Christmas with the Single Dad (The Single Dads of Seattle Book 5)

by Whitley Cox

  “Papa lost his leg to diabetes when we were kids,” Zak said, his mouth next to Aurora’s ear. “Hasn’t really slowed him down much, though. Still a stubborn old codger who insists upon doing everything without a cane—even though he really should have one.”

  “Oh, he’s a stubborn one, that’s for sure,” Daphne said, standing behind Tia and playing with her hair. “Can still mow the lawn and buck wood, but somehow dancing with me just makes his leg ache. Good thing Adam was willing to fill your grandfather’s dancing shoes.”

  “Always willing to save the day. That’s Adam for you.” Zak grinned.

  Daphne’s smile was wide before she tickled Tia’s neck. “Come, darling, come show Grammy the Christmas tree in the living room. I spied it on our way into the kitchen, and it looks to have a bunch of gifts already beneath it.” Daphne must have known Zak and Aurora needed a moment alone to regroup.

  Tia nodded, oblivious to Daphne’s true ploy, and led her great-grandmother into the other room.

  Once they were alone, Zak stepped around the island and into Aurora’s space. His hands fell to her hips. “I am so sorry.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head, happy to have him touching her again. “It’s okay. It’s not like you planned any of this. And they’re your family. People should be with family on Christmas. I’ll understand if you’d like me to go.”

  Please don’t make me go.

  His eyes narrowed, and his brows pinched. “Why would you go? I invited you to join me for Christmas. I’m not going to rescind my invitation. That would make me a pretty terrible person, don’t you think?”

  Was he only keeping her around so he didn’t look or feel bad?

  His fingers on her hips tightened, and he tugged her against him and dipped his head until his mouth hovered just above hers, their bodies now touching, breaths mingling. “I want to spend Christmas with you. Is it going to happen the way I’d hoped? No. But the kids are okay with you staying in my room. My grandparents are two of the nicest and most accepting people in the entire world. You really have nothing to worry about.”

  Nothing to worry about.

  Ha!

  “I never intended for your kids to discover me,” she whispered, her body betraying her mind as she melted into his muscular embrace. “I hid on the stairs when I heard the doorbell. Then when I realized it was your kids, I got dressed. They found me. I honestly didn’t tell them that I was your girlfriend.”

  Not that she was his girlfriend.

  Erm. Awkward.

  Had he noticed her slip?

  He didn’t seem to.

  With worry rattling around in her belly like a stone in a jar, she continued. “I told them as little as humanly possible. I even told them that it wasn’t my place to say whether they could have a cookie.”

  She felt his lips twitch as he tried to hold back a laugh.

  Her bottom lip jutted out, and she exhaled. “It might just be easier if I go.”

  But I don’t want to go.

  He shook his head. “You’re not allowed to leave. I won’t let you. I’m your ride, remember, and I don’t plan on driving anywhere for a while.” The gleam in his diamond-blue eyes was practically diabolical. “Now, there’ll be no more kitchen or living room sex, but I still have a fair few things that I’d like to do to you before I’m forced to take you home. Kids and grandparents across the hall be damned.”

  Kids and grandparents across the hall be damned.

  Her knees were about to buckle.

  Finally, she summoned the courage to wrap her arms around his neck. She needed to hold on to something.

  “I like you, Aurora. And no, this is not how I would have introduced you to my kids, let alone this early. But it is what it is. So far they seem to like you.”

  “I like them too. Tia is such a sweetheart, and Aiden is a real charmer.”

  The pride that flashed behind his eyes was unmistakable.

  “We’ll take it slow,” he said. “If the family stuff gets overwhelming, just say you have to check some work emails and duck upstairs for a bit. I already told my grandfather that you’re this big powerful attorney, so they know that you’re a busy person.”

  Big powerful attorney. Right.

  That lie just kept coming back to haunt her, didn’t it?

  Well, it wasn’t so much a lie, as she hadn’t bothered to correct his assumption.

  Was that still a lie?

  You’re a freaking lawyer! You know damn well it’s a lie! A lie of omission. Dear God, how did you ever pass the bar? By the skin of your teeth and horseshoes up your ass, that’s how.

