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Cecilia turns her gaze my way and smiles affectionately, placing her hand over mine that rests on the tabletop. “It’s perfect for us,” she says, and she’s right; it is.

“Oh, I’m so happy for you two! I can’t believe we’ll get to be neighbors. I’m so excited!” Morg exclaims gleefully, bringing her hands together.

I laugh at how excited she is to have Cecilia closer and be able to see each other more regularly. “Well, we don’t move in until after the holidays, so you’ll have to wait a little bit longer.”

Grey picks up on the conversation. “You bought a house?”

“We did,” Cecilia answers before I get the chance, still with a beautiful smile on her face.

“Well, shit! Congrats, guys. So, when’s the wedding?”

“No!” she says quickly, making everyone listening cackle. “No talking about weddings or babies! Stop giving this one ideas. I already agreed to move in, let’s keep it at that for now. Thank you.”

Emma sighs beside her. “I can’t wait to have a baby. They’re so cute and tiny. Although, it will ruin my body.” She makes a grimace at the thought.

“OH! we don’t want that,” twin number one, Gabe, says.

“No, we do not,” twin number two, Noah adds, winking at Em.

She bites her lip in response, eye fucking them both.

I have a feeling she’s going to be taking them back to the condo later.

She slaps her hands on the table a bit louder than necessary, gaining almost everyone’s attention.

“Anyway! When you two move into your adorable mansion, I want a room.” She gives us the evil eye, daring us to refuse her wishes.

“Of course, you’ll have a room, babe. And you can drop by whenever you want,” Cecilia tells her friend, reassuring her.

“No, she can’t.” I frown.

Cecilia turns to me slowly, clearly not pleased with my comment. “What do you mean, no, she can’t?”

“She can’t just come in whenever she feels like it,” I say, standing my ground.

“And why not?” Cecilia’s holding it together for the sake of the people around us, but her eyes are flaming with barely controlled anger.

“Because I’d like to be able to fuck my girlfriend wherever I want, whenever I want,” I say loudly, making sure everyone hears me.

Maybe some of my buddies will back me up on this, no guy wants to be constantly cock-blocked by the best friend in his own residence. As expected, Cecilia turns beet red, still angry but with a touch of embarrassment now.

Greyson is the first to comment. “He has a point, Rose. If I were in a relationship and living with my girlfriend, I’d want to be able to bang her whenever I please. Without having to worry all the time that someone could walk in during the act.”

“Yup, I would fucking hate it if my girl’s friend was always popping by while I’m trying to wet my stick,” Gabe says, always with a great choice of words.

“You don’t have a girl,” Noah adds with a mouthful, still digging into his plate while the rest of us are more entertained by the conversation than the food.

“It was an example, dumbass.” Gabriel glares at Noah like he should know better.

“Clay, back me up here, please. They’re being ridiculous and only thinking with their dicks.

You have a wife and live together. Tell me you wouldn’t let Morg’s friends drop by when they feel like it if it made her happy?

” Cecilia reaches out to her new best friend.

Also known as my best bud that she’s been stealing away.

“Sorry, C. I gotta agree with your man on this one. I’m not saying I’m opposed to having her friends over often, but I really do enjoy bending my wife over when the urge comes without a care of who could show up.

” He offers my girl an apologetic smile.

“Hell, I took her on the table just before you all got here. Now imagine how awkward that would have been if one of you guys had decided to show up early.”

“WHERE!?”

We all turn at the sound of utensils dropping over a plate and chair legs being dragged out on the wooden floor. Noah is now standing, hands held in the air on either side of his head as he looks all over the table for... I’m not sure what.

“What’s wrong?” Morgan asks, puzzled by his sudden reaction.

“Where exactly did it happen? I love you, Morgan, but that’s really not sanitary.

” His eyes widen and blood drains from his face.

“Oh God... I wiped a drop of salad dressing off the table earlier. What if it wasn’t dressing at all?

Oh, dear God, what if it was... Burkley…

holy fuck, I need to wash my mouth.” He begins to step away from the table as we all look his way, amused with his outburst.

“Calm the fuck down, Adler! I didn’t fuck her on this table. Jesus, I’m not some horny teenager with no morals,” Clay says, clearly exasperated with him.

