Holiday Spice & Everything Nice

by Conn, Claudy

  I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and pulled my camera app up and had the camera face us so that we could take a selfie. I giggled when he refused to look at the camera and refused to take his eyes off of me. After taking a few pictures of myself, with Flynn staring at me or kissing my cheek or neck, I forwarded the pictures to him and set my phone down.

  “Now you have a way to see me while you’re gone.” I reached over and kissed him on the cheek. “It would have been great if you would have looked into the camera so that I would be able to see your handsome face while you’re gone.”

  He grabbed my phone and took a quick selfie of himself and coolly tossed my phone onto the floor and pulled me on top of him as he propped us both against the pillows on my bed.

  “Quit whining. You have a picture of this handsome face now.” He winked and leaned his forehead against mine.

  “You’re the one that’s whining.” I ran my finger playfully down his chest. “You don’t want to leave do you?” I pulled my head away from his as he quickly looked away. When he turned back towards me, he had a sad smile on his face.

  “We’ve only known each other a little over a week, but it feels like I’ve known you forever and I already miss you and haven’t even left yet.” He grabbed my hands and held them in his own and I could feel his body trembling with doubt. “I’m not in this alone am I… Precious?”

  He called me Precious.

  Knowing how I felt about it, he called me Precious.

  My father was the only person who ever called me by that name and it would irritate me when Flynn would call me by that name before, but now, I knew that he actually meant it as a term of endearment, like Baby, Sweetheart or Honey.

  I shook my head at him and leaned up and brushed my lips against his.

  “No, you’re not alone in this and I’m just as afraid as you are that we’re going too fast, but I know that I’ve never felt this way about anyone and I love the way that you make me feel.”

  “I’ve never been in a relationship before so you have an advantage here. Is this how you felt about Brett?” He prodded.

  “No. Not even close. With Brett, he chased me, and of course my first reaction to him was that he was cute, but I also felt that he was a pretty boy who only wanted one thing from me.” I let out a sigh. “Of course, he was after the ring, but he also took something from me that I regret giving him, but I did make him wait months for it and not until he asked me to marry him, but I still felt uneasy with him, as far as wondering if I loved him, and I didn’t understand why, until I met you. I’ve often wondered if I would have been able to have gone through with the wedding if he had actually shown up that day.” I admitted out loud for the first time. I grinned at him as I rose up and straddled him and planted another kiss on his lips. “With you, I feel like I’ve found the other half of myself that I didn’t know I was looking for.”

  The smoldering look in his eyes as he cradled my face in his hands, told me that I was finally going to get my Christmas present early and I don’t even have to beg for it.

  “You already know what’s about to happen, don’t you?” He pulled my face closer to his and laid a deep kiss on me as he rolled me over to his side and started stealthily unbuttoning my blouse.

  Yes!

  Finally.

  I wasn’t about to ruin the moment or take the lead and scare him off as I let him do with me what he wanted, enjoying the warm kisses up and down my neck and my collar bone and then my chest as he opened my blouse and applied little kisses on top of my breasts. I ran my fingers through his tousled hair and tugged his shirt out of his jeans and pulled it over his head and tossed it to the floor.

  After we were both naked, I got lost in his kisses and sweet whispers of love in my ear as I held onto him, urging him on as I matched his urgent pace, reveling in the act of love when he would slow down during the right moments and speed back up when I professed my love for him. Knowing that this wasn’t a goodbye, but more of a hello, this is where I want to be for the rest of my life, brought joyful tears to my eyes as we both reached our release at the same time.

  Nestled in Flynn’s arms after our sweet lovemaking session, I didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world as he kept kissing me on the forehead and on top of my head as I held on to him, not ready for him to leave.

  “I don’t know what I’m going to get you for Christmas now that I just gave you your present early.”

  I giggled and kissed him on his chest as he started running his fingers through my hair and caressing my bare back.

  “What you just gave me, you can give it to me again for Christmas and New Years, and every day from here on out if you want.” I raised my head up and looked him in the eyes and loved the broad dimpled grin on his face.

  He pulled my body up the length of his and I knew that it was time for him to leave and I knew that I wasn’t going to get any sleep before I had to get up for the Black Friday opening sale due to missing him.

  “I don’t want to leave you. I’m going to miss you like crazy.” He whispered.

  “I’m going to miss you, too, but I’ll be waiting for you when you come back home and it’ll be like you never left.”

  I rested my head on his chest and leaned up and kissed him on his jaw as he clenched it tight. When I rose up and stared down at him, his face was full of emotion.

  “Did I say something wrong?” I was immediately worried because he had that sad look in his eyes again, but he shook his head and gave me a reassuring grin.

  “It has been so long since I’ve had a place to call home. It’s just nice to finally have that again.”

  I leaned my head back and my heart went out to him over how lonely he has been since his mother died and now I knew where his mind has been.

  “This is your home now. I’m your home now, and I know that I have a crazy family, but they’re your crazy family now. Do you think you can handle all of us? We tend to be a little high maintenance at times.”

