Chapter 24 #2
I’d just finished changing the youngest Hodges when Pane lifted his head up.
His hair was sticking every which way but straight, and he had a tiny handprint on his face from where he’d fallen asleep with it under his cheek.
He sat up in bed and wobbled on his behind before he lifted his hands up to me.
I finished zipping the tiniest zipper in the world and walked over to the kid.
He dropped one hand down and grabbed hold of his blanket, then held on as I lifted him into my arms beside his brother.
“Seepy,” he murmured as he buried his face into the burn scars against my neck.
“You can go back to sleep,” I said.
He muttered something I couldn’t understand and tossed the blanket over both of our heads.
I chuckled and stopped maneuvering my face around so that I could half-ass see as I made it down the hall toward the loud talking.
The first person I saw happened to be Anders.
“Hey, a little help, kid.”
She reached up to take the blanket off my face, but that was all I got as she continued toward the crowd.
I rolled my eyes as I moved into the room, my eyes automatically searching for Calli as they always did when I knew that she was around.
“There you are,” Calli called. “Come sit down.”
I noticed Gunner beside her, but took the seat anyway.
I hoped that he didn’t tell her about the chips.
I didn’t want everyone to know how desperately far gone that I was for Calli.
I’d heard enough shit from them over the last hour or so to last me a lifetime.
“You want some help there?” Calli asked as I took my seat.
I leaned back in the chair, put my feet up on the ottoman that was directly in front of me, and shook my head. “Nah.”
Her face softened.
The impromptu Christmas was everything as we spent time with the Truth Teller family.
The kids were everywhere—minus the two in my arms—the parents were watching the chaos, and the kids sang Christmas carols at the top of their lungs in the worst pitch I’d ever heard in my life.
“So, Calli,” Gunner started.
“Calliope to you,” I grumbled, glaring hard.
He only grinned for a short second at me before turning back to Calli.
“What?” Calli asked semi-distractedly.
She was busy helping Copper’s boy open a remote control car, so she only gave him half an ear.
“Last week, I walked into the break room where we were at Duncanville High School.”
Calli finally admitted defeat and tossed the toy car at the closest man—Webber.
Webber caught it and pulled his knife out of his pocket before easily cutting the toy car free.
He took over the batteries, causing Copper’s son to toddle toward Webber now, giving Calli free rein to look at Gunner.
Gunner flashed a smile at her. “And you know what he was doing?”
Calli flashed a confused look in my direction before she gave Gunner her full attention. “No, can’t say that I do.”
“He had all these potato chip bags everywhere,” he said. “He had on gloves, and he was pouring all of these chips out onto the table.”
Calli blinked. “Okay?”
“And so I walk in there and ask him what he was doing,” Gunner said.
I groaned and let my head fall back on the couch, jostling Pane just enough that he repositioned himself directly against my neck. I was fairly sure that I could feel his drool leaking down into the hollow of my collarbone.
“What did he say?” Calli sounded much more curious now.
Shit.
“He said that he was pulling out all the folded chips,” he said. “And he was going to give it to you for your Secret Santa gift.”
Calli’s head whipped around, which I could barely see from my exhausted position on the couch.
I brought my head up and my eyes met hers.
“You know I like the folded chips best?” she asked.
“The man knows a lot about you,” Doc said. “Kind of like how you wanted to decorate your place for Christmas, but you weren’t willing to do it without anyone else joining in.”
Her mouth parted.
“Oh, and you remember the time he left our meeting because he heard that she was in that wreck?” Copper asked as he took the car controller from Webber. “He left so abruptly that we had to vote without him.”
“Oh, yeah.” Gunner snorted. “I can’t tell you how many times he’s up and left work because she was stranded somewhere.”
Calli’s face flushed.
“I guess we should’ve seen it sooner,” Doc drawled.
I rolled my eyes.
They probably should have.
But I’d done my level best to stay in the shadows when I did my stalker thing.
Though, there was only so much you could hide when there was a woman that did her level best to do everything herself and fail.
“What’s the issue here?” Searcy laughed. “I’m glad that they finally got it out in the open.”
Calli turned to her sister. “Not you, too.”
“I saw it from the very beginning.” She snorted. “You both make it cosmically easy to see, though. I’m just glad you waited until you were done with college to make the move.”
The remote control started up, and Pane popped his head up off my chest like he’d been pinched.
He raised his tiny little arm to look around, and his breath caught. “Wow.”
He scrambled off my chest, leaving the blanket, and made a beeline for the car.
Doc caught him up before he could touch it and pulled him into his lap.
“Look here,” Doc ordered. “You got one, too.”
Since the only gifts that were there were the ones that Doc and Searcy bought, Searcy had to hastily reach under the tree to grab the ones we’d been intending to open that morning but hadn’t.
Upon the snow melting, everyone wanted to head over to make sure that Calli was okay.
And they’d crashed the party, so to speak.
Not that anyone minded.
Searcy and Doc had gone so far beyond overboard with all the kids’ gifts—winning the lottery definitely had its perks—that there was enough to go around for all and then some.
Searcy stood up and stretched, then walked over to me. “You might be the greatest baby whisperer ever to be.”
I leaned forward and held her youngest out to her. Searcy took Dalton with a smile, then nuzzled her face into his.
Calli used my pant leg to get up, then bent over so that both of her hands were braced on my knees.
She studied my face for a long second before she said, “All of the things that I got for you burned to the ground, too.”
I raised my hand and enclosed my palm around her wrist. “That’s okay.”
“I got you a thing for your bike.”
“What kind of thing?” I swept my thumb over the muscle on the inside of her arm.
“These things called Gremlin Bells,” she said.
“They’re supposed to ward off the evil spirits and serve as a totem to ward off the gremlins that cause bad things to happen to bikes.
” She bit her lip. “I saw that Elaine had gifted some to Knight. And the night before the accident, they’d fallen off.
He’d said something while we were at dinner at Apollo’s.
Said that he had to get a new clasp to hold them onto the frame of the bike.
I asked them about the purpose, and he told me about how they had to be gifted.
And their significance. I ordered you a set that night. ”
I moved my hand up to the bend in her elbow and tugged her toward me.
She came willingly, squeezing into the small space between my body and the arm of the chair.
She rested her head on my chest, uncaring of the sweat and drool Pane had left behind, and curled up against me. Her hands went up under her face as she watched the controlled chaos around us.
“Do you want kids one day?” I asked.
I mean, I assumed that she wasn’t too hip on them, but I thought I’d ask.
“One day. In the far, far future,” she said. “Maybe in five or so years, once I’ve established myself in my job. When I’m more stable, and don’t have so many things I want to do in life.”
“Besides graduating top of your class and getting a job?”
“I want to visit the world,” she said. “I want to see all the mountains in the United States. I want to visit all of the national parks. I want to visit Japan and see the cherry blossoms in real life. I want to go to Manchester and visit Oxford Street during Christmas so I can see everything lit up. I want to go to all of the Christmas markets in Cologne, Strasbourg, Vienna, and Prague. I want to see the northern lights. I want to visit Alaska and see the bears eating the salmon in the middle of Kisatchie National Forest. And, let’s just say, that doesn’t sound super easy with a kid. ”
I hummed as I reached for the blanket to bring it up over Calli’s tiny body.
“I’m down for all of that,” I said. “You can get on my bike and we can go tomorrow.”
“It’s a little cold for that, isn’t it?” she teased.
“Maybe,” I admitted.
“I’ve wanted nothing more than to ride on the back of your bike, Jasper Madden.”
I twisted my face and deposited a kiss to the top of her head. “I’ve wanted nothing more than to have you there.”