“What the hell am I supposed to buy for Aiden? Muscle shirts? A subscription to the beef jerky club? What the hell is all of this?” Ella asked, waving the crumpled paper under my nose.

I snatched it. “Well, for starters, it was supposed to be a surprise who we each got. But since you’ve blurted it out to me, maybe I can help with your dilemma. Switch me. I have Paige, and I don’t have a clue what any of this sh—er, stuff is,” I said, handing her the once-crumpled sheet with Paige’s name on it.

She snatched it out of my hands. “This I can work with.”

“So, we should go shopping soon,” I said, hoping we could sneak out and back in before someone noticed and the whole crew decided to go. Not that I minded going with everyone, but I didn’t want to be out shopping all day long. Just thinking about it made me antsy.

“We can go now, if you want. Tomorrow, I’m going with the girls so we can get our other shopping done,” Ella said, shoving Paige’s list in her wallet.

“Speaking of other shopping, what do you want for Christmas?” I asked.

I’d literally wracked my brain trying to think of something, and I was having the worst time coming up with ideas. All I knew was I wanted to do a few little things, and something a bit bigger. Something with meaning since it was our first Christmas together.

“Don’t get carried away. We’ll be paying Oliver back for the rest of our lives for these,” Ella said, wiggling her rings in the direction of the one on my hand.

I shrugged off what she said. “We have nothing else to pay for, so spending a little money on one another isn’t going to break us.”

Her eyebrow arched. “Okay, well, I’ve had my eye on a Smith and Wesson—”

“No firearms,” I said, putting my hand against her mouth. “No. For your birthday, sure, but not Christmas, okay?”

She nodded, but not before rolling her eyes and pulling my hand from her mouth. “Fine. What about you? What do you want for Christmas?”

I hadn’t thought about it. Not really. Coming up with ideas to put on the list we’d filled out had been hard enough. I shrugged. “Honestly? Being here with you at Christmas is probably the best gift I could have received.”

“Cheesy much?” she teased.

Ella and I hadn’t had a lot of time to learn much about one another, so I didn’t take what she said personally.

“If that’s what you want to call it. But, for the record, I’m being serious. Being here with everyone at this time of year… Who would have thought it possible? I never would have, that’s for sure. It’s like having a bit of normalcy in the chaos.”

“Well, it makes me a little twitchy. I mean, why give us this kind of downtime? The evil minds of the world aren’t going to stop. Why should we?” she said, walking over to the closet and pulling out our jackets.

It was a good point, but what Ella failed to understand was Nadia and Grant knew what it had done to us when we thought we’d lost Eli. For them to give us Christmas together was like giving us a chance to heal.

It was true that evil didn’t sleep, and even more true in our situation. We’d never rid the world of the bad that plagued it, but we’d do our part. And for that, we needed our own downtime. “Well, Ms. Twitchy, let’s get you out of the house and on a mission then.”

“Mission?” she asked, screwing up her face and tossing my jacket into my outstretched hand.

“The ultimate Christmas gift mission… should you choose to accept it,” I said, winking.

“Like I said, cheesy.”

“Yeah, but you love me anyway. Come on, tide, time, and Christmas wait for no man.”

She laughed. “Wouldn’t want to be late for any of those.”

“That’s the spirit,” I said, tapping her on the end of the nose.

“I can’t believe there’s an actual beef jerky store,” Ella said, coming to a stop in front of the storefront window.

“Doubt they sell subscriptions, but I can get a bunch of different flavors for Aiden. That way, he can try them,” I said, tipping my head toward the door. “You game?”

“Oh, har-har. Yeah, sure, I’m game.”

“Be still my heart. My Ella made a joke all on her own. I knew I’d rub off on you… eventually,” I said as happiness erupted inside of me.

She mumbled something under her breath as we stepped inside what could only be called the mecca of dried meat. Everything. They had everything.

Ella wandered to the back where a small setup of merchandise was on display. I started at one end of the store, reading the tags on each barrel.

I’d made it halfway around when Ella strolled over with the clerk. “He said you can try some if you’d like.”

“Me? I don’t—”

“Well, you might not want to, but I do,” Ella said. She ran that poor clerk ragged getting her samples. I’d bet it was the smile she gave him every time she found another one she wanted to try that kept him going.

