Page 56 of Coast

Chapter Sixteen

Mac

Iwalked in the bedroomand pushed the door until I heard the click. When I turned back, Emery sat on the bed leaning against the headboard with a smile on his face.

“You know you don’t have to check on them every hour, right?”

I stuck my tongue out at him, and he chuckled. “For your information, I was just making sure they were asleep. We still have to set things out for Paxton from Santa. And don’t forget to eat the cookies and make it look like you drank the milk. He set the plate and glass on the table by the tree.”

“I was there when he did it,cariño.”

“That’s right. I just don’t want to forget anything,” I said and sat down on the end of the bed.

Emery patted the bed beside him. “Come here.”

I crawled up the bed from the end until I rested back against the headboard like Emery.

“Rest for a minute. You’ve been going for days. From baking cookies to wrapping the presents, and the food you’ve been cooking. We’ll never eat all of it. And did I tell you the ham and turkey you baked were excellent? And the stuffing, and the mashed potatoes, and the green bean casserole...”

“Stop it.” I chuckled. “The whole club was at the clubhouse. We needed that food. Did you not see the three turkeys after everyone was done? Luna picked what meat was left on the bone for Karma, and there wasn’t much. Two hams were demolished, and the desserts Claire brought? I almost lost a hand reaching for the last strawberry cheesecake cupcake.”

Emery lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Who dared to deprive you of a cupcake?”

“Kiyaya!”

Cruz had driven to the reservation the day before and picked up Kiyaya and drove back to Black Hawk without Emery or I knowing about it. When Emery answered the door after someone knocked, the surprise at seeing Kiyaya was written all over his face. I didn’t understand until Cruz explained that Kiyaya had never visited Black Hawk even though through the years he’d been invited.

The bed shook as Emery laughed. He grabbed his stomach and groaned. “Shit, I’m full. Don’t make me laugh.”

“Serves you right. It isn’t funny. We both reached for it, but I got it first. I was raising it to my mouth when he said,‘I don’t need all that sugar anyway. Even though this could be my last Christmas.’”

“Ahh,cariño, I’m sorry you didn’t get your cupcake.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t give it to him. I told him we’d miss him and ate it in front of him.”

Emery pulled me closer, and I rested my head on his shoulder. He kissed the top of my head, then rested his head on mine.

“I think they are starting to get comfortable here. They weren’t as quiet around the brothers at dinner,” Emery said. He worried more than I did about Tracker and Paxton.

“It’s going to take them a while, honey. They’ve been here less than three months. And as far as being quiet around your brothers, have you tried getting some of them to talk. Then there’s Roscoe, that man could carry on a conversation by himself. I saw Sue walk by and pop him on the shoulder four or five times for saying inappropriate stuff. You might want to keep Kiyaya away from him while he is here,” I said and sighed, then wiggled my toes.

Christmas Eve dinner with the entire club and their families had been loud and fun. And I’d never seen a group of men put away so much food. Anything left, we made individual dinner packages and sent them home with the single men. All the women in the club fixed the food, which had been planned out weeks ago. The only woman who’d gotten out of cooking was Carly. She brought the paper products and drinks because Crusher had told us ahead of time that unless we wanted half the club in the ER, then we needed to avoid assigning her any food dishes.

Christmas Day, the men would spend with their families. The ones with no family would spend the day with Sue and Roscoe this year. Black Hawk made sure none of their members spent the day alone.

“I might have gone overboard on presents,” I said, and Emery chuckled.

“You hit overboard a couple weeks ago. Not sure what you would call the boxes and shit in our closet.”

“I want them to have the best Christmas since they’ve never really had one.”

“We can’t erase everything they’ve been through. But we can change their future. They’ll never have to worry about having food, clean clothes, or a bed to sleep in ever again. And it will take time for them to adjust to having those things every day without worrying if the next day it is all going to vanish. One day at a time, Mac.”

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