A Touch of Christmas Magic (Peppermint Hollow #2)

17. Kai

CHAPTER 17

KAI

I knew by Colby’s defensive stance and quick intake of breath that the couple at the door were Elsie’s grandparents.

Sasha’s mom and dad.

The man cleared his throat. “I’m Carl Klein. This is my wife, Lea. We’re so sorry to barge in, but I think we’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“Please,” Lea interrupted. “Please let us fix what we’ve done.”

I kept Elsie snug in my arms as she peeked at the strangers.

Colby stepped back to allow them entrance.

I didn’t want them in our house, but I gritted my teeth and motioned them toward the living room.

“I apologize for sounding rude…no, fuck that, I don’t care if I sound rude. Why are you here?” Colby bit out.

“We are so very sorry,” Lea said. “We were elated when Sasha reached out to us; we hadn’t heard from her in two years. She said she wanted to see us.” Lea’s face clouded.

“The visit didn’t go well,” Carl interjected.

“They never do,” Lea said.

Colby grunted.

“She was high when we got to the restaurant. Told us she only had time for lunch because she was leaving soon, flying back to a man in France.” Carl glanced toward Elsie, a slight smile on his face.

“Sasha isn’t an easy person even when she’s not under the influence,” Lea said. “When she’s using, she’s nearly impossible.” Her eyes were distant and sad.

My gut squeezed to think these people once had a baby just like Elsie, and now they had tears in their eyes over their grown child. Their deeply troubled child who sacrificed her own baby because deep in her heart she knew she wasn’t the person to raise Elsie.

No one knew the future.

No one expected their child to turn to drugs.

To lash out, to take risks to dull the pain.

To make every single interaction one of rage and hate.

I didn’t know what had happened between Carl, Lea, and Sasha all those years ago.

But my heart hurt to think Elsie would ever become a person we didn’t know anymore. A person it was painful to be around.

Carl picked up the story. “During an argument as we sipped our coffee and tried to pretend we were a happy family, Sasha let it slip that she’d had a baby.”

Lea drew in a shuddery breath. “I knew she said it to hurt us, and I just waited for her to go in for the kill.” She shook her head. “Then she said, ‘I signed away my rights so Elsie wouldn’t grow up with a mom like me. I saved her from that. Saved her from what I went through.’”

Carl held his head in his hands. “We weren’t the best parents. There’s no arguing that. But Sasha was a…difficult…child from the day we brought her home. No amount of therapy or medication or in-patient rehab ever reached her.”

Silence filled the room, broken only by a cooing noise from Elsie.

Lea’s tears finally spilled over and she held her hand to her mouth. “We were hurt and confused after Sasha told us about the baby. We acted without thinking and we are so very sorry. There will never be a day we don’t regret any heartache we might have caused.”

Beside me, Colby had relaxed bit by bit as the Klein’s told their story. I had a feeling he understood where they were coming from after surviving his mom, Mandy, and Sasha being such traumatic parts of his life.

“We reached out to the first attorney we found on the internet,” Carl said, his face pinking. “As my wife said, we were hurt and not thinking clearly. We wanted information about where things stood, if we had any legal right to see the baby.”

Lea, tears streaming freely now, shook her head. “We had no idea that man would send the letter without our consent. When he called us the next day and told us what he’d done?—”

“‘Just to grease the wheels a bit he said. Get things moving in the right direction. Throw them off so they see things our way.’” Carl grimaced.

“He acted as if we’d be happy about what he’d done. Gave us some big runaround about how he’d never had clients be so ungrateful and how we’d be singing his praises when he got us full custody.” Lea cursed. “By that point, we’d had time to reevaluate and look into Earnst. We figured out quickly that he’s a dirtbag.”

“I assure you, we’ve hired an actual attorney to look into bringing suit against him,” Carl added.

“It took us a bit of digging to figure out where you lived,” Lea went on. “We could have asked Earnst since he’d clearly found you with no problem, but turning to him for help with anything felt like adding insult to injury. Once we found your location, we had to make travel arrangements; we live overseas, so it wasn’t just a quick trip.”

“What happened is such a regretful mistake,” Carl said. “The timing is horrific and the fear it must have caused you is unforgivable.”

“We never wanted full custody of Elsie,” Lea said, her arms tucked protectively around her middle. “We didn’t want any custody to be honest. We’re too old to care for a baby.” She let her husband take her hand. “I think we just wanted to know if we had the right to ask to see her or get pictures. Then that man went and sent that letter to you.” She wiped a tear. “I have never been more ashamed and angry at something in my life.”

Colby cleared his throat. “Thank you for setting things straight.” He took my hand. If Carl or Lea were shocked or bothered, they didn’t let on. “It’s been hell since we got that letter—and I’m pretty sure our own attorney will have a ball going after Mr. Earnst—but it helps to know you aren’t trying to take her from us.”

