Chapter 21
Twenty-One
GARRETT
Christmas Day
I pull Aidyn against me, not wanting to get up yet.
It’s Christmas morning. And for the first time in a long time, I’m excited about that. But a sleepy Aidyn is irresistible.
“Stop watching me sleep, you creeper.”
Grumpy, but still irresistible.
I kiss the back of his shoulder, following the freckles to the bumps of his spine. “Morning, sweetheart.” I kiss the back of his neck and run my fingers over the hair on his stomach. “Merry Christmas.”
He grabs my wandering hand. “Christ, Garrett,” he says with a sexy grumble. “You kept me up half the night.”
“You weren’t complaining then.”
“I am now.”
I stop kissing him and rest my chin on his shoulder. “I thought you loved morning sex.”
He turns in my arms and rests his head against mine. “I do love morning sex. When Lanie is at her friend’s house. Not on Christmas morning after getting no sleep, when my daughter will be pounding on our door any minute, wanting us to get up.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry for wanting to ravish my body, love.” He nuzzles my neck. “Ignore me. I’m just tired. Yesterday was a lot. I say we skip family Christmas next year.”
“Ha. As if we can ever get out of it now.”
“It goes without saying, but I suppose I should say it anyway.” The green eyes sparkle with love. “Last night was amazing. Ten out of ten.”
“Even without the appliances?”
He closes his eyes. “I do miss being slammed into things.”
We were too afraid to use the walls. Most everyone is gone today. But my parents are still here. They’re going to Jane’s today, so we will have the house to ourselves.
“I have an idea. And it doesn’t involve kissing.”
He opens one eye to peer at me. “Not liking it so far.”
Laughing, I kiss him. “Okay one or two kisses. But why don’t I go make breakfast for Lanie and my parents while you get another hour of sleep?”
He grins. “Tempting. But you don’t cook.”
“Not true. I can cook a few things. Pancakes being one of them.”
Pulling himself up in the bed, he looks down at me with a furrow between his brows. “You’ve never made me pancakes.”
I laugh. “Are you serious?”
“What does that mean? Why would I be?”
“Aidyn, sweetheart, that would be like me offering to paint DaVinci’s house. You’re the master. Not happening.”
He folds his arms, and I’m distracted by his biceps. “Do you work out?”
“Don’t change the subject. I want pancakes.”
“Do you?” I straddle his lap and wiggle around to get comfortable. “I thought you wanted sleep.”
“You’re an arse.” He wraps his hand around my neck and pulls me into a kiss as he thrusts against my already hard cock.
“Fuck, Aidyn—”
Banging on the door interrupts us. “Get up, Da. It’s Christmas!”
Aidyn groans and bangs his head against the headboard. “This is all your fault.”
“It is,” I agree. “We’ll be out in a minute.”
Lanie seems satisfied as she runs off.
“Correction.” Aidyn pushes my arm until I climb off his lap. Then he snuggles back into the bed. “You’ll be out in a minute. I’m getting another hour of sleep.”
I climb out of bed and kiss his cheek. “My pleasure.”
As I head for the bathroom to get ready, he adds, “And don’t forget my pancakes.”
Aidyn’s in a much better mood an hour later when he walks into the kitchen, ruffles Lanie’s hair, and says good morning to my parents. Then, without hesitation, he walks over to where I’m making more pancakes and kisses me. “Good morning, love.”
“Good morning.”
My parents excuse themselves to get ready. As soon as they leave the kitchen, Aidyn kisses me again. This one with a promise behind it.
Lanie makes a gagging sound. “I’ve changed my mind. Let’s go back to pretending.”
We both stare at her. She rolls her eyes. “I’m just kidding. Mostly,” she adds with a grumble.
“Looks like someone else needed an extra hour of sleep too.” Aidyn raises a brow.
She sighs dramatically. “Zoey called, and we stayed up late talking.”
Aidyn shrugs. “Sometimes you have to sacrifice sleep for the things you enjoy.”
Lanie gapes at him. “Da, stop.”
