Page 9 of Ever After Between the Lines (Montgomery Ink Legacy)

ALEX

The Christmas tree sparkled brightly in the corner, and Sebastian and Aria were near it, playing with their toys. I rubbed my temples, trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing next, but I couldn’t focus.

My twins were sitting underneath the Christmas tree, only a couple of days before New Year’s Eve, and I was happy .

If I’d thought of this moment when I’d been younger, I couldn’t have ever imagined this form of happiness. I had spent my most recent years, before getting married, thinking I didn’t deserve joy. That I was never going to have it again.

And now it seemed as though maybe I had it. I still wasn’t sure I deserved it, but I was never going to let it go.

“Daddy!” Aria said, waving her block in the air. I smiled, my heart growing in size once again, and went to sit cross-legged beside them. Sebastian immediately tumbled into my lap, bringing his stackables with him. Aria sat in front of me, showing off her toys.

“Look at you both! I don’t think I could ever do this good a job. This looks outstanding. You’re doing a good job.”

Aria smiled up at me. “Daddy, help. Please.”

They spoke in more than just one or two words at a time, but sometimes they were in such twin-speak that getting out of it to talk to me wasn’t high on their priorities.

Tabby was usually better at getting them to speak in anything other than that twin-speak.

But that was my wife for you, ordered and talented.

“Okay, let me help you with this. Although, pretty sure your Uncle Wes would be better at it.”

“Your daddy is just as good as I am at this,” my brother Wes said as he walked into the living room. He turned to me, a grimace on his face. “And, my wife should be here soon to help with the bathtub.”

I groaned and moved another block to the top of the tower to help Sebastian. “You can’t work on it?”

Wes walked forward, shaking his head. “Oh, I could do it, but you want me to work on plumbing and not my wife, who’s a master plumber?

No, that’s not going to happen. I’m a builder, an organizer.

I don’t do plumbing. Not when my wife will beat me with that pipe wrench just for stepping on her toes. ”

I snorted. “Well, hell.”

“Hell,” Aria said, and I groaned as Wes laughed.

“You are not helping,” I said, and kissed the top of my daughter’s head as she moved closer. “Don’t say that word. That’s daddy’s word.”

“Daddy says hell?” Sebastian asked, and Wes started cracking up.

Maya walked into the living room and shook her head. “Okay, why are all of my brothers idiots?” Maya asked, laughing.

Aria clapped her hands. “Idiot.”

“Hey, stop teaching the twins new words,” I chided. Tabby was going to kill me when she got home.

Maya just laughed. “I’m pretty sure my husbands have taught my kids all the bad words. I am innocent here.”

“Whatever you say, sis,” Wes said, laughing, clearly not believing Maya just like I wasn’t.

My sister moved forward, a smile on her face. “Okay, I have Tabby’s bag packed, and the kids’ bags packed.”

I frowned. “I already packed the kids’ things,” I said.

“You did, and I added extra things because I’m going to be the one with your kiddos, so I wanted to make sure I had everything.”

I sighed. “I’m not going to be gone for that long.”

“We’re not going to see you until next year,” she teased. “You never know.”

“You make my head hurt,” I said, before I set Sebastian down next to his sister and stood up again. “Thank you both.”

“We have a key, and Jillian and I will take care of the plumbing and the stove,” Wes said.

I winced. “You guys know how to fix stoves?”

“We do, although we may just end up getting you a new one.”

I shook my head. “You don’t need to buy us a new stove. That one works perfectly fine.”

“That one is the piece of crap that came with this house.”

My siblings gave me more headaches than anyone else I knew. “Yes, and it has memories.”

“No, you’re just cheap,” Maya said.

“Hello, I’m going to have twins to put through college. I am cheap.”

“You make good money in your job,” Maya whispered, while Wes was playing with the kids. “You can spend some of it on a new stove.”

I sighed, conceding. “I know, and I will. But let’s let Tabby pick it out. I’m sure she already has a planner with everything listed.”

Maya snorted. “Well, she does keep me organized.”

“You don’t even work with her. How is she keeping the tattoo shop organized?”

