Marnie has tears in her eyes as she repeats my actions, her finger lightly stroking across Becca’s cheek. “I may not like how she came into our lives, but I’ll fight a bear to keep her with us,” she murmurs as we make our way into the main living area.
Right now, our suite looks like it’s vomited Christmas. Becca helped Marnie make paper snowflakes, which Colt came in and hung up along the ceiling. Our tree is in the corner, the multicolored lights twinkling and giving the room a soft, luminescent glow. Our artificial fireplace has stockings hung for all three of us, and I smirk when I see a sticky note on the outsideof Marnie’s. Grabbing it, I read, “Don’t forget to put stuff in mine as well so that Becca sees the magic of the season, Love, Marnie.”
“Babe, did you honestly think I’d forget you?” I ask as I head to our fridge to grab drinks for the two of us.
“Well, no, I didn’t, but were you aware that a lot of men fail to fill up their significant other’s stocking? It’s apparently a thing or something, and I won’t lie, that hurts my heart for those women because you’ve given me everything I ever even thought about wanting, Ash.”
“And I always plan to do that,” I promise. “Now, how about we get a warm shower, then you can show me your purchases so I can be in the know for Christmas morning.”
“You did good,” I praise as I help her hide the presents in our massive walk-in closet.
“I tried to pay attention to what she seemed to enjoy when we were at Esther’s for Thanksgiving is all,” she replies, not giving herself the credit she’s due. “The matching outfits was Holly’s brainchild, but I think they’ll look cute on Christmas morning when we go downstairs for breakfast after we’re done up here.”
All three girls have matching onesies, as does PJ, even though he’s too young to realize there’s anything special going on. Once we’re done unwrapping gifts in our suite, everyone will meet downstairs for breakfast, then we’ll open gifts as a club. Esther and Paul will be joining us as will Samuel, and from what the women have planned, it’ll be a day full of food, movies, and fun. I just know that I’m going to have a huge-ass Barbie house toput together on Christmas Eve but picturing the joy on Becca’s face when she sees it has me excited. Maybe I need to think about putting it together beforehand with a little help from the prospects and hiding it in another room, though, because I have a few Christmas Eve plans of my own.
“Well, you did very good, sweetheart,” I reply. “Tomorrow, Prophet’s covering the bar because I’ve got some shopping of my own to take care of. What are you planning on doing?”
“I’ve got a little more to do myself, then Holly and I are taking the kids to shop for the Angel Tree kids. It’s been a hectic holiday weekend, so we won’t be long because she’s going to need a good night’s sleep before heading back to school on Monday.”
“Then we should probably get some sleep,” I murmur, exhaustion suddenly hitting me like a two by four to the head. I guess all that fresh air, walking, and fun has taken its toll on me.
“Sounds like a plan to me. Night, Ash, I love you,” she replies, her voice already drowsy as she snuggles into my side.
“I love you more, Marnie,” I tell her, pulling her close as sleep pulls me under.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Marnie
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” I snarl as I look down at the letter.
Ash’s sister sent him a letter from jail asking if we could put some money on her books and maybe visit so she could explain. As far as I’m concerned, she can rot in hell with my ex and his brothers. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but after what Alice did to Becca, she doesn’t deserve any forgiveness or grace.
We’re only about a week away from Christmas, and today, I’m taking Becca shopping so she can pick out some things for Ash as well as Mina and Ruby. While she and Mina are ‘best friends forever’ according to Mina, Ruby is definitely in the thick of things. Ash has already taken Becca shopping for me, and he said she asked if she could get something for Mrs. Talbot, in addition to her teacher. I told him I’d help her with those, and we’re also getting the stocking stuffers for the brothers for Christmas morning. I know from Ash that their businessesgive all the brothers healthy bonuses, but Holly, Esther, and I decided they all needed presents as well.
New Henleys, leather gloves, heavy winter socks, beanies, beard care kits, and small tool sets are waiting to be wrapped at Esther’s house, which is what I’ll do during the day tomorrow while Becca’s at school. Tomorrow night is the school’s Christmas play, and even though the kindergartners are trees, we’re going as a club to support the school and our kids. I suspect there’s going to be a whole forest of giggling little ones, and Data’s already promised to take video for us. I’m not always keen about technology, but right now, I’m glad for it because this will be a sweet memory for Becca to have of the year she became ours.
The club has delivered all the Angel Tree gifts, including the bikes and safety equipment the brothers bought, so at this point, it’s merely little stuff that’s left. Well, outside of the food boxes that we’re putting together for the families of the kids we bought gifts for of course. Esther is spearheading that one since PJ came down with RSV and Holly ended up taking him to the hospital. She’s also watching over Becca’s unexpected gift that literally fell in Ash’s lap, which means that she’s sleeping at their house with the girls, so they don’t accidentally give away the surprise.
Grinning, I think about that day when he called me.
“Hey, what’s going on, is everything okay?” I ask. He was out ‘finishing up his shopping for his girls’ so I didn’t expect to hear from him until he got back home.
“Uh, yeah. So, it’s okay if you say no, Marnie, but I kind of think this was destined,” he says.
“What was destined?”
“Well, I was following behind a truck, not too close so don’t worry your pretty little head about that, when I saw something fly off into a ditch. I pulled over and went to investigate and found a tiny orange and white kitten. He’s got his eyes open, but he’s young. Do you… I think we should get it checked out and give it to Becca for Christmas. I’ll grab one of those automatic litter box things to make it easier, but we can get all the rest together or something.”
I think about the stuffie she carries everywhere and realize that maybe she needs this. “Yeah, let’s do that and I’ll check with Esther to see if we can keep it there until Christmas. Do you want me to order the stuff to send there? We can have some of it delivered here, of course.”
“Okay, I already named it too,” he admits, chuckling.
“Of course, you did. So, what is this orange mush’s name?” I ask.
“Chance, because he’s getting a second one of those. What do you think?” he questions.