“We aren’t,” Lea said. “Not at all.”

Colby glanced my way and I knew what he was about to say nearly killed him, but the determined glint in his eye told me there was nothing going to stop him. He took a deep breath and held his arms out for Elsie.

She grinned, slobbery and happy, and lunged for him.

Colby pressed his head to Elsie’s and closed his eyes before kissing her forehead. “Would you—” he started, but had to stop, the words caught in his throat. “Would you like to hold her?”

Lea’s eyes flew to him. “I—” she started, as if she thought she needed to say no. “I’d be delighted. Thank you.”

Colby stood and moved toward Lea. Placing Elsie in the older woman’s arms, he knelt down beside them. Perfect protective position, plus it allowed Elsie to see him.

“Oh, my goodness,” Lea breathed. “She looks so much like Sasha.”

“Would it be possible,” Carl started, but paused to clear his throat. “Would it be possible to get pictures of her from time to time?”

Colby and I nodded at the same time.

These people had made a mistake and been taken advantage of, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to deprive them of watching Elsie grow up.

“I’d like very much if we could send her letters. You can keep them for her. When she’s an adult, she can read them. If she’d like to contact us, she can,” Lea said.

“Let us have some time to think it over,” Colby said. “But maybe we can get one of those electronic picture frames. We can send pictures to you and maybe you can send pictures to us. I don’t think letting her know her grandparents is a bad thing.” He frowned. “I’d just like to keep her away from Sasha—at least until she’s an adult. Once she’s grown, if she wants to meet her mother, that will be her choice.”

Carl and Lea nodded, tears streaking down their cheeks.

“Thank you,” Lea whispered before pressing a kiss to Elsie’s head. “This is so much more than we deserve after everything.”

Colby shook his head. “I know what’s it like to have bad shit happen. I don’t think you purposely set out to hurt us. If our baby has more people to love and support her, I can’t see keeping that from her.” He turned to Carl. “Would you like to hold her?”

An hour later, we exchanged email addresses and teary hugs while Elsie clapped and squealed, oblivious to her daddies miraculously avoiding potentially disastrous drama in her little life.

When the door closed behind the Kleins, Colby yanked me close and sobbed into my chest, Elsie pinned gently between us. I let the tears flow and kissed Elsie’s cheek before resting my lips against Colby’s head.

Elsie blew a raspberry and patted us both on the head. “Dadda.”

Eyes wide, tears and snot flowing, Colby and I jerked our heads apart and looked at our daughter.

“Did she just say…” I asked.

Elsie, tucked against Colby’s side, flailed her arms, smacking us both in the face. “Dadda.”

Best.

Christmas.

Ever.

Christmas Eve lunch was spent with the guys.

Emory and Ivy brought Magic and Elsie patted the dog’s head. “Maj.” Not spot-on, but close enough. She spent the rest of the day babbling dadda and Maj , her gummy grin delighting everyone.

Based on the increased drool, and information we’d gleaned from our book and the parenting blog, she’d be trying to pop some teeth through sooner rather than later. Hopefully, Santa would be bringing plenty of baby Tylenol.

Christmas Eve evening was spent gathered around the tree with our parents, the fireplace roaring, and Elsie babbling. The only two words that sounded like anything continued to be dadda and Maj , but the adults doted on her and hung on every single syllable.

By Christmas morning, the fear had eased, replaced by gut-deep relief. Elsie was our daughter, and she was safe and happy with us. No one was trying to take her away. The mental and emotional exhaustion of the past several days had taken their toll, but we were together. Our little family was safe.

“She’ll be out for another hour,” Colby whispered at my ear while rocking his morning erection against my ass. “Can you be quiet?”

We’d slowly been moving Elsie’s bed farther from ours with the goal to move it to her room once she’d mastered napping in there during the day. To be honest, she was doing great with naps in her own room, it was her daddies who weren’t doing so well with moving her out of our room.

“Get the lube.”

As quietly as possible, we shucked our underwear and slicked ourselves in the still-dark morning. Stifling a groan when Colby worked a finger into me, I quickly doubted my ability to keep quiet once he got his dick in me.

“Shhh,” he breathed at my ear. “You’re gonna take this cock and not make a peep. If we wake her up, we’ll spend Christmas Day with blue balls.” He gripped my chin and turned me for a kiss. “Can you do it?”

I melted into the kiss and nodded. “Go slow.”

Colby pressed into me inch by inch, my body opening for him, stretching around the thick invasion, pleasure coursing through my veins. With my face buried in a pillow, I kept my whimpers and moans to a minimum with each and every slide of Colby’s cock in and out of my hole.

