“You think I have a big ass?” Jack’s growl only made me laugh harder.
“Muscular.” I tried explaining my way out of it. “Makes me want to take a bite out of it.”
“That’s slightly better,” he said, still not appeased. The head noogies turned into tickling when he dug his fingers into my upper thigh. “I love how ticklish you are. It seems like suitable torture for am imp like yourself.”
“Let me show the real song that makes me think of you and how you make me feel. I even have a secret ringtone for you too.” Jack leaned back and narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.
He turned loose of me and hit a button on his steering wheel. “Call Liam,” he said when his hands-free menu came on. Jack smiled when he heard Ed Sheeran crooning “Kiss Me” through my phone.
“It makes me think about our first kiss,” I told him. “It was so full of promise and passion, but I was afraid that it would be the only kiss I got from you. I figured it was just curiosity or a slip of control, but would never be more. I was afraid to hope.”
“You have me now, Ace.” He gestured to the ring on his finger. “We just need to decide when we want to make it legal.”
“Let’s get through the holidays first and then we’ll start making wedding plans. Sound good?”
“I guess,” he grumbled as he started the Jeep.
“Are you ready for all the chaos?” I asked Jack as my finger hovered over the send button on my phone. Jack’s finger was doing the same. I baked a variety of sugar cookies and then decorated them to say various words about love and marriage. I arranged them around the larger center cookie that said “Liam Said Yes” in big, bold letters.
“Let’s do it on the count of three,” he said. “One, two, three…”
We pushed the send button at the same time and braced ourselves for hours of phone calls and texts. We had made a list of all of our friends and families to send it to; it didn’t even take a minute for both of our phones to go off. We talked, laughed, texted, and celebrated with our friends and families for hours. It was fun, exciting, and so damn exhausting.
Gram actually asked to speak to Jack when she called my phone. Jack took the phone from me and hit the speakerphone button so I could also hear whatever ornery thing she had to say. Gram asked Jack if he had knocked me up and that was the reason for the speedy engagement. Jack laughed harder than I ever heard before he told her, “Not yet, but not from lack of trying.”
“Atta boy.”
When it was all over we curled up together on the couch in front of the tree with Charlie and Big Jack’s photos and journals. I hated for Jack that his granddad wasn’t physically present to share our joy, but he was here in spirit. So many of Big Jack’s good traits flowed through Jack’s blood and I was blessed to have this man by my side for whatever life threw at us.
We decided to read the rest of Big Jack’s journals to honor all of his life, to celebrate the happy times and not just the sad ones. I couldn’t wait to read what Big Jack thought the first time he held his grandson in his arms, but we had awhile before we got that far yet. Jack cracked open a journal and began to read about Big Jack’s return home after the war was over. It was obvious that he tried to put his sorrow behind him and focus on the things he thought he could have instead of the things he thought would never be. As sad as I was that Big Jack didn’t get his Jeremiah, it was hard to be too upset when I had Jack beside me. Like Joseph said when we met, he and Jack wouldn’t be here if things had worked out differently. So as sad as I was that Jeremiah and Big Jack didn’t have their dreams fulfilled during their lifetime, I focused on what Jack believed, which was that eternity was reserved for them. I found a lot of comfort in those thoughts as I laid my head on Jack’s shoulder and let his voice, and his beloved grandfather’s words, wash over me.
IF THANKSGIVING WAShectic than Christmas was an outright zoo. It felt like we had someplace to be every single weekend while we rung in the holidays. I would’ve hated all of this before I met Liam, but he changed the way I saw the world, and the people in it.
My favorite weekend was the one when Hunter and Sully came to D.C. for a visit. Liam was fidgety and nervous like I had never seen him. He wanted everything to be perfect and was afraid they wouldn’t like him, because he was so different from us.
“Ace, you’ve fluffed that same pillow ten times,” I told him. I went to him and pulled him into my arms. “Relax, Liam. They’re going to love you, just like everyone does.”
“I’m not some alpha hot stud like you guys,” he had told me. I took my thumb and smoothed the frown lines that marred his brow. “I don’t like sports all that much. I prefer wine instead of beer. I wear skinny jeans and hair product.” He started ticking off reasons that they might not like him so I covered his mouth with my finger to stop the flow of words.
“You’re incredibly sexy just the way you are. You love music and so do they. The guys like wine sometimes. I fucking love your skinny jeans and your fashionable hair,” I ticked off counterpoints. “More importantly, they’re going to love how much you love me. Isn’t that what you want for your friends?” At his nod, I said, “Then please stop worrying and relax.” I felt the tension ease right out of him as I began to massage his shoulders.
I was absolutely correct about Sully and Hunter. They were taken with Liam right away. It helped that Sully broke the ice right away and referred to Liam as the Dragon’s princess. Liam took to the nickname instead of being insulted and started making bawdy jokes about what it took to tame the dragon. Where Sully and Liam bonded over jokes, Hunter spent time with him in the kitchen helping to prepare food. Hunter thought it was awesome that Liam would be starting culinary school in the spring. I had forgotten how much Hunter liked messing around in the kitchen. I suddenly had a vision of owning a restaurant with Liam and Hunter running the kitchen. The idea had merit and I made a mental note to bring it up to Liam at a later date.
It meant so much to me that my two closest friends were so open and accepting of my life with Liam. As much as I loved Hunter and Sully, I was glad that I didn’t have to choose. There wouldn’t really be much of a choice, because Liam was my present and future. He was and would always be my lover and best friend, the other daddy to any children we might have down the road – for the rest of my life he would always be mine; I would always choose Liam.
Liam had gone Christmas shopping with Chase on the final day of Hunter and Sully’s visit. They actually seemed disappointed that he wouldn’t be hanging around with them before he left, but Liam felt like we needed some alone time, just the three of us.
We watched some football and ate pizza, but it didn’t take long for Hunter and Sully to let me know how they felt about Liam and his presence in my life. I knew without them saying anything, but it was nice to hear the words anyway.
“I’ve never seen you this relaxed or happy, Dragon,” Sully told me.
“It’s a wonderful thing to see,” Hunter added. “You deserve this happiness.”
“Everyone deserves this kind of happiness, fellas,” I corrected. “I hope you both find it someday. If you do, surrender your heart. You won’t regret it.”
My favorite holiday party was definitely the one Chase and Gray threw for their ever-expanding extended family. Everyone was there wearing the ugliest fucking sweaters they could find in hopes of winning a trophy that would get passed around each year. This was the first year and everyone wanted to be the first winner, including me. Liam actually found a knitted reindeer sweater in my size that he embellished by wrapping mini lights around the antlers. There was a tiny battery pack in the waistband of the sweater that annoyed me, but I wanted to win the damn trophy and put it on my mantle until the next year.
I should’ve know I wouldn’t stand a chance going up against Gram. She wore this sweater that was so gaudy and obnoxious that it hurt your eyes, yet you couldn’t look away. The theme of the sweater was The Twelve Days of Christmas and it had every single character mentioned in the story scattered all over the sweater in glittery galore. It made you want to count to see if there were really seven maids ‘o milking on her sweater. I bowed to the queen.
