Page 10 of River (A Daddy for Christmas 2)

(River)

An Unexpected Feast

I could feel myself slipping into my little headspace the moment I sat down at the table and saw the characters on a placemat I hadn’t had when I’d gone downstairs to work that morning.

“Everything go okay?” Lux asked as I sat at the spot he’d designated for me.

“Yup. Maddox was in the alley waiting when we took the trash out. After we’d finished up, he and Haven headed for the B & B. For now, we’re all still planning on opening on time tomorrow, only Chaos is coming in with Jeremy, instead of waiting for Monday. He said that it was no big deal if they couldn’t make it back to their place since we’ve got the new B & B now.”

“I’m glad your brother will have help.”

“So am I. The best part is that I have help too when it’s slow over there, because Jeremy comes over to the dispensary and helps me stock, and he helps organize the storeroom for Meadow, so she’s not having to lug around a bunch of heavy shit.”

“It’s awesome how you guys are able to work so well together.”

“We’re all we’ve got,” I explained.

“That’s a sentiment I know well,” he admitted. “That’s how it’s been with Frida and I since we met in college.”

“She’s a riot, I love when she drops in.”

“Dropping in is her specialty,” he said as he sat my plate in front of me along with an orange smoothie in a cup with a straw.

Another item that hadn’t been in my kitchen at the start of the day.

I was really liking these new additions as well as the selection of finger foods he’d carefully placed in each compartment, but what truly made it awesome was the four dipping sauces he sat down beside it.

“Marinara, blooming onion sauce, Swedish meatball gravy and garlic butter,” he explained.

“Mozzarella sticks and Swedish meatballs!” I declared, cheering when I saw them.

They were accompanied by onion rings and steak tips that looked seared to perfection. Giggling, I stabbed a meatball and dunked it in the gravy, then popped it into my mouth with a happy sigh and a spatter of gravy down my chin.

“Someone is going to need a bath by the time he finishes eating,” Lux remarked.

“Are you offering to give me one?” I asked, grinning cheekily and winking at him.

It was right there on the tip of my tongue to finish the sentence with Daddy, but we’d only talked about it. We weren’t there yet, though it looked like he’d gone out of the way to show me that he was happy to be moving in that direction.

“Indeed, I am,” he declared, bringing a smile to my face as I dunked an onion ring.

Yes, my job was fun, and most days easy. I didn’t need the same kind of decompressing Haven often did, especially if he’d been given no choice but to deal with someone’s attitude. He brooded and he got snappish, which was one of many reasons he’d brought Jeremy in to help. Still, there were times when people insisted on dealing with him directly, much as Maddox had done the day he’d stormed into the shop, and it wasn’t always pleasant. He always needed Daddy time after that.

Me, I just needed an escape from all the peopling I had to do as part of being a shop owner, which could be a bit much, considering how much time I’d spent alone after Haven had gotten sent away. Jeremy had always been his friend, though he’d never not been nice to me. It was just that after Haven had gotten sent away, Jeremy had dropped out and stuck close to home, rarely coming into town unless it was with his old man when they were picking up stuff. We’d drifted apart until recently, when he’d come to work here and picked up as my brother’s best friend like they’d never spent any time apart.

I guess they hadn’t, considering how often Jeremy had gone up to visit him. Apparently, it was as often as I had, which had been at least once a week. If I’d known, maybe we could have gone up together and hung out in the city afterwards, since I’d always needed some way of blowing off steam and clearing my head after having to visit with him through bulletproof glass.

Now I had a bath to look forward to.

Dunking a steak tip in garlic butter, I tried to remember if I still had bubble bath left and if so, where I’d stashed it, but I was certain I’d used the last of it. I doubted I had any scented candles left either. I tended to burn them on a nightly basis and had noticed just the other night that I was getting short. I’d have to wait for the next candle sale, since the kinds I liked tended to be a bit on the expensive size and I went through a lot of them. I loved when a scent lingered in the room hours after the candle had been blown out and made a mental note to keep an eye out for the next discount.

