Jackson
It took four of them to wrestle the Christmas tree into the living room. Five including Hazel, who was directing. They set it up in the bay window, turning it this way and that until Leah decided which side was most aesthetic.
“Overcompensating for something, buddy?” Sam muttered out of the corner of his mouth as they gazed up at the twelve-foot tree.
“That’s what she said,” Kash deadpanned.
“It’s perfect, Jax! The best tree ever.” She peppered his face with kisses, her legs wrapped around his hips. She was a wriggling armful of all that was most precious in his life.
“We deserve some credit, too. I nearly lost an eye getting that monster through the front door,” Sam grumbled.
“You barely broke a sweat,” Kash scoffed. “Leah was taking all the strain at your end of the tree.”
“I’m sorry, let me get in another quick workout.” Sam flipped him the bird. Even Hazel laughed at that.
His new business partners never stopped. The friendship they were building between them felt alien but easier than he’d expected—the hole he’d finally begun to acknowledge had been left by the loss of Dominic patched a little by their company.
“I have some lemon and coconut slices for anyone who feels underappreciated.” Hazel linked arms with Sam and Kash and led them through to the kitchen. Jackson barely noticed them go.
“So now the decorating, huh?”
“It’s got to be ready for this evening.” Leah grinned, lowering herself to her feet, hands still entwined behind his neck.
He caught his breath as she slid down his body, chest to chest, groin to groin.
His fingers curled into the soft curves of her ass and he bent to bury his nose in her hair, still no better at letting her go.
She pressed warm lips to his mouth. Jackson’s tongue dipped between her teeth.
This was everything. Happiness, in all its new familiarity, wrapped him in a gentle grip. There was honey in his veins and an ease through his muscles. Because of Leah.
“Lights,” she whispered.
A starburst galaxy lit the inside of his eyelids when he kissed her. “Mmm, me too.”
Her chuckle huffed against his lips. “For the tree. Tree lights. We need to start with the tree lights.”
“Oh.” Jackson drew away from her, reluctance in the slow peel of his body from hers. “Yeah, tree lights. That’s what I meant.”
Once Sam and Kash had demolished a sizable portion of Hazel’s baking, they wound the new set of lights around the tree from tip to base.
Hazel helped them unearth boxes of old decorations from the basement.
Subscribing to the “more is more” school of festive extravagance, Leah refused to stop until the branches were laden with a jumbled mass of ornaments—some tasteful and clearly expensive, others gaudy and well loved.
None were left out. And two very wonky popsicle-stick angels, covered in glitter, were given pride of place once Hazel recalled Esther making them with Jackson and Dominic when the boys were young.
“Art’s not really your thing, is it?” Sam was only poking fun but Jackson punched him anyway.
“Maybe they could go at the back?” he suggested.
“Not happening.” Leah hummed with contentment and took a step away to look for any gaps.
“You hang anything else on that tree and it’ll fall over.” Kash gave her shoulder an indulgent squeeze.
“OK, just the star, then.”
All three men rolled their eyes. The star was the only new decoration Leah had chosen for this grand occasion.
It was pink, fluffy, and ridiculous. And her eyes had lit up the moment she saw it.
Jackson would have hung a fiber optic dinosaur on the top of the tree if Leah wanted one. He could put up with a fluffy star.
They stood back to admire their handiwork. The result was an eclectic, joyful delight. White lights twinkled and ornaments glistened. The tree, nestling grandly in the curve of the bay window, was magnificent.
“Esther would have loved this.” Hazel sounded at peace with the thought. Sam removed a pine needle from the elbow of Kash’s sweater and looped a casual arm around his shoulders.
“It looks exactly how I imagined.” Leah’s voice wavered, her eyes awestruck. “I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.”
Jackson, his gaze fixed on her, couldn’t have agreed more. A fantastic and formidable surge of love stole his words.
Thanksgiving dinner, shared with Leah and his parents, had been stilted and frosty, although not entirely antagonistic—the only thing to celebrate being the sale of the Kingswater site as soon as the tree-clearing restrictions were lifted.
It went to another Chicago-based development company and not the Addlestone-Blacks, turning a small profit due to an advantageous upswing in the market, leaving his dad able to pay off the original loan from Landon Peake without the exorbitant interest. Jackson and Leah had only stayed a couple of hours.
