CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ryan
WE HAD OUR Christmas party at work today and since most of the staff was busy getting drunk, I decided that I could slip out early and go home to my family. As of today, James was officially on Christmas break. Cassie and I wouldn’t be able to take off a lot of time, but we worked it so we could get a few days off together.
I could hear the thump of music as I got out of my truck and it grew to deafening levels as I opened the garage door and entered the house. It was some kind of swing music and the voice sounded vaguely familiar. Cassandra was in the kitchen with a Kiss The Cook apron tied around her waist. She was swinging her hips and singing into a spatula as she danced by the stove. As the trumpets blared, Cassie pulled James off the stool and attempted to swing dance with him. James kept pulling back from her, but Cassie held tight.
Eventually, James gave in and started dancing with her and when he spotted me, he shrugged and rolled his eyes. When Cassie wanted something, not much could stop her.
“What are you singing?” I shouted over the music.
Cassie turned to me and smiled. “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” she shouted back. “It’s Bette Midler!”
She said it like I should know who that was. The song came to an end as Cassie swung herself out of James’s arms and flung herself right into the stove. Her hand knocked the pan of sauce off the burner and spilled all over the floor.
I rushed forward and picked Cassie up off her feet and set her on the island, then walked over to turn off the music.
“Sorry, guys. Maybe we should just order pizza for dinner.”
I picked up the empty saucepan and looked at the bottom. “Considering that half the sauce is burned to the bottom of the pan, I think you did us a favor.”
She threw a dishtowel at me but smiled. “I can’t help it. I was having fun singing along to the music.”
“Just let us know when you plan to do it during dinnertime and we’ll order in to avoid future sauce disasters.”
“Well, we can’t all be as clean as you Mr. Jackson. I guess in this house, you’re just going to have to get used to having a messy wife. You know what they say, messy wife, messy life.”
“I think it’s actually happy wife, happy life, but we can go with yours.”
“Really. And what other phrases do you happen to know?”
“Well, there’s one my dad always told me to remember when I got married.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “And what’s that?”
“He always said, ’Son, you’re either right or you’re happy. Choose wisely.’
“He did not.”
“Scout’s honor.” I held up my fingers in the Scout’s gesture.
“So, when are we going to meet your parents?”
“Well, they retired to Florida, so I would imagine they won’t be making a trip back up here until summer. Nobody leaves Florida in the winter if they don’t have to.”
“We’ll have to invite them to come stay with us this summer. I think it would be good for James to get to know them.”
“I would suggest we take a trip down there, but I don’t know when we’ll get the time off. I think it would be easier for them to come here.”
“They can stay with us and my parents can come meet them. I could cook a big dinner for us.”
“As long as there’s no music playing.”
✯✯✯✯✯
Everyone was gathered at our house on Christmas Eve. A couple of years ago, we had started having a big get together where we ate Ravioli that Harper and Agnes, her mother-in-law, made. Since my house had the most space, I started having everyone over here. Luckily, Cassie and her parents didn’t care about having all my friends and family over. We had sort of become one big family. There would be twenty adults this year plus all the kids.
“Alright, I set out all the wine on the island. I don’t want it to be in the way, though, so tell me if I need to move it.”
I turned around from putting the beer in the fridge to see Cassie standing in front of me, looking gorgeous as ever. Her hair was hanging in curls down her back and she had on a Christmas red dress that hit just below the knee with long sleeves. It hugged all those curves that I loved so much.
I had a big surprise for Cassie this year and I hadn’t yet decided if I would spring it on her tonight or tomorrow morning.
“Damn, you look gorgeous.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself.” I looked down at my clothes and scoffed. I was just wearing grey pants with a black button down.
“Are you kidding me? I look like I’m going to work. You look like a sexy angel.”
I walked over to her and pulled her into my arms. Her warm body curved with mine, fitting me just perfectly.
“I don’t think angels are supposed to be sexy.”
“Too bad. I know you’re not the devil in disguise.”
“Really? How can you be so sure?”
“Because. You’ve got me heart and soul. If you were the devil, you would tease me and walk away, but I know you’re never going to leave me.”
She scrunched her eyes at me. “Maybe I’ll get tired of you.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll chase you down and chain you to my bed. You’ll go from sexy angel to my sex slave.” I clasped her hands behind her back in one of mine.
“Mmm. I kind of like the sound of that. Maybe we should see if Mom and Dad can take James for some of Christmas break.”
