O Come, All Ye Kellys

by Olsen, Isla

  She nods solemnly. “I was very good. Not all the time but most the time.”

  My brows shoot up. “Well maybe next year you can work on being good all the time?”

  She frowns thoughtfully. “I try but sometimes I don’t ‘member.”

  “Hey Katie, why don’t you make Aidan some tea?” Ben’s sister, Maddie, suggest.

  Her eyes alight, Katie rushes over to where a toy kitchen is set up by the far wall and busies herself making ‘tea’. She has a little toy teapot that’s bright pink and lights up, playing “I’m a Little Teapot” as she pours the imaginary tea. When she’s finished, she rushes back over to me carrying a little pink cup and saucer; she’s moving so quick she’d be slopping tea all over the place if there was actually anything in the cup.

  I take the proffered ‘tea’ from her and pretend to drink. “Mmm…you know, I’m normally a coffee drinker, but this tea is delicious.” She beams, and then forces about six more cups of imaginary tea on me. It’s a good thing it’s just thin air or I’d be peeing all night.

  “Katie, I think Aiden’s had enough tea,” Maddie says with a giggle. “We don’t want to spoil his dinner.”

  Katie skids to a halt in front of me, but instead of offering more tea, she just beams up at me. “Guess what, Aidan! I’m having chicken nuggies for dinner!”

  I grin back at her. “Oh, yum—chicken nuggets are the best.”

  It’s Christmas night and Ben and I are at his sister’s place for a family dinner. We took it pretty easy today, just going to see a movie and grabbing some burgers before coming home and FaceTiming with some of my family. It’s nice to be having dinner with family tonight, though; and it’s even better that Maddie’s husband, Jared, who’s an amazing cook, is in charge of the menu. My stomach is absolutely growling at the scents coming from the kitchen as my future brother-in-law prepares the truffle oil pasta.

  Not that I wouldn’t still be happy if we were all sharing Katie’s frozen chicken nuggets…

  * * *

  “So, I guess you’re well and truly settled into Austin now,” Maddie says to me as we eat dinner. “No second thoughts?”

  I find Ben’s hand under the table, giving it a squeeze. In the months since we moved to Austin I haven’t regretted one second. I love seeing how happy Ben is here, especially when he’s with his family. I wouldn’t go back on my decision to move here for anything.

  I shake my head, offering Maddie a soft smile. “Definitely not. I love it here, and I was more than ready for a change.”

  Another thing I haven’t regretted is my decision to quit my old show. It caused quite a stir when word got out, especially when I came out publicly as pansexual and Ellie came out as transgender and we spoke out about the shitty way we—and Ellie in particular—had been treated during our time on the show. I hope it will help other people to know they don’t have to put up with that kind of bullshit, that they have the ability to take back their power from the people trying to push them down.

  It wasn’t meant as a promotion opportunity for our new show, but rather as a way to shed light on some of the backward views that still exist within the entertainment industry. And in society in general, if we’re being honest. But as it happens, it has created a lot of positive buzz for Queermerica, which will be launching early next year.

  Back before her transition, when she was still allowed an on camera role, Ellie had so many fans and it’s amazing to see how excited they all are about her return to TV.

  “What about the wedding? You’re thinking September, right?” Maddie asks, twirling some spaghetti around on her fork.

  I see Ben roll his eyes. “I’ve already told you where we’re up to with that. We know when and where and that’s about it.”

  “Is there anything else you really need to do?” Jared asks, his brow furrowed.

  “Of course there is, Jared!” Maddie cries. “It’s a wedding, there’s loads to do!”

  “But it’s not like they’re spending months getting fitted for a handmade gown like you did. And they probably don’t care about flowers or what font goes on the invitations—”

  Maddie rolls her eyes. “Just because you didn’t care, doesn’t mean every guy’s like that. And it wasn’t hand made,” she clarifies. “It was custom made.” To me and Ben, she says, “Really, you guys need to be more organized if you’re getting married in less than a year. You need to book an officient, organize flowers, make a guest list, order invitations, get measured for your suits, book dance lessons…”

  I blink at her a few times. “Dance lessons? Why the hell do we need dance lessons?”