Their own gathering of friends was the other end of the spectrum of cheer. By late afternoon, the living room was a tumult of life and conversation and everywhere Jackson looked there were people.
Cassidy and Kash monopolized the record player Leah had bought for Jackson’s birthday last month, swapping Brothers in Arms for Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak.
Florence Martinez let out a throaty laugh as she was dipped into an extravagant backbend by Liam Morgan to the opening bars of “Something in the Orange.” If the guy hadn’t looked quite so enamored by Leah’s friend, Jackson would have kept an even closer eye on him—police officer or no damn police officer.
Gerry emerged from the kitchen with a tray of drinks.
The air was threaded with the mingled aroma of hot apple cider and the orange and cinnamon candles alight on the mantelpiece.
Winter scents on a bitterly cold December 1.
An icy wind and gusting snow battered at the windows outside but, with the new wood stove alight and blazing, no one even noticed.
“Have one of these, Jackson.” Marjorie pressed a steaming mug into his hand. The kick of rum scorched his chest at the first swallow and she nodded her satisfaction at his strangled cough. “That’ll put hairs on your chest.”
“UNO!”
Leah’s voice reeled him in, as always, and Jackson found his feet moving toward her, smirking at Sam’s expression of disgust when she broke into a victory boogie.
Completing the card-playing foursome were Hazel and a gentleman called Otto, who’d been dragged along to the book club by Elenie Martinez.
“I’m glad it isn’t only me she fleeces at every turn.” Jackson dropped onto the couch beside Leah, circling her waist with his arm and pressing a kiss to her temple.
“Your lady is a shark in sheep’s clothing,” Otto chuckled.
“She’s a shark in shark’s clothing,” grumbled Sam. “It doesn’t matter what we play, she wins every time.”
“The benefits of an unstable childhood, I’m afraid.” Leah gave an unconcerned flick of her hair. “I can hustle with the best of them.”
“Don’t I know it.” Jackson muttered the words low in her ear and took satisfaction in her full-body shiver.
“Your Christmas tree is a wonder.” Otto raised soft, intelligent eyes to take in their hard work. “Ava’s wonderful daughter-in-law tells me that one thousand years ago, people in Northern Europe used to hang their Christmas trees upside down from chandeliers.”
Hazel leaned toward him. “I think this one would bring the ceiling down.” There was something in the way Otto smiled at her that Jackson recognized. He caught Leah’s eye; the lift of her eyebrows mirrored his own.
“It was tough enough to get it into the house. I’m glad we didn’t have to string it to the rafters.” Jackson gazed upward.
“You’d have done it if I’d wanted you to, though, right?” Leah batted her eyelashes.
Fuck, she owned him.
He rolled his shoulders and plastered a mock frown across his face. “Deal me in on the next game. Someone’s got to put this grifter in her place.”
Leah
Sharing the house with friends was magical. But being alone in the quiet with Jackson was a slice of heaven.
Lit only by the Christmas tree lights and the wood stove, the living room was a cocoon of calm and comfort now everyone had gone.
Amity Court slumbered around them as they stretched out on the couch, Leah against Jackson’s chest, his thighs either side of her own.
Their fingers laced as he stroked the soft skin at the base of her thumb in lazy circles.
“Being this happy is terrifying,” she murmured.
“I know.”
The grandfather clock chimed in the foyer.
Familiar sounds of the nearest place to home she’d ever known.
“Esther’s manuscript has gone off for copyediting.
The freelance editor did an amazing job on it.
Her agent emailed me and was raving about how it turned out.
And another one of the authors who asked about character art has come back to me tonight with a definite yes.
” Leah still couldn’t believe it. “She wants my cover design prices, too.”
“That’s just the beginning.” His answer was a rumble in her ear. “Once people see what you can do, you’ll be inundated with requests.”
His belief in her was golden.
“So, we’ll both be tackling something new at the same time.”
When Jackson went to Sam and Kash with the proposal for a new side business, the boys had jumped at his suggestion to partner with him in renovating and selling older properties.
He’d parted from Hale Evolution without a backward glance, and Alistair had increased his own working hours again, hiring a business graduate to train up.
Leah suspected he liked it best when he could rule the roost with unquestioned autonomy.
“Having Ollie onboard is going to make my life so much easier. He cuts through paperwork like a snowplow.” Jackson’s assistant had been only too willing to hand in his resignation and join the new company.