By the time we’d made it to the last barrel, Ella had tried almost all the jerky.

“I think Aiden might be on to something here,” Ella said, looking over her shoulder as we left the store. “Who would have thought dried kangaroo would be so good?”

I shuddered. “Not me. Hopefully, Aiden will like it since he’s getting ten pounds of it.”

“Here, you carry it,” she said, handing over the bulging bag in her hand.

“Oh, I see, give the bag of dried meat to me so if any wild animals catch the scent, it’s me who gets attacked,” I said, swinging the bag up to hang over my shoulder.

“You can handle it,” she said, smirking.

“Where to next?” I asked, eyes scanning over the storefronts across the mall, taking in the people around us.

Once I learned how to keep my guard, I never dropped it. Not that I was expecting any trouble, because I wasn’t. But I’d be ready for it regardless. Me and my ten-pound bag of dried meat.

I saw the direction Ella was headed and grimaced. I didn’t mind scented lotions or perfumes. But a whole store full tended to make my nose go completely ape shit, and I wasn’t looking forward to being subjected to scent overload. “Uh, how about I just wait for you out here?”

“Okay, be out in just a few,” she said, leaving me to cool my heels out in front of the store with what looked like a handful of other husbands.

It hit me then, like it always did when I wasn’t thinking about it. All of a sudden, the realization warmed me all over. I’m a husband. I have a wife. We’re married. Wow.

“What are you smiling about?” Ella asked, popping up beside me.

“That was fast,” I said, eyeing the large bag in her hand.

“I don’t play around when I’m shopping. I get what I want, and then I get the hell out,” she said. “I’m thirsty, let’s head toward the food court.”

I put my hand out and felt her fingers slide between my own.

“Are you happy, Ella?” I asked, sitting across from her as we sipped our overly priced coffees.

The question caught her off guard, considering mere moments before we were deciding on the last of our Christmas shopping for Aiden and Paige.

“In general, do you mean? Or that we’re almost done shopping?” she asked.

I leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. “I mean with me.”

She smiled, and I felt something ease inside my chest.

“If I wasn’t happy, Josh, you’d be the first to know. But it isn’t just happiness. I’m content. I haven’t felt that way in a very long time. Yet, somehow when I’m with you, I am.”

“Good,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee.

“What about you? Married life all it was cracked up to be?” she asked with a trace of humor softening her features.

I shrugged. “I never thought about it, or what it might be like. I mean, I have my parents as an example. They’ve always been a… unit, I guess is the best way to put it. If love had a face, it would be theirs.”

She sighed. “That was probably one of the most romantic things I think I’ve heard come out of you.”

I wiggled my eyebrows. “Stick around. Plenty more where that came from.”

“Come on, Romeo, let’s finish shopping so we can go home,” she said.

“We’d wondered where you two made off to,” Riley said, eyeing us like we’d snuck off for a quickie.

“Just knocking out some Christmas shopping before the stores get too busy,” I said, heading for the stairs with Ella on my heels.

The oven dinged. The most amazing smell floated along the air, and I came to a stumbling halt. My mouth watered, and I dropped the bags. “Are those—”

“Fresh-out-of-the-oven shortbread cookies?” Riley answered. “Yep. Want one?”

“One? I want the whole pan,” I said, darting into the kitchen and standing over the batch she’d set on the counter.

She chuckled. “We’ll have to fight it out, because I was thinking about eating all of them by myself, too.”

I put my hands on her shoulders and moved her back a few steps. “As your friend, it seems only fair that I eat these so you don’t get fat.”

She brought her hand up, a spatula clutched in her fist. “Who’s fat?”

I took a quick step back. “I didn’t say you were fat. I said if you ate all of those you’d… Hey, look, a kangaroo!” I raised my voice and pointed behind her.

“What?”

When she half turned to look, I snatched a handful of cookies out of the container she’d been filling and then rushed out of the kitchen. I paused long enough to grab the bags I’d dropped on the floor before making like a bandit to the safety of the bedroom.

“Well, at least you were smart enough not to grab the ones on the pan,” she said, raising her voice so I’d hear her.

“I hope you know you’re sharing those,” Ella said, reaching out to nab a cookie.

I spun, and her fingertips grazed the top of one. It broke, scattering crumbs. “I stole these for myself. If you want some, go steal your own,” I said. I licked the crumbs from my hand and then closed the bedroom door.

