Christmas With The Houstons (Acceptance #4) (27 page)

Marc is out of town and Chad is stuck at the hospital, so it’s just us. We’ve been seeing them a lot less lately, which is a bummer; they’re cool dudes to hang out with. Marc and I have a meeting after the first of the year to talk about business. Originally, I was joking when I mentioned buying into his clubs to April, but when he mentioned a few weeks ago they’re expanding and looking for investors, I figured why the hell not? Over the past year, I still haven’t come any closer to figuring out what I want to do… I’ve been enjoying my family too much.

“Yes, baby, we can have cake. Come on,” I answer, pulling myself from my thoughts

When the cake is cut, I decide to make an impromptu speech before we all dig in.

“Today, Mia and Hannah legally became Houstons and although it’s a big relief knowing they are now legally ours, they’ve been family since we brought them home. Your mom and I have thought of you as our daughters before we ever got to bring you home for good. It’s important you guys know that.”

“We do, Daddy. We love you guys so much.”

April’s wiping away a few tears and even I’m a little choked up.

“We love you, too, and that’s why even though it’s Christmas Eve, we had to celebrate this milestone. Today is the day you officially became Houstons on paper, and though it doesn’t change how we feel about you one single bit, my heart is filled with joy now that my daughters share my name.”

“They also share the name of their favorite uncle now, too. How awesome is that?”

“Don’t let Uncle Johnny hear that, Uncle Connor. He’ll be mad at you. We’re not supposed to pick favorites, remember?” Mia states her point very diplomatically and puts Connor in his place at the same time.

“Well said, Mia. You tell Uncle Connor what’s up,” Jess tells her and she kisses her on the top of her head.

“Good speech, Uncle Jake, can we eat cake now?” Leave it to Hailey to cut to the chase.

“Absolutely! Everyone be merry and eat cake!”

Cheers are yelled all around as everyone digs in. April wipes a stray tear from her eye, looks around and spots A.J. in her bassinette, and leaves the room. I follow behind her to make sure she’s okay.

She’s leaning against the doorframe of the den.

“Hey, are you okay?” I ask, pulling her into my arms.

“I’m perfect, Jake, absolutely perfect. Thank you for making us a family. I know I was resistant to kids, but I couldn’t imagine my life any other way.”

“Me, either, April. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Jake, forever.” Her lips meet mine softly, and she opens to me immediately. Passion flows between us like a magical force binding us together. I like to think this is destiny’s way of proving we belong together. When she pulls away from me, she’s breathless and I point up above her head.

“Mistletoe.” She shakes her head and laughs. “I should have guessed.”

“It’s my favorite Christmas tradition.”

“Mine, too,” she says as she kisses me again.

My family is everything to me. The love, respect, and acceptance we all have for each other continuously amazes me. I can’t wait to see what the future brings for our families and for our children. If they’re anything like their parents, it’s going to be a bumpy ride and I’m in it for the long haul. I can’t wait to see how their stories unfold.

I’m honestly at a loss for words. I’m thankful for each and every one of you reading this book. This book was the most difficult one for me to write for many reasons—the biggest being this is goodbye to this series. You may have noticed through my stories that my friends are the pinnacle of my life. We all have them—we lean on them, we rely on them—but how often do we thank them? I know I could probably do it more often.

I want you all to know, especially in this holiday season, how much you mean to me. We may not talk as often as I’d like, I forget important things I wish I wouldn’t, and some of us are separated by many miles, but that doesn’t change my love for you.

This holiday season, as I count my blessings, I’m reminded how blessed I am to have
all
of you. Two years ago, I had no readers, no blogger friends, no author friends, no street team, no designer, no editor, no formatter, and no photographer friends. When I look back and realize all I’ve gained in the past two years, I know I’m beyond blessed to have found my family within you all.

Thank you for bringing even more purpose into my life. Thank you for blessing me with your friendship and your creative genius. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for picking your teams. Thank you for your reviews—good or bad; we don’t grow as authors without them. Our words touch you, but
your
words inspire us. Good reviews make us feel we’re doing something right and bad reviews make us strive to be better.

I hope you all have the happiest of holidays and are surrounded by people you love, doing whatever makes your heart happy.

Thank you all for taking this journey with me. I look forward to spending many more years as your friend.

Xoxo,

Dee

Keep reading for a sneak peek of Chasing Cassidy, by D. Kelly, and Waiting for Us, by Dawn Stanton.