I shake my head, chuckling under my breath, but when I turn to look at Minnie, my smile instantly drops .

Her head is downcast, looking at the table as she twiddles with her dress. She looks sad, uncertain of what to do. I don’t want us to fight, not tonight of all nights. I need to fix this.

“Okay, Em, let’s make a deal. You are allowed over whenever you want, BUT you have to text or call fifteen minutes in advance. That at least gives us time to finish our act quickly and dress. Is that good with you?” I look over at Emma, waiting for her response.

“Yeah, that’s fair. Anyway, I’ve heard you two going at it enough times. I really don’t need to see it too,” she informs us all with a wink.

Cecilia lifts her head and places her hand on my thigh. “Thank you,” she says in a tiny voice, the corner of her lips lifting slightly.

I lean in and kiss her forehead, whispering against her warm skin, “I’d do anything for you, Minnie.”

We get back to eating, and conversation flows easily through the rest of dinner. We’re just finishing up dessert when Cecilia speaks up, “So, Ford, are you heading home tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’m catching a red-eye tonight. I was supposed to head up earlier today, but I never miss Christmas dinner here.” He offers her an appreciative smile for engaging with him. Except for the earlier congratulations, they haven’t had any real exchange.

“How about you? Do you plan on going back to visit sometime since your friends are all back there?”

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t have any more ties there, and I wasn’t really close to anyone enough to want to go back and visit them.” She turns my way, a glimmer in her eyes. “I’m happy here.”

My hand goes to her bare thigh, slipping inside the material, fingers traveling higher up, closer to my personal wonderland. Her eyes hood, desire burning through them. A beautiful blush crawls up her neck to her cheeks as her body begins to overheat with need.

“Is this awkward for you guys?”

We both turn to the voice, breaking out of our little bubble. Gabe is leaned in toward Grey, but his eyes are on us. I wait for him to elaborate on his question, the three of us looking at one another, confused.

“You know, since he slept with your girl.” He nods his head at Greyson as he speaks to me. Jesus, this fucking guy.

They say goalies are a different breed, I’m pretty sure this isn’t what they mean, but he definitely is. Always looking to stir up shit in his playful little ways .

“Seriously, dude!?” Grey says while his body tenses with rage.

“It’s fine, Ford,” I say to Greyson as I turn to our famous goalie.

“Honestly, no, it’s not. Whatever happened on Halloween has long since been settled, and we’ve all moved on.

He’s my best friend, and she’s my girlfriend.

End of story. But you constantly bringing it up is what bothers me. So, drop it.”

I love this guy, but when he starts this crap, it irritates me. Certainly when it concerns my girl.

“All right, I’m sorry,” he says, hands raised in surrender. “I didn’t mean anything by it, it was a genuine question. You guys are my buds, I just want to make sure we’re all getting along.”

“Yeah, we’re all good, Ellis.”

“Aw, good! The squad’s all back together,” he says with a wide grin before turning his attention to Emma with a naughty wink. “So beautiful, Emma, what are your plans for the night? Noah and I have one hell of a Christmas gift with your name all over it that we’d really like to give you.”

And just that fast, he jumps onto another subject as if he wasn’t fishing for trouble seconds ago. I throw my head back and bellow with laughter at how direct his words are, everyone else joining in without delay.

A few hours later, we get back to the penthouse and Cecilia informs me she’s ready to give me my Christmas gift. Oh, I like where this is going. She takes my hand and brings me to the couch, sitting me down in the middle.

Thinking we’re about to get it on, I begin unbuttoning my pants and pull down the zipper, but Minnie grabs my hands quickly before I have time to pull them down.

“What are you doing?”

“Um, taking off my pants.” I look down at them. I thought that was pretty obvious.

“Oh, honey. You thought sex was your gift? You’re adorable.” She grabs my face and gives me a fierce kiss. “But no, it’s not. Put your pants back on and don’t move from there, I’ll be right back.”

She rushes off to the entrance door that leads to the hallway for the main elevator seconds before I hear her mumble “Thank you” and “Have fun.” I’m not sure who she’s talking to, and I get the urge to get up and look. But she told me to sit, so I stay.

