All except the youngest Mulvaney…Theo.
Theo was an enigma. He could talk, but often chose not to. He didn’t like to make eye contact, didn’t like to engage with others. He preferred electronics to humans and was exceptionally particular about what he ate, drank, and wore. Lucas suspected Thomas liked having all the grandkids around because they pulled Theo from his inner world. Allister often stuck with Theo despite the slight age gap. There was a quiet, unspoken alliance between them.
The two boys were soft, and so August was soft with them. He never spoke harshly to Allister or Theo, let them get away with things the girls didn’t. If it wasn’t for his kid gloves with Theo, Lucas would wonder if he treated Allister differently because he was biologically Lucas’s son. August treated Allister with the same kid gloves he used to handle Lucas when he was feeling particularly fragile.
Lucas saw himself in Allister too. There was something identical in the way they both absorbed the world; every emotion hit twice as hard. And it wasn’t all a side effect of theirabilities. Some people were born with thinner skin between them and the world. Allister and Lucas simply felt more.
“Everybody ready to watch Rudolph in the theater room?” Thomas boomed from off camera.
“Can we have hot chocolate?” Jett asked.
Thomas scoffed playfully. “Well, we can’t watch a Christmas movie without it, can we?”
He was greeted by a chorus of ‘no’s’ and Jett shouting, “I need marshmallows,” like he was a doctor calling for a crash cart. They heard Thomas and Aiden chuckle and the other kids laughter.
“Bye, Dads,” Ara said, then disconnected before they could respond.
“We love you, too,” Lucas murmured as he set the phone down, shaking his head. The silence that followed felt soft and oddly huge without the kids’ noise filling it.
“I don’t know who that man is masquerading as my father, butthatis not the man who raised me,” August said.
“It’s that grandparent privilege,” Lucas said. “He had to act strict as your father, but now he gets to spoil them rotten, get them all hopped up on sugar, then send them home for us to deal with.”
“It is pretty amusing.”
Lucas scoffed. “Amusing? Watching our children crash out like someone gave a cat cocaine? Hardly.”
August snorted, then added, “I’m surprised Aiden tolerates it as well as he does,” August said thoughtfully. “He was never really a ‘family’ type of guy.”
“It’s hard to be a family guy when you’re actively inlove with a member of said family,” Lucas reminded him. “Besides, Aiden would do anything for your dad. Literally. If that means having a hundred kids underfoot 24/7, he will do it. He lives to spoil him.”
Lucas nudged August’s knee with his own, the easy intimacy sliding into place again now that the screen had gone dark. Outside, the storm growled, but inside everything felt warm and familiar even in its newness, it was…theirs.
“It’s bizarre,” August said. “Seeing how vastly different they are since giving in to each other. It’s like they performed an exorcism, not a wedding.”
Lucas shuddered. “Don’t say exorcism. I’m still traumatized from the last one.”
August rose from the floor to the sofa. Hands settled under Lucas’s arms, tugging. He looked back at August over his shoulder, frowning. “What?”
“Come sit in my lap,” he said, patting his leg. “Tell me what you want for Christmas.”
Lucas smirked. “That’s funny. You don’t look like Santa.”
August’s lips twitched. “I feel like I should make a pun about coming down your chimney, but I’ll refrain.”
Lucas chuckled softly, then made his way onto August’s lap, straddling his thighs. The shift pressed them closer, the warmth of August’s body soaking through Lucas’s clothes. August settled his hands on his ass, pulling him in so he could feel how he was hardening behind his zipper. The pressure was insistent, familiar. It made Lucas’s breath catch.
“I hope this isn’t how you sit in Santa’s lap at the mall,” August teased, squeezing the flesh between his fingers.
“Do you think I’m secretly sneaking off to the mall to give Santa a lap dance?” Lucas asked.
“How do I know what you do on your lunch break?” August asked, leaning forward to drop a kiss on Lucas’s Adam’s apple. His lips were warm and soft where they lingered, sending a little shiver down Lucas’s spine.
Lucas tipped his head back, letting August’s mouth explore the column of his neck. “I’m usually doingyouon my lunch break, profess— I mean, Santa.”
He felt August’s laugh more than heard it. It rumbled through his chest. “Last time I did you, if I recall correctly.”
“Are you keeping track now?” Lucas asked. “How is it we’ve been kid-free for a week and the only sex we’ve had is a quickie in the shower after the ‘polar vortex incident’?”
