CHAPTER 6 DANNY
I open the front door and find the box of food I ordered sitting there.
I felt bad ordering food delivery on Christmas morning, so I tipped well. I wasn’t sure how else to get bacon and fresh donuts here as a surprise. I don’t have much else for her to open and I haven’t even been home for the last nearly two weeks to fill the house with fresh food.
“I have a surprise for you,” I say, and I walk into the kitchen with the box of food, where I find her making us hot chocolate.
“What is it?” she asks, and her eyes light up with excitement as she sets the mug down on the counter.
I push the box over toward her, and she opens it. “Ah!” she yells. “Chocolate long johns with sprinkles and bacon? You’re the best!” She runs around to my side of the counter and throws her arms around me. “Thank you!”
I drop a kiss to her lips. “Merry Christmas.”
“This is everything I wanted.”
“Donuts and bacon?” I ask. “You’re easy to please.”
She laughs as she shakes her head. “No. Donuts, bacon, and you.”
I kiss her again, and then she scrambles out of my arms for the bacon.
“I see where I fall in your list of priorities,” I say, folding my arms.
“We already did it once this morning. I need some fuel for more of that later.”
I chuckle. “Deal.”
We eat breakfast, and once she’s done licking the chocolate off her fingers, which awakens my cock again, I shift in my seat and say, “I have one more Christmas gift for you.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “I have one for you, too.”
“I thought you said you didn’t have anything for me,” I say.
“I did say that, but as it happens, I seem to have found one. Or, rather, Gregory helped me out with mine.”
“That’s funny because my mom helped me out with mine,” I say.
“You go first,” she says.
I nod. “Okay.” I run upstairs and grab the piece of paper I printed late last night after she had already fallen asleep, and I put it into a little gift bag I found on my closet shelf.
I bring it down and find her still standing by the counter. I hand the bag to her.
She narrows her eyes at me, and then she opens the bag, pulls out the paper, and starts reading it before her eyes fall on the photo.
Her eyes lift to mine. “Is this…”
“A house. For us. Here in Vegas. Much more private than this one, and a lot bigger. Ten thousand square feet, a gated neighborhood, a pool. Views of the Strip. Seven beds, nine baths. Beautiful palm trees all over the backyard and privacy bushes in the front. More deserving of Alexis Bodega, though I’m not sure anything would ever really be grand enough for you.”
“Alexis Brewer,” she chastises, and I chuckle.
“Right. Caroline Alexis Brewer.”
She starts to laugh a little.
“What? You don’t like it?”
She shakes her head. “No, no. I love it.” She slides her phone across the counter toward me, and she has a listing pulled up for a house. At second glance I realize…it’s our house. Well, the rental—the one where we got married in San Diego. Her eyes light up when she says, “I had Gregory put in an offer. They accepted.”
“It was for sale?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “We offered well over the estimated price for the place where I got to marry the man of my dreams. Now we’ll have a place close to your mom right on the beach. I thought about checking into the one in Carmel, too, but I didn’t want to invest in one so far north when we could just go back and visit anytime we want.” She’s babbling a little, likely nervous about the gift for me just as I was about the gift for her.
I grab her into my arms. “So we bought each other…houses for Christmas?” I ask.
“I think we did, hubby.” She giggles, and I press a kiss to her lips.
The future is sure looking blindingly bright for us despite the threats lurking in the background.
Still, there’s something missing from this celebration, and I can’t help but think it’s family. My mom, my sister. My nephews. I can’t help but wonder whether Rush proposed, whether he’s there this morning with her and the boys. What Santa brought them for Christmas. If they’re eating cinnamon rolls and drinking hot chocolate with candy canes in them like we used to do every Christmas morning.
I can’t help but wonder if my mom is there, and for some reason, I wonder where Gregory is, too.
I’ve been so wrapped up in being there for Alexis that I abandoned my own family.
But I also can’t help but feel a little sadness from Alexis. Her father has always been an important part of not just her career, but her entire life. And he’s missing from it now.
I don’t know if they’ve ever spent Christmas apart. They were once so close, and around the same time that I stepped into her life, they started growing apart.
It’s coincidental timing. She was looking for an out, and she found it in me.
But I suppose I get why her father would blame me. I get why he’d want me out of the picture. Still, if we can find a way to work together instead of against each other, I feel like we’d be able to conquer the entire world.
So my silent gift to my wife is my secret vow to myself.
I am going to win over her father—and not just because he’s threatening my family and my own livelihood.
I’ll win him over so I can help patch up his relationship with his daughter.
I just have to figure out how exactly I’m going to do that.