He had to admit that it was kind of amazing. He was stupidly in love.
He hadn’t felt so much in love since Chris. And he didn’t know how to process all these emotions. He went with it, because that was who he was.
And Ellis seemed to be right there with him. The man treated him like a king, adored his kids, and was being incredibly polite to his parents, even though this was their first Thanksgiving together and it had to be weird. Maybe it wasn’t. Though Ellis was a cowboy, right? Cowboy folks, according to Ellis, anyway, adopted people like crazy and invited them in for their holiday celebrations.
“Daddy, does this look good? The bread, did I tear it good?”
He made a show of going to Allie and looking it over, digging through a little bit. “I think it’s perfect. Good job!”
She beamed at him. “Thank you, Daddy. Can I do something else now? I can do things.”
“I know. How about you help Ellis cut up the Velveeta?”
“Oh, good idea.” Ellis put the block of cheese in front of her with the plastic knife they used for bananas and soft veg.
“Granny! Do you see? I will cut up the cheese!”
“I see, sweetheart. Good job.”
“Love you, Granny. Love you, Daddy. Love you, Bell.”
His mom snorted, but he could see Ellis and how that hit him right in the gut.
“Love you too, kiddo,” Ellis said, ruffling her hair. “Now, let’s make us some chile con queso.”
He couldn’t stop beaming at them.
This was going to be the best Thanksgiving by far since Chris had died, and he sent up a thank-you to his husband wherever he was now for letting him be well-adjusted and not feeling guilty.
He was happy.
Hell, even his mom was coming around, he could tell.
Chapter Seventeen
Ellis hummed, cleaning out a space in the front room for the Christmas tree. They would put it up over the weekend. Ichabod had waited for his folks to leave after Thanksgiving, which had seemed… prudent, if anyone asked him.
That pair brought chaos with them. Decent folks. Wildly nutty.
They weren’t bad people. In fact, he would even go so far as to say they were nice, but damn. They upset Ichabod. They stressed Michael out a bit. The whole thing made the whole family off-center.
Ellis was ready to get back to things the way they had been, and to get to have sex with Ichabod, dammit. He lived for that.
He could hear Ichabod in working, not loud at all. The whir of the wheel was this fascinating hum that ran through the whole house. He was working on Christmas, apparently, and so Ellis had been forbidden from coming into the studio and peeking.
Which sucked because he would’ve totally gone to visit Ichabod, but he had plenty of stuff to do anyway. Theweather had been bitter cold and sort of unseasonably snowy. Sure, it was winter, but as a rule the snow came well after Thanksgiving, and the ski resorts had opened as soon as they could.
So he went about doing what he needed to for the horses, making sure they had water and feed and giving supplemental feed to the cattle. He loved on Rio, who was one hundred percent sure he wanted to stay in the barn. He was feeling fat and sassy. They had managed to buy a small side-by-side for him to feed with an inexpensive trailer, and that was pretty damn cool.
An SUV trundled up the drive and a pair of ladies stepped out, going up to the front door to knock. He knew that Ichabod and Chrissy were in the studio and wouldn’t be able to hear them. So he texted from the barn.
Ellis headed in anyway, because he was curious. Ichabod opened the door to the studio, Chrissy in his arms, both of them covered in clay and grinning, hair sticking up.
Lord have mercy.
