When we enter the living room, there’s barely an inch of space not occupied. The entire club is here, along with some of their girlfriends and children, all of them wearing identical Santa hats.
“Ah! Here he is!” Jett hollers from across the room, raising a beer above his head.
“Killian Hunt! Fashionably late as always,” Alex says.
“Better than coming too early, I’m sure that redhead you picked up the other night will know all about that.” Killian shoots back, clearly proud of himself, and judging by the look on Alex’s face, it has the effect Killian wanted.
The room fills with whistles and laughter.
“Thank you for that wonderful mental image, Kill.Really. I don’t need to be thinking of my brother like…that,” Shelley cringes, her face falling into the palm of her hands.
“From a guys who talks a big game, Kaia seems to be walking pretty well this morning. Have you been slacking in the bedroom, brother? Or are we muchsmallerthan we let on?” Cruiser chimes in, his eyes zoning in on Killian’s crotch.
My cheeks flame.
Killian’s eyes narrow. “You’ve seen my dick, asshole. Nowyourson the other hand… Anyone got a magnifying glass handy?”
The room erupts in laughter.
“Kaia! I thought it was you!” Fi slams into me, almost knocking me over as she embraces me in a hug. “Merry Christmas, babe!”
I smile. “Merry Christmas.”
She releases me. She’s dyed her hair bright red and it’s pinned up into a high bun at the top of her head. I’m guessing the reason she’s not wearing a Santa hat like the rest of us is because it already looks like she’s wearing one, what with dusting of flour in her hair and across her face.
I swipe at the spot of flour on her cheek with my thumb. “There’s flour in your hair. What are you doing, using it as dry shampoo?”
She cackles. “I’m helping cook dinner.”
“You’recooking?”Oh, Jesus.
“Ugh,yes.”
“I hope Ray and Rita have a fire extinguisher nearby, they’re gonna need it.”
She slaps me on the arm. “Rude.Veryrude. For that remark, you can help. Come on!”
I toss a glance over my shoulder for Killian to rescue me, but all he does is laugh.
The bastard.
Rita, Allie, and her mother, Amelia are in the kitchen when we enter, each with their own jobs. Fi heads off to continue covering herself in more flour than she’s actually using to make whatever it is she’s making.
“Is there anything I can help with?” I ask Rita as she slices up some carrots.
“You can chop up these potatoes if you’d like?”
“Yeah, absolutely.”
She slide over a bowl of potatoes ready for peeling. “Thank you, honey.”
“Do you do most of the cooking?” I ask, picking up a knife and reaching for a potato from the bowl in front of me.
“I love cooking, but Ray works up a storm in the kitchen every Thanksgiving, if he sets one foot in my kitchen on Christmas Day, he gets my shoe up his behind. Christmas is my time to shine.”
I laugh. “How did you meet Ray?”
She laughs softly, as if recalling a memory. “It’s quite the funny story, actually. The rain was biblical one day, never experienced anything like it so I took refuge in a cafe. My glasses fogged up the second I stepped inside. I couldn’t see a thing. Anyway, I shook off the water from my umbrella, not realising there was a man sitting on the table just inside the door. I soaked him! When my glasses cleared, I remember thinking I’d never seen a more handsome man in my life. I bought him a coffee to apologise and he asked me to join him. We talked for hours and the time just slipped away from us. I knew as soon as I met him he was the man for me. I fell in love with him instantly. Two months later, he asked me to marry him.”
