Page 9 of The More the Merrier

"Daddy Liam won't be broken forever, will he?"

"Not if I can help it." Logan kissed my head and hugged me again. "Don't worry, little one. He'll come back to us. We just have to love him through whatever is going on in that brain of his."

"Okay, Daddy," I said with a smile, genuinely comforted. My bratting may not have had the intended results, but I'd gotten just what I needed.

Chapter 4

Liam

When Logan and Noelle returned I was pulling the first batch of sugar cookies out of the oven. Noelle had an extensive collection of cookie cutters, but I'd just made round cookies for the first batch.

"Oooh!" Noelle squealed as I transferred the cookies to the cooling rack. "Those look perfect, Daddy! Can we decorate them now?"

I frowned at her and shook my head. "You’re the little baker in the family. You know we need to wait for them to cool."

"I know," she said with an impatient sigh. "I'm just excited. And decorating them is my favorite part."

"Well, we need to get another batch in the oven, so do you want to use your cookie cutters to make Christmas shapes this time?"

"Yes!" She literally bounced across the kitchen and began to rummage in the drawer just above the sprinkle drawer: the cookie cutter drawer. This time there were no tantrums and she returned with a Santa, a snowflake, a Christmas tree, a snowman, and a star.

"Daddy!" She hollered at Logan. "Did you want to roll out the dough for us?"

Logan shook his head. "Thank you, sweetie, but I think I'll leave the cookie making to you two and I'll work on getting dinner in the crockpot so we have something besides cookies to eat for dinner."

"But cookies for dinner would be sooo fun!" Noelle sassed.

"Cookies are for dessert, not dinner, and you know that."

Logan busied himself getting what looked like his famous beef stew into the crockpot while I rolled out the dough, leaving the cookie cutting to Noelle.

While she was doing that, I sat down on a barstool at the island and watched from a distance. After a while Logan came up behind me and leaned in, resting his head in the crook of my neck.

Inhaling his clean, crisp minty scent, I closed my eyes and savored the moment.

"Everything okay?" I asked after a few minutes.

"Of course. Couldn't be better. Why do you ask?"

I discreetly inclined my head toward Noelle. "Your little bedroom meeting and the tantrum that led to it. What was that about?"

Logan made a thinking face, furrowing his brows and twisting his lips into a half grimace. "I'll tell you later," he whispered. "We should probably go help her unless we want to spend all day supervising cookie making."

I let him hold me for just a few more minutes before pushing to my feet and joining Noelle in cutting out dough, with Logan right behind me.

With three of us, we made short work of baking and decorating three dozen cookies. Noelle begged to make another batch of dough, of course, but thankfully Logan put his foot down and said it was time to clean up and make lunch.

After lunch it was still snowing and Noelle begged to go out and play in it, but Logan put his foot down again, reassuring her that the snow would still be there tomorrow, and talking her into a cozy afternoon watching Christmas movies instead.

Since Christmas movies were Noelle's all-time favorite Christmas activity it wasn't a hard sell. We watchedElf,The Christmas Chronicles, and all threeSanta Clausemovies, eating Logan's stew and biscuits on TV trays in the living room.

When the last movie ended Logan stood up, stretched, and announced it was time for bed.

"Nooo!" Noelle protested loudly, turning her lips into a pout and folding her arms over her chest. "It's not that late and we don't have to work tomorrow. Can't we just watch one more? I'm not tired!"

Logan looked at me, presumably for help, but I just shrugged. "It's only ten. I'm not tired, either."

Noelle's eyes lit up as she sidled up to me, the two of us forming a team against Logan.

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