“You look lost in your head,” he remarked, cutting into my thoughts as he leaned over to wipe a smudge of sauce from my cheek.

His eyes were so bright when I gazed into them that I almost got lost there too.

“A little.”

“Care to share what you’re thinking about.”

“Bath time,” I replied, giving an extra vigorous dunk when I dipped another meatball in the gravy. “Mmm-Mmm good.”

“I’ve noticed you keep coming back to those.”

“They’re awesome, but how’d you know I’d like Swedish meatballs?”

“I heard you complaining to Haven about the Blue Star being sold out.”

“Wait, did you make these?”

“Sure did.”

“For me?” I asked, stunned into near speechlessness.

“All for you.”

No one but my mom and Meadow had ever made something just because I’d been craving it and couldn’t find it anywhere. Now here he was smiling across the table from me and my heart melted into a gooey puddle for the tenth time since I’d met the man. If he kept going on that way, there would be little left of me but a sticky stain on my hardwood floors. I finished my food with all the gusto of a kid in a hurry to have dessert, only I was stuffed by the time I’d emptied my plate and let out several somewhat embarrassing burbs.

I blushed while Lux chuckled and tousled my hair. “Why don’t you sit there and let your food settle for a bit while I finish the dishes and get your bath ready.”

“Gladly,” I muttered, leaning forward to put my head on the table, then thinking better of it when it put too much pressure on my already full stomach.

Oh, my goddess that food was good.

Burping again, louder than before, I felt my cheeks heat up when he laughed.

“Now that’s the best kind of complement you can give me when I cook for you,” he declared, his words instantly putting me at ease.

It was refreshing not to feel like I couldn’t burp, couldn’t fart, and couldn’t look less than perfectly put together when I was with him. Getting to be myself meant I hadn’t felt the usual twinges of urgency and anxiety that usually crept up on me when I was getting to know someone.

I sat there thinking about why that might be while he bustled around my kitchen like he’d spent years in it instead of just a few days, humming along to the music that poured from the smart speaker I rarely used since I tended to have records playing.

When his fingers danced up the back of my neck, I realized I’d spaced off again, only this time my mind had been blank and kind of sluggish and slushy as the food coma began setting in. He tugged a few low hanging strands of my hair, just enough to get my attention and hold it as he brushed kisses along my jawline.

“I’m going to go get your bath ready,” he murmured in my ear. “Don’t fall asleep at the table or you’ll miss the next surprise I have for you.”

“More surprises?” I asked, those words perking me right up and getting me to dial in on the here and now.

“Two more surprises, to be exact,” he told me, his finger grazing over my shoulder, making me shiver. “One, you get in the bathroom, and one, you get afterwards, when it’s time to tuck you in.”

I loved the sound of that and hoped it was a story. I’d been dying to have him read me one, but I hadn’t gotten up the courage to ask him yet. I’d considered showing him the collection of children’s books I had arranged on the shelf in the corner of my bedroom, then decided against it in the hopes that he’d spot them there and take the initiative himself.

A boy could dream, couldn’t he?

“Be right back,” he said as he pressed a kiss to the side of my head.

I watched him go while the tones of a piano filled the room, the opening notes to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ washing over me. It might not have been a Christmas song, but it was the perfect song for the season and the mood I was in right now.

How many times had I said that I was giving up on dating, then rushed right out to find a weekend fling to drown my sorrows in when a relationship that had started out shaky never quite worked itself out. I think that was the problem right there. I’d known they were wrong right from the start and kept pushing to make them work out because I’d given up on believing that the right person for me would ever come along. Now I was convinced that he was here and all I had to do was keep being me and he’d stick it out for the long run and many more nights like this.

