“Oh, trust me, they’re already working,” Ethan said with a huge grin. “Sawyer grabbed Dad and Kaleb to help with decorations outside. Said he wanted to get this over with.”
Well, that made sense. Not that Zane actually cared where they were, but he was going to ensure they had to work if he did. After all, that’s what brothers were for.
Once the boxes were settled in the middle of the living room floor, Zane knew there was no getting out of this. If he didn’t contribute, his brothers would ensure he felt their pain, one way or another, so as he grabbed one of the boxes out of Travis’ hand, he smiled. The sooner he got to work, the sooner he could get his lovely fiancé home and naked.
Then again… If he had to guess, V was going to want to put up their Christmas tree when they got back home. Only they didn’t have one yet. Which meant she was going to want to go get one. And that would lead to more and more time spent doing something other than ravishing her sinfully delicious body.
Who came up with these holidays anyway?
There had to be an easier way to do this. Why hadn’t someone come up with Christmas in a box already? Complete with a pop-up tree and a turkey dinner. Seemed simple enough.
As for Zane’s parents, they might not subscribe to the quick and easy version Zane was hoping for, but they had thankfully opted for an artificial tree years ago, and last year they had picked up a new one on clearance after the holidays. Or at least that’s what he assumed they had done considering the box the tree came in was brand new and had a clearance sticker plastered on the front. Didn’t take a rocket scientist…
“You feeling all right?” Beau asked Zane from across the room.
“Me? Sure. Why?”
“Then get your ass over here and help out,” Brendon instructed, never looking up from the box he was opening.
With an over-exaggerated huff, Zane resigned himself to helping out. Didn’t mean he had to stop pretending that he wasn’t actually enjoying himself.
♀♀♀♀♀
Vanessa
V sat at the kitchen table with Zoey, Jessie, Kylie and Lorrie, chatting about plans for Christmas shopping, gifts, who was going where for Christmas dinner, and a multitude of other holiday topics. So, naturally, V should be a little surprised that, although they had just finished an incredible Thanksgiving feast that Lorrie had put her heart and soul into, they had since moved on to planning Christmas.
Glancing into the living room, trying to avoid eye contact with her naughty fiancé who was trying to get his brothers riled up, she noticed that the guys had moved on to the next holiday as well.
Somehow V had commandeered the most coveted seat in the kitchen. From her perch at the table, she had an unobstructed view of the guys moving around the living room. Along with the constant movement that was distracting in its own right, V had tried her best not to ogle all of that glorious cowboy muscle. Didn’t seem to matter that she was head over heels in love with Zane, she still wasn’t dead. But what woman wouldn’t feel like she had died and gone to heaven as she watched them work?
Not only that, but she had been listening to them teasing each other, grumbling and laughing as they sorted through box after box of holiday stuff. Despite their feigned disinterest in the task of putting up the Christmas decorations, they were all smiling. Well, all of the brothers except Sawyer and Kaleb, because they had dragged their father outside a short while ago. For what, V had no idea.
“What do you think, V? Would your mother come?” Lorrie’s soft voice pulled V back to where she was supposed to be, and she glanced up at her future mother-in-law.
“I’m sorry, what?” Way to go, Vanessa. Ignoring the future mother-in-law because you’re eyeing her boys probably wouldn’t earn you kudos.
Lorrie laughed sweetly, and V smiled in return, thankful that Lorrie was such a warm, forgiving person.
“Do you think Regina would join us for Christmas dinner?”
“Oh, I’m sure she’d be honored,” V answered, glancing around the table at her friends. For months, her mother had been walking the straight and narrow. And honestly, V was proud to say that the relationship she had been denied with her mother during her childhood was finally strengthening to a point where V didn’t feel like she was an afterthought. And though Regina had declined the Walker’s invitation for Thanksgiving, V didn’t see her mother doing it again at Christmas. She hoped.
For the first time, V noticed that Lorrie was actually making a list, but she couldn’t see exactly what she was putting on the page. Guests for Christmas, maybe?
“Wonderful. And what about your parents, Kylie? Do you think Joe and Melissa would join us?”