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“Welcome home.” I grinned.

“Shit. It’s good to be back.” He looked around. “I guess you kept the secret from Mom and Kaitlyn?”

Frank chuckled. “They still think you’re getting in for dinner. They’ll be excited.” He cast a look at me.

I didn’t do family drama. I didn’t do family.

Once my grandfather died, I thought I was the last living Thomas. There was something freeing about it. Something that let me focus on being a marine. I didn’t have to worry about leaving anyone back home. I could do my job like no one else could. It was what made me so fucking good in Kabatur.

And then I found out my ex was pregnant. Grayson changed everything. He gave me a reason to want to have family again. To want a life richer and fuller than what I had on my own. My son gave me a sense of purpose that was greater than serving my country. I had a child to raise.

Only a few months ago, an uncle I never knew I had, showed up on my doorstep and my family grew a little bit more. I had to learn to play nice—not exactly in my DNA. Now Kaitlyn was pregnant and we were getting married.

I hadn’t just been showered with family, it was a damn avalanche covering my life from every corner and I had nothing to go on. No experience. No practice at this shit. I was trying to get my bearings. I was doing the best I could for Christmas. But Frank had pissed me off.

I lifted Grayson up with one arm and picked up one of Ryan’s bags.

I reminded myself I was doing this for Kaitlyn.

13

Kaitlyn

I was exhausted. I could blame it on the holiday stress or the late night with Cole. I overslept and still had to make it to yoga with my mother.

I jumped in the shower and quickly dressed in a pair of yoga pants, sports bra, and tank top. I’d add plenty of layers to appease my mother. It didn’t hurt that the extra padding hid my new voluptuous curves. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and ran out the door.

“I was just about to come get you. You ready?” My mother’s long hair was styled like mine and she was wearing a sweatshirt that hung off her shoulder.

“Ready.” I smiled. I’d have to grab a cup of coffee after class.

“I guess the guys are out,” she added.

“I had a note from Cole.”

On the way to the studio my mother turned up the Christmas music and hummed along. Normally, her attempt to keep up with the lyrics would annoy me, but right now it only made me giggle.

“You’re in a good mood, aren’t you?” She turned onto a side road.

“I am. I’m glad Cole’s here.”

“He and Dad are going to work on Dad’s old motorcycle today.”

“The one that’s been in the shed forever?” I couldn’t imagine how my dad roped him into that project, or better yet why he wanted to get it running after all these years. As far as I knew that thing had never made it out of our driveway.

“That’s the one. The only thing I’m counting on is that he’s smart enough not to try it in the snow even they do get it running. I have a feeling Cole knows how to fix it.”

“Probably.” I smirked. “He does have an engineering degree and he’s naturally gifted at fixing things.” I thought about all the things he had taught himself to do. “Well, most things.”

“When he’s not fixing things and working at the motel, what do you do together?” My mother turned down the radio.

I thought about our routine at the beach cottage. I was learning as much as I could about condo management and sales, while Cole was working with construction engineers on strategies to maintain as much of the Dunes’s original structure as possible. By the time we got home each night we were exhausted.

“We like to cook together.” I chewed on my lip. “And we do this thing on the deck almost every night where we have a drink and watch the sunset. It’s become a daily ritual.”

“Ok.” She nodded her head, but I couldn’t tell what level of approval that meant.

“And sometimes we go over to Peabody’s and have dinner and drinks. Most of our friends hang out there.”