Page 46 of Icing on Top
“I made breakfast!” I tried to move away from him to get plates and a spatula to serve them, but his arm tightened around me.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. “You sit. We’ll get the food.” He set his mug down and lifted me onto the stool beside us. He braced his arms on the counter on either side of me and leaned in. “That’s an order,” he growled into my neck playfully. “Boys, get the food,” he said, sitting beside me.
I giggled at the looks on their faces. They grumbled under their breath, calling him all sorts of names, but they didn’t protest. Ben grabbed the casserole and a spatula and laid them on the island while Linc got plates and forks. They each gave me a morning kiss before taking their seats across from us. Grant cut each of us a piece of the French toast bake I had made us, and I moaned when I took a bite, the cinnamon and maple syrup flavors exploding on my tongue.
“How are you feeling, Sugar?” Lincoln asked, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.
I blushed and quickly took another bite to give myself time to take stock and answer him. “Sore but satisfied,” I finally replied. “What about you guys?”
“I feel fucking fantastic,” Ben said cheerily.
“Looking forward to next time,” Grant replied, giving me a heated look.
“Why not now?” Linc asked. “I’ve got the time.”
I snickered at his excitement, which rolled into a full laugh when Ben smacked him in the head. “She said she was sore, dumbass. Give her time to recover.”
“Besides, you may have the time, but I don’t. We have to open presents, and then I have more cooking to do to eat at a decent hour.”
“I wish you would have agreed to let us order Christmas dinner instead of slaving away in the kitchen all morning,” Grant grumbled.
“I don’t mind,” I replied honestly. “I enjoy cooking Christmas dinner for the people I love. It’s a lot of work, but it’s made with love, and that is what matters.” All three of them froze and looked at me, and it wasn’t until I thought about what I had said that I realized what I’d done. How the fuck did I let that four-letter word fall so casually from my mouth? “Umm. I just meant that you’ve become important to me, and I like cooking for you,” I said quickly. I grabbed my plate to take it to the sink and escape their eyes, but Grant’s hand covered mine, stopping my retreat.
“Nova,” he said, the demand to look at him clear in his voice. I looked at him through my lashes, worrying my lip between my teeth. “My brothers and I have a lot to talk about after the New Year, but we care about you too. Far more than I could have ever anticipated. I never saw you coming, Little Star, and we must discuss changes we need to make before we can act on our feelings.”
“Give us a little time, Sugar,” Lincoln added softly.
Ben stretched his arm across the island and held his hand open for me to take. His thumb stroked my fingers as he squeezed them softly. “We just want to ensure we can be what you deserve.”
I smiled at them and nodded. “I get it. There’s no rush. We have all the time in the world to figure out the specifics together, right?” They nodded, relieved I wasn’t pressing for more than they could give me now. “Thank you for letting me know where you stand. It’s good to know there is a possibility of a future for us.” Grant and Ben released me, and I gathered our plates and brought them to the sink.
“Present time?” Lincoln asked excitedly.
“Present time,” I confirmed.
We brought our coffee into the living room and settled on the floor around the tree. I gave them their stockings and scrambled for my phone to take a picture of the excitement on their faces as they tore into them like kids. They insisted that I open the first official present, and a gasp fell from my lips as I opened the small box to reveal a small heart-shaped silver locket with a picture of me and my dad in front of a Christmas tree in it.
“Guys! It’s lovely,” I told them as I stroked the locket’s edge with a single finger and tried to hold back my tears. Fuck, I missed my dad. Grant took the box from me and twirled his finger to signal me to turn for him. I did and held up my hair as he secured the locket around my neck. I placed my hand over it as I turned back around. “I love it. Thank you.”
I had them open the cufflinks next, not that they in any way equaled the thoughtfulness of the locket. “We can wear these to the New Year’s Eve party,” Ben said after they had thanked me. My next gift from them was a new chef’s coat in a soft pink color with Icing’s logo and my name on it.
“We couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t have one, and your aprons had seen better days,” Grant explained.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you!” I had never bothered to splurge for a chef’s coat, and I certainly never would have gotten one as nice as this. “I think you guys might be better at giving gifts than me,” I joked. “But this one will hopefully close the gap a little,” I said as I pulled the large wrapped picture from behind the tree. “This is for all of you. I hope you like it.” I watched nervously as they opened the gift and stared at it. “If you don’t, you don’t have to hang it up,” I rambled. “I just noticed that you didn’t have a group picture with Mama Clair displayed. I found that one in a box and thought it was too good a picture to be hidden away.”
“We love it,” Lincoln said as they finally looked up from the picture.
They gently placed the picture on the couch as Ben reached for me and pulled me into their laps. “It’s the perfect gift,” he assured me.
“I had forgotten all about that picture,” Grant admitted, his voice choked with emotion.
“I’m afraid we have one more gift for you,” Lincoln said, leaving our little huddle to grab the last gift under the tree—or rather gifts since it was two boxes stacked together and secured with a ribbon. “And it’s going to blow the gap you just closed wide open.”
I opened the top box; this time, it was my turn to stare speechlessly. I can’t even wrap my head around how they managed to do it. I gently lifted the reindeer ornaments from the box. They were pristine and looked precisely like mine the day I picked them out at the store. “How?” I finally managed to ask, looking from the ornaments to them and back again in wonder.
“It wasn’t easy,” Ben admitted.
“That’s an understatement,” Grant snorted. “We had a hell of a time tracking them down, but seeing the look on your face was more than worth it.”
