A Very Montgomery Christmas

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  “You did nothing wrong,” Arden said softly. “And yes, because he or she will be for me, we’re going to do our best to make sure that we make the right connection, but all of these puppies are trained to help with medical alerts, like what I need. But you will help me make the final decision because they’re going to be part of our family. Not just mine.”

  “I’ll help. I promise. Jasper, you’re going to have a brother or sister!” She carefully handed me the ornament before flinging her arms around Jasper. Jasper barked in glee once, lifted his chin, and the two of them began dancing around the living room. Jasper looked like a puppy himself, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Things are about to get a bit louder here,” Arden said dryly.

  “Things were too quiet before the two of us met, don’t you think?”

  Arden met my gaze and smiled. “You’re right. I was locked in my home, and I didn’t have a way out. Jasper was my only real connection to the outside world except for my brothers, who were constantly trying to bug me.”

  “Because they love you.”

  “That may be true. But I had closed everyone else out of my life. Then you came along and bulldozed your way into my world. You and your massive family.”

  “It’s what we do,” I said with a laugh.

  “Thank you for being my first favorite Montgomery,” she whispered.

  “You know, you’re my first favorite, too.”

  “I love you, Liam.”

  “And I love you. Now, let’s go bring the family to my mom and dad, and tell them the good news. Because I don’t think my mom’s going to be able to handle us if we’re late.”

  “We would never be late. Not when it comes to your mom. She’s already a fantastic grandma.”

  “And with the way that my siblings are producing, she’s going to get a lot of practice.”

  “I honestly don’t think she’s going to complain.”

  I kissed Arden again and helped her stand up before we straightened up Lake’s dress, made sure Jasper was all brushed and ready to go, and then the four of us were out of the door, heading towards my mother’s house, and the start of our family dinner. And I had a feeling even with a dog, a babbling Lake, and Arden and I laughing along, we might be the quietest of the bunch.

  And that was saying something.

  Chapter 2

  Ethan

  I stumbled into the living room searching for my shoes. Why my shoes would be in there and not in the closet where they should be, I didn’t know. Well, I did. It was the new addition to the house that was approximately three months old, the love of my life, and currently screaming his little lungs off.

  “It’s okay, little Kingston,” Holland cooed, holding the baby up to her chest. She does a little swinging motion around the living room, bouncing him to try to calm him down. Colic was no fun, and he had decided that he didn’t want to breastfeed anymore, but also missed breastfeeding at the same time. So we were dealing with bottle feeding, pumping, lack of sleep, and a crying baby.

  And I’ve never been happier in my life.

  “It’s okay, we’re going to go see Grandma,” Holland whispered. “And Grandpa, of course.”

  That made me snort. I went down to my knees and spotted my shoes under the couch. I rolled my eyes and pulled them out. “Grandpa knows that Grandma is the one that we’re going to see. She’s in baby fever at the moment.”

  “You know your father is in just as big a baby fever as his wife is.”

  “True, but he lets us believe that it’s only Mom.”

  “They’re just so good at being grandparents.” She cuddled Kingston to her chest.

  I leaned down, brushed a soft kiss over his downy head, and then kissed my wife on the lips. “Hi,” I whispered.

  “Hi. I don’t remember what sleep is, Ethan. I mean, I vaguely remember lying down and waking up after a few hours feeling refreshed, but I don’t think that exists anymore.”

  I felt the same, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. She needed me to be the strong one, even if it was a lie. “It’s fine. People can work on thirty minutes of sleep. There have been papers on it.”

  “Papers written by liars,” she whispered fiercely, still swinging Kingston in her arms. He quieted down some but kept chirping little chirps of dismay.

  And we all knew what he wanted and why he wasn’t getting it.

  “Is Lincoln on his way?” Holland asked, her eyes wide, pleading.

  “Yes, he texted he was leaving the store. And then he texted at the stoplight, saying he was almost there. He checks in more than I do.”

  Holland rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s a lie. You both check on me so much during the day. It’s like having you here, except for you’re not here to help me lift things.”

  “I can work from home more,” I said. “Julia said she’d work with me on it.”

  Holland shook her head. “No. Because I want to still love you, and if you were working from home twenty-four hours a day, I am going to get testy.”

  “You know, I don’t know how I should take that,” I said dryly.

  “You should take that in the grace that has been given. That I love you, I like you, and I’m stressed.”

  “I can’t believe my mother did this four times.”

  “Maybe babies were easier back then,” Holland said, and met my gaze. We both snorted, keeping our laughter at bay as to not jostle Kingston.

  “Please don’t tell your mother that I said that.”

  “Of course, I wouldn’t say that. Because if I did, my dad would come up with a story of having to walk uphill both ways in the snow barefoot to get formula.”

  “That sounds about right,” Holland said, continuing to swing. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, her hair was piled on the top of her head, and she was wearing her same pajamas. And a bit of spit-up we had missed in the last cleanup.

  “We need to leave in an hour,” I said softly.

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you saying that I don’t look ready for tonight? That I am not the most gorgeous specimen, you had ever seen?”

  She might have been glaring at me, but I saw the laughter in her eyes.

