by Bethany-Kris
He never even considered playing favorites, and he never outwardly showed that he did have a favorite, but Eve knew her husband better than anyone. She could tell, even if he didn’t say it out loud.
Maybe it was the kid’s spirit.
Or his fight.
It could even be his attitude …
Whatever it was, she figured her husband found a lot of his own behavior and characteristics in the toddler and instead of getting annoyed with Cory, Theo just found himself amused by the boy’s antics. Like what might come next?
It could be anything.
Eve already had Joe in bed, read his story, and watched him fall asleep before Theo finally got Cory bathed, dried, gave him his bedtime snack, and got him into bed. She was resting in the hammock with her e-reader when her husband finally came to stand beside her. Glancing up at him, she couldn’t even hide her smile at the sight of his slightly tired eyes narrowing in on her.
“Is he finally asleep?”
Theo pressed his lips together. “Out like a light.”
“I bet all that running away from you tired him out.”
She couldn’t stop herself from teasing him just a bit. What was fun about indulging his sulking? She would much rather make him smile a bit, anyway.
“You couldn’t even help me, huh?”
She shrugged, and went back to her romance novel. “Don’t act like you don’t enjoy that kid, and his tricks, Theo. We both know you do.”
It took him all of one second to reply, “Yeah, I really do.”
“I know.”
Without warning, Theo slipped into the hammock with her. It rocked dangerously, threatening to send both of them crashing to the floor as he resituated them both so that Eve was tucked into his side, and one of his feet dangled to the floor so that he could swing them back and forth. She barely kept in her shout of surprise, scared of falling, but somehow managed to keep quiet. If only because she didn’t want to wake up the boys where they slept behind curtains that did nothing to keep out noise.
“Be careful,” she whispered.
Theo chuckled deeply. “We’re fine.”
And they were.
His arm snaked around her, and pulled her closer as she opened up her e-reader again, and went back to the story of a virginal heroine who had just ran into her crush—who also happened to be her brother’s best friend. God, she loved that trope.
But it was a lot harder to focus on her book when Theo was this close. Not that she minded, really. His fingers drifted over the bare skin of her arm as his lips grazed her hairline.
“We’re definitely coming back here, right?” she asked.
“First chance we can, babe.”
Eve smiled. “Good.”
Maybe next time, they would come alone. Or maybe everyone would come again. Who knew? Eve didn’t really care as long as Theo was there with her. He made everything so much better.
“You know, I have all those gifts for the kids to wrap when we get back to the hut,” Eve said, grinning up at her husband.
Theo rolled his eyes. “I suppose I could help you with that.”
“Yay!”
“Like you didn’t plan that this whole time.”
Eve shrugged, not even ashamed of her trickery. “You wrap presents far nicer than I do, anyway.”
“That is true.”
“Your ego is huge.”
“No lie there, either,” he murmured.
“Good thing I love you.”
“Yes, that is the good thing.”
“So, it’s a deal, then,” she said.
“What is?”
“You’ll wrap all the presents for me when we get back?”
“Hey, that is not—”
“Too late,” she crowed. “You agreed.”
Theo’s fingers went from drifting over her skin to tickling her for all he was worth. Her muffled giggles quieted when he turned her over so that she was resting on his chest, and pressed his lips against hers.
Giving her a wink, he murmured against her lips, “Fine, I’ll wrap all your presents for you.”
“I knew you would.”
“But I expect something in return.”
His voice dipped sinfully.
Eve wet her lips, replying, “I guess we’ll see what I can do for you.”
Anything, really.
She’d do anything for him.
FOURTEEN
Abriella and Tommas
ABRIELLA
“Took you two long enough,” Abriella grumbled as she opened the front door to her hut to let Theo and Eve inside. “Everyone is ready.”
Theo and Eve, with both their arms loaded with wrapped gifts, at least had the decency to look sheepish about being late. They’d all agreed to meet at Tommas and Abriella’s hut for Christmas morning to open gifts, and make breakfast. Everyone else but these two had managed to show up on time, and surprise, surprise, they were the only ones without kids, too.
At the same time, Abriella had no interest in learning exactly why they were late … she was pretty sure she could guess that all on her own. Likely the same reason she didn’t like to get out of bed in the mornings because someone beside her was all too happy to keep her under the sheets with him.
“Well, we’re here now,” Theo said, grinning at Abriella as he passed her by, “so let’s get these gifts to the kids, and somebody put me in the kitchen because I am fucking starved.”
Abriella side-eyed the man. “Are you going to help cook, too?”
Theo at least had the decency to act shocked that she would even ask that question. “Of course.”
“Mmhmm, Tommas is already in there with Damian getting everything ready. Feel free to join them.”
She helped Eve to unload some of the gifts for the kids, making sure that each child had their own pile of gifts in an effort to keep them from tearing into somebody else’s gifts. Although, Abriella didn’t think the kids would care, really. Next to Joe, the rest of the little ones were still at an age where the paper and boxes the toys came in were far more interesting than the toys themselves. The adults would likely be the ones to open up most of the gifts.
