Page 1 of All I Want For Christmas

Eggnog Makes Her Easy

BOYS OF THE BIG EASY

ERIN NICHOLAS

Chapter

One

“Oh, yes, Santa, Idefinitelybelieve in you.”

“Oh, I amabsolutelyon the naughty list, Santa.”

“Holy crap.”

Lindsey had to agree with that last one. For sure.

The first two reactions came from women who were happily married to very good-looking guys. Guys who would probably dress up like Santa if their wives asked. Or maybe even if they didn’t ask. The third reaction was from, Bea, the sixty-something self-appointed grandmother of their single parents support group.

Lindsey laughed at the women. “Easy girls. Your husbands are right over there.”

Her best friend, Dana—the one on the naughty list, apparently—and Addison, Dana’s sister-in-law, both looked over at her.

“Logan recruited that Santa,” Dana said with a grin. “I’m going to have to really thank him later.”

Dana and Addison were married to the very hot, pretty-naughty-themselves Trahan brothers, Gabe and Logan. They both also had babies, as well as elementary-school-aged kids, at home. But they were looking at the Santa who had just walked inas if sugarplums were not what was going to be dancing through their heads tonight.

“Was it Logan who thought that Santa should wear a red leather jacket instead of the traditional Santa coat?” Lindsey asked. Though, even as she said it, she realized it did sound like Logan.

Logan had never met an occasion, including something that was already a party, that he couldn’t make even more fun. And this was the adult after-hours portion of the Christmas party. Of course Logan had been involved.

The Single Parents Support Group got together for a pre-Christmas party every year with their kids, and even though a couple of these women were no longersingle,once a part of the group, always a part of the group. So, while Addison and Gabe had started out as two singles in the group, they were now a couple and kept coming to meetings. And parties. Logan had married one of the support group moms and so he was now a part of the makeshift family as well. Lindsey wasn’t a bit surprised that Logan had jumped into their celebrations wholeheartedly.

There, of course, had been a Santa for the kids too, but that guy had been appropriately built to play the part and had left about two hours ago. The kids were now all over at Bea’s house where the older kids were watching the younger ones while they drank cocoa and watched Christmas movies so the adults could have a few extra hours of holiday fun. Childless holiday fun.

“Is he a stripper Santa?” Bea asked, studying the guy who was now shaking hands with Logan across the room.

He sure could be. He looked like Santa. Kind of. He had the full, snowy white beard, white hair, and a red velvet hat with a white pom-pom on his head. But that was where the similarities to Jolly Old St. Nick ended. This Santa was trim and hard. He was wearing a long jacket, but it was red leather and he woreit over a black T-shirt that molded to his flat abs, black jeans that showed off muscular legs, and black work boots. And black sunglasses. Even though he was inside. He also had a big red bag slung over his shoulder and he let out a loud, “Ho! Ho! Ho!”—but it was clear he was smirking behind the beard. The beard that looked really real.

“Oh my God, Ihopehe’s a stripper Santa.” This came from another group member, Ashley, as she joined the other women at the snack table where the snacks had been converted from cookies and punch to, well, cookies andspikedpunch. Ashley nudged her friend, Lexi, with her elbow. “You’ve always had a thing for older guys. You’ll definitely be sitting onhislap, huh?”

Lexi blushed but grinned. “Well, that is what you’re supposed to do with Santa. I wouldn’t want to offend him.”

They all knew that Lexi had a thing for Caleb, one of the single dads in the group, and Caleb was about seven years older, but Lindsey didn’t think that Lexi’s attraction was just about Caleb being older.

They all laughed at Lexi’s answer and Lindsey’s gaze shifted back to Santa. She had to admit, the guy was making her re-imagine her Christmas list a little bit too. Maybe Matt would be up for some Santa role-playing. They’d gotten pretty good at phone sex and Skype-sex. She could send him a Santa hat and make him say dirty things about tinsel and candy canes. Matt was the epitome of the alpha man from the tips of his blond hair to the tips of the toes on his big feet. He loved being dominant and bossy. He could be Santa and she could be an elf who just wasn’t getting the toy-making right…

“Linds?”

She focused on Bea and realized the other woman must have said something to her that required an answer. “Sorry. What did you say?”

“I asked if you were going to sit on his lap too?”

“Oh.” She thought about that. There wasn’t really any harm in that. It was just some fun at a Christmas party.

“Oh, you guys have to,” Dana said. “Seriously, Logan will be crushed if no one plays along with this.”

“He really will,” Addison added. “He wouldn’t give us any details but the other night at dinner he was really excited about this after-party.”

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