Joe chuckled softly and shook hands. “I’m pleased to meet you all. I’m Joe.”
“Cool. I would tell you that it’s not always this crazy here, but that’s a lie. It’s always crazy here.” Zane took the bag and box from Ellis. “I’ll set all this up in the dining room.”
“Thanks, son.” Ichabod shook Joe’s hand again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” Joe glanced around, nodded. “You’ve done some work here, Ellis tells me. While I’m here, I’m happy to help. Just put me to work.”
“Oh, you’re a guest. You don’t?—”
“Nonsense, I’m family. Besides, I brought stuff for Ellis in the trailer. We’ll have to unload.”
Ichabod laughed, because Ellis was watching them, his eyes glinting with laughter, his whole self relaxed and happy.
So maybe he was okay with everything. They were okay.
He hoped.
“Well, I appreciate it. I know Ellis has a few projects he would love a capable pair of hands to help with.”
“I might at that.” Ellis winked at his dad. “And a few we need to do by a certain twenty-fifth date.”
“Ah.”
“Ups, Bob-a-Joe.” Chrissy held up her arms, and Joe picked her up, easily.
“Show me to the sink, Chrissy-girl, so we can wash our hands.”
She nodded, her entire face lighting up. “Bubbles! Bubbles, Bob-a-Jo!”
“Careful, Dad. If you let her, she will use up the entire bottle of hand soap making bubbles,” Ellis warned him.
Ichabod detected no lies.
“Got it. One pump of soap, itty bitty. That’s all the bubbles we get.”
“Okay! I likes that.”
“I bet you do. Who doesn’t like bubbles?”
Zane was unpacking the food, and even with scent of burned bacon, his mouth was watering.
He went over to Ellis before getting a plate, though, and they bumped shoulders together. “Hey, sorry about the bacon. Michael was showing me something on his iPad, and I got distracted.”
“It’s bacon. It’s created to burn the second you turn away from it. I’m glad you didn’t start a fire, which I have done more than once.” Ellis kissed him. “Merry Christmas Eve-Eve.”
“Merry Christmas Eve-Eve to you too.” He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the black leather and pepper scent of his lover. “How’s our big presents from Santa coming?”
There were two puppies, one horse, and one little SUV that needed some work. All were supposed to be delivered on Christmas Eve for the kids.
His present for Ellis was a pair of cruise tickets to the Bahamas in March for ten days. His folks were coming up to watch the kids.
He knew Ellis had no idea, and he loved that. He wanted to surprise the man. He’d had to promise his folks they would go Grand Tour with them somewhere in the Southwest for a week or two in the summer with the kids. But that was okay.
Nobody was going to care, and they could get somebody to watch the ranch by then if Ellis hadn’t hired a bunch of employees in the spring, which he had talked about.
He was excited that Ellis thought they were doing wellenough to hire some hands now, instead of just the occasional day labor or when they needed it.
“Good, good, everything is in place and ready except for a few minor tweaks on the big metal one.”