*Trigger Warning*

Chasing Cassidy contains mild to moderate themes of child abuse. If this is a trigger for you please consider that before continuing to read.

Mommy and Daddy are fighting again. I’m being a big girl like my Mommy told me and trying not to cry but it makes me so sad when they fight. I wish my grandma would have never died. She loved us so much and ever since we moved into her house last month, all my daddy does is yell and drink stuff that makes his breath yucky.

“John, please stop yelling! Maybe if you’d sober up every once in a while you’d get your mood under control and stop taking everything out on me!”

“Woman, don’t back talk me! I’m the head of this family and now that I have Cassidy’s trust fund at my disposal, I can drink whenever the hell I want to since I don’t have to work anymore.”

Mommy blinks her eyes fast and her lips crunch together like they do when I accidentally spill on something I shouldn’t.

“That money is for her, John. It’s supposed to guarantee her future,” she whispers softly.

“Yeah? Well, where’s
my
money? Where’s
my
future? If mama didn’t want me to have access to the money, she would have made it a condition of her will.” Spit flies out of Daddy’s mouth; that usually happens when he’s really mad.

“If you wouldn’t have married me you’d still have your money. I was never good enough for her precious baby. Thank God she loved Cassidy anyway.”

“Nobody would have been good enough. She thought she was the only one good enough for me,” he tells her sadly and she gasps.

“John, what are you saying? Did she…” Mommy covers her mouth quickly and sobs.

“I’m not saying anything! Let it go, Deidre, and don’t bring it up again!” I don’t like it when Daddy yells so loud, and I’m glad we’re almost home so I can go play until the yelling stops.

“We should move, John. Let’s move back home. That’s why you’re drinking so much. This house, those memories…We’ll take the house off the market and go back.”

“Can we? I want to go back home. Please, Daddy?” I miss my room and my best friend, Missy, so much.

“See what you started? No, we are not moving back home!” I really want to go back home, so much I start crying as we are pulling into our new driveway.

“Cassidy, I’m warning you, stop crying before I give you something to cry about!”

“You wouldn’t,” Mommy snaps at him just as I ask what that means. I’m still crying but don’t understand what he was saying.

“Damn it to hell, I’ll show you!” he roars while getting out and yanking me out of the backseat and into the back of the SUV. He unbuckles his belt and I sit still. I’m not sure what he’s doing but it scares me. When he gets his belt off, he folds it in half and makes a loud whacking sound with it. It sounds scary, and when I look at my mommy, she’s not moving.

I try scooting away from him but he pulls me by the ankles, muttering, “Disrespectful, disobedient, kids. She couldn’t have just been a boy. She had to be a whining, simpering girl, just like her mother.”

His hand pulls back like he’s going to throw a baseball and the belt slashes across my legs. I’ve never felt anything hurt so much.

“Daddy, no! That hurts! Please, Daddy, don’t do it again.” I’m crying, screaming, and twisting around which is making him angrier, but I can’t stop. He turns me over and does it again and again on my backside. All across my butt and my legs, the belt comes down again and again. When I peek over my shoulder, Mommy is still just standing there, watching. She’s not crying and not trying to stop him. Why won’t she make him stop? I don’t understand. Don’t they love me anymore?

“I’m sorry, Daddy. I’m sorry, I won’t do it again. Please stop. I love you. Please stop!” Now I’ve got the hiccups and as he pulls me closer to him, my face burns from being dragged across the carpet in the back of the car.

“There’s no such thing as love, Cassidy,” he says with a whack harder than any of the others and I scream as loud as I can, hoping someone will hear me.

“The sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be. I’ll make you understand if it’s the last thing I do.”

After those last words fall from his mouth, he walks away and my mommy carefully helps me out of the car. I hate this house, and I hate my daddy. It hurts so bad and standing makes it even worse.

“Shh, stop crying, Cassidy, it’s not that bad. Let’s get you inside and cleaned up before he starts drinking. I’ll bring you dinner in bed tonight.” She won’t look at me anymore; I guess she doesn’t love me now, either. Maybe Daddy is right, maybe there is no such thing as love. If she loved me she would have stopped him, right?

Once again, I wake up sobbing and drenched in sweat. I can’t even dream like a normal person. The fact that these memories come to me in my dreams so crisp and clear astounds me. Before that day, I don’t remember anything good—no fun times, no family vacations, nothing exciting. I remember we were normal and happy until we moved and then it all fell apart.