Finn tugged Jake onto his lap. “What you got there, little man? Anything Daddy likes?”
As they divvied up their treasure, Aoife hurried along with three pizza boxes stacked in her arms. Conor, Aela, and Declan came with three apiece too.
When they set the boxes on the coffee table, I peered at them and heaved a sigh.
If pizza had arrived, then that meant the movie was about to begin.
“You can always go and help with the puzzle if this is so bad,” Finn joked.
Puzzle,piñata,and pizza.
Jesus H. Christ.
I ignored his smirk and accepted the eggnog that Aela passed me with a muttered, “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me. Inessa made it.”
“It’s good,” Finn praised.
“I made it in October!”
“After three tries,” I whispered in her ear, laughing when she whacked my thigh. “Wonder if Aidan’s too bougie to drink it. You know he prefers his million-dollar bottles of hooch.”
“Hey! Leave my man alone. We all need a hobby,” Savannah cried.
Curving his arm around her, Aidan smirked. “What can I say? I’m a man with great taste.”
“Damn straight!”
“What are you doing here again?” Inessa drawled.
Savannah stuck out her tongue.
Normally, Aidan, Savvie, and Third went to the Daniels’ for the 24th. But this year, Dagger was on his farewell tour before retiring.
Allegedly.
He’d already retired four times. But he and Camden were doing a special gig or something. The farewell to end all farewells.
I snagged one of the paper plates Aoife had dropped on the coffee table before taking a seat beside Finn and Jake.
Picking up a couple slices, I watched as Aidan commandeered my TV and set up the movie.
I sometimes wondered how we’d reached this space in our lives where we watched kids movies and ate pizza and had built-in traditions that meant I could never escape my fucking family for more than two minutes over the holidays.
Then I’d stop thinking about it because living it was bad enough.
When that weird fucking skeleton darted around Christmas Town like Jake on too many Skittles, I muttered, “Why is it always this movie?”
“Tradition.”
I tipped my head back. “I hate tradition.”
“You love it.”
“I hate it.’
“You love it. You like being around your family?—”
