Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Between Ellis’s dad coming and animals needing fed and snow falling and kids having every blasted thing to do in the whole world, it seemed like Ichabod was never going to have a chance to talk to Ellis in private.
Like, really in private.
He knew he’d hurt Ellis’s feelings, but he also knew what he had done was right. They needed to make sure they could live together. They needed to make sure they could make a life before they made any permanent decisions. He deserved that, the kids deserved that, and Ellis deserved that.
But he hated that he’d hurt Ellis’s feelings.
He just didn’t know how to fix it.
Now Ellis’s dad was going to be here any minute, all four of the kids were nervous, and he burned the hell out of the bacon.
Good thing Mavis was happy to eat the disaster, even if it was burned black. Hopefully it was okay with Ellis too because Ichabod let her have it.
“Daddy, it’s smoky!”
“I know Allie.” He closed his eyes and counted to ten.
“Dude, Dad. Smoke alarm.” Zane grabbed the broom and started waving it in front of the smoke alarm. “Michael, open the door! Let the smoke out.”
“On it!” Michael came running and started waving the door like a mad thing, which made the fire in the hearth start to burn a little bit brighter.
Chrissy was sitting there staring at them from the broom to the door to the broom to the door to the dog.
About that time Ellis walked in with a gentleman who looked just like Ellis except older. “Hey guys, this is my dad, Joe McIntyre.”
Zane poked his head around the cut-through in the kitchen, nodded. “Hi, this is my dad. He burned the bacon. Come in and have a seat.”
“At least he didn’t catch himself on fire this time.” Oh, Michael was so helpful. An absolute joy to be around.
He wiped his hands on his World’s Greatest Dad apron, praying that the grease wasn’t too much. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you. Let me restart some bacon. I was thinking BLTs for lunch.”
He’d actually been thinking about something fancy, but that wasn’t going to happen because he didn’t have that many more pounds of bacon.
Joe chuckled. “Well now, I know having a guest at the holidays is nerve-wracking, so I brought sausage biscuits and a box of cinnamon rolls from Snowmass.”
Ellis held up a big bag and a box.
“Cimmamons!” Chrissy came to hug Joe’s leg. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome, little bit. I had to stop anyway.”
Oh, God help him, he could see exactly where Ellis got his personality from. Joe was a cowboy, through and through.
Allie came up to Joe and said, “You’re Bell’s daddy. Does that mean you’re a grandpa?”
Joe grinned at her. “I can totally be your Grandpa Joe.”
She grinned. “Okay, sissy, this is Grandpa Joe.”
Chrissy nodded. “Bob-a-Joe!”
Zane put the broom down and held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Zane. The guy waving the door is Michael.”
Joe chuckled softly and shook hands. “I’m pleased to meet you all. I’m Joe.”
“Cool. I would tell you that it’s not always this crazy here, but that’s a lie. It’s always crazy here.” Zane took the bag and box from Ellis. “I’ll set all this up in the dining room.”
“Thanks, son.” Ichabod shook Joe’s hand again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” Joe glanced around, nodded. “You’ve done some work here, Ellis tells me. While I’m here, I’m happy to help. Just put me to work.”
“Oh, you’re a guest. You don’t—”
“Nonsense, I’m family. Besides, I brought stuff for Ellis in the trailer. We’ll have to unload.”
Ichabod laughed, because Ellis was watching them, his eyes glinting with laughter, his whole self relaxed and happy.
So maybe he was okay with everything. They were okay.
He hoped.
“Well, I appreciate it. I know Ellis has a few projects he would love a capable pair of hands to help with.”
“I might at that.” Ellis winked at his dad. “And a few we need to do by a certain twenty-fifth date.”
“Ah.”
“Ups, Bob-a-Joe.” Chrissy held up her arms, and Joe picked her up, easily.
“Show me to the sink, Chrissy-girl, so we can wash our hands.”
She nodded, her entire face lighting up. “Bubbles! Bubbles, Bob-a-Jo!”
“Careful, Dad. If you let her, she will use up the entire bottle of hand soap making bubbles,” Ellis warned him.
Ichabod detected no lies.
“Got it. One pump of soap, itty bitty. That’s all the bubbles we get.”
“Okay! I likes that.”
“I bet you do. Who doesn’t like bubbles?”
Zane was unpacking the food, and even with scent of burned bacon, his mouth was watering.
He went over to Ellis before getting a plate, though, and they bumped shoulders together. “Hey, sorry about the bacon. Michael was showing me something on his iPad, and I got distracted.”