He returned when the song was almost over, took me by the hand and led me into a bathroom that smelled of sugar cookies and lemons. I soon discovered why when I spotted the candles flickering around the room and the bubbles piled high over the surface of the water. Inhaling the blissfully sweet and comforting scents, I melted into his embrace and let him strip my clothes off me, holding my arms in the air to make it easier for him to remove my shirt. When he knelt to remove my jeans, he blew raspberries on my belly, which always made me giggle and squirm around.

Tonight, he must have known just how tired I was, because he only did it for a few seconds before having me lift my leg so he could ease the jeans off. I pressed a hand to his shoulder so I wouldn’t lose my balance and fall over on him, especially when all I wanted was to wrap my arms around him and let him hold me until I’d passed out in his arms.

Instead, I snuggled against his chest as he carried me to the bath, our clothes discarded in a mingled pile on the floor.

Clawfoot tub for the win and even that was a tight fit with how tall he was. It left me a little envious of the huge, sunken tub Haven had shown me in the master bathroom of Maddox’s house. It looked like it could fit three people, but I’d seen firsthand how possessive Maddox was of my brother and knew it would never hold more than the two of them.

“You don’t share, do you?” I asked, not that it was a hard and fast deal breaker but I kind of liked the thought of belonging to him and only him, at least for the foreseeable future.

“Something tells me you are not talking about my last Snickers bar.”

“No,” I hedged, because I did love Snickers. “But I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a few bites if you ever offered.”

“I bet,” he replied. “Now to answer your real questions, no, I don’t. I’ve got nothing against people who enjoy a poly lifestyle, but I’ve always preferred to put all my attention and focus on one partner and making that relationship the strongest that it can be. I just haven’t been very lucky when it comes to finding partners who are as interested in commitment as I tend to be. I hope that isn’t a dealbreaker for you.”

“No, I don’t want to be shared,” I blurted, rushing to make sure he knew that I wasn’t upset at all to learn that about him.

He hugged me from behind, tugging me to lean back against his chest and just relax for a bit. I’d kept meaning to put a smart speaker in here for nights like this, then I’d gotten so busy I’d mostly given up baths in favor of the expediency of a shower and never bothered to replenish my bath supplies or install a device so I could enjoy my music in here.

Sighing contently, I lifted a handful of bubbles to my nose, inhaled and wound up snorting when the bubbles tickled my nose. Lux just hugged me while he laughed at my antics, adding more warm water when what we had started getting cold. He waited for the bubbles to be mostly gone before he washed me, with one of those soft mitts that fit over his hand and allowed him to rub soapy circles all over me. By the time he drained the water, and we rinsed the soap out of our hair and skin with the shower spray, I was yawning and curled against his side beneath the water.

I’d never been happier for big, fluffy towels, but that was one of several luxuries that I’d treated myself to the moment I’d started decorating the space. From the time I was a child I’d loved soft things, so had Haven and we’d had many a tug of war over blankets anytime mom brought a new one home. It got so that she’d buy two just to save on the squabbling, not that Haven and I ever took it too far. Most times, the one who’d won, usually Haven, wound up letting the loser, which was most often me, curl up under it with him while we watched TV. Pressed up against my big brother’s side had always been my favorite place in the world.

Safe.

That’s what I’d always felt nestled up against him, even when the lightning storms outside felt like they were right over the house and rain was falling everywhere. Mom always said he claimed me as his baby from the moment she brought me home, even if he was only four years older than me. Now, as I was wrapped in all of that softness and led to my room with Lux’s arm over my shoulder, I realized that I was beginning to feel a growing level of safety and trust whenever I was with Lux.

Protected.

I was too tired to give much thought to that, besides how amazing I felt. The tiny voice in the back of my head warned my feelings to slow the fuck down, goddammit. But like a freight train with the breaks locked up, I kept on screeching along at breakneck speed, giggling and growing more and more attached when he pressed his hands over my eyes as he led me into my room.

“No peeking,” he said as he nudged me forward, guiding me as we crossed the room.

