Page 24 of A Surprise for the Holidays
She huffed this time. “—got me a trampoline and I’ve been doing tricks. Come see!” She grabbed his hand and tugged, but he stood firm and gently pulled her in the direction of the living room instead.
“Come see what I’ve got you,” he said, hoping he didn’t soundtoonervous.
AJ was going to kill him.
Sure enough, when he carefully slid the box around from the back of the tree and helped her open it, revealing the grey ball of fur inside, AJ groaned, even as Ava squealed and leaped into Bailey’s lap, pressing kisses all over his cheeks.
“I love her!” she cried, having spied the pink collar around its tiny neck. “Daddy, Bailey gotted—gotme a kitten!”
“I can see that,” AJ did not sound impressed. “Why don’t you play with the kitten and think of a name for her while I go…uh…thankBailey privately, yeah?”
“Don’t let her outside,” Bailey added as he allowed AJ to drag him out of his chair and down the familiar hallway.
Bailey had been expecting to be torn a new one the second the door shut. He was not expecting to be pushed onto the bed and then kissed within an inch of his life.
“You are a right pain in the arse, you know that?” AJ breathed heavily when he finally let up his kiss assault. “I should be mad about you doing that but…fuck, how can I? You’ve made her day. Her year, even. It’s almost like you love her as much as I do, and that…that’s such a fucking turn on, pet.”
Bailey shrugged sheepishly. “Honestly, I was just gonna get her a car for her Barbies like we talked about. But the RSPCA had a pop-up stall outside Kmart, and I saw the kitten and I couldn’t leave her there. And you’re right: I do love Ava. She’s an awesome kid, and the more time I spend with her and with her sexy dad” —he winked playfully— “the more I love you both. So, I got the kitten, and I promise that I’ll come over and do the litter trays like we joked about and—babe?” Bailey cocked his head as he looked up at AJ, who had stilled and was staring at him with an unreadable expression. “You okay? Please don’t be mad about the cat. I know I should’ve asked—”
“You love me?” AJ’s quiet question was almost a whisper.
Bailey’s throat ran dry, and his heart pounded. He went back over his ramblings in his head and realised that he had blurted the confession in the middle of it all. He wished that he knew what AJ was thinking, but there wasn’t any way he was going to retract the admission.
“I do,” he replied. “I love you. And I know that you’re my coach and it’s not…well, it’s not great, is it? But I was thinking of asking about a transfer or—”
“Don’t you fucking dare. You’re the team captain here. Your career—”
“Means jack shit if I have to give you up to keep it.”
AJ shook his head. “No. No way. We’ll work something else out, but I’m not letting you walk away from the peak of your career for me. And, no, I’m not giving you up, either, in case I’m not making myself clear.” AJ’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he seemed to steel himself. “I…I love you, too, Bailey. You and Ava have been the best things to ever happen to me.”
The relief which washed over Bailey was immense. His limbs felt like jelly, and he grabbed for AJ’s hands, then pulled him back down so they could kiss again, this time soft, and slow, and sweet.
Resting his forehead against AJ’s, he said, “Let’s go have a proper Aussie Christmas, then, yeah? And afterwards” —he smirked and placed his lover’s hand over the bulge of his cock— “you can get your present, too.”
Chapter 16
August
After convincing Ava that the kitten, which she had named Lulu, would be fine on her own inside while they ate lunch, AJ found himself being told to sit and relax as Bailey organised their meal. It was nothing like the roasts and glazed hams he’d grown up eating back home. Instead, Bailey arranged large bowls of salads —a green salad, a pasta salad, and a potato salad— and a bowl of cooked prawns on ice over the surface of the outdoor dining table, then added a platter of sliced ham as well. As if that weren’t enough food, he also fired up the barbeque and sizzled sausages and steaks, and sliced pineapple rounds, too.
“You do realise there are only three of us and Ava’s barely going to eat any of this,” AJ said, stunned at the feast which had accumulated within what seemed like only minutes.
“Haven’t you heard of Christmas leftovers?” Bailey rolled his eyes and poured them each a glass of white wine, and Ava one of apple juice. AJ watched as the glasses fogged over with condensation nearly immediately in the heat of the Queensland summer.
Bailey took his seat across from Ava, with AJ between them at the head of the table and held up his glass for a toast. “Merry Christmas!” he declared. “Thank you for sharing your first Christmas as a family with me.”
AJ moved to clink their glasses together, but Ava said, “But you’re our family, too.” She pinned AJ with an imploring look. “Right, Daddy? That’s why Bailey sleeps in your bed sometimes, too?”
Bailey made a strangled sound at the back of his throat while AJ stared back at his daughter, agog. “Well…that’s…it’s just…”
“It’s okay,” she smiled brightly and stretched her little body over the mountains of food, tapping her plastic cup against Bailey’s suspended wine glass, then AJ’s. “My friend Bernie where I used to go to school had two daddies, too. I was jealous, ’cause I had no daddies. But now I have two, too. I asked Santa at the shopping centre if I could call Bailey my daddy, too, and he said yes, and then Bailey gotted me Lulu and only mummies and daddies buy their children kittens and puppies, so that proved it.”
Bailey was distinctly choking on air at that point, but all AJ could say was, “Got. Baileygotyou a kitten.” Then he gave himself a little shake and turned to face his lover, not sure what to say. It wasn’t as though Bailey hadn’t said that he loved Ava, or that he hadn’t known that proclaiming a desire for a serious future with AJ would include his daughter, too. But to go fromdating a dad to being considered one? Within the span of a couple of months? “You don’t have to—”
“It’s not too fast for you?” Bailey asked him, and AJ was stunned by the hope and genuine yearning in his striker’s eyes. “I know it hasn’t been that long, and I’ve overstepped a lot already, so—”
“Just kiss already,” Ava demanded. “I’m hungry.”
