Out of the corner of his eye, Travis saw Gage flipping through the videos on his phone, grinning like a fool as he did. He grunted, remembering that whole incident.
“We’ve got ours,” Jaxson said, holding up his phone.
Everyone leaned in to watch as, sure enough, Ethan and Beau went skipping through a store, each carrying at least three Barbies in each arm, yelling at the top of their lungs. The video continued, showing the store manager kindly asking them to leave.
Laughter erupted as everyone watched.
“What happens if there’s another tie?” Kylie inquired, looking directly at Donovan.
“Then the one with the best video wins,” he said. “We’ll vote.”
“It’s gonna be hard to top that one,” Zane said.
Travis didn’t look up; he continued to stare at his hands, praying that he wasn’t blushing, because he’d never live that one down.
“I’ve got ours,” Gage called out, holding up his phone as the video started to play.
The room went eerily silent as all eyes went to that small screen.
“Where are y’all at?” Zoey asked.
“The daycare in town,” Kylie told her.
Travis gritted his teeth together.
“Oh. My. God!” Sawyer exclaimed. “Is that…?”
Rumbles of laughter exploded, and Travis knew exactly which part they were watching.
Someone bumped his shoulder, and Travis looked up to see RT grinning like a fool. “You…” He was laughing so hard he couldn’t speak. “You put on a…” More cackling. “A dress!”
Travis shook his head in disbelief. He had put on a dress. In fact, the daycare had the whole getup, and he’d managed to fit in it enough to get the gist of it. Then, with the daycare center’s help, they’d gathered all the kids together, and he’d sung “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” At the top of his lungs.
“Trav wins!” Ethan exclaimed. “No doubt about it! Can’t beat that one.”
“Send me that video,” Kaleb hollered to Gage.
“Don’t you dare,” Travis snarled.
Gage grinned up at him, eyes twinkling. “Don’t worry, that one’s just for us.”
Sliding his gaze over to Kylie, Travis waited until she looked his way. Her eyes flickered with recognition, and he knew she remembered the promise she’d made him earlier.
They’d won.
And he fully intended to collect tonight.
Chapter Ten
AFTER DINNER, EVERYONE was given an hour to go home and get their lights on and ready for the judging. The place had cleared out within seconds, but Kylie had stayed back with Kate to help Lorrie clean up since Travis and Gage were more than capable of handling their stuff on their own. Jared had hung back with Mason and Derrick since the boys would ultimately be the official judges for the evening.
“Are you ready for this?” Curtis asked, sitting at the small kitchen table drinking coffee.
“I’m not sure any of us are ready for this,” she teased.
“I’ve seen ’em all,” Jared noted. “It’s gonna be interesting.”
She knew what her house looked like, knew that when the lights were on outside, she didn’t need to turn any on inside because of how bright they were. But, Kylie had to admit, it was rather impressive. She was more anxious to see everyone else’s, but only because she wanted to see her daughter’s reaction to it all.
“How do y’all plan to do this?” Kylie asked, regarding Curtis and Jared briefly.
“Figured we’d just pile in the truck and start at Brendon’s and end with Kaleb’s,” Curtis replied.
That made sense considering they could snake their way through town, out to her house, then back this way.
“Do you know if Mason has seen the train yet?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” Lorrie answered, wiping the counter. “Kaleb wanted it to be a surprise.”
Kylie wasn’t sure how he’d managed to something that size, but she understood why. And that was another reason she was grateful they’d end at Kaleb’s. The kids were going to be over the moon once they got a chance to ride on that thing.
She had just finished putting the last dish into the cabinet when Curtis’s cell phone chimed with a text. He hadn’t even had a chance to read it before another one came in. Then another and another.
Apparently everyone was set up and ready to go.
As Kylie was pulling Kate’s coat on, the screen door squeaked, announcing an arrival. She looked up in time to see Gage and Travis, their faces relaxing when they saw her. She loved when they did that. It was as though they hated being away from her and were only content when she was with them. She felt the same way about them.
Smiling, she lifted Kate up and turned her to face her daddies. “Look who’s here.”
“Da!” Kate squealed, pointing toward them.
Travis took her from Kylie while Gage helped Jared wrangle Mason and Derrick.
“We’ll take Kate and Kylie with us,” Travis told his father. “And follow y’all.”
It took a few minutes for everyone to get situated into the vehicles, and by the time they were pulling out of Lorrie and Curtis’s driveway, there was a line of trucks waiting to follow them. She counted them off as they passed. Kaleb, Zane, Ethan, Braydon, and Sawyer. They were all ready to go to Brendon and Cheyenne’s house to start this thing.
“You warm back there?” Travis asked, peering at her in the rearview mirror.
“Yep, we’re good.”
A few minutes later, they pulled in front of Brendon’s, the line of trucks dispersing to park along the sides of the road. Apparently there were other onlookers out tonight, checking out the lights, because the street was busy.
Gage unbuckled Kate from her car seat, lifting her into his arms while Travis opened her door and helped her out. When he took her hand, she linked her fingers with his as the four of them headed up to the house.