  “For your first dance? Don’t you want it to be special?” She glances between us, her expression nervous, as though she’s concerned that if we fuck up our first dance it’ll doom our entire marriage. “What song have you chosen?”

  “Actually I was thinking “Another One Bites the Dust”—I really rock that one,” I say with a grin.

  Ben chuckles. “It’s true, he does.” Turning to me, he adds, “Although I’m not sure I like the idea of you dancing in your underwear in the middle of our wedding. I’m the only one who gets to see that.”

  Maddie groans, burying her face in her hands. “You guys are the worst.”

  16

  Brendan

  * * *

  “She’s down?” Wade asks in a whisper as I tiptoe into our bedroom.

  I nod, a broad grin stretching across my face as I see him lying there on the bed, already naked and waiting for me. “Yep, she’s down.”

  I shut the bedroom door and stalk over to the bed, climbing onto the mattress and stripping off my t-shirt as I lean down over Wade to claim his lips in an eager kiss.

  His arms come up around me and I collapse onto him, grinding against him and savoring the feel of our bodies moving together. It feels like forever since we’ve had a moment for each other; with Christmas, and a brand new baby, and Baxter on winter break right now…it’s like we’ve been pulled in all different directions.

  Finally tearing myself away from Wade, I reach into the nightstand drawer and retrieve the Christmas present I bought him—a blue vibrating dildo. It has ten speeds and I can’t wait to try them all out.

  “Wait.”

  “What is it?” I ask, a little alarmed by his tone.

  “Did you remember to set the sensor pads for the monitor?”

  I blink a few times, manually clearing my head of the sex fog to focus on what he’s asking. Right. The baby monitor. “Um…yeah…”

  “Are you sure?” Wade presses, his brow drawn tight.

  “Pretty sure.” Knowing there’s no way Wade will be back in the mood until this is cleared up, I slide off the bed and toss him the lube. “I’ll go make sure. Get yourself ready—as soon as I get back I’m so fucking your ass with that dildo.”

  I close our bedroom door behind me and quickly cross the hall into Arya’s room. I check the monitor and confirm that I did indeed set the sensors. With a wry shake of my head, I set the monitor down and move back into the hallway.

  I’m about to open our bedroom door again when I hear a rush of little footsteps and then I’m being tackled around the waist.

  “BeeBee! Help!”

  I glance down at my son, the dim hallway light showing his face full of distress. “What’s wrong, buddy? Why are you out of bed?”

  “I had a nightmare,” he wails. “There was a fisherman and a fish that bited me.”

  “Um…okay…” I’m not entirely sure how to respond to such a random tale. What happened to the classics like ‘there was a monster under my bed’?

  I pry Baxter’s grip from around my waist and crouch down so I can speak to him at eye-level. “You know nightmares aren’t real, don’t you?”

  He nods, but it doesn’t really seem like he takes my words to heart, because his eyes are still wide and fearful and he starts to cry. “The fish was really…” He draws in a sobbing breath. “Biiigg.”

  I let out a soft
sigh and wrap my arms around him, running my hand in soothing motions over his back. “Okay. Let me just check with Daddy to see if it’s okay for you to sleep in our bed tonight. Wait here,” I tell him firmly before cracking our door open and slipping inside.

  I let out a little whimper of disappointment when I see Wade fingering himself and stroking his cock, but I brush it aside and grab his pajama pants from the floor, tossing them to him. “Get dressed, Andy. We’ve got company tonight.”

  “You’re going to think I’m the best boyfriend ever,” I say to Wade a couple days later as I approach him in the bathroom, wrapping my arms around him from behind and pressing my lips against his neck.

  He chuckles and wipes his face with a towel. “I already think you’re the best boyfriend ever.”

