she was breathless.

"We're gonna get dinner going." Selena said brushing her fingers against my arm to get my intention. My skin tingled at the contact.

"I'll put Gracie in the bath if you want."

"Yeah. That will be perfect." She smiled before walking toward the house with Taylor.

We gathered up all of our stuff and made our way back inside the house. I ran Gracie a bath and helped her get washed. And by washed I mean that we spent most of the time trying to get her long hair to stand up in a Mohawk while we shampooed it. Once we finished her bath, she put on pjs and insisted I read to her until dinner was ready. She brought me If You Give A Moose A Muffin an we settled onto the couch and started to read.

"Wait!" He said suddenly. "I want uncle Joe to read too."

"Joe!" I yelled. "Come read!"

"I'm coming!" He yelled back.

A couple minutes later he joined us on the couch and the three of us took turns reading.

Dinner was a hectic affair. Once everyone was settled and eating things calmed down a bit. I saw Selena glance at her phone and frown. Her brown eyes looked troubled and I immediately felt myself wanting to fix whatever was causing her distress.

"You ok?" I asked softly so no one else would hear.

"Yeah. I'm fine." She answered forcing a smile.