Page 109 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

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logan

The first boardmeeting I ever attended was the most nerve-racking day of my life. There I was, a twenty-something video game geek who had barely any idea what he was doing when it came to running a corporation, sitting in front of titans of industry. I think I sweated through my suit that day.

Those nerves are nothing compared to the ones I’m feeling now as I pull into Maeve’s childhood home on Christmas Day.

“Relax,” she whispers. “They’re going to love you.”

“I’ve never met parents before,” I say. “Let alone siblings.”

Maeve takes my hand in hers as I put the SUV in park. “My Dad is the most relaxed man on the planet. He’ll just want to talk stocks. My mother will smother you because she’s just happy I’m not going to die alone. The sisters won’t let you breathe, they’ll be asking you so many questions.”

“What about your brother?”

“He’s the wild card. On paper, you two should get along swimmingly. But I can also see him trying to assert some sort of fake dominance. Just roll with it. He doesn’t mean anything by it. And as a last resort, start talking to him about your plane. He seemed oddly fascinated by that.”

“Good to know.”

Today has been…surreal. It’s been years since I’ve had a proper Christmas. Growing up, it was a day with a few presents under the tree and everyone waiting on pins and needles for my parents to start fighting. In college, I never left for holiday, choosing to stay in the dorms they kept open for students who couldn’t travel. As adults, I’ve occasionally gone with Kat to visit her family, but always felt like an odd man out.

But this morning? This morning felt like a dream. Jayce ran into our bedroom—yes, my wish came true and my bedroom is now the one I share with Maeve—to announce that it’s Christmas and that Santa came. I felt like we had just gone to sleep, and in reality, I wasn’t wrong, considering it was six-thirty in the morning and Maeve and I didn’t finish wrapping and setting up until after one.

Maeve, though, being the thoughtful, yet exhausted, mother she is, came up with an idea so she could get five more minutes of sleep. She sent Jayce back downstairs with the directions of grabbing all of our stockings. He was to get them, bring them to our room, and we were going to open the presents in our stockings from bed. Jayce’s eyes lit up at the idea, and the kid went sprinting out of the room. Maeve went back to sleep for five minutes. I figured my energy was best used to make Maeve coffee, grab juice for Jayce and tea for me, and to make sure Jayce was able to carry everything.

We then spent the morning cuddled in bed, unwrapping the small presents in our stockings before going down and watching Jayce rip through the larger items under the tree.

Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child is truly a thing of wonder. The excitement he got with every gift. How he wanted to inspect every single toy and begin playing with it right away, Maeve having to remind him that he had others to open. Watching him jump up and down for the new bicycle and wanting to ride it in the living room.

But the biggest highlight for me, and I realize I’m biased, was his reaction to the newest, one-of-a-kind, SpaceCraft action figure I had developed specifically for him—of course with help from my lead designer. It’s of a character we’ve never made a doll or action figure of, and it’s one of Jayce’s favorites. Seeing his eyes light up is a memory I’m never going to forget. Nor is the hug that I received after he jumped onto my lap to thank me.

It’s been a Christmas morning like no other. And I have a feeling that trend is going to continue on as I meet Maeve’s family.

“Let’s go!” Jayce yells. “It’s Christmas!”

We laugh as Jayce expertly lets himself out of his seatbelt and opens the door, sprinting to Maeve’s parents’ front door and letting himself right in. I know we need to follow, but I have one more question that I didn’t want to ask in front of Jayce that Maeve and I haven’t talked about.

“What are we telling them?”

After the Christmas party, there wasn’t a magazine or gossip column in the world that wasn’t putting together some sort of story with the headline, “The new Mr. and Mrs. Matthews hard launch relationship with charity party.” None of them said anything bad, or accusatory of our speedy marriage, but you can’t walk through a grocery line, according to Kat and Maeve, and not see our faces plastered on the cover of a magazine.

Her family knows, and thankfully, they haven’t pushed her too hard for details. However, I have a feeling that’s not going to happen now that everyone is in the same room.

Maeve takes in and lets out a deep and thoughtful breath. “I hate lying to my family. And frankly, they know something is up. They aren’t dumb, and they know me. They know I wouldn’t do something like get married without a reason. Quinn has clocked us since the first day. Stella sniffed out your PR relationships before we met. So, if it’s okay with you, and only if theconversation comes up, I’d like to tell them. We can trust them. They won’t blab. If it’s one thing the Banks family does well, it’s having each other’s backs. But only if it’s okay with you.”

I lean in and kiss Maeve, just a small one, before pulling back and letting our foreheads rest against each other. “I’ll follow your lead. If you’re comfortable with it, then so am I. But Love? I need you to know something.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m in this. I know we said that this would last until we didn’t need it anymore. Until you figured out the custody and I had my situation under control. But I love you. I love you and Jayce and this family we created in a blink of an eye. I want more Christmases like this morning. I want birthdays and vacations and lazy Sundays. I want it all.”

“Logan—”

“Let me finish,” I say, wanting to make sure I get everything out that I need to. “I love you. When we walk inside that house, I want your family to know that I love you and that I’m your husband in every sense of the word, not just on paper. That I’ll be?—”

Maeve cuts off my speech in the best way possible—her lips on mine.

“What I was going to say is that I love you, too. That I know we still have a lot to figure out, and we did this completely backward. Have we even gone out on a real date? Anyway, that’s beside the point. I’m starting to catch up. And…I love you too, Logan Matthews.”

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