Page 6 of A Very Montgomery Christmas

Lincoln’s parents were on a winter cruise, something they had bought two years prior, thanks to a sale, and had done their best to get out of. But we would hear none of it, and they would be back for New Year’s, and we would have Kingston’s second Christmas a couple of days after his first. They had been so apologetic that my mother-in-law had burst into tears, but everything was okay. This way they would have their own special moment with Kingston and us, rather than being part of the large Montgomery one. We tended to be overwhelming on the best of days, annoying as hell on the worst.

“Is he here yet?” Holland asked, looking at the front door.

I shook my head. “He needed to pick up the groceries so we can make our side dish. We’ll be cutting it close, but we’ll make it work.”

“Can you work on the diaper bag? Make sure we have diapers this time?”

“We had diapers last time,” I said, groaning.

“We had diapers for a six-month-old, not a three-month-old. They somehow got added in, and then we had to double-tape him up so that it wouldn’t fall off, leaving a huge accident everywhere. As it was, he already exploded out of the back of it, so I was covered.” She groaned. “Since when did our romantic conversations include baby poop?”

“About the time that we found out you were pregnant,” I said, and then kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll work on it. And I hear the garage door now. Lincoln’s on his way.”

“Oh, thank God,” she whispered, and then we turned to see our husband walk through the door. His hands were full of cloth and linen bags, stuffed to the brim with groceries.

“I went crazy. I know I had a list, and then I remembered everything that we hadn’t put on the list, at least some of the things, so now we will have food for the week, maybe. Hell. I’m sorry, I’m late.” He smacked a kiss on my lips and handed over the bags. “I need a drink,” Lincoln said, shaking his head.

I took the bags easily and put them on the kitchen counter. “You’re welcome to have a drink, and I’ll do the driving tonight.”

“If I have a drink, I’m going to fall asleep, and that probably won’t be the best idea for me to be snoozing at the family dinner.” He kissed Holland softly, and Kingston began screaming. My shoulders dropped, sighing, but then Lincoln plucked Kingston out of Holland’s arms and put him to his chest. “There you are. Daddy’s here.”

Holland and I rolled our eyes, and I set to taking everything out of the bags. Kingston immediately quieted down, his big eyes staring up at his daddy.

I was Dad, and Lincoln was Daddy. We were going to try for that nomenclature for now. It may get confusing, but we would make it work. We weren’t the only ones in our family in a poly relationship, so we were taking cues from my cousins who were raising kids with more than two parents. They were making it work, and we were following their path, doing our best to make it work for us as well.

Kingston was going to be always held, always loved, and know that no matter what, at least three people loved him with all of their hearts.

And that had to count for something.

“You know, last week, he would only stop crying for Holland, the week before, only for you,” Lincoln said, staring at me. “This kid is taking turns on his affections. And I don’t mind it.”

“I do,” Holland said, covering her face with her hands. “I need a shower, to do my hair, do everything. And I think my right boob is leaking.” She looked down at her shirt, at the wet spot currently increasing with every breath. “Yep. I’ll need a pump at some point. Damn it. We’re going to be late.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s fine, we’ll get there.” Late, but this was our lives now.

Kingston took that moment to spit up all over Lincoln, and we all sighed.

“I’m on it,” I said, stuffed everything in the fridge, and tried to do mental math as to how we were going to make that side dish.

I took the screaming Kingston from Lincoln’s arms, and Lincoln pulled his shirt over his head. I did my best to ignore the way that his muscles moved, the beautiful lines of his torso, but it was difficult. Even Holland was staring, and Lincoln just grinned. “You know, this is how we got in this mess in the first place.”

“Maybe, but I don’t mind.” Holland laughed, and I shook my head.

“I’ll clean up this little guy. You guys clean up each other. But separate showers, or we’re going to be late.” I narrowed my eyes at the two, and they just shook their heads. “Later.”

“You say that as if I have any energy to please our woman.” My husband looked over at our wife. “Sorry, babe.”

“Oh no, I get it. At this point, I would just have to lie back and think of England, and I don’t think that’d be fun for any of us.”

“You better be lying back and thinking of one of us,” I growled playfully, and brought Kingston into his nursery. We had gone with yellow flowers and giraffes, with splotches of green, and bumblebees. It was a happy, fun nursery and only clean at this point because we had hired a maid. Between the three of us having full-time jobs and working more than forty hours a week usually, we didn’t have time, and we made decent enough money that we could help someone else feed their children by paying them to clean our house. They also helped us with prepared meals for the fridge, but they wouldn’t be here for the holidays because we wanted to make sure they had time with their family after we paid them holiday bonuses. That meant, somehow, we needed to feed ourselves, and it was like we had forgotten how to as soon as Kingston was born.

I missed sleep.

Kingston started burbling, lifting his little feet in the air, and I undid his little onesie and changed his diaper. He was such a happy baby when he wasn’t screaming. I knew he was in pain, and hopefully we would find a way through colic and get to the point of being parents where we could sleep again. My mother said it happened in about eighteen years, so I was counting down.

“I love you so much,” I said, before kissing Kingston’s little belly. Kingston just grinned a little gummy smile, and I quickly pulled another onesie on him. We were contemplating putting him in something cuter, but he was just going to mess it up anyway, so we had a dozen onesies ready all over the house.

We had a lot of family members, and that meant a lot of baby gifts. Thank God.

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