Page 23 of A More Than Mayhem Christmas

No one makes a move to answer it. We just stare at it, confused.

“Are you expecting someone?” Dylan finally asks.

“Who even knocks here?” Jake chimes in.

Another knock, and this time, Dylan opens the door. “Roman!”

I gasp, greet him the same way. “Roman!”

“Roman!” everyone cheers. Everyone but Heidi. I don’t think they’ve seen each other recently.

Roman steps inside, his eyes immediately taking in the state of the room and everyone in it. Cam throws a handful of mac and cheese at Logan’s face, distracting him long enough to give Dylan the opportunity to hand Roman an egg that was hidden in a shoe. “For Logan,” he says, his voice low enough only Roman can hear.

“Huh?” Roman asks, confused, as he should be.

“Roman!” Lucy squeals, making her way toward us with her arms wide open.

Roman hugs her, saying, “I like your outfit. Are you supposed to be a Christmas tree?”

Lucy gasps, her eyes wide when she pulls away. “Decorate me!”

Roman follows her to the tree, where he puts Katie’s present beneath it. The other girls are quick to get up and help Lucy remove baubles and tinsel from the tree and put them on her. Roman walks past Logan, drops the egg on his head, grimacing. “I’m sorry, man.”

Logan just shakes his head. “I don’t even care anymore.”

Roman stands in the middle of the room, surveying the mayhem of his surroundings before sniffing the air. “Um… is something burning?”

Dylan squeals. Actuallysqueals. “My cookies!” Then flails his arms as he rushes toward the kitchen. We all laugh as we watch him open the oven door, just to be greeted with a plume of smoke.

I take Roman’s arm, lead him to the couch. “Have you met everyone here?”

He pushes up the sleeves of his sweatshirt, revealing his tattoos. “I think so.”

“So… how was your Christmas?”

10

Roman

I had absolutely no idea what I was walking into tonight, and to be honest, I’m not disappointed. What appears to be absolute chaos is… exactly what it is. At least, according to Riley’s rundown. “I still can’t tell if Dylan’s actually let his guard down or if he’s playing it cool,” she says.

“Does Dylaneverlet his guard down?”

“True.”

I’ve hung out with the same people plenty over the past couple of years and known most of them in one way or another for most of my life.

“So, you spent the day with Juan, right?” Riley asks, bringing my attention from Jake and Logan, in the middle of a dramatic thumb war battle, to the girl beside me.

“Yeah, it was a good time,” I answer.

“I like Juan,” she says.

I chuckle. “So do I.” Juan—as strange as it is considering our fifteen-year age difference and completely opposite upbringings—is my best friend. He’s also the closest thing I have to family… besides my sister, Addie, of course, but that’s another story.

“Were his kids there?”

I nod. “Wife, kids, parents, in-laws, brothers, sisters, cousins, random strangers.” I laugh once. “There was so much food, and they just kept making more and more, and his mom… she kept making me plate after plate, and I was so full, but I couldn’t say no to her, so I just kept eating.”

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