“It’s bacon. It’s created to burn the second you turn away from it. I’m glad you didn’t start a fire, which I have done more than once.” Ellis kissed him. “Merry Christmas Eve-Eve.”
“Merry Christmas Eve-Eve to you too.” He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the black leather and pepper scent of his lover. “How’s our big presents from Santa coming?”
There were two puppies, one horse, and one little SUV that needed some work. All were supposed to be delivered on Christmas Eve for the kids.
His present for Ellis was a pair of cruise tickets to the Bahamas in March for ten days. His folks were coming up to watch the kids.
He knew Ellis had no idea, and he loved that. He wanted to surprise the man. He’d had to promise his folks they would go Grand Tour with them somewhere in the Southwest for a week or two in the summer with the kids. But that was okay.
Nobody was going to care, and they could get somebody to watch the ranch by then if Ellis hadn’t hired a bunch of employees in the spring, which he had talked about.
He was excited that Ellis thought they were doing well enough to hire some hands now, instead of just the occasional day labor or when they needed it.
“Good, good, everything is in place and ready except for a few minor tweaks on the big metal one.”
“Have you got a bow that’s the right size?” Ichabod teased.
“Believe it or not, yeah. That was one of the things Dad got on the way up—a big pile of ribbon that’s ten inches wide.”
Ichabod laughed at the way Ellis rolled his eyes, but he knew Ellis was into this.
The man loved Christmas. He’d been a true dictator while they were decorating the tree, making sure everything was covered and there were no big gaps in the ornaments and that nothing was going to fall over if the dog hit it.
Not that Mavis cared. She gave no shits about the tree.
“Well, good deal, and thank you for letting your dad know that we could use some food.” He grinned because he knew that Ellis had to have texted his father.
“What can I say? It looked like things were heading for a disaster in here, and Dad wanted to do something nice for everybody. He always stops before he gets to somebody’s house because the last thing he wants to do when he first gets there is pee.”
That gave him a great insight into Joe’s character, and he chuckled. “All right, Chrissy, that’s enough bubbles. Let Grandpa Joe put you down so that we can all eat.”
“Okay!” Chrissy was pretty easy. She wiped her hands on a towel, and so did Joe. They all sat at the kitchen table. Zane had already piled the plate high, but it didn’t matter because Joe had brought enough for at least three times the amount of people they had here.
Ichabod guessed that was good. They could have leftover cinnamon rolls tomorrow for breakfast, which would make things a little bit easier on him. He didn’t have to put anything in the crock pot overnight that way.
Joe was sandwiched between Allie and Chrissy, who had decided that he was magical. Zane handed him the platter of sausage biscuits first, just because. It made him proud because Zane had manners, even if he was a greedy gut.
“Is everybody ready for Santa Claus to come?” Ellis asked. The girl squealed and Michael bounced. Zane rolled his eyes, but he chuckled.
“Yeah, sure, we’re tickled,” Zane said.
Ichabod had to have a long talk with Zane last year while they were still in Denver about telling the younger kids there was no Santa Claus. Ichabod wasn’t going to stand for that kind of shit, and Zane had been surprisingly willing to go along with things.
Ellis winked at him over the kid’s head, and Joe looked back and forth between everybody, munching away.
“Bob-a-Joe, do you have a letter for Santa for tomorrow night? If you don’t have one, I can help you because you have to have one.” Allie was very worried about the rules for Santa and not having the appropriate number of cookies or letters or what have you.
It was super important to her that everyone have their ducks in a row because otherwise, what if Santa was angry?
He’d heard about this for days.
Angry Santa.
He was fairly sure he could blame Michael for that. Michael was nowhere near as direct as Zane and was way less willing to get in trouble, so when he teased the girls he tended to get away with it.
“I told Santa I was going to be here,” Joe said. “And he was happy because I got to meet you girls.”
Allie relaxed and then shot her brother a glare as if to say, see I told you.
Michael shrugged going for wide-eyed and innocent, but Ichabod didn’t buy a second of it.
“I told you, Allie, everything is going to be fine. Santa is coming, all is right in the world.”
“I know.” She gave him a serious stare. “I worry.”
“Nothing to worry about, little bit,” Joe said. “Us cowboys know how to get in touch with the old elf. You got nothing to worry about.”
Allie grinned at him, “That’s what Bell said. Cowboys know. Cowboys are like Santa, but Daddy’s not a cowboy.” She sighed softly. “He does make neat pots and cups and statues, and nobody else does that like he does.”
Zane lifted one eyebrow and grinned at him over his sausage biscuit. “Well, Dad’s in love with a cowboy, so that’s almost the same.”