  His tongue darted out and ran along her bottom lip. “Say you’ll stay,” he whispered, pressing his pelvis against hers, letting her know just how much he wanted her to stay. “Don’t let me wake up Christmas morning without you in the bed next to me. It’s all I want for Christmas. Santa can leave me coal in my stocking as long as you’re in my bed.” He pulled away and tossed his head back, the back of his hand falling to his forehead as if he were some Southern belle on the verge of fainting. “I simply could not bear it if you left now. I must wake up with your lips around my cock come Christmas morning. ’Tis what I asked Santa for.”

  A big, ugly laugh flew from Aurora’s mouth before she could stop it. She pushed out of his grasp and turned away, rolling her eyes as she continued to laugh.

  “You’ll stay for the jokes at the very least, right?” he asked, smiling like a gorgeous tattooed idiot as he drew her back into his embrace with his hands once again on her hips.

  She exhaled, her eyes roaming across his much too handsome, much too chiseled face. “Do I really have a choice?”

  Before she could blink, she was off her feet and dipped, her head just inches from the ground. “No, you really don’t,” he growled before taking her mouth … and her heart.

  Zak was just as surprised with himself as Aurora seemed to be. He’d been on the fence about having her stay until he saw her with his family. Until he saw her with his children, with his grandparents and how right she looked standing in his kitchen, smiling and laughing and eating Christmas cookies.

  She belonged there. She was meant to spend Christmas with him, to spend Christmas with them.

  Noise on the stairs and around the corner in the living room had him breaking their kiss and standing the woman in his arms back up on her two feet. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and he could feel her hard nipples poking out beneath his shirt.

  “All set up in the guest room,” Zak’s grandfather, or Papa, said, stepping off the last of the stairs and entering the kitchen.

  His limp appeared more severe than normal. Hopefully it was just a bit of temporary discomfort from all the sitting he’d done on the plane and on the drive from Vancouver.

  “We moved the rest of Aurora’s stuff to Zak’s room,” his grandfather went on. “Hope you don’t mind?”

  Aurora tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her cheeks flushed, lips puffy. She shook her head. “No, thank you. I meant to do that, but I, uh … ”

  “Unexpected guests threw you off your game,” Zak’s grandmother, or Grammy, finished, holding hands with Tia and reentering the kitchen.

  Aurora’s cheeks burned an even deeper shade of pink. “Something like that.”

  Aurora’s phone buzzed in the pocket of her hoodie, and she pulled it out, glancing at it. Zak watched her, hoping that it wasn’t the same person from earlier who had set her into a funk.

  She made a face, one that he couldn’t quite place but knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, held no glee.

  “Everything okay?” he asked, his hand landing on Aurora’s back as he leaned in just slightly to see if he could get a peek at the screen.

  She flinched beneath his touch, glancing up at him, her eyes going wide at the same time she angled the screen of the phone away from him. “It’s fine. Just work stuff. Nothing that can’t wait until the twenty-sixth, though.” She scanned his face and the obvious
shock. “But it’s confidential, so … ” Her mouth thinned into a grim line as she glanced back at her phone before turning the screen to black and shoving it back into her pocket. “Sorry, it’s just … ”

  He rested his other hand on her arm. “No need to explain. Client-lawyer confidentiality. I get it. Say no more.”

  The nod of her head was tight and her smile small. “Something like that.”

  Zak studied her face for a moment. He wanted to pry more, find out what made her mood do such a complete one-eighty, but now was not the time or the place. Maybe she’d open up to him more when they were alone. Away from the prying eyes and ears of his children and grandparents.

  “Dad, what’s for dinner?” Aiden asked, breaking the tension that seemed to be bouncing back and forth between Aurora and Zak.

  Aiden sidled up next to his grandfather, his eyes darting to the cookies on the counter.

  “Yeah, I’m hungry,” Tia added, her eyes also falling to the cookies.

  “Well, it’s not cookies,” Zak said, his tone stern but his smile kind.