Abriella sat down with Tommaso as he struggled to get the paper off the corner of one of his gifts. Sure, there weren’t a lot of presents. Four to each child—one from everyone, basically, but it was enough. They were going to have to travel with all this shit home, too. Even if they were taking another private jet.
Plus, there was a big, red Santa bag with a gift for each child, too. But once they got home, there would be a whole bunch of presents and fun waiting.
Because yeah, Tommas was not even messing around for the trip back. Abriella was grateful for that, though. Less stress, really.
“You want Ma to help?” she asked Tommaso.
Her big, blue-eyed boy nodded. “Thanks, Ma.”
Pulling Tommaso into her lap, she grabbed the present from his hands, and tore off the side that had been giving him the most trouble. Once she gave him that little bit of help, he was easily able to tear the rest of the paper off to reveal the gift from Damian and Lily. A model Hummer, by the looks of it. One that matched the Hummer he had seen parked in their driveway during their last party, and went crazy over because it was so big, and his favorite color—yellow.
Like a Hummer wasn’t ostentatious enough, the person had to paint it yellow, too. Just like the model Hummer in the box. Or rather, the pieces of it.
According to the box, the Hummer was in fifteen-hundred pieces that would need to be put together. Approximate time to put together, over thirty hours.
Wow.
Abriella saw Lily grinning at her from the side, and shook her head. “Thanks, really.”
“Deny he’s going to love that.”
“Oh, he’ll love it. Tommas … not so much when he’s the one putting it together piece by piece.”
Lily shrugged. “But what are dads for, though, right?”
Good point.
And T
ommaso did love it. He was more than content with sitting on his mother’s lap and looking over that box for as long as he could. Suddenly, he didn’t seem to have any interest with the other three gifts waiting for him on the floor, not even when his mother tried to entice him with the promise of a train being in one because that’s what she and his father had gotten him.
He loved trains, too.
Abriella figured it didn’t matter, anyway. He’d get around to his other gifts when he was good and ready, even if it took a while. She enjoyed watching the other kids tear into their gifts, or in the case of Alessa and Adriano’s daughters, have their mother open up each gift for them before demanding she open each one for them to play with.
By the time the kids had gotten into each of their gifts—including Tommaso—she could smell bacon, eggs, and all the other goodness that the guys had prepped for breakfast. Tommas came up behind her with a smile. Tipping her head back, Abriella grinned.
“All ready?”
“Whenever you are, baby,” he said.
Oh, she was definitely ready to eat. And given the fact she could hear Tommaso’s little belly rumbling, even if he was fine to be distracted with his model Hummer, he was ready for some food, too.
“Look, Papa,” Tommaso said, holding his toy up proudly. “Sees?”
Tommas took the Hummer from his son, and eyed the box. “That looks like something Papa is going to have a hell of a time with, actually.”
Across the floor, Damian chuckled. “Remember to wear gloves, Tommy. I hear the glue is hell to get off.”
Her husband shot his cousin a quirked brow, but Damian only shrugged his broad shoulders. Setting the box back to the floor, Tommas bent down and said to Tommaso, “Go find a seat in the kitchen, and I’ll get you some food, buddy.”
“Okays.”
Abriella let her son scramble out of her lap, but before she too could get off the floor, her husband pulled out an item he had been keeping hidden behind his back.
A single piece of mistletoe he must have pulled down from their decorations. He held it over her head, and winked.
“Is it really Christmas,” he started to say, “if someone doesn’t get a kiss under the mistletoe, Ella?”
She grinned. “It isn’t, no.”
“Didn’t think so.”
Dipping his head down, he dropped a quick kiss to her lips.
Merry Christmas, that kiss said.
“Maldives and Mistletoe,” she whispered against his mouth. “Kind of appropriate, isn’t it?”
“Kind of perfect, actually.”
FIFTEEN
Lily and Damian
LILY
Lily rested on the square-shaped hammock suspended from the back veranda of her hut where it hung over the water. Given Christmas was going to be their last day in the Maldives, she had every intention of enjoying what was left of their time here. On one side of her, Alessa was baking in the sun and ignoring her sister’s warnings about sunscreen. On the other side, Eve had rolled over to her stomach to tease Theo where he was swimming just a few feet away.
She wasn’t sure where Damian was, but she could hear his laughter in the background so that told her everything was just fine. She didn’t need to move, and that was her entire goal today.
“Then at least put on a hat,” Abriella said from where she sat shaded on the back veranda. “You’ll regret this in ten years when you have a sunspot or two, Lissa.”
“All your complaining is what I’m going to regret, Ella.”
Lily and Eve muffled their laughter to keep Abriella’s glare from turning on them.
Eve pushed up on her elbows. “Let her enjoy herself, Ella.”
Abriella huffed.
“You know what we should do,” Lily said, peering up at the sky that was so clear, all she could see was bright blue for miles, “is head into town tonight, find a club, drink and dance all night.”
“Been a while since we did that,” Eve agreed.
“Adulting sucks,” Abriella muttered.
“What about the kids?” Alessa asked.
