Page 29 of Deck the Halls with Cowboys
“Yeah, man, we understand. We just needed to know,” he said.
“Are they not going to make it?” Diana asked, putting the pieces together.
I moved over to her and plucked a piece of the sugar cookie dough out of the bowl. “No, their flight got delayed in Dallas.”
Abbie emerged from the hall then, rolling her eyes. “Why did I fall in love with a man who doesn’t know how to put up a Christmas tree?”
“I heard that!” Beau yelled. “It ain’t me; it’s this stupid stand.”
“Yeah, we’d love to have you and Jackie. Anytime,” Denver said, still pacing.
“Can I have my phone back now?” I called as Mase rounded the island to come to me.
Denver paused, turned, patted me on the top of my head. “No,” he answered, giving me his back again.
My jaw dropped as Diana said, “Mags knows how to put up a tree. He cut ours down and put it all up while I was in court.”
Valerie hummed, smiling widely at the grumpy cowboy. “That was sweet of you.”
“I’m two seconds away from burning this entire fucking place to the ground,” he deadpanned, his jaw tight.
Abbie did a double take as I popped the cookie dough into my mouth. “I see that thing that crawled up your ass is still taking up residence.”
He looked at the journalist, staring at her for a few beats before he looked down at Diana, who was pressing down a Santa cookie cutter. “You said there would be food.”
Diana gestured to the unbaked cookies. “This is food.”
“No, Firefly, this is the fifth circle of hell.”
“Har, har!”
I turned, finding NJ leaning away from Mase, her chubby little arms stretched out toward me. She still couldn’t get herMs out, and I secretly hoped she never would. Har, har was just too cute coming from her.
I beamed at the sweet angel. “Hello, my sweet little sugar plum,” I cooed, reaching for her. “You coming to see me before Dianasnatches you up?”
My husband jerked her away from me, stepping back. “It’s still my turn.”
“Mason, it’s been an hour,” Val reminded him from behind me as I closed the distance between us. “We share in this house.”
“No the fuck we don’t,” all the cowboys said at the same time.
The girls and I shared a look.
“Give me my niece!” I demanded, returning my attention to the issue at hand.
My husband pursed his lips, pondering. After a second, he clicked his tongue and winked at me. “No.”
“Mason Langston!”
“Harmony Langston,” he purred, grinning down at me as I put my hands around NJ’s little body. She leaned into me and as I plucked her out of his arms, setting her on my hip, I whispered, “Are you going to be this selfish when Micah gets home?”
No one could hear me, thank God. They were all too busy bickering over cookies and Christmas trees.
Mase’s eyes darkened. His arm shot out, banding around my waist and yanking me against him. NJ giggled and bounced in my hold as I looked up at my love, my eyes searching his, stomach sinking. “What is it?” I murmured. “No one heard me.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “You said his name.”
I could feel my throat swelling then, my heart about to explode in my chest. “Yes,” I rasped. I hadn’t said our son’s name out loud yet. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I was wildly afraid that he would be ripped away from us, that something would happen and the adoption wouldn’t go through, even though we’d signed all the paperwork. Micah was ours, but his foster family wanted to spend Christmas with him. They’d already bought him presents, and we didn’t have the heart to tell them no. Not after everything they’d done for him. That was the only reasonour boy wasn’t here.