  He nodded and grinned at me as a tear slid down his cheek and I had to wipe away my own.

  “I can handle you and everyone else. As long as I have your love, forever, I can handle anything.”

  “Then you have it.” I thought back to the letter that he had brought me and I couldn’t help but to let out a chuckle. “This was what my father had planned all along, huh? He wanted you to sweep me off my feet and make me fall for you, didn’t he?”

  He nodded and grinned.

  “He didn’t come right out and say it like that, but he did hope that would happen and had given me his blessing to become his son in law on the off chance that I did sweep you off your feet.” He started shaking his head with a panicked look on his face. “I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t like me. I guess I would have had to go after Ruby.”

  “Over my dead body, Huckleberry Finn Flynn.” I punched him in the gut, making him double over onto his side, but he pulled me with him while trying to control his laughter.

  “Say that again, Precious.”

  “Over my dead body?” I asked, with a warning glare.

  “No, say my name.” he prodded.

  “Huckleberry Finn Flynn.” I said as a question.

  “I love the way you say my name, even when you’re pretending to be mad. Feel free to call me Huck.”

  I smirked at him. “You want to call me Precious so bad, don’t you?”

  He nodded and let out a sigh of relief.

  “Yes.” He admitted.

  I shook my head at him and let out a groan as he caressed my cheek with his hand.

  “The name fits you more than Gemma, to me anyway.”

  “Precious and Huck.” I rolled my eyes. “We sound like characters from a Disney movie.”

  “Precious.” He cooed.

  “Huck.” I snarled out as he leaned forward and rubbed his nose against mine to soothe me and sat up against the headboard.

  “Okay, before I leave, we need to talk about the ring and about w
hat you and your siblings are going to do with it. I imagine Brett will probably come back here sometime soon looking for it because I felt that he’s obsessed with the ring. Don’t you find it a little curious that he still had it after all this time and never sold it?” he asked.

  “I did think about that, but he had tried to sell it at first because that’s how Dad managed to track him down in Africa.”

  “True, but when he tossed it into the middle of the table, as a last resort to win the poker game, I could tell that he was more upset about losing the ring than he was about being dragged out of the room by the bodyguards. He screamed at me that he would find me and get it back from me.”

  Great. When I feel that I’ll never have to deal with Brett again, something always creeps up and changes the fact that I’ll never be free of him.

  “He’s the reason my parents are dead. Well, I am too for falling for him—“

  “No, don’t do that to yourself. His greed is the reason and there’s nothing that you could have done. He would have figured out another way to get his hands on it.” He got really still and I could tell that he had an idea, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not.”

  “Okay, what hair brained idea do you have and I can already tell that I’m not going to like it.” I shook my head reluctantly, knowing that I would do anything to get Brett to leave my family alone.

  I was all ears for the next half hour as Flynn gave me every detail for what he had planned and was amazed by how intelligent my man was and loved the plan that he had, to finally be rid of Brett for the rest of my life.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  One Year Later

  Christmas

  “I found it!” I yelled out so that Flynn would stop his search.

  I placed the newly found pacifier into my three-month-old daughter’s mouth and she immediately quit screaming in my arms.

  Flynn plopped down next to me on the couch and let out a long, loud sigh as he leaned down and caressed our daughter’s face with his index finger while she sucked on the pacifier with relief in her eyes.

  “Whew! Who knew that teething was so horrible? I don’t know who to feel bad for, her or us.” He grinned at his little mini-me, but then cringed. “Definitely her, my poor baby girl.”

  Anna Felicia, our daughter who was conceived last Christmas and is named after both of her grandmothers, is the spitting image of her father with her fiery red hair and green eyes. I let out a giggle when I saw that she couldn’t take her eyes off of her father and seems to be just as enamored with him as I am.

  “She loves you. Look at the way that she’s staring at you. You mesmerize her when you’re in the room and she never takes her eyes off of you.” I whispered as Flynn started cooing at our daughter who had her head tilted back in my arms so that she could look at him better.

  “Daddy loves you, Anna Banana.”

  Anna spit the pacifier out of her mouth and started blowing raspberries at her daddy and was giving him her biggest toothless grin.

  “Could you hold her while I put some pies in the oven? Everyone will be here in a few hours.” I didn’t wait for him to answer me and placed Anna in his arms and got up from the couch.

  I knew that he would entertain her until she got hungry, so I took advantage of the free time and got started on all of the pies that my siblings have requested.

  With Blue away at college this year, his only request was pumpkin pie and chocolate chip cookies. Ruby, who is traveling the world at the moment, but should be arriving home soon, has asked for apple pie and I’ve nominated Monica to make Onyx’s favorite cherry cheesecake since he has told me on many occasions that she makes it better than I do.

  They have been inseparable for as long as Flynn and I have been and got married a couple of months after Flynn and I and are expecting their first baby in the spring. I never in a million years would have thought that my best friend and annoying little brother would have ended up together after all these years, but they seem perfect for each other.

