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Chapter Thirty-Four
My wife’s mood change was nothing short of miraculous following a couple of good orgasms and a text from Logan to say he’d do Christmas at our place.
It had meant skipping Christmas at my parents. I felt that was worth it to have Billie and Colby together. I wasn’t foolish enough to think this would be the same every year, but I guessed one Christmas at a time was enough for the time being. It was a sensitive time for all, and after Logan had agreed I’d felt weirdly okay with it.
“Are you out of your mind?” James asked, when he dropped in with some Christmas gifts for us all.
“As long as Billie and Colby are happy, I can cope, besides, Trish is coming as well. Her parents are spending time at Franco’s parents, but as they’re in Vermont she hadn’t wanted to make the trip up there.”
“Do you need any more backup?”
“Backup?” I repeated and stared into his eyes with a frown.
“Yeah, I could always come and spend Christmas Day here as well. Think about it, the more people there are the less of an ass Billie’s ex is likely to be.”
James and I stood silent for a long minute, and I considered what we’d been through, how far we’d come, and that he’d been missing from our Christmas table at home for the previous couple of years and I nodded. “All right, but you get to break the news to our mom.”
A grin spread his lips and he laughed. “I know she’ll be pissed, but when I tell her why I’m coming here instead, I think she’ll be shocked I want to do the right thing,” he replied with a sheepish grin. I realized then and there I no longer felt anything over what he’d done with Charlotte, and I was truly past that chapter in my life.
Tricia had always been fiercely protective of Billie’s feelings, but with this instance she had thought it a crazy idea as well, but who the fuck cared what other people thought, it was Billie, Colby and me at the center of it all, not them. Once the babies were part of the mix, I figured Colby would be the most affected as he was the one who had to leave the rest of us on alternate weeks while his siblings remained at home.
* * *
When Christmas Eve arrived Billie was a bundle of nerves as doubts crept in as to what Christmas with Logan would bring.
“Relax, darlin’, we’ve got this,” I said, nodding toward Tricia who sat at the counter, a huge glass of red wine in her hand. Tricia grinned wickedly like she couldn’t wait for the day to come.
“Sawyer’s right, Billie. Logan wouldn’t dare start anything with all of us here. Plus Colby’s the reason you’re spending the day together, so he’d be stupid to do anything that might jeopardize his happiness. It’ll be fine, and let’s face it he’s not coming until 11:00 a.m. and he’ll be gone by 6:30 or 7 p.m., right? Look upon it as a shift at work, with tons of gifts and a huge pile of food. You could even take a nap afterward, that would cut down your time with him.”
I nodded and continued preparing the vegetables to soak in cold water. That had been Billie’s idea for a stress-free Christmas morning when we only had to cook them. I glanced toward her and noticed she’d gone quiet. She was stuffing the turkey in a pretty rough manner.
“No need to wonder who you’re thinking about,” I teased, watching Billie cram in an apple and shove copious amounts of sage and onion stuffing up the poor bird’s butt. Tricia spat out the mouthful of wine she had just taken in. “Just what we need, an ex and a lush who can’t hold her drink,” I joked, and the tension immediately dropped from Billie’s shoulders.
She sighed. “You’re right, it’s just that I know him …”
“Knew him,” I corrected, as at one time she’d never thought he’d have cheated on her or drank himself unconscious.
“Okay, I’m not going to get all bent out of shape about him,” she muttered before she burst out laughing. “Like I look totally hot and in perfect shape right now,” she said, waving her hand at her bump.
“I love the shape of you. I’ve said this before. Nothing is ever going to stop me wanting to touch your incredible body,” I said. Tricia sighed as I continued to stare at my wife.
“I’ve always been dead set against long-term boyfriends, but I have to say, Sawyer, you make a pretty mean partner. You’re a lucky girl, Billie. Then again, I knew you were both firing on all cylinders the first time I saw you together on that stage. Damn the pheromones were thick in the air that night.”
Billie chuckled and ran her hands under the faucet, squeezed some soap and lathered them up. “Just think if you hadn’t dragged me out on that date, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
“Fate. I keep telling her, but she won’t listen,” I said, as the door buzzer went off, and I glanced at the oven clock. “That’ll be James,” I mumbled, and made my way over to the intercom to buzz him up.
“Thought he was coming tomorrow,” Tricia said, and I eyed her suspiciously because the shrill tone in her voice had made her sound slightly alarmed. Then I remembered we hadn’t been expecting him until he’d texted me before Tricia arrived and that’s when figured she may have been the one surprised instead.
Carrying another pile of gifts, and dragging some more in a sack, he scurried into the living room and dumped them all on the couch. “Fuck, it’s freezing in that underground parking garage,” he moaned as he shrugged himself out of his coat and followed me into the kitchen.
“Hey, you guys,” he greeted before his surprised eyes fell on Tricia. “Tricia,” he said with a nod, wandered slowly over to Billie and kissed her cheek. Usually I bristled whenever he went near her, but today was the first time I never had that feeling. All I saw was my brother saying ‘hi’ to my wife, and just like that, he wasn’t a threat to my happiness anymore.
After he’d kissed Billie’s cheek, he rounded the countertop to where Tricia sat and did the same to her, but his touch appeared a little more intimate with her compared to how he’d greeted my wife.
I’d always been an observant guy and noted as Tricia held her wine glass in one hand, the other rested on the countertop, and when my brother leaned in to peck her on the cheek he’d placed his hand on top of hers.
For a few seconds I had a flashback to James the player, the guy with all the right moves with women, the beguiling playboy with the charm and natural ability to hypnotize females. Looking to Tricia to gauge her reaction it was clear she was deadpan, like what he’d done had gone totally unnoticed. I smirked as James dragged his hand away and took the barstool next to her.