“She taught me how to use planners correctly. I love your wife.”

I grinned. I couldn’t help it. “I love my wife too.”

My sister gave me a soft smile, studying my face. “You sound all proud and happy just saying that.”

“I really am.” I paused. “Are you sure I’m not making a mistake with this whole weekend thing?”

Maya just rolled her eyes. “You are surprising your wife with a trip for New Year’s Eve. A vacation when you guys haven’t taken one since before the twins were born. With all that you’ve been through? You need this.”

I blinked. “I can’t believe we have been together for nearly four years.”

Maya shook her head. “I can’t believe all of us are married, and we’re on our way to creating four dozen kids.”

I laughed. “At least Griffin and Autumn are responsible with just a puppy.”

“Yes, and that means they’re always available to babysit.” Her eyes twinkled, and I laughed.

“Are you sure they know that?”

“Between all of us, we have near a thousand babysitters. And Leif is old enough to babysit and one day, Lake will be able to help out too.”

Lake was our new niece in Boulder and came down to Denver often to hang out with Leif, and vice versa. I loved that little girl, and it was nice that all of our cousins were starting to get married and have kids and start this new life.

It wasn’t something for everyone. Griffin and Autumn weren’t ever planning on having kids, but had a future that was all their own. I didn’t know if Tabby and I would have any more children, but we had the twins, parts of my life I never thought I would have after losing everything before.

Maya tapped my temple. “Stop. You’re getting in your head again.”

I shrugged. “It’s what I do. I’m the brooding one.”

“And I’m the loud and sarcastic one,” she said, raising a brow. The ring in it caught the light, and I smiled.

“I bet you’re going to be the most kick ass mom at the PTA meetings.”

Maya rolled her eyes. “Like they’d let me in.”

“I don’t know,” Wes corrected. “Our generation is all inked and pierced. The people that show up in loafers and khakis are probably going to be outnumbered.”

I laughed. “That’s the hope. Plus, I think we’re all in the same school district somehow.”

“At least middle school and high school would be. Elementary school might be a little difficult since there’s so many of us, we might be cut up into different districts,” Wes said.

I met Maya’s gaze and rolled my eyes. “You say that as if you don’t already have it all planned out and color-coded for us.”

Wes shrugged, handed a block to Aria. “Your wife and I are very organized. We have a plan. Don’t worry. Everyone’s going to be getting into good schools.”

I snorted. “Good to know.” I looked down at my phone. “You guys should head out so I can surprise her.”

“You guys don’t leave until morning, though, right?” My ass.

“Of course. And we’ll drop the kids off in the morning and head out.”

“I’m so happy for you guys,” she whispered as she kissed my cheek. “You deserve this.”

“Or I’m insane planning something in secret from a planner.”

“She’ll enjoy it because you did it. Now, if you did this every year without her being able to color code everything, you’d have to worry,” Wes added.

“Thank you for that,” I said dryly.

Wes and Maya left, and I made a note to look at new stoves and to remind Tabby that Jillian would be over to fix the tub later.

We were somehow homeowners, full-time workers, sometimes working a little too much, and parents.

At one point, I had thought my life would be completely different, I had been married to someone else, had fallen into the bottle when things had gotten too hard, and somehow I had dragged myself out.

And when I had dried up, sobered up, I looked into the future and found Tabby. Or more accurately, she had found me.

Most days, I still didn’t think I deserved her, but she was there, smiling and ready to hold me every day I came home.

I was just lucky enough I got to hold her too.

“Honey, I’m home,” Tabby said. “Your mother is amazing,” she teased.

“Oh yeah?” I asked. My mother was in on the plan too and had taken Tabby for some post-Christmas holiday shopping.

Apparently, Tabby wanted to send more gifts out to her brothers and new nieces and nephews.

We had spent Thanksgiving out in Pennsylvania with her family, but Christmas and New Year’s were going to be here in Colorado.

We were so enriched here in Colorado, and her family was very much so in Pennsylvania, so I didn’t think we’d all ever live together, or even near each other.

