Chapter 1
NOAH
Noah started wrapping gifts a little after one-thirty. That was around four hours ago. Noah knew this because Adam wouldn’t stop telling him the time.
“It’s already five-thirty,” he pouted. “What about dinner?”
“What about it? Are you planning on cooking?” Noah teased, knowing full well letting Adam even boil water was dangerous. “Find a place that delivers and get us dinner if you’re so hungry. I want to get this done tonight.”
Adam paced in front of Noah, but was unable to get closer.
He sat at the coffee table with his back to the sofa, surrounded by brightly colored paper, tags, ribbons and bows.
Wrapped presents sat on the left, with presents waiting to be wrapped on the right.
He’d essentially created a fortress around himself, a moat made of Christmas cheer meant to repel his bah-humbug husband.
But he was a grinch not so easily deterred.
Noah had forgotten to protect his six. Adam attacked from the back, hurling his whole body over the back of the sofa, to collapse in a heap behind Noah. Dammit. He should have put the finished gifts there.
“Why does it have to get done tonight?” Adam whined.
“Because it didn’t get done last weekend, or the weekend before, or the weekend before that because someone wouldn’t stop complaining then either. I could have been done by now if I’d gotten to do a little at a time like I wanted.”
Adam huffed. “I’m sorry I love you, I guess?”
Noah rolled his eyes. “This is my favorite time of year and you’re sucking all of the joy out of it.”
“If you stop wrapping presents I can suck something else for you?”
“For the love of God, call your brothers…please? Go harass them.”
Adam tsked. “They’re all doing holiday family stuff.”
“As are we,” Noah said. “Well, me. You’re just making things harder for me and making me sad.”
Noah waited for a retort but there was none. Huh. That’s suspicious.
“I’m gonna take the dogs for a walk,” Adam said softly.
Noah shivered as Adam’s lips pressed against the back of his neck. “Okay, baby.”
Noah’s shoulders sagged as soon as Adam and the animals left, humming to himself as he continued to work.
Adam had no idea how much time and energy went into buying gifts for their friends and family, much less wrapping them all and ensuring they were stored safely until it was time to open gifts at the big house on Christmas morning.
Noah must have lost track of time because when the door lock beeped again, signifying Adam and the pups return, the house was drenched in shadow, the sky outside painted orange and pink with only a hint of blue.
Noah watched Adam from the corner of his eye, but didn’t look at him directly.
He could see several bags in his hand, but didn’t press him on what he’d gotten.
As Noah continued to work, Adam turned on the two soft lights on either side of the sofa.
The Christmas tree came next, its brightly colored lights reflected in the window’s reflection.
Noah loved their tree with its gold and silver garland and ornaments Noah had carefully collected over their years together.
Adam always teased him whenever he brought home a new one he found or an old one he saw in a vintage shop.
Yet every year, without fail, Adam would bring home an ornament with their names and Dexter and Sadie’s names as well as the year.
Noah would get teary-eyed and Adam would get embarrassed and say he just did it to get laid.
As if he needed any help in that department.
Noah sat there, making sure each crease in the paper was perfect, pretending not to notice as Adam pulled candles from his bag, placing them around the room and lighting them, filling the loft with the scent of snickerdoodles.
With a press of a button, Noah’s Spotify old-school Christmas playlist began to play and a fake fire roared to life on their television screen. Noah bit his lip to keep from smiling.
He listened as Dexter and Sadie munched away on their dinner, ignoring his own growling tummy.
He only had a few more presents to go, then he could clean up and give his big baby all his attention.
He felt the couch sag behind him once more, then solid thighs settled on either side of him.
A large hand cupped beneath his chin, pulling his head back and connecting their lips in a kiss that lingered sweetly.
“Hi,” Adam said as he pulled away.
“Hi, baby,” Noah said, giving him a smile.
“I got us dinner. Harry’s on 6th. And they had those cookies you like at Lucky’s,” he said, sounding almost shy.
“Yeah?” Noah asked, keeping his voice casual so as not to spook him.
“Mm,” he said. “And, uh, Calliope said they’re doing Love Actually and Die Hard as a double feature at the fancy theater with the beds. It starts at nine.”
“Love Actually and Die Hard?” Noah asked, giggling at the absurdity. “Fascinating.”
