Page 23 of Eight Years Later

He shook his head. “Just think about it. I know you have a lot to consider, and you would be the one giving up things. But can I ask just one thing?”

“Mmm…”

“At least stay until Christmas. It’s only like three days away, and it would be nice for you and Dylan to be here with the club.”

With the club.

And with him.

“Yeah,” I agreed with a soft smile. After losing Mom, I knew Christmas this year would be one of the hardest. And being here with Tally and Harmony and the club sounded like the perfect way to get through something really hard. “I think we’d both like that.”

“Good.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me from the bed. “Then we better head out and do some shopping.”

Shopping.

Three days before Christmas.

God help us all.

Chapter Nine

TALLY

Christmas was something else.

It was a weird time of the year when people went a little crazy trying to find perfect gifts for the people they loved. Years ago, for the club, it was just a time of the year when we raised a glass, ate a lot of food, and partied.

But the clubhouse was evolving.

We were evolving.

Things that seemed important back then were not so important anymore. And the things we took for granted back then, we had learned to appreciate—even though the road to get there was rocky.

“I can’t believe that next year there will be another little terror in this place,” Harmony joked as she looked over at Kaci. “And the year after that, who knows how many there will be.”

I burst out laughing as the boys all looked at each other. The majority of the men in the clubhouse were completely single, so the concept of there being more children within a year or two actually petrified most of them.

It was already late in the morning, after nine.

Layton and Nya had opened their presents with Harmony and Kit at the ass crack of dawn and had been suspiciously quiet in their rooms since. Dylan opened his second, the smile on his face worth the absolute hell Kat and I had been through trying to shop a couple of days before Christmas.

Thank God this was a one-time-a-year thing because it was not my idea of fun.

Everyone else had done their own presents in private, and now we had all the couches pulled up around the tree and weredigesting breakfast to make room for the massive lunch coming later.

“Hey, Dylan,” I called, drawing his attention from the corner of the clubhouse where he was trying to flip his new skateboard. “Would you run to my room and grab the big green box from beside my bed?”

“Okay,” he answered, jogging off down the hall.

Kat had been happily tucked in under my arm, but suddenly she leaned back, eyeing me suspiciously. “Green box?”

I pressed my finger gently to the tip of her nose. “I got the kid a present, okay.”

It was as if the gesture warmed her so much it melted the suspicious look off her face. She wiggled herself back into a comfortable spot, her head resting on my shoulder again.

Dylan appeared a few moments later, holding out the box.

I shook my head. “It’s for you. Open it up.”

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