Christmas With The Houstons (Acceptance #4) (16 page)

Her eyes are wide as she glances from Jake to Mike, waiting for her dad to tell her he’s lying. Mike looks torn because he knows he’s going to catch hell from Misty later but he follows Jake’s lead and nods.

“If you’re always a good girl, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Mike informs her gently.

I’d like to slap him upside the head right now. “I can’t wait to watch Misty lay into you later when you have to explain to her why her four-year-old daughter is afraid of hell,” I whisper nastily in his ear.

“Your husband started it.”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice. He’s going to be in trouble, too. Tonight is not the optimum time to introduce little kids into the concept of hell. What is wrong with you guys?”

Thankfully, Hails is looking at her pillowcase Connor brought over and is distracted for the time being, but she’s a smart girl and I’m sure this is going to be brought up again soon.

“Here,” Connor says, handing me two pillowcases with Mia and Hannah’s names on them. Tears immediately come to my eyes.

Fuck these hormones; I hate crying.

“Connor… I…”

“It’s nothing. They’re going to be my nieces, right?” He shrugs but I don’t let him get away with blowing it off. I place a kiss on his cheek and give him a hug.

“Thank you, really. This is above and beyond.”

He pulls back, shaking his head. “No, what you and Jake are doing is above and beyond. I’m just being the best uncle ever.”

“You know they don’t know we want to bring them here, right?”

“Yeah, I got the memo. Don’t worry, if anyone slips up it won’t be me. You ought to keep an eye on your husband, though. Loose lips sink ships and all that,” he says with a wink as he walks away.

Jake is hardly a songbird when it comes to secrets; that title has always belonged to Connor and he knows it.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Robinson arrives with the girls and my heart melts; they look adorable. Jake grabs my hand and squeezes it hard. Our first Halloween with our daughters and they’re beautiful.

“Uncle Jake!” Hailey yells. “Are these your friends we’ve been waiting for?”

“Sure are, Hails.”

Hailey takes them in as they walk up the path and turns to Mike. “Daddy, next year I want to be a princess, too, okay?”

“Anything you want, baby girl,” he answers with a kiss to the top of her head. Before anyone gets the chance to greet them, Hailey runs up and introduces herself. This girl has never been one bit shy and I love it.

Kate is watching the scene around her—taking it all in—and I swear I can already see the tears in her eyes. This is one time I can’t joke about her empathy because I’m right there with her. These girls are just as much her family as they are ours.

“Wow!” Mia exclaims, looking at the house and all the decorations.

“This house is awesome!” Hannah cries out.

“Is this really your house? It’s so big…” Mia asks wondrously.

“This
is
our house and we decorated it extra special since we knew all of you were coming over tonight,” Jake answers with an enormous smile.

“Mia, Hannah, Mrs. Robinson, we’d like to introduce you to a few people. This is my brother, Connor, and his twins, Hope and Zayden.” Jake begins the introductions and like two perfectly behaved kids, Mia and Hannah shake hands and introduce themselves.

“This is my best friend, Daniel, and his wife, Kate, and their kids, Lucas and Haven.” I continue the introductions and watch Kate blink back her tears, but typical Kate hugs them hello instead of shaking hands.

“Over here is my best friend, Mike, and you’ve already met his daughter, Hailey. And in the stroller over here is his son, Grant. You’ll get to meet a few more friends as we trick or treat tonight, too.”

Hannah pulls on my dress to get my attention and Mia is right next to her. “You and Jake match our costumes.”

“We do. We hope you don’t mind but when Mrs. Robinson told us what you were going to be, we couldn’t resist. It seemed like it would be fun.”

“I don’t mind,” Mia says softly.

“Me, either. Thank you for inviting us,” Hannah says before bouncing down the walk to Jake. She’s got a soft spot for him, but it’s pretty obvious Mia has one for me.

Over the course of the next two hours, we trick or treat our hearts out. The kids end up with a massive amount of candy. About halfway through, Mia and Hannah really begin to come out of their shells. They spend time talking and joking with all the grown-ups and I’m pretty sure they were completely smitten with Jess when they found out she was Connor’s wife.

Kate tells them how her, Jess, and Mike have been the best of friends since they were Mia and Hannah’s age and the girls light up in happiness. I’m sure as much as they want to believe they’ll always be friends, they may have been questioning if it was actually possible. Now they know. I’m dying to tell them they’re going to be sisters as soon as we get the green light but I just can’t do that to them. If this falls through, they’d be devastated.

So would we.

“Thank you so much for spending Halloween with us. We had so much fun!” Mia exclaims happily as she gives us hugs goodbye.

“Me, too!” Hannah squeals. “I bet this is what Halloween in a real family feels like,” she says as she hugs Jake. She doesn’t say it in sadness, just as a fact.

“Will we see you again soon?” Hannah asks as she says goodbye to me, Mia piping up along with her.

“Will we?”

“Of course. We’ll be by next week just like we have the past few weeks. We love visiting with you two.”

They nod and say their goodbyes to everyone when suddenly Hannah comes running back to me. “I forgot something,” she says and reaches out to pat my belly. “Bye, Jaxson.” She says it so sweetly and then runs back to catch up to Mia and Mrs. Robinson.

Connor finally breaks the silence. “Wow,” he says as Daniel comes back inside after dropping off Hailey and Lucas with Misty and Jess so they can watch
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

“What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Mike answers. “Just little girls being adorably cute.”

“Come on, let me get you guys a drink and you can tell us what you thought.”

“April, sit and rest, you have to be tired. I’ll be the wench and serve the pirates tonight.” Daniel swats at Kate’s ass as she walks to the kitchen.

“You should have told me you have a pirate fetish, it’s much sexier than a scarecrow.” Kate spins and plants a kiss on his lips.