But we did our best to see each other as much as possible.

I was grateful that Tabby let that happen.

I would move to Pennsylvania in a heartbeat if I thought it would work out, but things worked here now.

Maybe one day we’d find a cabin up in Pennsylvania and make that work, but for now, Tabby’s family was out there, living with their whiskey bar, and us Montgomerys were here with our tattoos and construction.

“How was your day?” she asked, and kissed me softly.

“I worked some. The kids and I played with blocks.”

I picked up Aria as she held up her hands, and Sebastian was already in Tabby’s arms.

“Did you guys have a good day?” She nuzzled Sebastian’s neck. He let out a little toddler squeal and kissed her hard on the cheek.

My chest swelled as I looked at the two of them and at the little girl in my arms. We were a family, the four of us. I still didn’t know how I had gotten so lucky.

“So, Wes was here,” I said casually.

Tabby winched. “How much?”

“Okay, first, don’t ask things like that. You know, since you work there, and you’re family, they’re not going to charge you, but Jillian won’t be here until tomorrow to fix it.”

“I told Jillian to just come over, but no, Wes wanted to see it first so he could make plans or something. I don’t understand your brother.”

“He wanted to see if he could do it. I don’t know, and then he needed to look at the stove.” Wes had come over to help with planning the surprise, but I couldn’t tell Tabby that.

“I figure we’re going to have to get a new stove. I’ve made lists.”

That made my mouth twitch.

“And from the look on your face, you probably joked that I had listed, but I do. It’s time. We can afford it.”

“Yes, and we’ll make the decision together. We just won’t let Wes show up with one.”

“Knowing your brother, he’ll pick the perfect one, but let’s be sure. Let’s make it ours.”

“That sounds good.” I rocked back on my heels as Aria started to fall asleep in my arms.

“So, what else happened?” she asked, staring at me.

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

“It’s almost New Year’s Eve, we are happy, it’s the holidays, and you look like you’re stressed out over something, and I have no idea what it could possibly be.”

I sighed, held Aria closer. “I did something.”

Her eyes sobered. “What’s wrong, Alexander?”

I could have cursed. I swallowed hard. “Something good. I think.”

“Please talk fast because you’re worrying me.”

She bounced Sebastian in her arms, but my son just stared at me, and I knew he was worried too. My kids were far too perceptive for their own good.

“I set us up a surprise trip. We are going to Vail tomorrow. For two days. We’ll be celebrating the new year in a cabin that my friend owns, in the mountains, fireworks above us, if they get to do it this year, snow all around us, each of us holding hot cocoa, and just the two of us.”

I looked down at the kids in my arms, and I didn’t think they understood what I was saying.

Tabby blinked, her eyes filling with tears, and I cursed. “Or I can cancel. It’s super easy to cancel.”

She shook her head, went to her toes, and kissed me softly on the mouth. Aria and Sebastian were between us, clapping their hands together.

“I love you, Alexander Montgomery.”

I frowned. “I love you too, Tabitha Montgomery.”

“You planned a whole trip? Without me.”

“You’ve been stressed recently, and I wanted to do something to surprise you, and as the plans kept rolling on, I realized that I was probably doing something wrong.”

She just smiled at me and shook her head. “A trip. The two of us. For New Year’s. Alexander, wow.”

“Not too much? I mean, we can still take the kids,” I whispered, over their heads.

She shook her head. “Okay, let’s go. I assume you have childcare arranged and everything packed and everything ready?”

“Yes,” I said. “Maya will take care of the kids, she also packed, but I’m sure you can go double-check. That’s why we’re not leaving until morning.”

Tabby’s eyes widened. “Alexander,” she whispered.

And I kissed her again, this time the kids wiggling between us as they started pulling at us for attention. I looked down at my daughter in my arms and my son in my wife’s, and I knew maybe I made the right decision.

New Year’s Eve, alone with my wife.

Just the two of us, a comfy bed, and hopefully, a good evening.

Because we had never spent the night without our kids before.

And here I was, surprising her with it.

Probably not the most intelligent decision I’ve ever made.