12. Daisy
Daisy
B oth my girls were wide awake by the time I pulled myself together and showered. I had refused to let either of the guys join me because I knew that would just end in me taking more knots and I wanted to finish getting Christmas dinner put together.
My body was also feeling all the knots. The soreness was a delicious reminder, but a short break to refuel and rest wouldn’t go amiss.
I knew that I was going to be up half the night taking knot after knot, and I wasn’t complaining about that in the slightest.
Nate smirked at me as he stood at the kitchen island, chopping vegetables while the girls sat on the other side in their highchairs, demolishing what appeared to once be a small bag of cookies.
The room smelled amazing, Turkey and cranberry sauce was the most potent, but if the smell was anything to go by, then this dinner was going to taste amazing.
Unlike the first Christmas we had together where I had insisted on cooking, despite having two fairly newborn twins and burned the turkey…
And the potatoes…
And everything else.
Sticking my tongue out at Nate as I walked past the girls, kissing the top of their heads, I grabbed wipes and did my best to clean their grubby hands.
“Has daddy been giving you cookies again?” I asked in a playful voice.
Petunia nodded eagerly.
“That was meant to be our little secret,” Nate pouted.
“Ahh, you can’t hide anything from mama,” I beamed, tapping the tip of Poppy’s nose lightly as I cleaned up some of their mess.
“No, we can’t,” Jeremy agreed as he sauntered into the room, a huge smile plastered across his face. “You need any help with cooking?” He asked Nate.
He shook his head. “I think we have everything under control here. Can you go check that the table is fully set? It won’t be long now,” he said.
We had opted for a little family meal, just our pack and our girls and it was perfect for us. The circular table was set out beautifully and we served the food family style, with dishes piled high in the center.
“This looks amazing!” I cried excitedly as I lifted Poppy into her highchair to eat.
“You picked all the colors,” Jeremy said as he placed a tray of stuffing down.
I snorted lightly. “That’s only because I started internet shopping when the girls went through that sleep regression phase and wanted snuggles at three in the morning.”
Online shopping had become my friend during those sleepless nights. We were all exhausted, and the guys always offered to stay up with me, but it was kind of nice to have that quiet time with my girls in the dead of night.
They were only going to be so small for a short while, and I wanted to enjoy every minute of it.
“Okay, I think that’s everything,” Nate said as he put the potatoes down, walking over to me and pulling me in for a quick hug, his delicious, toasted bread scent washing over me as he pulled out my chair for me.
Once I was seated, he took his own place to the left of me. To the right were my girls, and opposite us were Jeremy and Devon.
The girls were already eying up the food with a ravenous look.
“I think we better feed our feral beasties,” I said, grabbing one of their plates as Devon did the same, loading them up with a little bit of everything.
As we did so, Nate took my plate and started filling it, automatically thinking of me before himself.
It was a small gesture, but it was those small things that the guys did every day that made me feel so utterly loved and cherished by them.
“Merry Christmas,” Jeremy grinned, looking at me as he lifted another potato onto Poppy’s plate.
“Merry Christmas, Duckie.”
“I can’t eat another bite!” Devon exclaimed, leaning back in his chair and patting his belly.
I groaned, “I feel like I’m already three months pregnant,” I said, rubbing my now bloated belly. It was worth every bite. The meal was so delicious I almost regretted being full.
“How about an evening of Christmas movies with the girls?” Nate asked, his tone thick with that sleepiness that came with eating a damn good meal.
“That sounds perfect,” I hummed in agreement as Petunia clambered into my lap. Poppy was already in Jeremy’s as he used several napkins to wipe the food off her face.
“I’ll go set up the sofa nest in the living room… just as soon as I’m able to move,” Nate mumbled, making me laugh.
“I think we are all stuck for a while,” I said.
“There are worse places to be stuck,” Jeremy said. “Hey Nate, has work actually been leaving you alone?” he asked.
Nate shrugged. “I don’t know honestly. I turned off my work phone. If those—” he looked at our daughters, thinking about what he was about to say “Poopy heads can’t appreciate I’m taking time off during the holidays, well that’s their problem!”
“They must be mourning the loss of their workaholic,” I smiled at him.
“Of course they miss me, I’m amazing,” Nate declared, making us all laugh.
We didn’t get up from the table for almost an hour, opting to sit around and chat instead of actually moving.
Eventually the girls became restless and wanted to move.
“Help daddy set up the nest,” I told Poppy, handing her one of the throw pillows out of the wardrobe. She grabbed it eagerly, running out of the room to go find Nate, who was overseeing the creation of the living room nest.
Movie nights had always been one of my favorite activities. We would push the two large sofas together, fill it with blankets and pillows and cuddle together in a big ol’ snuggle puddle.
It was ridiculously comfortable, and there weren’t many better ways to spend a night.
“I love this, it’s so festive!” I said as I took in the familiar nest with a few new additions.
“I feel like the snowmen and Christmas tree blankets added a nice little seasonal flair,” Jeremy said as he rearranged several of them to ensure we could crawl in with ease. Poppy and Petunia were also helping him, but their assistance was somewhat more chaotic. Several times he had to fix their pillow arrangements that were so tall they were bound to topple over.
I crawled into the nest next to Jeremy, pulling my girls in for a hug as Devon played with the remote getting a Christmas movie on.
Nate on my left, Jeremy on my right, and Devon in between my legs while I gave him head scratches, and both my girls curled up with me.
There was nothing more perfect.