“I’m talking about you and Zoey,” Aidyn says, his face a picture of innocence.
I laugh so hard that I have to rescue my pancakes from burning. Who knew torturing Lanie would be so much fun?
My parents return as we’re finishing our breakfast. “We’re going to Jane’s for the day. We’d love for you to come along.” She smiles at Aidyn and me. “All of you.”
“Thanks, Mother. But it’s our first Christmas together, and we have the day planned. Enjoy your time with Jane.”
After they leave, Lanie runs upstairs to do some last-minute wrapping. Aidyn and I clean the kitchen. Mostly clean the kitchen.
“You’re making this more difficult, Garrett.”
I grin at him. I love this grumpy man so much. “That wasn’t my intention.”
“You’re a fucking liar, Garrett Bishop.”
I nod, trying to keep a serious face. “I sugarcoat things. It used to be part of my job description.” I think about all the brides and mamas and the fidgety grooms. “Actually, it’s still part of my job description.”
“The sooner we get this cleaned up, the sooner we can get cleaned up.”
“I am trying, but every time you bend over to ‘pick something up,’ it distracts me— Wait. Hold on. When you say we can get cleaned up, does that mean shower together?”
He leans against the counter with his arms folded, and damn, he’s sexy as hell. “It could mean that. But I’d like to not traumatize my daughter, okay?”
“Good thing I have a private bathroom.”
After showering together in record time—considering a soapy Aidyn is a close second to sleepy Aidyn—we gather in the living room to hand out Christmas presents.
I’m sitting on the floor since I’m again playing Santa.
Mostly because Aidyn likes me in the hat.
Aidyn sits on the couch, and between times of handing out presents, I lean back against his legs.
Lanie gets several presents that Jane helped pick out, including makeup.
I hand Garrett an envelope addressed to Lanie.
He holds it in one hand and scratches his chin with the other.
“Da,” Lanie says, “stop teasing me.”
He told me about the present last night. I nod at him to give it to her. His hesitation has nothing to do with teasing. He nods as if he’s talking himself into it and hands it to her.
“Please be money. Please be money.” She opens the envelope and frowns as she pulls out the piece of paper inside. “What is it?”
“It’s for classes. At a school.”
“I already go to school.”
Aidyn gives me a helpless look. I take his hand and squeeze. And nod at Lanie. “Turn it over.”
“Odessa Driving School.” She gasps and then jumps up and hugs her dad. “Thank you, Da.”
“You’re welcome.” He clears his throat. “I’m sorry I can’t teach you, darlin’…”
“No, Da. It’s fine. I mean, you tried, and no one wants to go through that again.”
He laughs. “No one does. Garrett offered, but…” His voice trails off, but we both know why that would never happen.
The same reason I don’t drive Lanie places unless it’s the three of us or an absolute necessity.
The two people he loves the most in the world being in a vehicle together and something happening…
that’s Aidyn’s nightmare scenario. Add in an inexperienced driver, and he’d be a nervous wreck.
Even having him agree that she can learned to drive is a concession I wasn’t sure he was ready to make.
Another concession is that he’s agreed to talk to a therapist as long as he has veto power.
“I don’t want some fancy-talking shrink telling me how to raise my daughter. ”
Aidyn hands me a present he must have been hiding behind his back.
“What’s this?”
“I know you don’t celebrate Christmas much, but you actually open the presents.”
I smack his leg. “You already gave me my present. An Advent calendar. Remember?”
“I love Advent calendars,” Lanie says, looking up from her phone. “Why didn’t I get one?”
“Hm. I’m not sure. Aidyn?”
He scoffs and points a finger at me. “Stop instigatin’.” Then he turns to Lanie. “I got you one last year. You said you were too old for them. Remember?”
“Yeah. But that was last year.” She gives a little shake of her head, like her logic makes sense.
“Next year, darlin’.”
But Lanie is already back on her phone. Texting her boyfriend? Probably.
I kiss Aidyn and then grab his hand and pull him in for another kiss. His cheeks are pink, so I kiss him there too. “All right. Just open it.”
