Page 21 of The Mistletoe Mix-up

“Declan, would you be open to being brother husbands?” Sam held his hand out to the other man, waggling his brows. “I’ll marry Holly so I can have Chris and Victoria for parents, and you can have all the benefits.”

“Sam, you do not need to marry into this family to be one of my children.” Victoria finished wrapping the plate she was working on and pointed toward the living room. “Look at Pike and Anthony! They just showed up one day, and suddenly, I had two more boys to love.”

“I love you, too, Victoria!” Pike called out from his perch on the couch.

Chris shook his head, grumbling, “She keeps bringing home strays, and I keep feeding them. Something wrong here.”

Victoria ignored him. “I’ll get these fixed up and covered and you can drop them off.”

“How come you volunteered?” Clark asked Sam, popping an olive from the hors d’oeuvre tray into his mouth. “Does it have anything to do with Wren Little?”

Sam narrowed his eyes at his loudmouthed little brother. “No.”

“Who is that?” Jace asked.

“She was your uncle’s first girlfriend.”

A dozen eyes swung his way, and a few voices whispered, “Girlfriend?”

Sam huffed. “It was high school. No need to make a case about it.”

“How long did you two date?” Holly asked.

“A little over a year,” Sam said.

“I liked her,” Clark said, leaning against the counter. “She bought me this great Spider-Man comic for my birthday.”

“Yeah, you used to follow us around when she came over,” Sam grumbled.

“I guess you got your revenge when Merry and I started dating,” Clark said, wagging his finger at his brother. “Always hovering and making little comments.”

“Hey,” Sam said, holding his hands up. “I was just sticking around to make sure you didn’t screw it up.”

“Gee, thanks.” Clark made a face at his brother while a laughing Merry snuggled into his side, her pregnant belly between them.

“He did kind of help,” Merry teased.

“Don’t encourage him, please,” Clark said.

“I can’t see it,” Holly said, studying Sam like he was a research specimen. “Wren is straight as an arrow. She hollered at Delilah for crossing the street outside of a crosswalk.”

Sam smirked. “Yeah, she wasn’t like that in high school. She liked to break the rules.”

Shit! He could tell by Holly’s wide-eyed gaze she wanted to ask more, but luckily, he was saved by Victoria.

“Here you are,” Victoria said, handing off the stack of plates to him with a smile.

“Thanks, Victoria. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Do you need some help?” Pike asked, and Sam felt bad because he was the only other single guy in the room, but he didn’t need a wingman for this.

“I’m good, bro. Thanks.”

“You won’t escape that easily next time, Griffin!” Holly hollered after him.

“I’m not escaping, Hol. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Hmmm, good, ’cause I have questions.”