Ficlet from Facebook Group #2
“Well,” I said, smiling at him, bringing him the second beer and doing as my son had and shoving a lime into the neck. “When neither of them can come here, we’ll go to them, we’ll travel for the holidays. It’s what parents do.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yes,” I assured him. “And we can judge all their traditions and get their kids all hopped up on candy and soda and refuse to eat any plant-based anything.”
He chuckled, grinning at me.
“It’ll be awesome.”
“And you’ll be with me,” he said, and I heard the sigh and saw the love in his gaze and heard the contentment in his words. “Always.”
“Always,” I said, and leaned in and kissed him.
When he broke the kiss, I looked up, dazed, to find my daughter carrying the cups back into the kitchen.
“I should have bet you,” I baited her.
“Yes, yes, you’re very smart,” she snapped at me. “So I’m guessing that wassail is an acquired taste.”
“Did you drink it?” I asked her.
She made a face.
“Do you want cocoa?”
“Yes,” she whimpered. “Will you make it? Yours is always perfect.”
“I dunno,” I teased her. “You said Uncle Aaron had a cook who made Turkish delight that was way––”
“We both know I lied just to annoy you.”
I grinned at her.
She huffed out a breath. “Your cocoa is the best. There. Are you happy now?”
“Delirious,” I said, cackling.
Hannah turned to her father. “How do you live with him?”
“If you get half as lucky as me, kid, you’ll be happy your whole life.”
She rolled her eyes and left the room, and Sam got another kiss for that.
Later on, at around a quarter to ten, there was a knock on the door, and Sam and Kola and Jake and Harper—who had come over around seven—stayed where they were, settling Catan at the kitchen table.
“I’ll get it,” I said from where I was, stretched out on the couch, watching Law & Order SVU reruns, skipping all the kid ones, as I went through my Christmas list, making sure I hadn’t forgotten anyone and racking my brain to figure out what to get Dane.
Shopping for him was excruciating, and I’d learned my lesson not to talk to Aja.
She always had the best ideas, like really clever things he loved, and it was annoying as hell.
Opening the door, I found a man there who smiled wide when he saw me. “Hello,” I greeted him. “May I help you?”
“Oh,” he whispered, looking me up and down, “my partner was right, this is gonna be a lot more fun than I thought it would.”
Confused, I opened my mouth to say something when he walked by me into my house. Rushing after him, I grabbed his arm, and he turned to face me, still smiling as another man came through the door and closed it behind him.
“Where’s the bowl for the keys?” the second man asked me, glancing around the room. “I love all the candles.”
“I think there’s been a mistake,” I assured them, moving back to my door and opening it. “You need to go.”
“No, no,” the first guy assured me. “There’s no mistake, and I know you’re probably nervous, but really,” he said, his voice dropping low, “we’re all going to have a really good time.”
“How many are you expecting?” the second guy asked me.
“Sam,” I called out, because it would be faster that way.
Normally, when my husband walked into a room with his dark scowl, people who didn’t know him, scrambled.
These two had a completely different reaction.
The first guy gasped, but not out of fear, and the second one said, “Thank you, Jesus,” under his breath.
And while appropriate for so close to Christmas, it just made me growl.
“Get the hell out of my house,” Sam ordered, his voice like ice.
“But we’re here for the key party,” the second guy told him.
“Which is not here,” Sam informed them.
Glancing toward the street, I noticed a woman standing near our mailbox. “Sam,” I said quickly, pointing.
Grabbing the first guy, and then the second, Sam manhandled both of them out of the house to the porch, then hauled them down our front steps back to the path that led out our front gate to the sidewalk.
I stood there in the doorway, pulling my cardigan closer around me, watching as Sam deposited them in front of the woman.
His sudden smile was a surprise as he pointed across the street.
Everyone laughed, both men shook Sam’s hand, and the woman took it as well, leaned in close to say something, and then leaned back out still holding on to him.
