Christmas With The Houstons (Acceptance #4) (22 page)

“Thanks, Kate.”

“No thanks necessary. I’m just so happy to see you two finally take the plunge. I’m sorry I didn’t get to see it myself, but I most definitely understand. Some things are just private moments which need to be cherished between two people.”

Even though Kate is talking through her tears, she means every word she says.

“Making my wife cry as usual, huh, Mike?”

“Well, you know, it’s such a hard thing to make happen.”

“You guys suck, you know that?”

Daniel places a kiss on her lips. “You know we love you, it’s why we tease you.”

“Should have stuck with our thirty pact, Kate. I wouldn’t make you cry, I’d just make you scream.”

Connor winking at Kate will never get old. “Don’t let him fool you. You’d be screaming in frustration, not out of pleasure.”

He grabs Jess around the waist and pulls her close. “That’s not the kind of screaming I heard last night, or this morning, or in the shower before we left.”

“And you think
I’m
going to get pregnant next? If you have time for
that
much sex, maybe we should send our kids over to play at
your
house,” Kate says with a giggle.

“We finally have the twins pretty much sleeping through the night. They wake up at five, eat, and then go back to sleep until nine. It’s perfect for morning nookie.”

“You’re lucky. Haven is still up every three hours like clockwork.”

“You guys are making me miss sleep already.”

“Sorry, April, but the lack of sleep is totally worth it. Just remember that,” Jess tells me sweetly.

The doorbell rings and that means it’s show time. I motion for Jake to bring the girls over and everyone stands back, letting the two of us answer the door with the kids.

Jake picks Hannah up and since Mia is smaller, I bend down to pick her up but Jake pulls me back.

“Don’t even think about it,” he growls under his breath, instead, pulling a chair next to me for Mia to stand on. I’m afraid she’ll lose her balance so I make sure to hold her close. Jake swings open the door to the mob that is my family. My nerves are suddenly on high alert. There are just so many of them—at the forefront, my parents.

“Happy Thanksgiv—” My mom trails off her greeting as the rest of my family finishes it behind her.

“Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!” the four of us call back to them.

“That’s a lot of aunts and uncles, Mommy,” Mia whispers adorably in my ear. Hannah is her exuberant self, though.

“Hi! I’m Hannah!” She waves adorably and Jake couldn’t look any prouder. My parents move aside, letting everyone move in ahead of them. Some of them knew we were adopting from our family dinner a few weeks ago; the rest heard it through the grapevine, I’m sure.

In typical fashion, my sisters are all lined up in age-order with their husbands/boyfriends. Jake and I stand on opposite sides of the door and let them file in between us.

“Everyone, these are our daughters, Mia and Hannah.” I point to Hannah on Jake’s hip so they don’t get confused. “Come in and introduce yourselves.”

“I’m Aunt Desiree and this is my boyfriend, Marko.”

“Auntie Brooke and this is your Uncle Josh.”

“I’m your Aunt Zoey and this is your Uncle Greg.”

“This is my boyfriend, Todd, and I’m your Aunt Maria.”

“Hey, cuties. I’m going to be your favorite uncle. I’m Uncle Johnny.”

“Get in line, Johnny, I already claimed that title,” Connor calls out from across the room.

“Don’t listen to Uncle Connor, he’s nowhere near as fun as I am.” The girls giggle and Sophia pushes her way in.

“You didn’t call me!” she accuses with her hands on her hips.

“It just happened yesterday, Soph. I’ve been a little bit busy.”

“You two are the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I’m your Auntie Sophia, and we need to have a slumber party as soon as possible.”

As Sophia finally walks inside, my parents each reach out their arms for the girls. Hannah goes willingly but Mia seems unsure.

“It’s okay, sweetie, you don’t have to,” I whisper in her ear, but once she sees Hannah hugging my dad and giggling, she goes to my mom easily.

“You had a lot of babies,” Mia points out to my mom.

“We sure did, but they fill our hearts with love and joy.”

A few short hours later, we’ve answered every question under the sun from all of our family and extended family. Sophia has spent all day flirting with Chad and I think it might actually be working.

The food was excellent and everyone applauded the girls on all of the pie choices. Especially Connor. He was more than happy to taste almost every one. The best part of the day by far has been all the kids. Two years ago, we would all have had a nice, grown-up time with lots of alcohol and probably spent the night. But this is so much better.

“You ready to head home?” Jake comes up from behind me and hugs his arms around my belly.

“Most definitely. I’m so tired.”

“Are you too tired to make a stop on the way?”

“What kind of stop are you thinking?”

“I thought maybe we could go get the Christmas tree tonight. I can hose it off and it will be ready to decorate in the morning.”

The girls would love that, I’m sure, and if we do it tonight I can stay in my pajamas all day tomorrow.

“Let’s do it.”

“Good, but I’m going to blame our early exit on you being tired,” he whispers conspiratorially in my ear.

“You’ve got my blessing.”

“Just another reason why I love you. I’ll be right back.”

It took almost thirty minutes to actually leave because Linda insisted on sending us home with enough food and pies to feed us for a month. At least I don’t have to feel bad about not going to the store tomorrow anymore.

Of course, my mom had to gently remind me if I went into an early labor it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

“Did you girls have fun today?”

“We did, and Hailey said she’s going to come over tomorrow! Can she, Daddy?”

And so it begins…

“Mia, I don’t think I could keep Hailey from coming over even if I wanted to, which I don’t. Of course she can come over.”

“Awesome,” Hannah says as she high-fives Mia. These two are going to dazzle Jake with sweetness and smiles whenever they want something. And he’s going to give in every time.