  After the jewelry store was broken into, not too long after Christmas last year, after we announced to the world that our family ring had returned to us, and Brett getting arrested for trying to steal the ring, we ended up selling the ring to a wealthy billionaire, who is a direct descendant of the King that the ring had originally belonged to. We decided not to take a chance for someone else to break into our shop or robbing our own houses in search of it and had the sale of the ring and the whole exchange let out to the public.

  Because of the sale of the ring, all of us and our great-great-grandchildren could actually get away with never working again for the rest of our lives, but we do, because that was how we were raised. Out of all of us, Ruby has decided to take a year off to travel before she starts back to school and who was I to tell her no. After losing our parents, everyone grieves differently and as long as she calls me every night to let me know that she’s safe, I can tell that she’s happier now.

  The break in was good for the jewelry store and Onyx and I came up with the idea to recreate a line that focused on the ring and we sell dozens of replica’s every week. Each of us has had one made and wear them every day in remembrance of our parents.

  After filling both pies, I heard a knock at the door and I knew exactly who it was because they are always early and by a few hours any time we invite them over. It has become pointless to give them a time for dinner because they’ve never honored it, but of course we never care.

  As soon as I opened the door, I was swooped up into Harold’s arms as Doris looked on with a grin on her face.

  “There’s my sweet Gemma. Where’s that granddaughter of ours?” Harold lowered his glasses and looked me square in the eyes. “She’s not napping is she?”

  I grinned and shook my head at him as I reached over and hugged Doris.

  “No, she’s awake and in the living room with her father.”

  They both left me in the kitchen and walked into the living room and I could hear their ooh’s and aah’s coming all the way into the kitchen.

  Harold and Doris Roberts have been our most loyal customers through the years and while I was pregnant with Anna, Doris had found me in the corner of our stock room bawling my eyes out one morning. She chalked my tears up to hormones but it was during our talk was when I realized that my tears were from missing my parents and especially my mother during my pregnancy and knowing that none of my children would have grandparents. While talking to Doris, she let it slip that she and Harold had never had children, but always wanted them and after suffering from many miscarriages, they had finally given up on ever having children and that the reason Harold gives her so much jewelry throughout the years is his way of spoiling her rotten. When I was joking and told her that she could adopt me and my siblings, Doris jumped at the chance and she and Harold has been our honorary parents and Anna’s honorary grandparents since that day.

  It’s as if they have always been in our lives and out of all of us, Blue seems to be the one that has really opened up more by having them around. They both go visit him once a month while he is away at his dorm room and take him out to dinner and a movie and spoil him rotten. Doris always sends him brownies and cookies and it pleases me so much that we all have a set of stand-in parents and grandparents for our children and future children.

  I jumped out of my skin when Flynn pressed his lips against the back of my neck while I was standing in front of the kitchen sink.

  I swatted him with the dish towel and pulled his head down to mine and kissed him on the lips.

  “Sorry, Precious. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my chin on his chest and looked up and into his gorgeous green eyes.

  “It’s all right. I missed you. I’m assuming that Anna is getting spoiled at the moment?” I asked, already knowing the answer as he nodded.

  “As I was walking out, she was cooing and blowing bubbles at them. She’s getting a little restless
and hungry though, so,” he pointed at my breast with a jealous look, “Momma better get ready to take a break in a few.”

  I let out a giggle.

  “You can have them back in a few months. If I didn’t know that you loved her so much, I would have to say that you were jealous of your own child.”

  He growled into my ear. “Not jealous, but you have no idea how much I miss your breasts.” He nibbled my earlobe, making me weak in the knees, as always. “I’m just happy that you can give her something that no one else can. Anna definitely knows who her Momma is and you happen to be the best mom in the world for my child and future children. Tell me again how we lucked out with this life?”

  He didn’t give me a chance to answer as his lips attacked mine and his fingers were in my hair, pulling me in closer. I don’t think that I will ever not be attracted to my husband and all I want to do right now is pull him into our bedroom and spend the rest of the day in bed.

  He pulled away and tried to catch his breath, as did I. When we could both breathe again, he picked me up and sat me down on the kitchen counter and I couldn’t help but to laugh because I knew that anyone could show up or Harold and Doris could walk in at any minute.

  “I love you, Precious.”

  I grinned at him and nodded my head and snuck in a quick kiss again.

  “I love you, Huck.”

  He lowered his head and placed his forehead against mine and we stayed like that for a few minutes, just enjoying each other’s company.

  “Do you think that we could sneak out of here for a little bit, when Ruby shows up so that I can give you one of your Christmas presents early?”

  I pulled away and glanced at the Christmas tree and narrowed my eyes at him.

  “It’s not under the tree?” I was curious and even more when he shook his head at me.

  Having the abundance of money that we both have, gift giving tends to be hard because neither of us want for anything, and other than the basic comments that we say to each other through the year of, ‘oh, I would love to have that,’ ‘I love that jacket or blouse,’, the holidays and birthdays are usually pretty easy and it’s hard to shock each other, gift wise.