“Dinner will be at five,” Mrs. Snow said, handing Chris a cup of eggnog. He honestly hated the stuff but thanked her and even told her how good it tasted after he pretended to take a sip. Winter giggled from the corner knowing just how much he didn’t care for the holiday drink.
“We won’t be staying long after dinner mom. We’re meeting a friend from high school and then checking into our hotel,” Winter said. Yeah—she skillfully got through that without lying to her mother. That was the plan exactly, meeting up with Luke and then checking into their hotel suite together—the three of them. Winter just left that last part off.
“Who are you meeting on Christmas Eve?” her father questioned.
“Santa?” her nephew, Ben asked.
Winter laughed and pulled the toddler up her body, tickling him. “Santa’s going to be too busy tonight to meet with Chris and me. I’ve already had my annual meeting with Santa and your mothers both told me that you all were very well behaved this year, so I gave him a good report.” The kids cheered and she handed little Ben over to her brother-in-law. “And, Dad,” she said. “We are meeting our old friend, Luke.”
“Wait—you’re seeing an old high school boyfriend with your current boyfriend? Well, that’s a triangle if I ever did hear of one,” Cassey said. Her older sister usually liked to tell everyone what to do, having bossy well in hand as the oldest daughter. Winter was the middle child and probably the wildest Snow sister and then there was Vicky—the youngest and everyone treated her like a princess.
“Yeah,” Winter breathed, shooting Chris a look. If only her nosey sister knew how tangled their triangle was. “It’s fine though. Luke knows that Chris and I are together.” Again another truth with the lies filtered out—his woman was kind of a genius when it came to dealing with all their questions. Honestly, he would have been completely tongue-tied by this point if she wasn’t fielding the questions and would have given up and started drinking by now. He had to hand it to her—Winter was pretty damn sharp when put under this kind of pressure.
“How about we get a few board games going and start this Christmas Eve properly?” she asked the kids who all cheered again. Chris chuckled and shook his head, yeah—his girl was pretty damn sharp.
Winter
“Well, that went shockingly well,” Winter said. They were driving over to meet Luke at the hotel bar. Chris figured that it would be best for them to meet for a drink and talk about what happens next between the three of them before just jumping into bed together and the hotel bar was one of the only places in town still open. Things were already complicated enough and they didn’t want to mess this up. If they wanted a relationship to work between the three of them, they were going to have to take things slowly and think this all through.
“You sound surprised,” he said.
“I am,” Winter admitted. “I have to admit that I had my doubts but everything worked out.”
“Unless you count your mother grilling me over if I want kids or not,” he teased. She saw the look of panic on his handsome face when her mom asked him point-blank if he wanted kids. But, since then, watching him with her nieces and nephews made her want to ask him that very same question.
“Do you want kids?” she asked. Chris shrugged and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to her question anymore. “Never mind,” she whispered.
“At first, I thought maybe one and we could see how that goes,” he said. “But being an only child was lonely. Hell, I was so jealous of you having not one but two siblings. I used to wonder what my life would have been like if my parents had more kids. The thought of having a bunch of kids scared the crap out of me-until today.”
“What happened today?” she asked.
“Seeing you with your sister’s kids made me realize that you are going to be an awesome mom,” he said. She sighed, actually sighed like a swooning love-struck teenager and he laughed.
“Don’t go getting all sappy on me, Winter,” he teased. “I guess I just saw you in a different light today. The question is, do you want kids?”
She always thought she did but with each passing birthday, she thought that dream was just that and her reality was that she wouldn’t find a man and settle down to raise a family before becoming a spinster. “How would that work exactly?” she asked.
“If you need me to explain the birds and the bees to you, we should have had that talk about a week ago,” he joked.
“Not what I meant,” she grumbled. “I know how I can get pregnant but I’m wondering how it will work with Luke in the mix. I mean what will our family look like? Will our kids call you dad or him? Will I even know who the father is? God—maybe this is not such a good idea,” she said. Winter could feel her anxiety amping up and she knew she was already trying to talk herself out of this whole thing before she even gave it a chance. She was being a coward—as usual.
“You want to back out of this, then we back out, Winter,” he said. Chris pulled her hand into his and she instantly felt some of her anxiety fade. “This is our decision and not just mine. You want to try, we’ll try. But, if you don’t, just say the word and we’ll forget the whole thing. I’ll even explain it to Luke,” he promised.
“What would you tell him?” she asked.
“The truth,” he said. “That I’m in love with you and you don’t want to add a third to our relationship.”
“You’d do that?” she whispered. “What about you, Chris? You’ll never be happy with just me,” she insisted. That was one of the reasons she worried about jumping into bed with him in the first place but loving and wanting Chris wasn’t something she was willing to fight anymore. It was as natural to her as breathing and she was done fighting it.
“That’s bullshit,” he growled. “You are enough for me, Honey. If you wanted it to be just the two of us from here on out, we’d find a way to make that work. I won’t lose you, Winter. I can’t and if that means letting go of that side of me, then consider it done.”
“Chris,” she whispered. She swiped at the hot tears that were now freely falling down her face.
“Shit, Winter,” he said. “Don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying because I’m sad,” she said. “These are happy tears.” This wasn’t the first time she had cried in front of Chris. She always thought it was kind of sweet how upset he’d get when she would cry and if someone else made her cry, he’d threaten to pound them into dust. “I’d like to try,” she said. “I want to see what happens with Luke, not just for you but for me and well, for us. I think this can work—we’ll just need to figure things out as we go.”
“All right,” he said. “But, if you change your mind, just say the word.” She nodded and squeezed his hand. They pulled into the hotel parking lot and had no trouble finding a space in the empty lot. Not a lot of people were staying in the hotel for Christmas Eve. They were probably spending the night with their families but she wouldn’t want her first Christmas with Chris to be any other way. Waking up with not just one but two of the hottest guys she had ever known wasn’t a bad way to spend the holiday or her thirtieth birthday.