“Oh? Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine’?” she asked, poking me in the side where she knew I was ticklish.

I danced away, shoved a cookie in my mouth, and grinned, which was hard to do while chewing. “Give me just a second to finish these and you can have what’s yours.”

She rolled her eyes when I wiggled my eyebrows. “Ass.”

“Ah, now, that’s part of the ‘yours is mine’ clause specifically written in just for me. Hey, wait, where are you going?” I called out when she jerked the bedroom door open and stormed down the hallway.

“To get my own damn cookies,” she snapped.

“Cookies? Oh, damn, those smell amazing,” Eli said, poking his head out of his bedroom.

“Uh-uh… I’m not sharing with any of you Six. Go back to what you were doing, Eli. It’s safer that way,” Ella huffed.

Just as Ella passed by Jared’s room, he wrenched the door open and was hit smack in the face with the scent driving us all mad. “Cookies?”

“Damn it,” Ella said, tossing a dirty look over her shoulder at me.

I leaned against the doorjamb. Taking a bite of the last cookie I’d pilfered, I smirked at her.

“Race ya to the kitchen,” Eli said to Jared.

“Oh, you’re on,” Jared fired back. “Count us down, Ella.”

Ella stood in the middle of the hallway, mouth hanging open, but only momentarily. It was sudden, the change on her face. One second, she was gobsmacked, and then she wasn’t. My Ella had a plan.

She looked between Jared and Eli, nodded, and then said. “Fine. Jared, go stand beside Eli so you get an equal start.

Jared jogged down the hallway. Once he was shoulder to shoulder with Eli, he said, “This should be easy enough. You’re not up to a full sprint, brother.”

“Sugar. Cookies,” Eli answered, as if those two words explained it all.

Jared chuckled. “We’re ready.”

Ella nodded. “On your mark. Get set…” and then she turned and hauled ass down the hallway.

Eli busted out laughing, and then slugged Jared in the arm. “She acts just like you.”

“Eats like you, too, Jared,” I said, closing the bedroom door before joining them.

Jared gasped. “We better hurry up or there won’t even be a crumb left!”

“They ate all of them?” Ace asked, peering into the empty container.

“Every last crumb.” Riley sighed, tossing a dish towel over her shoulder. She turned her face up as Ace leaned down and kissed her.

“I may have saved you a few, though,” she said, moving to the far cabinet and digging out a good-sized plastic container. She handed it to him.

“More cookies?” Jared asked, popping up from his chair and heading for Ace.

Riley rounded on him, and then brought a wooden spoon down on his hand with a loud crack.

He jumped back, hissing. “Dang, Riley.”

“Those are for Jake. Don’t even think about touching them,” she warned.

“Yeah, don’t even think about touching them,” Ace said, prying the lid up and stuffing a cookie in his mouth.

Riley yawned deeply and nudged Ace with her elbow. “I’m gonna go lay down for a bit.”

“All that baking really took it out of you, huh?” Ace asked, putting his arm around her and kissing the top of her head.

She gave him a weird sort of smile and said, “Something like that. I’ll be upstairs.”

“Are we still decorating the tree tonight?” Jared asked, covering his mouth on a burp.

Riley nodded. “Yeah, just wake me when you’re ready.”

Ace looked from Riley to us and then back to Riley. He shrugged, and then followed behind her.

“You just don’t want to have to share,” Jared called after him. To the rest of us, he said, “He failed that part in kindergarten, too.”

“I’m pretty sure that was you,” I said.

Ella snorted. “I’m pretty sure it was all of you.”

Instead of arguing, Eli, Jared, and I nodded in unison before we busted out laughing.

“Life will never be dull with us, Ella. At least I can guarantee you that much,” I said, forcing myself up from the kitchen table. “I think Riley had a good idea.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” Ella asked.

“A nap.”

Ella huffed. “You can’t sleep. We have stuff to wrap.”

“It’s called multitasking. I’ll rest, and you can wrap. And then, in like an hour, you wake me up and we’ll switch,” I said while we made our way up the stairs.

“Everything will be wrapped in an hour. How’s that fair?”

“It’s not, but when you’re done, you can come cuddle with me,” I said. Catching her off guard, I swept her up into my arms and carried her to our room.