“How am I ‘sposed ta peek with your hands covering my whole face?” I asked

Even tired I was trembling with anticipation. Surprises were the best. I love, love, loved them. Squirming, I found it next to impossible to stand still as he kept his hands pressed to my face.

“Something caught my eye today when I was out shopping,” he murmured. “It got me thinking about you and how adorable you looked the other day in those ass hugging shorts of yours, so….”

When he dropped his hands, it took my eyes a moment to focus and dial in on the bright pink and white outfit on the bed. Fluffy shorts, fluffy crop top, and best of all it had a food with big, fluffy rabbit ears dangling from them. Squealing, I danced over to the bed to touch it and press it to my face, rubbing the softness against my skin.

Breathing out, I sighed contently. “Ohhhh. Soooo soft.” I cooed, spinning around while I clutched it and nearly bumping into him. I crushed my new outfit between us when I hugged him, giggling and laughing as I kissed his neck and shoulder. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, it’s awesome. I love it.”

“Then let’s get you in it, because there is still one more to go.”

“But you only said three.”

“Yes, but the outfit is only one part of a three-part mega surprise,” he declared.

“Three…”

I couldn’t find my footing with him tonight, not with how exhausted I was. The revolving door that was the entrance to my shop had never slowed, meaning I’d been on my feet a chunk of the afternoon, even with Jeremy rushing over to help me restock after Haven sent him home. I was glad for the assistance too, as orders started getting called in for family members to pick up and deliver. Yeah, we were fixing to get slammed, and everyone knew it. No one was taking any chances either, which was great for my bank account, but mentally and physically draining while I’d tried to keep up.

“Let’s get you in it so I can introduce surprise number two,” He murmured, drawing the outfit from between us and holding the top up. I immediately put my hands in the air so he could slide it on, loving the way he smoothed it over my body, but didn’t try to grope me. Other lovers I’d had would have taken full advantage of our near clothes-less state, but he seemed to genuinely care that I’d had a long day and just wanted to get me comfortable. I loved the hint of lemon clinging to his skin from our bath and nuzzled the side of his neck as I clung to his shoulders, lifting first one, then my other foot for him to put the shorts on me. They were so comfy. I hated sleeping in things that were tight or had elastic that pressed into me and left me with marks in the morning.

“There now, positively adorable,” he declared as he kissed me on the nose. “Now go look under your pillow.”

I’ll admit it, I leapt on the bed, bounced and nearly sent myself tumbling onto the floor as I flopped and crawled towards the pillow which wasn’t laying nearly as flat as it should have been. I snatched it up so fast I accidentally flung it across the room, then laughed when it hit a stack of books and knocked them off their shelf.

Oops.

Whatever would need to be picked up in the morning was more than worth the joy I felt at what removing the pillow revealed. Bright pink and white, with a candy cane sticking up from its head and a peppermint candy on its belly, was the peppermint latte holiday Squishmallow.

“Oh, my goddess!” I yelped, pouncing on it and clinging, laughing against its soft belly and holy shit, it even smelled like peppermint. I’d never known one to have a scent before, but that just meant that Lux had made it extra special, like they did at the build-a-bear store. Squirming around I hugged and squished that big, fluffy stuffy, kicking my feet like a little kid.

“I take it you approve,” Lux asked, drawing me out of my celebration as he ran his hand down my arm.

“I love it! Thank you!”

“That huge smile on your face is all the thanks I’ll ever need,” he replied as I crawled up into his arms to hug him. He always slept in t-shirts with the sleeves cut off and sleep pants with cartoon characters all over them, the brighter the better, he’d told me the first time I’d gotten a glimpse of his fiesta chili pepper ones. He’d dressed while I’d been snuggling my toy, and now, as he eased back from the hug, I saw him reach for something on the bed. When that colorful cover came into view, I knew my dearest wish had just been answered.

It was storytime.