“You mean the children?” King’s smile was wicked. “Oh, the humanity.”
Leo gasped, and King laughed on his way back to the kitchen to return the fishy cookies to whence they came. And that’s why he was going to marry that man. He had no idea when or how, but he’d figure it out.
The rest of the guys arrived, and Leo smiled when Fitz hurried over to hug him. Fitz gave the best hugs. After King, anyway. Once he’d hugged Fitz, he gave Duchess lots of pets and ear scratches. When she decided she’d had an appropriate amount of pets, she trotted off to greet everyone else.
“Where are they?” Jack asked, sitting on the couch and pulling his laptop out of his backpack.
“Joker and Gio are in the garage with Ace, Colton, and the dogs,” Leo replied, leaning over the back of the couch. “I don’t think Ace’s logic is sound.”
Lucky snorted as he walked to the kitchen. “This is Ace we’re talking about. Logic happens very rarely.”
“Who else would cancel the team of professional decorators and decide to decorate hismansionhimself?” Fitz asked, as he settled on the couch next to Jack. He drew up his legs, and Duchess bounded over. She hopped up and snuggled against Fitz.
The sliding door opened, and Gio stepped inside with Cookie. He closed the door behind them and greeted everyone before taking a seat on the couch opposite Jack and Fitz.
King sat next to Gio and gave him a knowing look. “How’s the decorating going?”
Gio huffed out a laugh. “I’m not sure how Ace and Sacha manage to turn something like untangling Christmas lights into a competitive sport, but there you go.”
“Sounds about right,” Jack muttered.
Red and Laz sang along to Christmas songs in the kitchen while Lucky told Mason about the evils of tinsel. A short time later, Ace, Colton, and Joker came inside.
Chip saw Leo and lost his furry mind. He ran straight for Leo, and Leo scratched him all over before starting their game of tag. Joker joined in, and then Cookie and Duchess. Good thing there was plenty of room! Leo had just tagged Chip when Ace called out across the room.
“Everyone shut your pie holes!”
Well, that was certainly one way to get everyone’s attention. Leo snickered and walked back to the couch, standing to one side, and leaning against it.
Colton sighed. “Not what I had in mind, love, but thank you. I wanted to let you all know how thankful I am to have you in my life. You’ve been more of a family to me than my own blood, but you already knew that. I love you all so much.”
Aw, that gave Leo warm and fuzzy feelings all over.
“We love you too, Colt,” Fitz called out.
Leo nodded his agreement.
“Okay, so I’ve been thinking about having a white Christmas for the longest time.”
Wouldn’t that be something? Leo had never had a white Christmas. Had he? Not that he could remember. Did frost on the lawn count as snow? Probably not.Pay attention. Right. Colton was talking.
“Something Ace said gave me an idea. I thought having a special holiday season might be nice for our new family. With that in mind, I have a surprise for everyone.” Colton tapped at his phone, and everyone’s phone pinged. “Check your emails.”
Leo took his phone out of his pocket and checked his email. He tapped on what looked like a reservation confirmation for a luxury family cabin in…Winterhaven? Where was that?
“What’s Winterhaven?” Lucky asked.
Leo pulled up his browser and did a quick search. Loads of information popped up on the picturesque mountain town. So many photos. That was a lot of nature. Leo wasn’t very outdoorsy. Mostly because he questioned his survival skills. Unlike King, who could probably build a raft out of twigs and dental floss.
“We’re going to have a white Christmas!” Colton said excitedly.
Then again, the cabin looked fancy. And huge! He went back to his search, and all kinds of information came up about the town’s yearly festivities, the biggest and best being their Christmas holiday season. Clicking on one of the websites, he smiled. It was so pretty! So many lights and decorations and all that snow. The market square looked amazing.
King frowned. “This schedule says from tomorrow until the end of December. Colton, we can’t take that much time off.”
While King and Ace discussed whether they could take the time off, Leo did some quick research on Winterhaven. Leo wasn’t great at coming up with gift ideas, and usually, he turned to the guys to help him. But this year was different. He wanted to give King somethingreallyspecial.
In a few weeks, it would be five years since they started dating. Maybe Leo could find what he was looking for in Winterhaven? He clicked on a link about the town’s mayor.