Turning at the sound of her daughter’s excited rambling, Kylie saw Kate’s eyes widen as she took it all in.
“Wow,” Gage muttered.
“Very cool,” Travis chimed in.
Kylie took in the sight before her. Brendon and Cheyenne had gone all out. And by all out, she meant they’d turned Cheyenne’s front yard into a winter wonderland. It was true, in Texas, snow didn’t fall much, but here, standing in front of this house, it was hard to believe that.
They had what appeared to be a commercial-grade snow machine that was blanketing the area with white. They’d created a path with ropes and candy cane poles that sectioned off various holiday scenes.
“Is that a polar bear?” Gage asked, his tone wistful.
Kylie smiled to herself because she could tell he was impressed.
“Come on,” Travis said, tugging her arm as others began descending upon the yard.
It took about ten minutes to wander through, to see each scene, all while snow fell from above them. Kate seemed so entranced by the white powder falling down on her head she’d hardly paid any attention to the life-sized holiday decorations.
“What do you think?” Gage asked Kate.
She giggled sweetly and pointed.
Kylie looked over to see Mason and Derrick running around in circles, whooping and hollering as they paid attention to the snow. Based on the amount of energy they were expending, she knew they were going to sleep well tonight.
The next house on the list was theirs, and after a ten-minute drive, everyone once again piled out of the trucks and made their way in front of her house. Travis retrieved the laptop he’d brought with him, hit a few keys and then…
Kylie’s jaw dropped. The scene before her was amazing. And to think her husbands had created this extraordinary display. Music blared from speakers she couldn’t see while the lights danced along with it. Letters appeared, then disappeared, spelling out words in the song. They had stars flashing brightly, running in patterns from the house down to the trees near the road.
“What do y
ou think?” Gage asked her, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her back against him.
“I love it,” she whispered. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Sure, she’d watched it as they’d pieced it together over the past few weeks, but they hadn’t let her see the final result, because they’d wanted it to be a surprise.
She was pleasantly surprised.
The song lasted for about three minutes, and then everything went dark. Kylie was about to turn away, but Gage held her in place. Waiting, she searched the darkness, trying to anticipate what would come next.
And then she saw it, a huge Santa Claus, equipped with sleigh and reindeer, appeared, spotlights showing it as it rose up from the back of the house before stopping on the ridge of the roof. Her eyes were fixed on the scene when the Santa started waving back at them.
“Ho-ho-ho,” came the voice from the speakers, followed by a jolly laugh. “Merry Christmas, Kylie and Kate.”
Cheers from the others erupted as another song started, more lights flashing. Tears formed in her eyes as she swallowed past the knot that formed in her throat. Travis and Gage had done this for her and Kate. That gesture alone made her feel like the luckiest woman in the world.
“Love you,” Gage whispered against her ear.
Emotion made it impossible to speak, but she spun around and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his chest. Travis came to stand beside them, his arm going around behind Gage’s back, one hand rubbing her arm as the four of them stood there for a moment.
And though the contest was between the brothers, Kylie couldn’t help but think that she was the one who’d won tonight.
BY THE TIME they ended up at Kaleb’s for the final house of the night, Gage was reeling from all the remarkable scenes he’d seen.
Zane had created a toy shop out in front of his house, equipped with giant bears and remote control cars, even dancing dolls. Braydon would definitely get credit for the most lights, there was no doubt about that. Gage didn’t think there was an inch of his house visible after the light show had begun. Sawyer’s theme was animal related, and Buster had even donned a reindeer outfit for the occasion. As for Ethan and Beau … they would get the award for most creative. And it had been obvious that they’d had Mason and Derrick in mind when they created theirs. It was all about trucks, including the kid-sized monster truck track they’d designed to wind through the various scenes.
Needless to say, it hadn’t been easy pulling the boys away from that one.
And now, they were all gearing up for what they expected to be the highlight of the night.
After pulling into the driveway, everyone climbed out, looking around in awe. The trees were wrapped in lights, as was the house. But other than that, there wasn’t much to it.
But then, Kaleb disappeared behind the house, and a few minutes later, lights started flashing along the ground, a chasing pattern that started from the house and kept going. It took a minute to realize that they were lighting up the train track that snaked across the yard, around the house, over near the old barn, and back.
Gage was holding Kate in his arms when the whistle on the train sounded. She jumped, momentarily startled by the noise, but then a spotlight came on, highlighting the train, and more lights flashed, giving everyone the first view of the red and green locomotive with the giant wreath attached to the front, followed by one rail car and the caboose.
It was every boy’s dream right there in front of them, and Mason and Derrick proved it when they started to jump up and down, yelling. Derrick was tugging Jared’s hand, urging him toward the train, while Mason was hopping up and down in front of Zoey.
“You wanna ride on the train?” Travis asked Kate from behind them.
Her eyes were wide, but she didn’t answer. With Travis and Kylie right behind them, they followed the others, making their way over so the kids could get on. Kate’s grip tightened around his neck as they got closer, and when the whistle blew again, she jumped in his arms.
