“Are you surprised I could even bring myself to have a fire?” he half joked.
I cringed, thinking about Brody, but then Matt laughed and kissed me.
“I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want you to orgasm spontaneously,” he purred. “But I chopped all that wood myself.”
“I might have to see that in action, Mr. Frost!”
84
Matt
“Are you sure anyone’s going to come to a holiday party on such short notice?” I asked Merrie as she flitted around the kitchen. Christmas carols were blaring. She had all four ovens stuffed full of food and was prepping a large tray of mini pizzas shaped like Christmas wreaths.
Kringle and Prancer were at the window that overlooked the backyard. I was periodically feeding them snacks through the windows. The smell, the idyllic backdrop, the loving girlfriend—it was exactly how I had wanted to spend Christmas.
“Don’t you think you have too much food?” I asked Merrie. She had gotten up early, sucked down a gallon of coffee, and started cooking while giving me various tasks in the kitchen to help her with.
“Oh no,” she said to me, face serious. “These are just the appetizers. I had to hire a caterer.”
“A caterer? We’re going to be eating this food for the next month. Good thing this place has two freezers,” I said, stealing one of the pizzas and putting it in the toaster oven for myself.
“Half the town is going to show up to the party,” she insisted.
“Surely not.” I frowned. “It’s Christmas Eve.”
“Are you kidding me? A big renovation reveal? All the Christmas décor? Not to mention your dramatic arrival in a sleigh with a literal reindeer. This holiday party is all anyone in Harrogate will be talking about for the next month.”
Kringle started barking and ran to the front turnaround.
I made my way through the house, still not truly believing that I now shared it with Merrie, and met Kringle out in front, where he was greeting my siblings and my brothers’ girlfriends.
“Merry Christmas!” Jack’s girlfriend Chloe exclaimed, hugging me.
“We brought food.” Jack opened the trunk of his car. “Chloe’s been on a pie kick lately.” Jack started handing me white boxes.
“We’re going to have so many leftovers.”
“I call dibs on any leftover lasagna,” Oliver declared as he picked up a large metal foil-wrapped pan out of Jonathan’s car.
Morticia was wearing a large black hat with black gloves.
“I need your fryer,” she said. “I have squid to fry.”
“Did you make the sauce?” Owen’s girlfriend Holly begged. She was struggling to haul a large cooler out of the truck. Owen stepped in and hefted the cooler.
Morticia gave a small smile. “Of course. I also have lighter fluid because it’s not Christmas without a bonfire.”
“No significant other to share Christmas with?” I joked to my sister.
She gave me a cold glare.
“Man, you must not want to make it to New Year’s,” Jack said with a laugh.
“Er, never mind,” I said hastily, practically running into the house.
“I just think that you should fry up a batch right now,” Jonathan said to Morticia as she unpacked the bags of squid from the cooler to put in the fridge.
“You’re just going to eat them all,” she told him.