  He turns to face me and I grab the towel from his hand, lifting it to get the tiny bit of shaving cream he missed by his ear. “Yeah, but now you’re going to really love me.”

  Wade grins. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

  “Because Liam and Melinda agreed to have Baxter for a sleepover tonight. So if he has a nightmare they can deal with it.” The fisherman and giant fish have been back the last two nights, which means our bed has been too crowded for my liking. Wade and I still haven’t managed to carve out any time to test out that dildo.

  “And if the fish comes back and Liam and Melinda decide they don’t ever want him sleeping at their place again?” Wade asks with an arched eyebrow. “Are you sure you want to burn that bridge?”

  I wave his concern away. “I doubt it’ll be an issue with Wyatt there.”

  Wade considers this for a moment. “I guess you have a point.” Grinning at me, he steps closer and slides his hands up my waist. “You’re right. I do love you more now.”

  I lean forward and press my lips to his, letting the towel fall from my hand as I wrap my arms around him, my hands coming up to thread through his mess of sandy hair. I breathe in the clean, freshly-shaven scent of him, humming with pleasure against his lips as our bodies mold together and I feel—

  We break apart; the sound of our daughter screeching through the monitor is like a bucket of cold water.

  I let out a heavy sigh and step away from Wade. “I’ll go. Baxter will probably be up soon anyway.”

  Baxter’s nighttime woes are at least helping him to sleep in a little later in the morning, but that’s cold comfort to us when his presence in our bed is preventing us from getting much sleep ourselves. And preventing us from doing…other things.

  But tonight we’ll be getting a night to ourselves, and hopefully a night of fun with his bestie will be all Baxter needs to get over this weird fisherman thing.

  * * *

  “Oh, come on baby girl,” I murmur as I walk a fussing Arya up and down the hallway for about the fifty gazillionth time tonight. “It’s time for you to go to sleep. Your daddies really need to get laid.”

  Clearly having no sympathy for our plight, Arya just continues to wail and fuss. I’ve tried all our usual tricks: bouncing her against my shoulder, swooping her in my arms, letting her sit in her motorized swing. Nothing’s working. And I can’t figure out what’s bothering her; she’s not hungry or wet, she doesn’t have a fever…even that nappy rash is basically all cleared up.

  Eventually, I give up and call my mom who, after raising eleven of her own, is somewhat of an expert when it comes to babies.

  “Have you tried a pacifier?” she asks.

  “Er, well, actually…we weren’t going to use one. There’s all this research—”

  “Oh, Brendan, don’t be so modern!” she snaps. “The child’s in distress, just give her a blasted binky.”

  “Okay,” I say quickly, before she can start on a rant about modern parenthood. “Thanks, bye.”

  “Hey, what’s going on?”

  I glance up to see Wade has emerged from the bedroom, looking totally sexy with his hair all sleep-mussed. The plan had been for me to put Arya down and then join him in bed, but it’s been so long now he obviously fell asleep while waiting for me.

  “Here, can you take her?” I ask, handing Arya to him. “I need to find a binky. I’m pretty sure Cait gave us some a while back…they must be somewhere.”

  I stalk into Arya’s room and start opening all the drawers and looking through cupboards, eventually stumbling upon a pack of pacifiers that I remember Wade saying we should keep around ‘just in case’.

  I glance up at him to find his eyes lit with amusement, despite the fact Arya is still wailing in his arms.

  “Don’t even say it,” I warn. “We don’t know this is going to work. These things aren’t magical anti-crying devices.”

  “They’re pretty much the closest thing to it,” Wade says wryly.

  “Sorry for being concerned about our daughter’s inner ear and cavities,” I grumble, handing Wade a binky.

  He offers it to Arya and I have to reluctantly admit that it seems to help. It’s not instantaneous, but she seems to be more focused on sucking it than crying, and after a little while she seems to calm down completely.

  “Why don’t you go get yourself ready and I’ll put her down?” Wade suggests.