The whole exchange takes less than thirty seconds, then she’s walking back my way with a medium-sized box in her hands and a neat bow on the top. She sets it down at my feet carefully and sits back on her knees beside it.

When I lean forward to inspect the box, a small whine can be heard from inside. My hands stall over the lid, heart rate picking up. No... it can’t, I must have heard wrong.

Cecilia places her hand on my knee, rubbing in a soothing way. “It’s okay, honey. Open it.”

I give her a stiff nod as my trembling hands reach for the top, lifting it up slowly.

I wasn’t mistaken.

My breath catches in my throat. I try to swallow it down, to gain control of my emotions, but nothing’s helping. All I can do is stare at its crystal blue eyes as mine begin to sting. Minnie takes the lid from my hands, removing it completely, and watches me tentatively.

I rest my elbows on my knees and rub at my jaw with one hand, sniffling a little. “Fuck...” I say quietly, dragging my hand down my mouth.

Don’t cry, man. You got this. But I don’t, I really don’t.

Both my hands come up now over the whole length of my face. “Fuck. Shit. Babe.” I choke on the words, losing the battle against my tears as they start pooling in my hands.

I haven’t cried in years, I never expected to do it in front of my girlfriend so early on, but there was no way I could hold it together in this moment.

My girl, fuck, she’s perfect. Woman of my dreams.

“Oh, baby,” Cecilia whispers as she crawls her way between my legs, moving the box back a bit. I wipe away the tears with the palms of my hands and take deep breaths, trying to regain a semblance of control.

I take my woman into my arms and kiss her like our lives depend on it. “I fucking love you, Minnie.”

“I love you too, Silas.” She pulls away and smiles, passing her fingers through my hair. “I think we should take him out now.”

“Yeah.” I deposit my perfect girlfriend beside me on the couch and bend down to pick up the little guy. A beautiful beige and white Alaskan Klee Kai with piercing blue eyes. He looks so much like Griffin, you’d think it was the same dog.

He has a little blue bandana around his neck with two white stripes and a red one in the middle, our jersey colors. He also has a round dog tag around his neck with a griffin engraved into it. Jesus, she really put a lot of thought into this.

“When you told me about Griffin and why you never got another pup, I could tell it was something you missed. And since I’m around now, I can take care of him when you’re away,” she says, giving the boy little scratches behind the ear as he tries to nibble her arm.

I bring him to my chest and stroke his soft fur. “How did you do it? ”

“Well, after our first supper with your parents, the idea popped into my head. I asked your mom what breed Griffin was, and from there I searched around to see if there were any for sale. I ended up finding someone a few towns over who just had a litter the month before.” Cecilia smiles as she continues to play with the little furball.

“The pups weren’t ready yet, but she let me see them and pick one out.

Since they were technically ready for the beginning of December, I asked her to hold on to him until Christmas.

And this morning, Emma went to pick him up for me and kept him in the condo until just now. ” She looks up at me with a smirk.

“It’s why I was smiling in the car earlier today when you asked.

She was sending me pictures of her and our little baby fooling around, but I couldn’t tell you that.

” She grins wholeheartedly down at the pup, already in love with him.

“But you should know, he’s extra special.

” She gazes at me once more with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Mhm, look at his tag.”

I pick it up and twirl it around. On the back are our phone numbers and his date of birth. A date I’ll never forget. “It’s the day we met,” I say, clearing my throat.

A blinding smile stretches her perfect lips as she nods. “He was born the same day. Our little love baby. What do you want to name him? The guy who made the tag said I could bring it back to get his name engraved once we had it picked out.”

I look down at the amazing gift the love of my life gave me and think of a name, something meaningful. Something that will forever remind us of the day that changed both our lives for the better.

“Milo,” I say, looking back to Cecilia. “Let’s call him Milo, short for Milano.” The restaurant where our story began.

“It’s perfect,” she whispers sweetly.

I lean in and kiss her lips. In the matter of three months, she’s become the most important person in my life, and I hope that never changes. Our family is just starting to flourish, and I can’t wait to watch it grow.

“Perfect like you.”