  “You are gorgeous. And if you show up like that for Christmas dinner, Mom will love you even more, and never let us hold Kingston for the rest of the evening, possibly not the week.”

  “She does love holding our baby. Just wait till Bristol pops, then your dad will finally be able to hold one of his grandkids.”

  “They’ll just trade them off, with Lake dancing around them, telling them about her day.”

  Holland’s smile was wide, filled with love. “I’m just so happy. I can’t believe that this is our life.”

  “It does seem a bit shocking,” I said dryly.

  “Do you think Aaron and Madison are going to start trying?” Holland asked. “I know they were talking about it casually, and they want their kids to grow up with ours.”

  “As I don’t think any of us are done having kids, despite the lack of sleep right now, they still have time. I don’t know their plans because I don’t want to be that guy who asks and steps into a painful moment. You know?”

  Holland’s smile softened, and she raised her chin. I leaned down, took her lips as was offered, and sighed.

  “You’re such a good man. I love you.”

  “And I love you too. So, who’s going to be at this thing tonight?” I asked.

  Holland just rolled her eyes. “These are your family members, shouldn’t you know?”

  “I’m exhausted. I don’t remember anything.”

  “Yes, because I’ve had so much sleep, as we’ve discussed.” She laughed. “Zia and Meredith should be there, as is Julia and her husbands. They’ve sort of all been added to the Montgomery family, even if they have families of their own.”

  “We do tend to do that.”

  What was unsaid was the fact that we were not spending time with her family. We were trying to mend those bridges, get better
at it, but it wasn’t easy. And I wasn’t even sure that we wanted to accomplish that.

  Lincoln’s parents were on a winter cruise, something they had bought two years prior, thanks to a sale, and had done their best to get out of. But we would hear none of it, and they would be back for New Year’s, and we would have Kingston’s second Christmas a couple of days after his first. They had been so apologetic that my mother-in-law had burst into tears, but everything was okay. This way they would have their own special moment with Kingston and us, rather than being part of the large Montgomery one. We tended to be overwhelming on the best of days, annoying as hell on the worst.

  “Is he here yet?” Holland asked, looking at the front door.

  I shook my head. “He needed to pick up the groceries so we can make our side dish. We’ll be cutting it close, but we’ll make it work.”

  “Can you work on the diaper bag? Make sure we have diapers this time?”

  “We had diapers last time,” I said, groaning.

  “We had diapers for a six-month-old, not a three-month-old. They somehow got added in, and then we had to double-tape him up so that it wouldn’t fall off, leaving a huge accident everywhere. As it was, he already exploded out of the back of it, so I was covered.” She groaned. “Since when did our romantic conversations include baby poop?”

  “About the time that we found out you were pregnant,” I said, and then kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll work on it. And I hear the garage door now. Lincoln’s on his way.”

  “Oh, thank God,” she whispered, and then we turned to see our husband walk through the door. His hands were full of cloth and linen bags, stuffed to the brim with groceries.

  “I went crazy. I know I had a list, and then I remembered everything that we hadn’t put on the list, at least some of the things, so now we will have food for the week, maybe. Hell. I’m sorry, I’m late.” He smacked a kiss on my lips and handed over the bags. “I need a drink,” Lincoln said, shaking his head.

  I took the bags easily and put them on the kitchen counter. “You’re welcome to have a drink, and I’ll do the driving tonight.”

  “If I have a drink, I’m going to fall asleep, and that probably won’t be the best idea for me to be snoozing at the family dinner.” He kissed Holland softly, and Kingston began screaming. My shoulders dropped, sighing, but then Lincoln plucked Kingston out of Holland’s arms and put him to his chest. “There you are. Daddy’s here.”

  Holland and I rolled our eyes, and I set to taking everything out of the bags. Kingston immediately quieted down, his big eyes staring up at his daddy.

  I was Dad, and Lincoln was Daddy. We were going to try for that nomenclature for now. It may get confusing, but we would make it work. We weren’t the only ones in our family in a poly relationship, so we were taking cues from my cousins who were raising kids with more than two parents. They were making it work, and we were following their path, doing our best to make it work for us as well.

  Kingston was going to be always held, always loved, and know that no matter what, at least three people loved him with all of their hearts.

  And that had to count for something.

  “You know, last week, he would only stop crying for Holland, the week before, only for you,” Lincoln said, staring at me. “This kid is taking turns on his affections. And I don’t mind it.”

  “I do,” Holland said, covering her face with her hands. “I need a shower, to do my hair, do everything. And I think my right boob is leaking.” She looked down at her shirt, at the wet spot currently increasing with every breath. “Yep. I’ll need a pump at some point. Damn it. We’re going to be late.”

  I shook my head. “No, it’s fine, we’ll get there.” Late, but this was our lives now.

  Kingston took that moment to spit up all over Lincoln, and we all sighed.

  “I’m on it,” I said, stuffed everything in the fridge, and tried to do mental math as to how we were going to make that side dish.

  I took the screaming Kingston from Lincoln’s arms, and Lincoln pulled his shirt over his head. I did my best to ignore the way that his muscles moved, the beautiful lines of his torso, but it was difficult. Even Holland was staring, and Lincoln just grinned. “You know, this is how we got in this mess in the first place.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t mind.” Holland laughed, and I shook my head.