“I have a
you
fetish, any way I can get you.”

“Who wants to bet Kate gets knocked up next?” Connor asks, whipping out his wallet.

“Connor Houston! Don’t curse me just yet. Besides,
you’re
the next one in line. We’ve all had a turn since Jess had the twins.”

“I’d knock her up in a heartbeat if she’d let me.”

“Hey, can we please stop saying knocked up? We’re not eighteen anymore. Besides, can’t we just take some time to enjoy the babies we
do
have around here before we excessively overpopulate the planet? What’s with you Houston boys wanting to leave your mark on this earth, anyway?”

“
Men
, babe, we’re Houston
men
, not boys. What’s wrong with wanting to leave a legacy? This planet can only be a better place with our DNA all over it anyway,” Jake answers me with a sexy smirk.

Connor high-fives him while Daniel and Mike laugh.

“Nothing is wrong with leaving a legacy, but there are lots of kids who need homes. They don’t necessarily have to come from your bloodline.”

“That’s true,” Jake counters, “but once we adopt Mia and Hannah they’ll be part of our legacy. I’m all for adopting, but you can’t blame me for wanting to have some little versions of us running around.”

“Not at all, but April’s right. You guys act like it’s completely okay for us to birth you a football team.”

“Thank you, Kate.”

“Between the four of you, you girls
could
have a football team. We don’t expect
each
of you to have one.”

“Quit while you’re ahead, Connor,” Kate warns.

“So,” Mike interjects changing the subject, “Hailey seemed to really love Mia and Hannah. She was trying to plan sleepovers already. They’re going to fit in just fine, you guys.”

Everyone is nodding in agreement. “They really are the sweetest things. I know this is going to make me sound like a dick…”

“Connor, you always sound like a dick,” Jake quips.

“Ha ha funny, asshole. Seriously, I never really thought much about normal kids in foster care. I figured most of them were disabled, crack babies, or just crazy-ass kids. I know that makes me a world class douche.”

“No, Connor, it doesn’t,” I say, patting his hand. “It makes you normal. The fact of the matter is most people don’t think about kids in the system at all. There’s always been such a negative light surrounding the system, almost all anyone hears is the bad stuff and not the good.”

“Yeah, I guess. Honestly, I don’t think I’m the kind of person who ever considered fostering, but I’d love to find a way to help out somehow.”

“I’ll send you some links. I made a shit ton of donations a few weeks ago,” Jake answers.

“You did?”

Why didn’t he tell me?

“I had to do something, April. After meeting the girls, I did some research. The facts were staggering. So I found some reputable places and gave a ton of donations.”

I think I’m going to cry.

Fucking hormones.

“Send us those links, too, Jake,” Daniel tells him.

“Yeah, to me, too,” Mike agrees.

“How much longer now before you know?” Kate asks as she sits on Daniel’s lap.

“It’s all just a waiting game for final approval. It could be tomorrow or it could be next year, but I really hope it’s before Christmas.”

It’s so nice to sit and talk and not have to worry about leaving to be home at a certain point in time. Yawning, I lean back against Jake and let my eyes close as I listen to the banter go back and forth. The next thing I know, Jake is whispering in my ear.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty, it’s time for bed.”

I’m surprised to see everyone is gone. I can’t believe I just fell asleep like that in front of everyone.

“I’m sorry, I feel so bad. I can’t believe I just fell asleep.”

“I’m not sorry, you needed to sleep. It was a big night. After you fell asleep, Kate reminded us of the time she fell asleep at Easter with everyone around. It’s the baby’s way of telling you you’re overdoing it and you need your rest. Come on, let me take you to bed.”

“Tonight was perfect, wasn’t it?”

“It was, babe. Tonight was the first glimpse of the rest of our lives, and I loved what I saw.”

“Me, too.”

The next morning, I wake up to an empty bed with the lingering memory of Jake making love to me last night. Just when I think I know all his tricks, he does something else completely unexpected to spice up our sex life. It will never get old.

As my eyes focus, I notice a note on the bedside table with my name on it.

April,

Sorry. I didn’t want to tell you last night and ruin the moment, but I have to work today. I shouldn’t be late.

I love you.

Jake

Damn it! It’s Saturday and we were supposed to finally decide what to do with the rooms we have set aside for Mia and Hannah. We can’t decide if we want to decorate them and have them ready or let them pick everything. We also don’t know if maybe they’ll want to continue sharing a room for a while, and he promised me today we would finally make a decision one way or the other.

After using the restroom, I throw on a robe and go downstairs to make some tea. I’m agitated and hungry and really don’t like waking up to my husband being at work again for the second weekend in a row.

The doorbell rings right as I’m getting ready to sit down and I debate on ignoring it, but I know I can’t.

“Hey.” I swing the door open and wave Connor inside.

Why isn’t he at work, too?

He follows me inside and closes the door behind him.

“Where’s Jake?” he asks as he sits down at the table with me. I really don’t have any patience for this today.

“Where do you think he is, Connor?” I ask with a resigned sigh.

He laughs. “Well, if I knew I wouldn’t be asking you.”

This is it. I know I’m going to regret this, but I don’t even care anymore.

“Connor, he’s at work, just like he is practically every weekend. Just like he has been every night for almost the last six months.”

The quizzical look which crosses his face proves he has no idea Jake has been picking up the slack for him, but he can’t seriously be this oblivious, can he?

“What’s going on, April? Why is he working so much?”

“Do you really not know this, Connor? Or are you just playing stupid because you don’t want to admit your shortcomings?”

Oh, shit.

That was so harsh, I flinch at my own words.

I’m such a bitch.

“I’m sorry, Connor. That was uncalled for, I apologize.”