Allie blinked at her brother, “What does that mean—in love?”
Zane stared at him, but there was no way he was letting his son get out of this. No way at all. He couldn’t wait to hear this.
Zane rolled his eyes. “When you’re in love, all you do is think about them. It feels really good when you’re with them, and when you’re not with them, it’s lonely…”
Oh shit. His son may or may not be in the middle of his first love affair. Ichabod was going to die — either of cuteness or sheer horror. He wasn’t sure yet.
“But Daddy loves us too. He thinks about us. He likes to be with us.”
Michael joined right in. “Right, but he’s old in love. When you’re old, and you have a family, you have to do it different.”
Zane bobbed his head. “And I’m not old, so I don’t know how that feels.”
Allie watched them both as if they were insane. “Okay, are we gonna make cookies for Santa?”
“We are. As soon as we finish eating.”
Allie turned to her cinnamon roll like a ravenous beast. “Okay.”
“Hey, Zane. What did you get Katie for Christmas?” Ellis asked, and Zane’s cheeks went red.
“I got her a bracelet; it’s got a little flower on it. She collects daisies, so I got it for her. I didn’t spend a lot of money or nothing…”
“I think that’s dear and thoughtful. Would you like to give her one of the cups that we have? There’s always extra cups.”
Zane’s eyes shot up to him. “Yeah? You don’t mind, Dad? I know that they cost a lot of money.”
He shook his head. “No, no, no. People pay a lot of money for these. They don’t cost a lot of money; they’re just a work of time and craft. I’d be tickled for you to go pick one out for her.”
“Cool, we’re going to have dinner together tonight because, you know, we got family stuff to do well, so I’ll get it to her then?”
“Cool. Sounds great.”
Zane walked off while Ichabod tried to remember how to breathe.
It sounded terrifying. How had he ended up having a son who was old enough to be dating? How did he end up being a dad to an almost sixteen-year-old who was about to start driving on his own?
And he was going to have to worry about him getting a girl pregnant or wrecking a car or making one of a ten thousand mistakes kids made because they weren’t grownups.
Because that was what kids did— make mistakes.
One of Ellis’s hands stroked down his back. “It’s okay, Dad. You’re doing good.”
“Thanks. This is the first girlfriend Christmas,” he explained to Joe, who nodded.
“I have sons. I understand this panic. It’s hard, but he seems like a solid kid. Smart.” Joe offered him a warm smile. “And you can tell your kids love you.”
“Thanks.” His eyes burned with tears as he squeezed Ellis’s hand. “You did a pretty damn good job with yours. I didn’t think after I lost my first husband that I would ever have feelings for anyone else again.”
Joe gave him a sympathetic glance. “How long’s it been?”
He took a deep breath. “Our surrogate was pregnant with our fourth. She’s three. So four years. Four years at Thanksgiving.”
Four years, and he still missed Chris, but thinking about him now made Ichabod smile.
“I imagine that feels like it was just yesterday and a hundred years ago all at once.”
“Yeah, both. I wish he could see Zane doing all of this. I wish he could see Michael with the horses. I wish he could have laid eyes on Chrissy and could see the patches on Allie’s Girl Scout vest, but—” He held his arms open.
“I don’t have any control over that. All I can do is live my life and try to be as happy as I can, and Ellis does it for me.
I love him, and I intend to make him happy. ”
“That’s good to hear.” Joe gave him a smile, those deep-set eyes twinkling, the lines around him crinkling up. I want my boy to be happy, too, and I think you make him that way.”
From Joe’s mouth to God’s ear. Ichabod nodded. “I sure hope so.”
He looked over and met Ellis’s gaze with his own, trying to communicate that he meant it. Ellis chuckled and ate a sausage biscuit in a few quick bites. He seemed unbothered. Ichabod supposed that was good because he didn’t want Ichabod to be unhappy about what they had talked about before.
“All done, Daddy!” Allie held up her hands. She had consumed that cinnamon roll and half sausage biscuit so fast she was probably going to puke. But a promise was a promise.
“Okay, sweet pea. Let’s make some cookies. If anybody else wants to help, they’re welcome. Otherwise, I suggest moving out to the couch in the front room. It’s gonna get slimy in here.”
Chrissy giggled softly. “Love cookies.”
Michael shook his head. “I’m in. You know I love frosting.”
“Now, I’ve never let anything slimy keep me from participating.” Joe said, “I’m here. You just show me what to do.”
“Let’s start that cookie-making machine,” Ellis said, and Ichabod felt like even Zane was ready to help. He loved it; his family felt whole again, and that was worth all the trouble they’d had.