Page 79 of Small-Town Secrets
Standing by the door, I watched my son and my mate interact. Aaron wished Chris a good night, and Chris responded with 'Goodnight, Dad,' echoing what his twin had said only moments before.
Aaron pretended like that didn't surprise him, but I had to suppress a laugh at the dazed look on his face as he stepped out of the room.
"He called me Dad," he muttered under his breath while I closed the door.
"He sure did." I turned to Aaron with my brightest smile. "Why shouldn't he? You are his dad."
"I'm not saying that he shouldn't."
"I know you're not." I took his arm. "C'mon, Santa, I promised you something."
He laughed and led me lead him to the bedroom. "Are you saying I'm going to get lucky tonight?"
"You totally are," I said as I pressed my body to his and gave him a kiss. A long, lingering kiss that I infused with all my love for the alpha before me because I knew that as long as I was with Aaron?
The lucky one was me.
34
Aaron
The children wereup at the crack of dawn the next morning and they were loud enough about it to make sure that Laurence and I weren't going to sleep in either.
By the time we stepped into the living room, still half-asleep and barely ready to function yet, they'd torn the wrappings of all the presents, making the floor look almost like a warzone—if the war had happened between thePowerpuff Girlsand theCare Bears,anyway.
Tyler raced a toy car across the room.
I was happy to see him happy until I caught him trying to run it down Casanova's back, at which point I grabbed him by the back of his pajamas to stop him. "The dog is not a race track, okay?"
He nodded and I let him go again.
Meanwhile, his brother sat cross-legged underneath the Christmas tree and built a tower out of a box of Legos. Sarge was curled up by his legs and regarded me with a sleepy look. Apparently, he wasn't ready for it to be morning yet either.
"I need coffee," Laurence muttered, and I followed him into the kitchen, nearly running into him when he stopped dead in his tracks the moment he opened the kitchen door. "Who left these flowers here?"
I grinned.
I'd almost forgotten that I'd readied this surprise for him the night before after he was dead to the world. I'd come down here and gotten the bouquet out of its hiding place so he would find it in the morning. "Must have been Santa," I said.
"Thank you!" He turned and gave me a kiss before stepping up to the table to marvel at the flowers. "White lilies! How did you know?"
"You told me what flowers you liked the day I came into the shop. Don't you remember? You kind of looked like you wanted someone to buy you flowers too..."
"I did," he admitted, and with a soft smile he added, "I kind of wanted you to buy me flowers."
"Yeah?" I grinned. "I hope you like your gift then."
"I love it." Laurence gave me a kiss.
"The flowers aren't all."
"They're not?" Laurence tilted his head at me. He looked so adorably puzzled that I almost wanted to bop his nose.
"Take a look at the card."
"The card?" Laurence seemed to notice it only now. "Oh." He picked it up, and then his eyes grew wide when he saw the voucher inside. "You didn't!"
"I sure did."
