Page 33

CHAPTER

TWELVE

Ryleigh

The excitement thrumming through me right now is palpable. As I typically do, I wake up before Brick, and quickly shower then put on my Christmas pajamas while I wait for him to finally awaken. I have our Christmas tree lights switched on, started the fire in the fireplace since I saw it snowed again overnight and can feel the chill in the air, and have been entertaining myself with Calvin and Hobbes. They’ve been enjoying the squeezable treats I found for them, as well as the catnip mousies that now litter the sitting area floor.

“Y’all are so silly,” I whisper, lifting my eyes and peeking at my stocking through my eyelashes, which is now bulging. It didn’t look like that before we went to bed, so I know my ol’ man pulled a few sneaky Christmas surprises from underneath his sleeves.

I take a sip of my hot chocolate, glad that we have a small beverage area set up in our room for the basics, because I don’t wanna have to get dressed in order to get my morning caffeine from the kitchen. When Brick realized how much I liked waking up to the fireplace and Christmas tree lights, he had one of the prospects build a ‘coffee bar’ although he’s the one that drinks coffee. We each have one of those fancy makers; mine is for my hot chocolate and his is for his coffee, plus there’s a wine cooler underneath that currently holds sodas, waters, and beer.

I hear his unmistakable tread and realize he’s headed into the bathroom to take care of business, so I put my mug down then go over and start a pod for him so his coffee will be ready when he gets out.

“Looks like your daddy’s finally awake, the sleepyhead,” I purr to both kitties who are now passed out in front of the fire.

“Merry Christmas, Ryleigh,” he says, pulling me against his chest and kissing my neck.

“Merry Christmas, Brick,” I reply, turning into his arms and lifting my face for a kiss which he happily obliges me with until we’re both breathless. “I made your coffee.”

“Woulda gotten it, sweetheart,” he tells me, taking the mug into his hands. My gaze roams down his body, stopping at the dark, long-sleeved Henley, the gray sweatpants, and the thick socks he wears when it’s just us. “Thank you for this. Now, you need to sit down, all that bouncing around can’t be good for the baby.”

I return to my spot on the couch, and he joins me after making a detour at the mantle to grab both stockings. I know I’m acting like a little kid right now, bouncing in my seat, but I’m so darned excited and it really doesn’t have as much to do with what I might have gotten, but the fact I got to shop for every single person who lives here.

Some of the things I found were practical, of course, because it’s important to get items that can be used, others were just for fun, like the silly motorcycle-shaped candy holders for the mens’ stockings. Each of them will deny it until they draw their last breath, but they’ve all got a sweet tooth if the sheer number of goodies they’ve consumed since me and the girls began baking around Thanksgiving is any indication. I also asked a lot of leading questions to find out stuff that each was secretly longing for, from Leathyr hoping to get a tablet she could read on to Stormy wanting a spa pamper day.

I wait for Brick to start opening his presents from his stocking but he’s just sitting there, a smirk playing on his lips “Brick! Go ahead, I wanna see you open your stocking.”

“Ladies first, sweetheart,” he replies, leaning down to scoop up Hobbes who has awakened from his snack-induced nap and is now investigating once again. “C’mon, Ry, you know Phantom and Brew will be the first two waiting in line for you to cook and from the looks of things, Santa has done his due diligence and stopped here. Guess your sign worked.”

I roll my eyes at him as he chuckles, because right outside our door, I put one of those wooden signs up that says, ‘Santa stop here!’ but I put them outside the front door of the clubhouse as well.

“We can’t take chances, Brick, I’m pretty sure Santa doesn’t grade on any kind of a curve and from some of the stories Pops has told me, y’all should probably be on the naughty list.”

His chuckle turns into full-blown laughter and soon I’m joining in because the likelihood that a bunch of bikers believe in a child’s fairytale is pretty much non-existent. Still, it’s been a lot of fun for me and I’m glad he’s humored me. Shaking my head, I start pulling things out of my stocking, my eyes growing wide when I realize everything is wrapped and it’s stuffed down to the toe.

“Go ahead, baby, have some fun.” His voice is soft, and his gaze is gentle, loving as he stares at me. I blink away tears because I’m so happy right now my emotions are all over the place.

Once I’m surrounded by a multitude of gift cards, including several for books I can download onto my e-reader, as well as two bottles of the perfume I mentioned one time liking as far as the smell goes, as well as my favorite candy and gum, I nudge him and nod at his stocking.

“Your turn.”

I’m almost vibrating with excitement now because I picked up some unique things, including a jewelry cleaner kit for the myriad of rings he often wears so I can clean them for him, as well as a thick silver chain. Each link looks like a brick, which I thought was fantastic since that’s his name. He’s also got some gum, a gift card to the local gun shop so he can get his favorite ammo, and a pair of naughty dice. When he opens them then turns his gaze in my direction, I can feel myself blushing.

“Those were um, spur of the moment, more for fun than anything,” I blurt out, my hands now unable to figure out what to do with themselves.

“Kinda thinking some of these will be nice to add to our life,” he drawls out. “Yep, I like them.”

