Page 18 of A Very Daddy Christmas

“I want it to look nice all the time,” he says, his brow furrowed as he gathers his thoughts.

“Excellent job, buddy,” Sebastian chimes in. “Dario, we’re going to have lunch in about an hour. What do you want to eat?”

“Can we have mac and cheese?”

“What are we thinking, Cora?” Waylan asks. “Can we have mac and cheese?”

“We can absolutely swing that. I’ll add bacon to it.”

“Bacon?” Dario’s eyes widen.

“Yeah. Wanna try it?”

“Yes!” He lights up like the sun.

“I’ll fire up the grill and throw a couple of steaks on, for good measure,” Riggs suggests. “Might as well take advantage of the weather while it’s still good to us.”

Dario nods in agreement. “I like steak.” He pauses and shifts his focus back to me. “Are you gonna stay here forever, Cora?”

That takes me by surprise. “I’m not sure about forever, Dario, but let’s see how it works out through Christmas and go from there, okay?”

“Our home is your home,” Sebastian says. “It could be yours for much longer than that.”

“That’s very kind of you,” I reply. “I just… nothing is certain at this point. Your contracts and work hours. My work with the bakery. There are multiple factors at play here.”

“So you’ll stay until Christmas?” Dario asks.

“Yep, I’ll be here ‘til then,” I assure him. He nods and goes back to his drawing.

The guys and I leave him to it so we can go put lunch together.

“Just give us a list of whatever you want to have in the house and I’ll make a grocery run later,” Waylan offers.

I nod and head into the kitchen, the guys hot on my trail. I can feel their gazes burning into me from behind, and I find myself wondering how long I’m going to be able to resist them.

If I even want to.

4

Sebastian

“We’re in deep trouble here,” Waylan says.

Cora is upstairs putting Dario to bed. She spent all day letting him show her around the house, playing in the garden, and drawing together. He helped her with the dishes and proved himself a reliable sous-chef for tonight’s dinner.

“Trouble doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Riggs chimes in.

We’re in the living room, sipping our post-dinner scotch on the rocks, looking at one another and contemplating this particular predicament. We’ve yet to find a solution to our problem.

If anything, our problem has only become more arousing with the passing hours. Our problem is Cora Levine. She’s too fucking beautiful and sexy to ignore.

“But do we regret this decision?” I ask, half-smiling. “I know I don’t.”

“Hell no,” Waylan replies.

“She seemed receptive. Or at least interested,” Riggs adds.

“We have to let her take the lead,” I say. “She’s a good woman. A hard-working woman. And she doesn’t strike me as the damsel-in-distress type.”

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