Page 26 of Almost Christmas in Paradise

“Are you done?” I ask. “First of all, Jelani didn’t make that pie. His mom did. Pies are her specialty. And second, you’re right, baby. This isyourfamily.” I step into his arms, wrap my own around his neck, and look up at him. “I’myourwife and the mother ofyourchildren. No one is a threat toyourfamily. And third, you don’t want to start a fight you can’t finish,” I warn.

He looks down at me and gives me a quick peck on the lips. “First,” he says, “I don’t like that you’re so familiar with their family’s dynamics that you know pies are his mother’s specialty. I don’t give a damn who made that pie. You aren’t eating it. Second, you’re right. You, Carter, and Priya are mine. Third, no fighting.” He raises both hands up. “We don’t fight anymore, but I can’t stand that guy. If he had it his way, he would be here with you and my son right now, and Priya would not exist.”

I sigh, reach up, and cup his cheeks. “But baby, I’m married to you.” I throw those words back at him. Those are the words he said to me whenever I mentioned his former fiancée. “You’re here with me, our son, our daughter, and our baby that we conceived. Calm down, okay?” I pull him down and give him a soft kiss on his lips. He kisses me back, and I feel some of the tension drift away. “I love you,” I whisper. “I won’t touch that pie,” I promise.

“Thank you. I love you too, baby girl,” he says back.

“Great. We all love each other. Can we eat now?” my dad says from the other side of the room. “Everyone’s seated, including that fool.”

My husband takes my hand, escorts me to the table, and pulls my chair out for me. Wyatt managed to find a seat right next to Audrey, but that puts him between her and her father.

We join my family at the table, and unlike Drake’s mother’s Thanksgiving, we don’t say what we’re thankful for. Uncle Titus says grace and we eat.

Chapter 22

Drake

I hear Carter’s giggles. Priya crawls on the bed, climbs on top of me, and whacks me in the forehead. This is her preferred way of waking me up. I pop one eye open and she grins.

“Dada,” she says while she bounces on top of me.

“It’s tttiiimme,” my wife shrieks at the top of her lungs. I pop open the other eye and look at my family. Nia is in her usual Friday after Thanksgiving red jumper with a thick black belt around it. I can see a little bulge in her belly, and when she gets close to me, I put my hand on it. “Get up. We have breakfast and the tree will be here in an hour.”

Carter takes my hand to help pull me out of bed.

After getting home last night, I helped put the kids to bed. Nia was exhausted as she usually is in her first trimester, and after she went to sleep, I worked for a few hours. Thankfully, she was out cold when I got to bed, and she’s none the wiser.

“Give me ten minutes, and I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

After brushing my teeth and taking the quickest shower in history, I find them in the kitchen with a very impressive breakfast spread. I grab my wife and kiss her with all the passion and love I have for her. I take it a step further and put both hands on her butt. It’s not until Carter giggles that I remember we’re not alone.

“Breakfast looks great,” I say. “I appreciate that you didn’t try to cook it yourself.”

She swats my behind and gestures to the table.

“Daddy, I want Spiderman to live here,” Carter says while he runs around.

Priya tries to follow him, but she’s slow and falls on her butt. Nia picks her up and hands her to me. After strapping her into her highchair, we sit and enjoy breakfast together as a family.

A short time later, our Christmas tree, a twenty-foot Fraser fir is delivered. Once it’s put in the living room, in front of the bay window, Carter runs around it with excitement for the upcoming holidays. We’re the only ones inside, but there’s a crew of people outside putting up our Christmas lights and wreaths on the front door and every front-facing window. For the first time this season, I’m getting excited for Christmas.

Once breakfast is done, Nia cleans up while I play with the kids. Then it’s time to trim the tree. It’s so tall, I have to get a ladder to put the ornaments on the top. Carter and Priya work the bottom and Nia works the middle. It’s a mess of ornaments from both our childhoods and mementos Carter made in pre-school. There are several ornaments that we made out of pictures of us. There are individual pictures and family photos. The tree will be a mess, but while we’re gone tomorrow, we’ll have a professional rearrange it so it can look picture-perfect.

“Remember our first Christmas as a married couple?” I ask my wife.

“You mean my first Christmas of excess?” she asks. “The Paradise Family is insane during the holidays, do you know that?”

“We sure are.” I tap her ass and kiss the top of her head. “And you’re one of us.”

“The very idea of having a decorator just for Christmas is nuts. My mom thought I lost my mind when I told her.”

“What did you tell her for?” I ask, and she rolls her eyes.

By the time we’re done with the tree, Priya has fallen asleep, and Nia has put her in one of the many bassinettes we keep around the house. Carter lies on the floor under the tree and looks up at it in awe.

Nia returns with a small white box, and I already know what’s in it. Each year since we’ve been married, she has a special ornament made. It's always a family picture of us. We put one on our tree, and she gives one to each of our parents.

The first year she did it, she used a picture of the three of us taken in her parents’ backyard. I remember that day. It was fall and the leaves had turned into shades of red and orange. There’s a forest of trees behind us, and the three of us are smiling.

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