  “I’ll clean up this little guy. You guys clean up each other. But separate showers, or we’re going to be late.” I narrowed my eyes at the two, and they just shook their heads. “Later.”

  “You say that as if I have any energy to please our woman.” My husband looked over at our wife. “Sorry, babe.”

  “Oh no, I get it. At this point, I would just have to lie back and think of England, and I don’t think that’d be fun for any of us.”

  “You better be lying back and thinking of one of us,” I growled playfully, and brought Kingston into his nursery. We had gone with yellow flowers and giraffes, with splotches of green, and bumblebees. It was a happy, fun nursery and only clean at this point because we had hired a maid. Between the three of us having full-time jobs and working more than forty hours a week usually, we didn’t have time, and we made decent enough money that we could help someone else feed their children by paying them to clean our house. They also helped us with prepared meals for the fridge, but they wouldn’t be here for the holidays because we wanted to make sure they had time with their family after we paid them holiday bonuses. That meant, somehow, we needed to feed ourselves, and it was like we had forgotten how to as soon as Kingston was born.

  I missed sleep.

  Kingston started burbling, lifting his little feet in the air, and I undid his little onesie and changed his diaper. He was such a happy baby when he wasn’t screaming. I knew he was in pain, and hopefully we would find a way through colic and get to the point of being parents where we could sleep again. My mother said it happened in about eighteen years, so I was counting down.

  “I love you so much,” I said, before kissing Kingston’s little belly. Kingston just grinned a little gummy smile, and I quickly pulled another onesie on him. We were contemplating putting him in something cuter, but he was just going to mess it up anyway, so we had a dozen onesies ready all over the house.

  We had a lot of family members, and that meant a lot of baby gifts. Thank God.

  “Okay, this is as clean as I’m going to get,” Lincoln said as he walked in. He wore partially unbuttoned linen pants, no shoes, no shirt, and his hair was wet and slicked back from his face. “You need to go shower too. There’s spit-up down your back.”

  I sighed. “Damn it. I already showered. But thank you.” I kissed Lincoln hard on the mouth as I handed over Kingston, and Lincoln put a blanket over his shoulder and lulled Kingston to sleep. I somehow showered quickly, found my shoes again as I dressed, and walked into the living room. Holland was there, her hair braided up in a complicated updo, but it was still wet.

  “I know it’s cold, and I’ll put a hat over it, but this is as good as it’s going to get.”

  “You look beautiful,” I said, and kissed her softly.

  She was wearing a dark red dress and black tights with black boots and truly looked gorgeous.

  “Thanks for saying that. I think the dark circles under my eyes despite makeup really make the outfit.”

  “They match ours,” Lincoln said dryly.

  I went to pick up my keys and looked around and cursed.

  “Stop cursing in front of the baby,” Holland said. “His first word is going to be the F-word if we’re not careful,” she scolded.

  I winced. “You know what we forgot?”

  And Lincoln sighed. “Well, it looks like someone’s going to be missing green bean casserole.”

  “It was the easiest thing to do. It’s just cans mixed together in yummy goodness,” I sighed. “I need to call my mom,” I said, and Lincoln nodded, searching through the kitchen.

  “Maybe there’s something we can bri
ng. Crackers?” he asked.

  “Oh, this is good. We totally have this under control,” Holland said, and I groaned.

  Mom picked up at the first ring. “Are you guys on your way yet? Or having a little bit of trouble getting out the door?”

  She always knew us better than we knew ourselves. “The latter. But I don’t want to jinx anything by saying we’re clean and ready to come over.”

  “Just bring extra clothes for all of you. We know how babies are. And don’t worry about bringing the green bean casserole. I already made one, knowing that if you got busy taking care of that beautiful baby and yourselves, it might get forgotten. Either we’d have double, which is fine because I know that’s your favorite side, or we would have a backup.”

  I had her on speakerphone, and Lincoln and Holland looked at each other and then smiled at me, looking a little sheepish.

  “We’re sorry. We’re trying to help out, but we just messed up.”

  “You did not mess up,” my mother said sharply, if not unkindly. “You guys are raising a baby with colic, still running Holland’s shop, you’re still working full time, Lincoln is under an immense amount of pressure, thanks to his upcoming show, and it’s the holidays. You’re allowed to be stressed out. Now come over here so I can hold that baby, and my baby,” she added. “Well, I guess it should be all of my babies because I love all three of you. But quickly. You do not need to bring food. Just yourselves. And don’t forget diapers. Although I do have some just in case.”

  I laughed, Holland and Lincoln joining me. “I love you, Mom.”

  “I love you too. Now be quick.” She hung up, and I slid my phone into my pocket, looking around the house. “I hope to hell we have everything.”

  “Language,” Lincoln laughed.

  “I’ll get better at it. Maybe. Maybe once you do,” I added.

  Lincoln shrugged. “You’re right. His first word’s going to be a curse word.”

  Holland shrugged. “It’s going to end up being Dad. I’m outnumbered, two to one.”