  He and Aurora had only just eaten breakfast/brunch/lunch or whatever they were calling it just a few hours ago. He wasn’t overly hungry. The clock on the stove said it was closing in on dinnertime soon.

  He needed to come up with something to feed his family.

  “Why don’t I whip something up?” Aurora offered, slipping out of his grasp and wandering around to the other side of the island, her hand landing on the fridge handle.

  Her sullen mood seemed to be fading. Maybe that message really had been a work thing and she was just trying to power down for a few days but found it difficult to truly shut out work.

  He understood that all too well. The kids said he often lived on his phone or his laptop, and if he wasn’t on one of his devices dealing with work, he was at the gym or talking about the gym and the business.

  When it was your livelihood, your life and what the success of your family’s survival was riding on, you did everything you could to make it flourish.

  “You don’t have to cook,” Zak said. “You’re my guest. I’m sure I can figure something out.

  But she shook her head, a defiant twinkle emerging in her eyes. “You all go into the living room and chat. I’m guessing it’s been a while since you’ve seen your grandparents. I insist.” She pulled open the fridge door. “Fridge looks pretty stocked. I’m sure I can come up with something. Doesn’t look to be enough of last night’s dinner for everyone, but I’ll figure something out.”

  She lifted her eyebrow at Zak as if to tell him to git, then she showed him her back and bent down to explore the fridge.

  “I guess we have our orders,” Papa said with a chuckle. “I like her.”

  “Me too,” Tia added, following Papa and Aiden into the living room.

  A warm hand landed on Zak’s shoulder, and he turned to face his grandmother.

  “She seems sweet,” she said, dropping her voice down to just above a whisper. They continued to walk into the living room, so hopefully they were out of Aurora’s earshot. “I’m guessing things between you two are still quite new, though.”

  That was the understatement of the century if there ever was one.

  Zak nodded. “Yeah, it’s pretty new.”

  “But you like her?”

  He nodded again. “I do. She’s a lawyer, high up in her law firm. Seems to have her head on straight. Knows what she wants in life. No head games … from what I can tell.”

  From what I can tell of the last eighteen hours …

  “Where did you meet?”

  They were standing next to the fireplace now. Zak’s kids and grandfather were playing with the electric train set beneath the tree.

  “At the gym. She’s a member.”

  His grandmother’s mouth twitched at the corner. “I thought you had a rule about that?”

  Zak snorted. “Yeah, I thought so too.”

  She put her hand on his shoulder again, her smile warm—grandmotherly. “Some rules are made to be broken, sweetheart. I hope she makes you happy. You deserve to be happy. Why, you and your brother and the stress in your lives these last few years have really tested our blood pressures. We started talking with a Realtor about selling our place and moving out west. Help you and Adam with the kids, get your lives back on track.”

  Zak leaned down and pecked his grandmother on the cheek. “Thank you, Grammy. But Adam is doing great, as you know. He’s with Violet. They’re expecting. Paige is doing well with Mitch. Mira is healthy and happy.”

  “And you? You’re happy now too?”

  He nodded, leaning his hand on the mantle and glancing in the direction of the kitchen. “I’m getting there. The kids keep me grounded. They make me happy. And my business is booming. I think this year will definitely be better than last year. And most certainly better than the year before that.”

  She took his hand. “You need love too, Zachary.”

  He shifted his gaze down to his children and then back up toward the kitchen, a small smile catching on his lips. “I know, Grammy. And I think maybe now I’m ready to start looking for it.”

  “This is awesome,” Aiden said, using his finger to wipe up his plate. “Can we have veggie tacos every Christmas Eve?” He reached into the middle of the table and grabbed a cut-up piece of bell pepper. “And can we make more cookies tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, can we make cookies tomorrow?” Tia chimed in, finishing her veggie taco as well.

  “We’ll see,” Zak replied, finishing up his own taco.

  “I agree,” Papa added, “these tacos are delicious. Did you make the tortillas yourself?”