He put his hand over his heart, gave her a smile, and then eased his hand from her grip, turned, and closed the gate behind him. All three watched him go, and then turned, looked both ways, and crossed the street.
“What the hell?” I asked as he reached the porch, put his hand on my back, and steered me inside, locking the door behind him. I whirled around, staring up into his dancing slate-blue eyes thinking as I always did that Sam Kage got more beautiful with every passing year.
“So,” he said, grinning crazily. “Our neighbors, the ones who don’t like your lasagna––”
“You said that was because it was meatless,” I said defensively.
He snorted. “Well, baby, they’re having an adult party over there, so I’m thinking it’s just as well we didn’t bond with them.”
“I thought key parties were an urban myth,” I told him.
“Apparently not.”
“And so it’s for every persuasion over there?”
“Yes, it is,” he agreed. “I was informed that several of the men wanted to try sleeping with other men and the same for the women.”
“Huh.”
“Those two guys aren’t a couple. They’re actually married to women, and so when they saw you––”
“You mean you,” I grumbled at him. “You’re the fantasy, not me.”
“Oh, I dunno about that,” he teased, wrapping his arms around me, crushing me to his chest, his face in my hair. “It’s always been you, golden boy, who everybody wants. I have to fight people off left and right.”
“That woman didn’t want to let go,” I groused into his chest.
“Yeah, well, she really was hoping to see me do her husband,” he whispered in my ear. “She said that having him on his hands and knees under me would be a dream come true.”
“I’m the only one that does that,” I snarled at him.
“Yeah,” he agreed, laughing as he kissed the side of my neck, “I know. That’s what I told her. She said you were very lucky.”
“Yes, I know.”
He scoffed. “Come on, we both know I’m the lucky one. I’m just some boring-ass guy with a need for traditional holidays,” he said, lifting my chin to stare down into my eyes. “You’re the only thing that makes me special.”
I grunted, not liking anyone lusting after my husband. It was annoying.
“You love me, and so I’m special,” he said before he bent and kissed me.
It was possessive and mauling and not safe for work, and I opened for him as his tongue tangled with mine. When I moaned into his mouth, he broke the kiss, chuckling as I leaned with him, trying to keep contact with his lips.
“Hold that thought,” he husked, and I saw how dark and liquid his eyes were. He was just as ready to jump me as I was him, but he’d remembered all the children in our house before I had.
“Dad!” Kola yelled from the kitchen, neither he nor his two best friends ever having looked up to see why I’d called Sam. “It’s your turn!”
“Are you sure he should live without us?” I asked him. “Because really, that was a bit much with the tunnel vision.”
“It’s all gonna be okay,” he promised me, smiling. “You’ll see.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I said nothing more as he rejoined the boys. After another hour, the coven came downstairs for more snacks, and Hannah took Jake and Harper over to the fireplace so she could explain about the Yule log.
“So,” Sam said, sitting down beside me on the couch, draping an arm around my shoulder before he leaned sideways to whisper in my ear. “How about you come upstairs with me?”
I did a slow turn so I could see his face. “The coven is sleeping over, and so are Jake and Harper. Did you know that?”
His groan was pained as I flipped through the movies on Netflix.
“I think the coven has to stay up all night and keep an eye on the log,” I informed him. “They have to make sure it stays lit. So…you can go to bed, but I need to stay right here.”
Instead of leaving, he got comfortable beside me. “I think you need to start The Lord of the Rings or something. This is the longest night, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“Well, I’m with you, so maybe get one of your minions to make popcorn.”
What was surprising was that all the kids, every one of them, joined us in the living room to watch Frodo and the ring of power.
What turned out to be funny was that by the time we hit the Battle of Helm’s Deep, or as Kola always corrected us, the Battle of the Hornburg, I was the only one still awake.
Sam’s head on my shoulder, Hannah’s head on my lap, the rest of the coven on the other end of the couch, and Kola asleep on the floor between his two friends made for a very comforting solstice. I made sure the log stayed lit.