Page 45 of Reindeer Flames
"Naming her was easy," Silver said. "We only had one girl's name picked out. What are we going to name him?"
His eyes were a beautiful lavender, like his dragon. The unusual color made him look wise beyond his years. "Chiron," I said. "Like the centaur." And the comet.
"Chiron." Silver grinned down at him. "That's a lovely name for a dragon. Better than Amethyst, anyway."
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"We could give him a middle name," Silver said. "Like the humans." Neither of our families had middle names, but we could be the first.
"Chiron Amethyst and Biela Pearl."
Later that night, I messaged Gold, who was set to bring Silver's emerald ring with her tomorrow."Are you able to adjust the ring for Silver? We need to add two more stones."
"Of course!"I could almost hear her laughing."Anything for you two."
For the first time, I understood the weight of those words. I would do anything for Silver, Biela, and Chiron, too. I already loved them unconditionally. My parents had probably felt the same way about me, their only child, but they hadn't stood up to Granddad and Bopp until I stood up for myself.
I would do better for my children. I would do anything.
CHAPTER 23
SILVER
Our babies'first Christmas was small and relaxed. We had breakfast together and opened presents when Hart returned home, and then we napped until it was time to visit his parents at their house. Gold and Laurie joined us there, and we had a wonderful time with our small, blended family.
This year would be more of an ordeal. Encke and Norris had reconciled with Hart's granddad, Hale, and were hosting the extended family at their house for Christmas dinner.
"He won't be around much longer," Encke said when Hart outright refused to attend.
"He's a horrible influence on impressionable minds." Hart covered Biela's ears when he spoke.
Encke laughed. "You're doing a great job raising them. They're smart enough to make their own decisions about their nasty, mean great-granddad. Right, honey?"
Biela laughed. "No." That was her favorite word, and on some days, her only word.
"That's right," Hart teased. "You tell him no."
Chiron wriggled in my lap. He wanted down to play with Encke and Norris's dog, Buster, a rescue they'd adopted earlier in the year. They were the reason we had a rescue puppy cominghome with us the first week in January once she'd had all her shots. Our yard was perfect for a dog, and Hart had six months off to train her.
I usually loved Christmas, but this year, I dreaded it. I'd never met Hale, but his reputation preceded him. If he was anywhere near Bopp's asinine behavior, we would probably butt heads.
"We will kick him out if we must," Norris said. "He promised he would be on his best behavior."
"He doesn't even know what that means." Hart sighed and met my gaze across the table. "What do you say?"
"I'll try anything once." I usually reserved those words for food, but meeting unpleasant family seemed an appropriate risk to take when our children were still too young to remember.
The Christmas season passed so quickly, there was barely time to enjoy it. We took the kids to the tree lighting ceremony, and they each got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted, which was silence. They were both too shy to speak to Santa. He touched his finger to his nose and whispered in their ears, and they both lit up with smiles before running back to us.
"What did Santa say?" I asked Chiron.
"Don't ask him that," Hart said. "It's a secret!"
"Ee-krit!" Chiron repeated.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know." There was so much I didn't know about the Santas, and Christmas.
Having a flying reindeer for a mate meant everyone invited us to Christmas Village festivities, including a party on Christmas Eve eve. Gold came to our house to babysit, and we walked to the party at the hub. Instead of looking for a quiet locker room, we danced until my feet ached and Hart looked like he would fall asleep standing.