Brick

There’s just one thing I want to make sure she opens today, so once I’m done and my stocking and the contents are off to the side, I lean over and take her face in my hands before kissing her.

“I know we’ve got more to open, sweetheart, but gotta say, I love what you’ve gotten me already.”

“Me too, Brick. I’m having so much fun!” she enthuses. Her eyes are sparkling, her face is flushed with excitement and possibly a bit of embarrassment over the dice, and I suspect when she gets downstairs and sees what all the brothers, Pops, and Banshee have gotten her, she’s going to become an emotional mess.

Standing, I move to the tree and pull over several larger boxes toward her. “These are for the kittens, but I suspect you’re going to have to open them because they’re busy napping again.”

She snickers when she sees they’re both at the very top of their cat tree, curled together and sound asleep. “Okay, I’ll make that sacrifice.”

“Babe, you can tear the paper, I swear they’ll make more for you to buy and use next year,” I finally tell her when she carefully tears each side. “Otherwise, the guys are gonna riot.”

I think that’s all the encouragement she needs because paper is soon flying around in reckless abandon while I work to hold my laughter back until she stops, her hand covering her mouth. “Oh, Brick, this is the one I wanted,” she softly states, looking at the self-cleaning litter box. “You got two of them?”

“Yeah, because one will go into our actual house while one will stay here,” I advise her. “You ready for the next ones?” I prompt once she’s got the second one fully unwrapped.

“Yes.” She’s now biting her lip as I approach with a flat box. Removing the bow, she carefully slides the ribbon from the box then gasps when she pulls out her property cut. “I didn’t know if I’d get one of these,” she murmurs, her hand lightly stroking and caressing the supple leather.

“Of course, you would, you’re my ol’ lady,” I reply, kneeling in front of her. When she looks up at me, I open the small box that’s been burning a fucking hole in my cut for weeks now and say, “You’ve been mine for more years than it seems possible, Ryleigh. Even when we didn’t know who you truly were, you called to my soul and let me know life wouldn’t be complete unless you were in it. I know in our world, being my ol’ lady is enough for most brothers and the women they love, but I want it all with you. Will you marry me?”

Tears are now coursing down her face even though she’s nodding and smiling. “Yes, yes, I will. If you hadn’t come to check on me when the snowstorm hit, I don’t think it would’ve been too much longer before I reached out to you because I missed you. You’ve become my best friend in the world, and I know you’ll always do whatever it takes to make sure I’m safe. I love you so much, Brick, and even though my life as I knew it was just a bad nightmare, you’ve done everything to ensure I get a happily-ever-after.”

And… now, I don’t much care if my brothers get brunch or not; I want to pick her up and take her back to our bed and spend the day showing her just how much I love her. However, I know she wants to get downstairs so everyone else can get as excited about the day as she has been, so I content myself with sliding the ring on her finger before I pick her up and kiss her passionately.

“We’ll celebrate later, sweetheart. Now, though, how about you put your cut on and let’s see if these lazy fuckers are awake and ready to eat so we can open more presents?”

“I like the way you think, handsome,” she sasses, winking at me. “Can we use the dice too later?”

I chuckle as we head out of our room, listening to the noise level increase the closer we get to the common room.

“Ryleigh, how did you know I wanted one of these?”

“Missy, you did too much!”

“Oh, we’re definitely doing a girl’s day soon!”

Over and over, the club girls and my brothers enthuse and rave over the gifts they’ve been given. Everything from specific bike parts, which I know she had help with since she’s not knowledgeable enough to know much beyond where to sit and where not to put her legs, so she doesn’t get burned, to clothes, tablets, game systems, controllers, and games; my ol’ lady made sure every single breathing individual under this roof got what they wanted for Christmas.

“Um, Pops, I have one more thing for you,” she shyly says. “Can you follow me out to the kitchen area?”

I follow behind his chair and because the brothers I live with are nosy fuckers, they’re all walking behind me as she confidently goes into the kitchen toward the screened porch. “What did you do, missy?” Pops asks.

“Nothing major,” she insists, opening the door and standing back so he can motor his way through.

“Ryleigh.” Pops’ voice is quieter than I’ve ever heard him, almost reverent and I stick my head out to see a puppy sitting there, its tongue lolling out with a giant red bow around its neck. “Sweetheart, it’s too much.”

“Pops, it’s a Cane Corso, they’re good for protection and I figured with you being in a chair, you might like the company. She’s already set up for training too, you just have to call the kennel and they’ll get it scheduled for you.”

Banshee elbows me as we both watch my pops and ol’ lady with the puppy. She’s been quivering in place but until Ry tells her to come, she doesn’t move which lets me know she’s already got some basic training.

“Fuck, look at him,” Ban murmurs as we both watch my pops quickly swipe below his eye.

“Yeah, I think she affects all of us that way, brother,” I admit, my voice a bit hoarse as I hold back my own emotions watching the two of them. “How did she know he’s been wanting a dog?”

“She was used to being seen and not heard, brother, but she sure the fuck pays attention,” Phantom advises. “Not sure who’s had the best Christmas, us or her, but I’m thinking it might be a draw at this point.”

“No kidding, brother, no kidding.”