Page 16 of Home For Christmas

Jasper must have noticed because his smile turned tender. “Dare, it’s okay. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine going to a gay bar. I’m with two men—if I can’t go to a gay club, we’ve got a problem.”

Harrison’s head bobbed up and down in agreement. “For sure. We went back to The Stick Pony a few months ago and had a blast. Let me tell you, these two draw a lot of attention.”

I turned to Harrison and narrowed my eyes. “You never told me that!”

His cheeks went red and his eyes had scrunched up as he tried to suppress his laughter. “I don’t tell you everything.”

“And here I thought I was your best friend!” I mock pouted.

He lifted a shoulder. “I tell you most things. I just don’t tell you about every sexual encounter I have with your brother. I know you and Ty share all that, but sometimes you need to learn what an overshare is.”

“Eww.” Ty and I wrinkled up our noses. We’d both been to The Stick Pony, we’d both had encounters there, and we both knew all too well how gross the bathroom was.

Harrison chuckled. “Don’t touch the floors, don’t touch the walls, and it’s okay.”

Exaggerating my disgust at the idea, I stuck out my tongue. “Well, since you three are so freaky already, I guess I don’t need to give you that giant dildo I bought for you.”

Daddy choked again. “I need to remember to not eat or drink for the next two days. At least if you all are around.” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe we were having the conversation. “Buddy, were you naughty?”

“Giant dildo?” Harrison squeaked, but instead of looking horrified, his eyes were twinkling with excitement.

Greg’s eyebrow cocked high on his forehead. “Tell me more.”

“There’s a married couple that does a lot of amateur porn and has a huge following. Some company cast their dicks together as a DP dildo. I know it’s something Harrison has been talking about and thought it would be helpful… and fun.”

“You all really have zero boundaries,” Declan said with a shake of his head, though Ty looked more than a little intrigued by the dildo. “Greg, dude, I feel sorry for you. You get it twice as much. You’re dating Derek’s brother and best friend.”

“How about that nap?” Harrison asked. “I’m suddenly feeling extra tired. And maybe a little extra needy.”

“And on that note!” Daddy said abruptly, not so subtly stopping the conversation in its tracks. “It’s time for me to put this one down for a nap if he’s going to be functioning enough for a night out.” He shook his head. “Just try to keep your sexcapades down to a dull roar.”

Chapter 6

Colt

December 12th

Clubbing with Derek and his brothers was nothing like going to a bar when I’d been a young adult. Derek had chosen a ridiculously snug pair of jeans that were lower cut than I was used to him wearing, and paired it with a red onesie that stretched tight across his chest and stomach. The thing was nearly a second skin and, thankfully, didn’t look like anything more than a snug T-shirt, but it did have the words Santa’s Naughty Elf printed across the front. I’d rolled my eyes but had somehow ended up with a green shirt with the word Santa written across it. He’d asked me to pull his hair up but then had topped his head with a headband with reindeer antlers sticking up from it. It was gaudy but Derek loved it.

Ty, however, came out of his room in a ridiculously small candy-cane-striped tank top that left his belly exposed, jeans cut lower than I thought possible, and a scrap of red fabric sticking out the top that I was pretty sure he’d been trying to convince Declan was underwear. He’d gone a step further with some shimmery makeup. I didn’t want to know what the guest bathroom looked like now; I’d seen what it looked like after Lydia tried to make her face “look pretty.” Then again, my husband had put a stop to the madness quickly and had sat down with her and taught her how to put it on right—a skill I hadn’t known he possessed until a few months ago. But the level of sparkle on Ty, from his cheeks to his eyes and even his hair, was something I hadn’t been expecting.

“Now I know why you started getting ready an hour ago,” Jasper mused as Ty slipped on a pair of boots I was pretty sure mere humans would kill themselves in. “How the hell can you walk in those?”

Ty shrugged as he laced the first boot up to his knee. “We’ve become friends with a few drag queens. One of them taught me a few years ago.”

Declan didn’t seem fazed or surprised in the least. He was sitting in the recliner wearing a pair of snug jeans and a silver button-down that shimmered when the light caught it, and eyeing Ty’s ass like it was a piece of candy.

“Is that glitter polish?” Harrison asked when he saw Ty’s fingers.

Ty wiggled them around. “Red, green, and gold. Go big or go home, right?”

It was going to be a long night. “Am I underdressed?” I wondered as I glanced in the mirror by the front door. I’d thought my T-shirt and snug jeans would be enough, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Harrison, Greg, and Jasper had somehow ended up in T-shirts that looked like ugly Christmas sweaters, but across the front of each the word Groom was printed in equally ugly font. I didn’t know where they’d come from, but I suspected Ty had something to do with it. I noticed how easily Jasper was sandwiched between his men on the couch looking completely at ease with his eyes half-closed and his head resting on Greg’s shoulder. It was a stark contrast to the way he’d been before Greg and Harrison came into his life.

Before them, Jasper never relaxed. The closest I’d seen him to relaxed was when he’d fall asleep at his desk. I’d always thought of him as shy and a little awkward, but I could see now that he’d been lonely and going through the motions of life without really living. If I let myself think too much, I’d feel guilty for the nearly ten years I hadn’t gotten to know him better.

Taking a look around my living room, I knew that I wouldn’t change this family for anything. They swarmed our house like locusts, but the love and acceptance they had for one another was second to none. There was some teasing here or there, but Ty leaving a trail of glitter behind him hadn’t raised more than an eyebrow. Glitter, lace, ménage, diapers, bottles—none of it mattered to them. They accepted everyone just as they were. I knew how lucky I was to have them in my life and even in my home. Even if a guest house never happened, I’d open my door to them any day of the year without a second’s thought.

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