“Do you think Santa will come tonight?” Luke asks Elly. “It’s snowing so hard, I don’t think he’ll be able to.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Elly says with a smile. “I think Santa can do anything he puts his mind to.”
* * *
As the evening winds down, parents start taking the kids upstairs to put them in bed. I hand Henry back to Molly, who’s about to give him a bottle, and walk over to the poker table.
Shane looks like he’s having fun, and if the stack of coins in front of him is any indication, he’s having a good night. I step up behind him, wrap my arms around his shoulders, and lean in to whisper, “I’m taking the kids up to bed now.”
He glances back at me. “I’ll join you just as soon as this round ends.”
“You can stay if you want.” I press a kiss to the side of his neck. “I don’t want to interfere with your winning streak.”
“He’s cheating,” Jake says. “He has to be. No one has that kind of luck. I just haven’t discovered how yet.”
“It’s not luck,” Shane says. “It’s skill.”
Jake wads up a napkin and lobs it at Shane’s head.
“I’ll be right up, sweetheart,” he tells me.
Ava is half asleep in Mom’s arms, so scooping her up is no problem. Luke, on the other hand, puts up a bit of a fuss because he doesn’t want to leave Aiden’s side.
“Luke,” Shane says from across the room, using his stern no-nonsense parenting voice. “It’s bedtime. Go upstairs with your mother. I’ll be up soon.”
I take both kids up to our room and get them ready for bed. They’re both too tired for baths tonight, so those will have to wait until tomorrow. After I nurse Ava and read them both bedtimes stories, I hear Shane enter our bedroom.
He pops his head through the connecting nursery door. “Sorry. That took longer than I expected. And then I washed up in our bathroom.”
“It’s okay. We’re all good here.”
Shane comes into the kids’ room just in time for nighttime kisses and to tuck Luke into his toddler bed. “I’ll take over here, so you can get ready for bed.”
On my way out of the kids’ room, I hear Luke ask, “Daddy?”
“Yes, Luke?”
“Am I still in trouble?”
“No.”
“Are you mad at me?”
There’s a pause, a hesitation on Shane’s part. And then he says, “I’m not mad at you, no. But you made Mama cry today. Are you happy about that?”
“No.”
“Then don’t do it again, okay? We have a new house rule. You can’t go outside unless an adult goes with you, got it? This is a big property, and there are places where kids could get hurt if they don’t have a grown-up with them.”
“Okay. I won’t do it again. Will you read me a story?”
“Didn’t Mama already read you a story?”
“Yeah, but I want you to read to me, too.”
“All right. Which book do you want?”
While Shane reads Luke a story, I return to our room and get myself ready for bed. By the time I’m leaving the bathroom, Ifind Shane in our bed, leaning against the headboard. His chest is bare, and I imagine the rest of him is, too.