I thought they would fall asleep on the way home but they must be on a sugar high. Hopefully, that means they’ll crash tonight because I’m exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for days.

“Christmas trees!” Hannah screams from the back seat when Jake pulls into the lot.

“That’s right. Let’s get out and pick a tree and tomorrow we can decorate the tree and the house. What do you say?”

“Yes, Daddy! Come on, Mommy, let’s go!” The way the girls scramble from the car and pounce out onto the tree lot is adorable.

Jake tells them to agree on any tree they want with a sign that says seven to eight feet on it.

“How about this one? No, this one is so much prettier. Wait, they have some with snow, Daddy! Mia, look! There’s snow on the tree!”

“Girls, let’s stick to a tree with no snow, please. They can get messy.” I’m afraid I’ll disappoint them but flocked trees are a pain.

“Okay, Mommy,” they call back, the flocked tree already forgotten.

Jake pulls me close and kisses me tenderly.

“What was that for?”

He points above my head where mistletoe is hanging from the inside of the tent. “It’s bad luck to miss a mistletoe opportunity.”

“Really? Since when?” I ask him with a chuckle.

“Since now. New Houston family rule: we need to buy mistletoe for every doorway so I can kiss you deeply, and often.” His sexy tone sends chills through me.

“Well, I’d never turn down extra opportunities to kiss my husband, so buy all their mistletoe if you want to.”

“Did you know hearing you tell me to actually spend money is really fucking sexy?”

“We found one! We found our tree!” Mia and Hannah call out, interrupting our banter.

Jake and I follow their excited voices through the trees and find them practically dancing around the tree they’ve picked. It’s gorgeous. Maybe the secret to having the best trees is having kids pick them out.

“You’re sure
this
is the one?” Jake teases.

“We’re sure,” they call back in sing-song voices.

“Alright, let’s go pay for it.” Jake pulls the tag off and flags a lot helper to wrap it up and tie it to the top of the car.

When we get to the window to pay, Jake makes good on his promise. “I’ll take fifty packages of mistletoe, too.”

“Fifty?” The clerk is looking at Jake as if he’s crazy.

He might be.

“Isn’t fifty a bit much?” I question with a cocked brow.

“Maybe, but when we run out of places to put them in our house, I’m taking them to Daniel’s, Connor’s, and Mike’s. That way I still have a legitimate excuse to make out with my wife.”

“Since when do you need an excuse to make out with me?”

He points at Mia and Hannah “Since we have small eyes in the house now.”

“Kids need to see love all the time, Jake, not only during the holiday season.”

“Yes, but the kind of loving I want to give you needs to be behind closed doors. This just gives me the chance to be extra loving during the holidays.”

“You’re being ridiculous, but I’ll take the extra attention whenever and however you want to give it to me.”

“Is that so?”

“Mmmhmmm.” It’s about all I can manage to get out as his hand moves slowly from my low back to the bottom of my ass where he squeezes me tight. Thank God Mia and Hannah are directing the attendant to the car.

The clerk clears her throat, obviously embarrassed to be interrupting such a moment. “Here’s your card, receipt, and fifty packages of mistletoe. Have a very Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” we tell her as we head over to the car. Jake pulls out a wad of money and I know he’s tipping the lot attendant extremely generously. He can’t be more than seventeen and when his eyes catch what Jake is handing him, they light up.

“Thanks for the help. Merry Christmas.”

“Wow. Thank you so much. Merry Christmas to you, too. Come back and see us next year.”

“That was nice of you”

“Well, you know, I’m a really nice guy, especially when I’m in a good mood.”

He opens the door for the girls and once they’ve strapped themselves in and Jake has double-checked them, he closes the door and looks over at me.

“Actually, I’m in an
extremely
giving mood tonight. You wouldn’t happen to feel like rewarding my generous nature with some name-calling would you? In particular, I’d like to hear my name fall from your lips over and over while my lips show you just how good of a mood I’m in.”

“Oh, I
definitely
think something can be arranged.”

Mia fell asleep on the way home and Hannah was just about there by the time we parked. Jake ran in ahead to let Luvbug out so he’d be ready to go up to bed with the girls.

Hannah climbs out of the car and immediately starts helping unload all the food Linda sent us back with.

What a sweetie.

“Thank you, Hannah. That was very thoughtful of you to help out.”

“You’re welcome, Mommy. We used to help Mrs. Robinson bring in stuff from the car all the time.”

“Did you have a good time today, Hannah?”

She nods softly. “I’ve never had a big Thanksgiving like that before.”

“Me, either,” Mia says as she rubs her eyes. Jake closes the garage door behind them and Luvbug runs in the back door to welcome everyone with slobbery kisses. After a few minutes of playtime with him, Jake ushers the girls up to bed with Luvbug trailing right behind them.

Once I put all the food away, I realize how exhausted I truly am. I’m not sure I’ve ever been this tired before. I make my way up to our room and put on my pajamas. Thoughts of Jake’s wicked promises flutter through my mind, but I’m too tired to care.

“Hey, babe, I’m going to go put the tree in the stand and rinse it off. I’ll be back up later.”

“Okay, Jake, but can I take a raincheck on your generosity tonight? I’m exhausted.”

“Of course,” he says as he crosses the room and crouches down in front of my belly. “You need to come soon, little man, you’re messing with Daddy’s game.”

I’m laughing as his lips meet mine. “Goodnight, I love you. I’ll be up later.”

“I love you, too, Jake,” I say on a yawn, closing my eyes before he even turns the lights out.