I kissed her roughly and pushed my hardening cock against her. She gasped when I broke the kiss. Her face was flushed and her eyes were filled with desire.
“Don’t tempt a man like that. Now I’m going to have a hard on for the rest of the night while I imagine you tied to our bed. What will your parents think?”
“It can’t be too much worse than when my mom saw you naked.”
I stepped back out of her arms. “And that did it. You’ve cured me for the night.”
She laughed and walked over to the cabinets and started pulling out pots. “I’m glad that you won’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself in front of my parents.”
“Well, not in that way at least.”
The doorbell rang and James came flying down the stairs.
“I’ll get it!”
He flung the door open and gave out a high five to Sebastian. “Hey, kid. Merry Christmas.”
“Yeah, you too.”
Sebastian and Maggie walked in and James took their coats, being quite the host. He was struggling to get the hanger back up on the bar, so I helped out, messing up his hair as I walked off.
“Thanks, buddy.”
“No problem.”
All our friends and family slowly made their way to the house over the next half hour. When Jack, Agnes and Harper showed up, I went out to help unload the truck. They had bags and bags of homemade Ravioli.
“What’s with all the Ravioli? I know there’s a lot of us, but this looks like enough for an army.”
“Apparently, Sean and Jack have a bet going to see who can eat the most Ravioli tonight,” Harper said as she removed her coat.
“Really? What’s the bet?”
“What are we betting on?” Cole asked as he came toward the front door.
“Ravioli contest,” Harper supplied.
“What’s the bet.” I questioned whether or not this bet was actually worth it.
“Jack bet Sean a hundred bucks. Care to make a wager?” She raised an eyebrow at Cole. “How many, Cole?”
“Thirty-five.”
“Seriously, Cole? Thirty-five? I’m not sleeping with you tonight,” Alex scoffed.
“Pussy,” Sebastian laughed.
Agnes slapped Sebastian on the head as she walked past him to the stove. “There’s no need to use such crass language on Christmas Eve.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Huntley.”
“You think you can eat more?” Sean taunted.
“Put me down for fifty.” Sebastian took a swig of his beer and Maggie grabbed it from his hand.
“You might want to lay off the beer if you’re planning to eat that many.”
“Jack, why are you wearing those ridiculous pants?” Agnes asked.
Jack must have changed when he got here because he was now wearing Batman sweatpants.
“I came prepared for the contest,” he said as he stretched out the waistband. “This is serious business. I’m not letting a waistband stand in the way of me winning this contest.”
“How many did you bet, Jack?” I asked.
“Fifty-seven.”
“How’d you come up with that number?” Drew asked.
“Easy. Last year, my record was forty-five. I figured that I had to do better than last year. I started overeating a week ago to stretch my stomach.”
“Overeating? Jack, every meal you eat is larger than normal.” Harper rolled her eyes at her husband, but he just pulled her into his arms.
“That’s because I need to always be prepared to feast on you.”
“Eww, gross. Could you please save that for when there aren’t little ears around,” Cassie said as she walked into the living room with a handful of beers.
“I’m sure I could be right up there with Jack. Put me down for sixty Ravioli.”
Everyone started laughing at me for some reason. “What? I could out-eat all of you. They’re just little Ravioli.”
Harper was laughing so hard that tears were leaking down her face. “Ryan, you’re the smallest of all the guys. You can put away the food too, but seriously? There’s no way you can eat more than all of them.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m like ten pounds lighter than Jack.”
More laughter ensued and it wasn’t until Agnes called from the kitchen for help that we forgot about the contest for five minutes. When the table was set and the ravioli was on the table, Lillian said grace and then all of the guys started reaching for the ravioli.
“Hold on a minute, boys. Only the women will hand out the ravioli. We don’t need any cheating. You’ll each get ten at a time and only when your plate is clean will you get more.” Cece said.
We all grumbled, but put our plates down and waited to be served. When the ravioli hit my plate, I had a moment of panic. These were huge ravioli, not like the ones in the Chef Boyardee can.
“Eat fast so that your stomach doesn’t have time to process that you’re full,” Cassandra whispered in my ear.
I dug in and started eating. Each plate that was filled had me feeling more and more stuffed, but I made a bet and damnit, I would win. The girls ate lazily around us, eating small bites of their ravioli and salad that had been prepared. None of the parents took part in the contest, but they seemed to enjoy watching us all try to outdo each other.