Inside is an ornament with the words Our First Christmas Aidyn and Garrett. It’s such a simple but thoughtful gift that I’m overcome with emotion. “Thank you, Aidyn. I love it.” My voice is a little rough. Aidyn squeezes my hand.
That’s when I realize I don’t have a present for Aidyn. Well, not exactly true. I have a present. I just can’t give it to him. Not on Christmas.
How had I forgotten that Aidyn proposed to Emily on Christmas? Had I shoved it so far down that I couldn’t see it?
“Da? Can Riley come over? We want to exchange presents.”
Aidyn looks slightly ill. “I guess that’ll be okay.”
She kisses his cheek. “Thanks, Da.”
“I’m excited about this,” I say with a grin.
That stops her. “Why?”
“I get to finally meet your boyfriend. Does he know you basically have two dads? I mean, a dad and an uncle, but close enough, right?” I grin, and she lets out a sound of protest.
She glares at me. “You’re my favorite uncle, but that could change.” She stomps off but doesn’t go far before she turns back. “And I’m not calling you dad.”
“Having fun?” Aidyn asks.
“I am. Is that wrong or something? I don’t know crap about raising kids.” Then I realize what I said. “Not that I’ll be raising her. You’re her dad—”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
We make out in the living room under the Christmas lights. And it’s pretty great.
“I guess we should invite Randy to dinner.”
I laugh. “You mean Riley?”
“Him too.”
He starts to stand, and I grab his shirt. “Wait, Aidyn.” I pat the couch next to me.
“This doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not bad. It’s more…stupid. I feel like an idiot.”
“Don’t.” He slides his hand to the back of my neck. “Is this about you not having a present for me? I saw that ornament and—”
“No.” I shake my head. “I mean, yes. But no.”
He chuckles, and I smack his chest with the back of my hand. He grabs my hand and keeps it. “What’s going on, love?”
Fuck. How did I mess this up? “I did get you a present. I just can’t give it to you.”
“I understand.”
“You do?”
“It’s been a while for you. See, the way Christmas works is you get someone a present and—”
I tackle him, and we end up wrestling on the couch. Lanie walks in, makes a distressed sound, and walks back out.
We both laugh, and then I can’t stop. Aidyn shakes his head fondly. “I should go check on her. Are you going to be okay?”
I nod because I still can’t talk without cracking up.
Dinner goes well, and we don’t embarrass Lanie much in front of her boyfriend. He seems like a nice kid, but they all seem nice at first, right?
Then later, Aidyn and I go to bed. Together. This is something we get to do now.
“We need to figure out tomorrow,” Aidyn says as he runs his fingers through my hair. It’s very relaxing, making it difficult to stay awake.
“What’s tomorrow again?”
“It’s Friday. But I don’t mean that. What are we doing now?”
My pillow—his chest—is very comfy, so I’m having a hard time following. “What?”
“We live in two different houses. Are we just going to spend time here and spend time there?”
“Oh. Right.”
He tips my chin. “I don’t want to spend another night away from you.”
“Same.” Should I propose now? Or wait? What if he doesn’t want to get married again? All this time I assumed—
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Nothing.” I smile at him, so he knows I’m good. “When is the diner scheduled to open again?”
“Tomorrow. But not until three. Then a full day on Saturday.”
“How about tomorrow night and Saturday night, we stay at your place. And then we can decide the rest after that.”
“I like that plan.” He kisses me. “Do you want your present now?”
Present? “What do you mean? Did you get me another present?” I don’t even have one. Not one I can give him.
“Your Advent kiss. It’s day twenty-five.”
I study his face. “Is this a trick? Even I know that Advent calendars count down to Christmas.”
“This one’s special. It gives kisses on Christmas. Unless you don’t want it.”
I grab his T-shirt. “I want it. Give it to me.”
He cups my face and stares into my eyes. “Merry Christmas, Garrett.”
“Merry Christmas, Aidyn.”
This kiss lasts a while.