When he stilled his thrusting, I bit my lip to keep from crying out as his hot release spilled deep inside me. Colby slipped from my body much too soon, but he turned me to my back and took my throbbing cock between his lips. Eyes staring up at me, barely visible as the first hint of sunlight peeked through the windows, he sucked me. Playing with my balls and finger fucking his cum back into me, Colby worked me into a frenzy. Only one tiny cry of pleasure escaped me when I unloaded down his throat, but we’d barely had time to recover when Elsie started her squirmy, grunty wake-up noises.

“Merry Christmas,” Colby whispered when he’d kissed his way up my body. “I love you.”

“Love you,” I murmured against his lips. “Merry Christmas.”

An hour later, we were showered and dressed. The tree glowed brightly as if to say This is it, this is my day . The three ornaments seemed to sparkle and gleam more than ever, and I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe there really was something to the Christmas magic Emory went on and on about.

Breakfast and coffee were first on our list.

“Next year maybe, definitely the next, she’ll be too excited for us to get coffee before gifts, better enjoy it now,” Colby said, and I knew he wasn’t wrong.

Once Elsie had eaten breakfast, we helped her open some gifts and laughed at the fact she most definitely was more interested in the paper and boxes than the toys.

“What’s that one?” I asked, pointing to a gift under the tree I hadn’t seen before that exact moment.

Colby shrugged. “Hmm, don’t know. Thought you put it there. Open it.”

My eyes narrowed at his nonchalance, but I grabbed the package and settled in next to him. “I thought we agreed no gifts this year? All of this ,” I gestured around the room, “is enough.”

“Just open it,” he urged.

The sound of paper tearing caught Elsie’s attention and if she’d been able to crawl yet, she would have made a beeline.

The ornate wooden sign nestled in the tissue paper was absolutely gorgeous. It matched the wood in our living room and dining room perfectly, but the words had my heart caught in my throat.

Jackson-Burke

Party of Three

My eyes flew to Colby only to find him on his damn knee with a ring. He shrugged. “I went with Jackson-Burke so she doesn’t get made fun of.”

I scowled. “What?”

“Elsie Mae Burke-Jackson could be shortened to Elsie Mae B-J and no one wants BJ in their name.”

I laughed through the sting of tears.

“We don’t have to do it right now. Don’t have to do it big or fancy.” Colby took my hand and caressed my knuckles. “But we made a deal way back when and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to stick to it.” He slipped the simple black band onto my left hand. “Kai David Jackson, will you marry me? You know, since we’re thirty and single?”

I fell into his arms, toppling the two of us into the pile of wrapping paper. The kiss was long and sensual. When we finally broke apart, Elsie was on her hands and knees looking as if she was going to crawl in mere moments.

We held our breaths.

And…

She fell to the floor, bumped her chin, and burst into tears.

Colby and I broke apart, hurrying into daddy-duty. I grabbed Elsie and he started throwing away the wrapping paper.

“Wait, even if we don’t do it right now…” I took his hand and brought it to my mouth for a kiss. “I want you to have a ring too.”

Colby grimaced. “Oops, forgot that part.” He reached into his pocket and produced a matching ring.

I snatched the ring from his fingers and pulled him close. “I’m not going to saddle our daughter with a name like Elsie Mae CoJack,” I said as I slipped the ring onto his finger, “but just know, married or not, we will always be CoJack.”

“Forever,” he answered before kissing me.

Later, as Elsie played with a bow while surrounded by all her new toys, my phone rang. Ivy and Emory did a video call to wish us Merry Christmas. Ivy panned the living room asking us if The Creeps looked even creepier. Emory babbled away about the snow globe, but it didn’t take him long to catch the rings on our fingers. I swear the whole neighborhood heard him scream.

Once Ivy had his man settled down a bit, we let Elsie talk to her besties. But she wasn’t terribly interested in the video version of Magic, so we made plans to see them later that day or the next.

“Like you’d be able to keep me away.” Emory held his hands to his cheeks with a tiny squeal. “Oh my god, we’re going to have a wedding!”

After the call, we just sat close and absorbed all the goodness of the moment. “Do you ever wish our house had all the Christmas magic like Ivy and Em?” I asked over the rim of my coffee cup while Colby took a wet piece of wrapping paper from Elsie’s chubby little fist.

He sat back against the couch with me. “Nah, the stockings showing up was plenty for me. Plus, we don’t need Christmas magic. Look at our daughter.” Colby took my hand and squeezed before tracing his thumb over the metal band around my finger. Elsie’s eyes sparkled in the light from the tree. “Seeing Christmas through her eyes, being with you, families and friends nearby, that’s the only magic I need.”

The three ornaments caught my eye again and I smiled. Whether it was a touch of Christmas magic or just the love burning bright between us, I wouldn’t trade it for all the money in the world.

Leaning my head on Colby’s shoulder while Elsie chanted dadadada over and over, I hummed appreciatively. “Yeah, couldn’t ask for anything more. What we have is absolutely perfect.”