“You wanna go?” Adam asked.
Noah tipped his head up once more, locking eyes with his husband. “Tell the truth, you just want to go because you have a boner for Alan Rickman.”
Adam scoffed. “A. Who doesn’t? And B. If you watch Die Hard right after Love Actually then Alan Rickman finally gets punished for fucking over Emma Thompson.”
Noah’s heart did a little backflip as he gazed up at his gorgeous husband. Somehow no matter how old they got, Adam only seemed to get prettier. Meanwhile, Noah was contemplating botox. “That’s a good point,” he said when he realized he’d been staring at him for too long.
Adam dipped his head and kissed Noah once more. This time with a lot more heat, making Noah whine.
When Adam finally broke the kiss, he said, “They were almost sold out. I got the last bed…just in case. I can cancel if you don’t want to go, but I know you love those movies.
You watch them every Christmas with the extended feelings faction and then make me sit through them all again when they pop up on the television. ”
“Well, they’re Christmas movies,” Noah said. “It’s Christmas time. When else are we supposed to watch them?”
It had started about four months after Felix married Avi.
They started having a Christmas pajama party at one of their apartments.
In the beginning, it was just Noah, Zane, Felix and, sometimes, if they could coax him out, even Lucas.
Eventually, they’d invited Arlo and Calliope, then Lola and Ever and Shiloh.
When the spouses and Jericho’s other adult babies started attending, the party was moved to the mansion with its massive theater which worked out much better because there was a nursery there as well.
It was a family event now and that family was ever expanding.
Last year, even Mac’s brother, Jayne, had come with his husband Elijah and they’d brought their friends too.
It was a free for all and Noah had loved every minute of the chaos.
He’d never imagined having a family this big.
Now they have the movies on rotation each year. Sometimes it was Love Actually, The Family Stone and The Holiday. Sometimes it was Die Hard, Elf, Bad Santa and Home Alone. It was more about nostalgia and family time than any one type of Christmas movie.
They always planned it for two nights before the Mulvaney holiday trips which took place the first two weeks of December.
Thomas and Aiden often went to Paris or Prague, Lucas and August took the kids to Switzerland, Atticus and Jericho usually rented a cabin in the mountains, Archer and Mac would go glamping in the desert, Adam and Noah had been anywhere and everywhere.
Noah’s only condition was there had to be snow. It had to feel like Christmas.
The only people who’d had to make any life changes were the twins and their husbands.
Their previous Christmas holiday had always involved a ski trip to a fancy resort where they’d all stay together.
In one suite. They’d always maintained it was perfectly normal and innocent.
Of course, that didn’t stop Adam from referring to it as the Core Four Annual Christmas Ski Trip Orgy.
This would be their first year taking the babies on their vacation.
In previous years they’d come back with three photos of snowy landscapes and many, many suspicious bruises and bite marks.
This year, Noah anticipated a very different vibe.
Babies were awesome but they were definitely not invited to an orgy.
There would likely be a lot more skiing on this ski trip than any other previous ‘ski’ trips.
Noah couldn’t wait for pics of the twins in their custom designed snow suits, and beanies, probably strapped to Avi and Asa’s chests as the two snowboarded through treacherous black diamond mountain passes, while Zane had a panic attack and Felix threatened them with grievous bodily harm if anything were to happen to their precious children.
“Not everyone thinks Die Hard is a Christmas movie,” Adam said in a sing-song voice, dragging Noah from his thoughts.
“Well, those people would be wrong. It takes place at Christmas time, during a Christmas party. He even says ‘ho-ho-ho’. It’s a Christmas movie.”
Noah and Adam had this same silly debate every year and every year Noah played along because he knew bickering got Adam all worked up. It was his idea of foreplay.
“He also says ‘yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker’, but that doesn’t make it a Western, does it?” Adam countered smugly.
Noah stretched luxuriously, his back cracking in several places from being hunched over for so long.
He looped his arms around Adam’s neck as he looked at his upside down face, then yanked him down hard until they were nose to nose.
“If you make me mad, the only bed you’ll be sleeping in is the one at the movie theater,” Noah said sweetly. “Capiche?”
“What do I get if I make you happy?” Adam countered, his voice dropping into that low register that stoked something deep in Noah’s core.