  I arch an eyebrow at him, my mouth curving into a grin. Me get ready? Well I like the sound of that…

  The next morning, I wake with Wade’s arms wrapped around me and my ass feeling…not even remotely sore. I scan my memories back to last night and then bolt upright in horror. I punch Wade in the shoulder and he lets out a grunt on annoyance.

  “Ow! What was that for?”

  “We didn’t have sex last night!”

  He slowly sits up, rubbing his eyes. “I know. You were already asleep when I came back in.”

  “You should have woken me…”

  “B, we’ve been running on about two hours of sleep a night for the past three weeks now. I wasn’t going to wake you just so I could stick my dick in you.”

  I grip his chin and lean forward to pin him with a stern look. “For future reference, that is always a good reason to wake me.”

  17

  Jamie

  * * *

  “Okay, so…I think the first thing we need to do is set a date,” I say, curling up on the settee next to Shay, iPad in hand. “Once we do that everything else will just fall into place.”

  Shay nods. “I suppose you’ll want to coordinate around Will? So we’re not clashing over dates and whatever…”

  I shrug. “You’re the one who’s all obsessed with thunder-stealing. Obviously we don’t want the same day as them but I couldn’t care less if it’s in the same month or whatever.” I unlock my tablet and open the calendar app. “What we really need to work around are your brothers’ weddings. Connor and Josh want spring next year,” I say, scanning through the calendar. “Do you know when Aidan and Ben want?”

  “I think they’re aiming for September,” Shay says. “They’re talking about going to Oktoberfest for their honeymoon.”

  My brows shoot up. “How…romantic.”

  Shay grins at me. “Don’t worry, red. I’ve got something much better thought out for us.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I rise to my knees and shuffle over so I can straddle his waist, my arms coming up to link around his neck. “What are you thinking?”

  Shay’s hands slip down my back, resting on my arse and giving a firm squeeze. His eyes flare as he starts describing what sounds like the sexiest holiday imaginable. “I was thinking somewhere tropical, like the Caribbean, or Fiji…something like that. With a little bungalow…and a private beach. There’ll be incredible food, and drink, and no one to disturb us…and maybe a nice lagoon we can swim in…”

  “Mmm…I love a good lagoon,” I purr, brushing my lips along his jaw and rolling my hips to create some incredible friction.

  Before we can get to any of the good stuff, though, my phone starts blaring.

  “Bloody hell,” I grumble, sliding off Shay’s lap and stalking toward the kitchen counter to grab my phone. I have
every intention of just switching it off, but then I see it’s my mum calling, and I know I have to answer. She hardly ever calls out of the blue so I know this must be important.

  “Hi, Mum, what’s up?”

  “Oh, Jamie…” My gut plummets at the shakiness in her voice. Something is seriously wrong. “It’s…it’s Granddad.”

  “What do you mean? What’s happened?”

  Obviously sensing something’s wrong, Shay rises from the sofa and strides across the room, wrapping me in his strong arms. I immediately sink into his hold, drawing comfort from his presence.

  “He’s had a heart attack,” Mum says. “He’s alright. Mostly. He’s in hospital now and they want to operate…apparently there’s a very high chance of recovery once he’s had the operation.”

  “Well, that’s great,” I say, attempting to put on a positive front. “If they’re confident…”

  “I’m just so scared, Jamie,” Mum admits, her voice catching.

  “I know, Mum. But these doctors are experts. They know what they’re doing,” I assure her.

  I can visualize her nodding her acceptance of my point. “You’re right.”

  “Shay and I are going to jump on a flight to London,” I tell her. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  I spoke without thinking, without even checking to see if Shay is okay with this plan. I panic for the briefest of moments, but when I catch his eye all I see is support. He nods and gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Of course,” he murmurs. Stepping away from me, he tugs his phone out of his pocket and starts scrolling through it.

  “Jamie, you don’t have to—”

  “Shay’s looking up flights now,” I say, cutting her off.