“Mmm. These ravioli are so good,” Harper said around a mouthful.
“I should go check on the kids,” Anna said, getting up from her seat. We had put them in the kitchen at card tables.
“How are you doing on those thirty, Cole?” I taunted across the table.
“It was thirty-five and you’re not going to be laughing when you’re sick tomorrow from eating too many.”
“I love this sauce. Is it homemade?” Lillian asked.
“I’m going on forty. I bet you all were wishing you wore pants like mine.” Jack waggled his eyebrows, taunting the guys.
“It was my grandmother’s recipe from Italy. I always make homemade sauce,” Agnes said after finishing a bite of food.
“I make a really good Alfredo sauce. It’s not as good as this, but I really like it,” Alex said.
“Baby, don’t lie to them,” Cole said with a smile. “I see you bury the jar of sauce in the garbage whenever you make something with Alfredo sauce.”
Alex scoffed and turned bright red. “I do not. I always make it from scratch!”
I was starting to feel like my pants were strangling my stomach and I was only at forty-five. Something had to be done. Standing I opened the button on my pants and let down the zipper, groaning as relief spread through me.
“Ryan!” Cassandra shrieked as she tried to block anyone from viewing my cock through my underwear. Little did she know that I was so full, no amount of her touching me would result in an erection right now.
“Ooh, I think I’m about to get another show,” Jane said excitedly.
“Mom!” Cassie shrieked.
The other guys immediately stood and followed my example, except for Jack who had on his comfy pants. A round of groans were let out and soon we were all back to eating.
“What do you mean another show?” Cal asked.
“I can’t believe you think that my Alfredo sauce is out of a jar.” Alex crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.
“Fifty-five!” Sean said as he held his hands over his head.
“Don’t you remember when we came home early with James a few weeks ago? Cassie and Ryan were going at it like rabbits in the living room,” Jane giggled.
“Mom, please. Can we not talk about this in front of all my friends?”
Jane waved her hand dismissively at Cassie.
“Oh, God. I think I might throw up if I take another bite,” Drew said.
“That wasn’t even the worst part,” I said with a laugh. Cassie covered my mouth, but it was too late. Cal was already eager to hear what the worst part was.
“Is that like how your ice cream is homemade from bananas?” Cole teased Alex.
“They are homemade! You freeze the bananas and then blend them into ice cream,” Alex shot back.
“What are you up to Logan?” Sebastian asked.
“Dude, I’m not even at forty-five yet. I’m done.”
Cassandra scooped another ten on my plate, trying to distract me with food.
“What was the worst part?” Cal asked.
“That wasn’t grime you wiped off the window,” I said around a mouthful of food.
“Oh, God. Kill me now.” Cassie was burying her face in her hands.
“Geez, Lillian. How many are you going to eat? You didn’t say anything about joining the contest,” Sean accused.
“I’m not joining. I’m just eating because I’m hungry.”
“That baby’s gonna come out the size of an elephant,” Sean muttered.
“Are you saying I’m fat?” Lillian glared at Sean, but he didn’t notice because he was still stuffing his face.
“I wasn’t saying anything. I was just stating a fact.”
The whole table got silent as Lillian stared down an oblivious Sean.
“If it wasn’t grime on the window, what was it? It was sort of sticky.” Cal questioned me.
“Oh my God! He was rubbing that spot with his fingers!” Jane yelled.
Cassie was shaking her head in her hands and muttering please kill me now over and over again.
“I can’t believe you would say that your pregnant wife is fat!” Lillian said as she smacked Sean on the shoulder.
“What was it that I was rubbing?” Cal asked his wife.
“Sixty!” I yelled as I jumped up from the table, immediately regretting it and running out of the room to the bathroom. I thought I was going to throw up, but after I put on some more comfortable clothes and laid down for a minute, I felt better. I walked out of the bedroom fifteen minutes later to everyone clearing the table.
“Where are your parents?” I asked Cassandra.
“Well, after Dad figured out what the sticky substance was that he wiped off the window, he made an excuse about needing to get up early for the Black Friday sales and they left.”
“I’m sorry, Cassie girl.” I chuckled and kissed her on the forehead. “I wasn’t trying to let on to what happened. It just sort of popped out.”
“Yeah, well. That’s not exactly how I want my dad thinking of me.”
I saw the girls all in the kitchen helping with the clean up, but the guys were nowhere in sight.
“Where are the guys?”