  Aurora nodded, her body growing a touch warm from all the compliments being thrown at her. “Yeah, I couldn’t find any wraps in the fridge or freezer, but making them yourself is easy enough. And Zak’s pantry is like a grocery store, so it was easy to find beans and rice and corn. Didn’t want to wait for ground meat to thaw out though.”

  “Nothing wrong with a vegetarian meal,” Grammy said with a nod. “We should all eat less meat.”

  “Can I have more?” Tia asked. “I need healthy food after the crap we ate today.”

  Aurora grabbed her drinking glass and hid her face, struggling not to smile or laugh. She glanced up and noticed that Zak and his grandparents were looking for ways to stem their amusement as well.

  “Absolutely you can have more, sweetie,” Grammy piped up, the first to regain her composure. She grabbed another tortilla off the plate and passed it to Tia, then pushed all the taco fixings in Tia’s direction. “Why don’t you make your own?”

  Tia nodded. “Okay, thanks.”

  “Well, I say we get an early night’s sleep tonight,” Papa said, leaning back in his chair and resting his hands on his belly. “We’ll have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow. Need to shovel the driveway, bang the snow from the gutters, sweep it off the back steps. Then we need to watch Christmas movies, play board games and wait for Santa Claus.”

  Zak’s mouth twisted. “You’ve got it all planned out, have you?”

  Papa nodded. “I certainly do. Haven’t spent Christmas Eve with my kiddos in a long time, need to make the most of it.” He pushed himself up to standing with a groan that only made sense coming from a man of advanced age, then he took his plate and Grammy’s plate to the dishwasher.

  “And we can bake more cookies, too, right?” Tia asked. “To leave for Santa.”

  Zak and Aiden exchanged looks.

  Zak’s eyebrows lifted just slightly on his head. Aiden nodded.

  Ah, okay. So Tia still believed in Santa; Aiden knew the truth. Good to know.

  Aurora nodded. “I’m sure we can carve out some time for that. What do you guys usually eat on Christmas Eve?”

  “Homemade pizza,” Aiden said, standing up as well, taking his and then his father’s plate to the dishwasher. Both he and his grandfather began to clear the table and clean up.

  Such gentlemen. Such domestics.
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  “Yeah, we each get our own mini pizza to put whatever we want on it,” Tia added. “Then we play board games. Then we each get to open one present, then we go to bed. Then Santa comes.”

  Aurora smiled, loving her enthusiasm and the childhood wonder that surrounded Christmas. “Sounds like quite the lovely tradition.”

  “And you get to be a part of it this year.” Tia beamed. Then her face fell as if she’d just been informed of the true identity of Santa Claus. Her eyes shifted warily to her dad. She hopped off her chair and went to whisper in Zak’s ear.

  He listened intently, his brows furrowing, then lifting. All the while his blue eyes continued to sparkle beneath the ornate light hanging above the kitchen table. Finally, he patted Tia on the back and nodded. “We’ll figure something out, sweetheart. Don’t worry.”

  Tia didn’t seem nearly as convinced, but she nodded anyway and then returned to her seat to finish building her taco.

  Aurora squinted in query at Zak across the table, but he made the lip-zip motion with his thumb and finger, then dramatically tossed the pretend key behind his shoulder.

  Aurora rolled her eyes.

  “Well,” Daphne said, stretching in her seat before pushing her chair away from the table and standing. “I think I might actually retire to our room. It was a long flight with many stopovers and then a white-knuckle drive across the border.” She cupped Tia’s head in her palms and planted a kiss on the little girl’s wavy crown. “I’m probably going to have nightmares about all that plane turbulence going over the Rocky Mountains.”

  Tia grinned, chewing her taco. “You can come sleep in my bed if you’re scared, Grammy. I don’t mind.”

  Daphne chuckled, then kissed Tia again before releasing her head. “Thank you, my love. I just might take you up on that.”

  Daphne made her way around the table and rested her hand on Aurora’s shoulder. “It’s so nice to have you here, dear. I look forward to getting to know you better tomorrow. Sweet dreams.” Then she did something rather unexpected, at least for Aurora. She cupped Aurora’s head just like she had Tia’s and kissed her crown, the same way she’d done to the little girl.