“They have dads,” Lily deadpanned.
“So, it’s decided, then?” Abriella grinned slyly. “We go out and have fun, and the rest of them stay here and watch the kids?”
“It’s agreed,” the three from the hammock echoed.
“I’m not drinking,” Alessa added after a minute. “But I’ll go and dance.”
Lily glanced over at her friend. “Why wouldn’t you want to have a drink with us? I know you brought your pump for the baby—you could get her milk for the night and morning ready, and then she’d be fine.”
Having a drink was part of the fun.
Alessa opened her mouth to reply, but it was only the sound of arms cutting through water that stopped her. Theo had finally decided to pay back his wife for teasing him minutes ago, it seemed. A wave of cold water came up behind the hammock, and landed on all of them, not just Eve.
“Theo!” Eve shouted. “You asshole!”
“That’s what you get for thinking you could tease me and leave it be, Eve. Doesn’t work that way with me,” Theo taunted.
Lily turned in just enough time to watch her brother swimming away from them, but not before he tossed a cocky smirk over his shoulder. His chuckles echoed over the water. Lily glared at her brother for all she was worth. She tried really hard not to hope a shark would come up and bite him on the ass, but it was difficult.
They were having such a good time sunbathing on the hammock, and now they were all soaked. All that work Lily put into managing her hair that just did not seem to like this heat was now ruined.
“He gets Cory again,” Lily said, narrowing her gaze on her brother. “That’s who he gets to watch tonight.”
Laughter passed over the girls, because hell yeah, they all knew how troublesome Cory could be when he wanted to make someone’s life difficult.
Eve and Alessa were already climbing off the hammock just as Abriella came out of the back of the hut with towels ready for them. Lily soon followed, still grumpy that now she looked like a damn mess. By the time she had gotten dried off, and slipped her shawl over her shoulders, the others had headed in the house to get drinks for the kids playing outside.
She was going to help, but then she heard the laughter of her boys, and Damian. It was like an invisible rope had suddenly been tied around her middle, and was tugging her in their direction. It was funny how that worked; her husband was trying to give her a little bit of time to relax as this was going to be their last day here, and somehow, Lily just found her way right back to her boys and husband, anyway.
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
Lily came around the side of the hut to find her husband chasing after a laughing Joe while still keeping hold of a squirming Cory under his arm like a football. Nobody was getting in any trouble, it seemed. They were all laughing like there was no tomorrow. Including little Cory who didn’t seem to have any problem with being tucked under his father’s arm while Damian chased after Joe.
“Get back here, Joe!”
“No tickles, Da, no!”
Lily hung back just out of sight, so she could watch the three of them play. There was something about all her boys being together and having fun that made her smile. She hoped, as the years went by and these little ones of hers got older, that they still took time out to do exactly this. Have fun with each other. She wanted them to never take life too seriously. To find the good in even the bad. To live.
After all, hadn’t the rest of them suffered and sacrificed enough so that these kids—this next generation of Outfit kids—wouldn’t ever have to?
She thought so.
Sometimes, in moments like this when she had the chance to watch from afar, Joe and Cory really reminded her of Theo and Dino. Not that she remembered her brothers at that age, because she didn’t. But there was something in the way they looked, and how they acted with one another that just hit the feeling of it right on the head. Li
ke a memory she could feel, but couldn’t see in her mind.
It made her miss her oldest brother a great deal. She wished he could be here to see her kids grow up the way he watched her grow up. She never talked about it with Damian, or even her brother because well, Theo never asked. Maybe she just wasn’t ready to have that conversation, either.
Wounds like those healed, sure, but they were still sore to the touch.
Lily glanced upward—at the sky, to find the heavens out of reach. She supposed … as long as Dino was happy, then the rest didn’t matter. He was just another one of them who had suffered, and so, she knew he was another one who needed to have his peace.
Simple as that.
It was only Damian catching Joe finally with a triumphant whoop that brought her out of her musings. Both of her sons’ laughter filled up the yard, high and breathless. It skipped over the sand to her spot, filling her heart with a happiness like nothing before as Damian got both boys to the sand, and tickled one with each hand.
They had rules, though.
They were teaching boundaries.
The second the boys said no or stop, their father did just that. Because how would they ever learn to respect someone else’s body when as a child—even with something as simple as tickling—they had been taught their body wouldn’t be respected?
Damian scooped up both boys, and found the closest spot he could sit down with them. That just happened to be a log they’d all been using as a makeshift bench. Joe sat on one side of his father trying to catch his breath and grinning all the while, and Cory sat on the other side, smiling up at his dad like his whole world revolved around Damian.
Lily bet it did revolve around Damian, too.
Damian picked Cory up to set him in his lap, and Joe moved a little closer to his father as well. It struck Lily silent for a moment as she looked at her boys—one lighter-haired, and the other darker.
Day and night, really.
One quiet, the other, loud and proud.
She slipped the phone out of the pocket of her shawl as she came around the corner, and her three boys looked her way with wide smiles. She already had the phone up and ready to take a picture, her thumb hovering over the button to capture the perfect image in front of her.