“They’re all downstairs groaning about how much pain they’re in.”
“So, who won the contest?”
“Lillian. She had sixty-five.”
“What? No way. She wasn’t even a part of the contest. Where’d she put it?”
“She’s pregnant. She was hungry.”
I looked in the kitchen to see Lillian eating some kind of dessert as she talked with the girls.
“She’s still eating,” I said, completely baffled that she was still stuffing her face.
“Yeah, well I once ate one hundred and forty-four cookies in a weekend when I was pregnant with James. It happens.”
“One hundred and forty-four cookies? Where did you even get that many?”
“I made them,” she glared at me. “I didn’t realize I was making the full batch and they were really good.”
“Obviously.”
“Hey, you try carrying another human for nine months and try not to eat everything in sight.”
I held my hands up in surrender. “I won’t say a word. I love the extra curve you have.”
“The extra curve?” She raised an eyebrow at me and crossed her arms over her chest.
“You know, in your hips. I love that about you.”
“And you think I got this curve because of the extra cookies I ate?”
“Well, I..I mean, your mom doesn’t have those curves so I assumed..”
“That I got fat because I ate too much while I was pregnant?”
I cleared my throat and pulled at the invisible noose tightening around my neck. “Of course not, sweetie.”
“But you do think that I’m fat,” she said accusingly.
“No! No, I would never say you were fat. You just have more to love around your hips.”
“That’s the same thing!”
“It’s not! I swear. I love your hips. Isn’t that why they call them love handles?” She actually looked like she was going to cry. Shit. “You know? So the guy has something to hold onto as he loves his woman.”
“That’s not why they call them that!”
“It’s not?” I pulled out my phone and did a quick search of the word. To my relief, I saw that according to the Urban Dictionary, that’s exactly why they were called love handles. I thrust the phone at her and gave her a minute to read what it said. The tears that were threatening to spill over cleared as she looked up at me.
“So, guys like this?”
“Yeah, Cassie girl. No man wants a woman so thin she could be snapped in half while he’s fucking her.”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around me. “So, if I get old and fat, you’ll still love me?”
“The more the merrier.”
✯✯✯✯✯
“Mom! Ryan! It’s Christmas!”
Any thoughts of sleeping in were banished when James jumped on the bed over and over until Cassie and I got out of bed. Cassie went into the living room and I went to the kitchen to make coffee. It was five-thirty in the morning. He wasn’t even up this early on a school day.
“Hurry up, Ryan. It’s time to open presents!”
“Coffee first, bud. Then stockings. Then presents.”
“Aww, man!”
When the coffee had been made, we each sat down and opened our stockings. Santa had given us all deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, an apple and orange, socks, lotion, and some candy.
“Looks like Santa wants to be sure we’re healthy this year.” Cassie didn’t find my little comment funny.
“There’s nothing wrong with Santa encouraging good hygiene and healthy eating.”
James had gotten a few new books, paint balling gear, and some new movies. Cassie had gotten me a new Dyson since my vacuum was getting old. She knew me so well. I wanted useful presents. I had gotten Cassie a necklace with a three heart pendant. One was white gold, the next gold, and the last rose gold. Each heart had little diamonds around one curve of the heart.
After all the presents had been opened, it was time for the final present, but it wasn’t under the tree.
“Let’s get all this wrapping paper cleaned up and then we can watch one of your new movies,” Cassandra told James.
“Wait,” I said as I stood up and put my hand in my pocket. “There’s one present left.”
Cassie looked nervously at me and then at James. “Uh, Ryan, I think we should save that present for later.” She jerked her eyes over to James.
“It’s not that kind of present.” I got down on one knee in front of her. “Cassie, I never thought that I would be lucky enough to find someone as special as you. When all my friends got married and I still hadn’t found anyone, I thought I just wasn’t meant to find someone to share my life with. Then you changed my world that day I saw you in front of your car. I was nervous and excited all at once and while ours didn’t start as the most romantic love story, it turned out even better than I had ever hoped.”
I pulled out the ring and held it in front of me. “I know that this time around will be different because of everything we’ve already been through. I love you so much, Cassie girl. Will you marry me? Again?”
“Of course I will.”
She flung her arms around me and squeezed until I thought I would pass out from lack of oxygen.
“I don’t get it. You’re already married. How can you get married again?” James asked.
“We’ll renew our vows.”
“Oh. Do you have to do that every year like you do with the stickers on your car?”