“It’s a train, sugar,” he told her. “I’ve got you.”
At first, Kate wanted nothing to do with it, but finally Kylie offered to ride with them. At that point, Gage knew the kids had definitely picked the winner. And quite frankly, though impressed by it all, Gage would have to agree.
After an hour of riding the train around in circles, everyone had had a chance to climb on, including all the brothers, which had resulted in a ton of pictures that would likely be looked at for years to come.
“Yep, Kaleb’s definitely the winner tonight,” Travis said, coming to stand beside him and linking their hands together.
“Looks that way,” Gage agreed. Although deep down, he couldn’t help but think they’d all won something tonight. The chance to spend the holidays together.
And he felt completely blessed to be a part of it.
Chapter Eleven
TRAVIS CARRIED KATE in from the truck, then got her ready for bed while she slept soundly. It was almost midnight, and he’d been stunned that his daughter had made it through all the events of the evening. If they were lucky, she would sleep through the night, and they would, too.
Only Travis had no intention of going to sleep anytime in the near future.
Closing Kate’s door after turning on the video monitor, he noticed the rest of the house was dark. He could hear Kylie’s and Gage’s voices drifting down the hall from their bedroom, so he made his way in there.
“We thought you’d never get here,” Gage said, sitting on the edge of the bed, Kylie kneeling behind him and massaging his shoulders.
“Yeah?” He watched the two of them, noticing the way they eyed him from time to time. “Were you waitin’ for somethin’?”
“Instruction,” Kylie said with a sexy smirk.
“For what?” He knew exactly what they were waiting for—as was he—but he enjoyed playing the game with them. It kept things interesting.
“For whatever you want,” she said.
“Whatever I want,” he repeated.
“Yep, that was the deal.”
“So what did you have in mind?” Gage asked as he pulled his shirt off, giving Travis a glimpse of his amazing upper body.
What he wanted to do was run his mouth over every single inch of them both until they were begging him to make them come.
But tonight he wanted to do something a little different.
“Oh no,” Kylie said with a chuckle, falling back on the bed and regarding him closely. “I know that look.”
“What look is that?”
“The one that says this is gonna be a good night,” she teased.
“It’s already been a good night.” It had been a spectacular night, actually.
Yes, Kaleb had definitely won the free-for-all, but as far as Travis was concerned, they all had, as well. Spending time together was what was important, and even though they were a competitive bunch, deep down, it had all been done for the love of family.
“It has,” Kylie conceded. “A very good night.”
“That’s about to get a whole lot better,” he told her as he approached the bed, stopping when his knees hit the mattress.
“So what is it that you want tonight?” Gage asked, getting to his feet and coming to stand behind him.
Travis leaned back against Gage when he wrapped his arms around him.
“I want…” Travis sucked in a breath when Gage sucked on the sensitive skin of his neck. “I want you and Kylie to do whatever you want to me.”
He noticed the slow smile that formed on Kylie’s mouth. “Really?”
“Yes,” he whispered, tilting his head to give Gage better access to his mouth. “As long as I don’t have to wear a fucking dress.”
That earned a chuckle from both of them.
“Oh, I can promise you won’t be wearing a dress,” Gage mumbled against his skin. “In fact, you won’t be wearing anything at all.”
He definitely liked the sound of that.
Travis wasn’t eager
to move, because Gage’s mouth felt way too good on his neck, so it was good that Kylie took the lead, crawling to the end of the bed and kneeling in front of him. He watched her, loving the way her eyes raked over him slowly while her hands reached for his belt buckle. Without breaking eye contact, she worked his jeans open while Gage managed to lift his shirt up and over his head.
When Gage’s warm lips traveled down his spine, goose bumps broke out over his skin. They knew the exact spots that would make him crazy.
Travis hissed in a breath when Kylie’s cool finger wrapped around his cock, stroking him until he was fully erect. She smiled sweetly back at him before bending down and kissing the swollen head. He watched her, not moving a muscle, enjoying the way she teased him.
“Boots,” Gage said as he knelt behind Travis.
Travis quickly toed off his boots, and then Gage was yanking his jeans down his legs. Travis kicked them off his feet, then allowed Gage to remove his socks.
When he was standing stark naked between them, his body temperature soared a few hundred degrees. Fully immersed in the sensations, he closed his eyes as their hands and mouths trailed over him, teasing, tormenting, making him crazy. And when his legs threatened to buckle beneath him, he was grateful Gage was there to catch him.
“On the bed,” Kylie instructed, backing up and giving him room to join her.
Travis crawled onto the bed and turned over onto his back, placing his hands behind his head. He enjoyed the show when Kylie helped to strip Gage before he did the same to her. Travis still couldn’t get over how incredibly beautiful they were. He could’ve laid there and stared at them all night long, just like this.
But they obviously had other plans for him. When they were both naked, they joined him on the bed, Kylie kneeling between his legs as she took his shaft in her small hands, stroking him slowly as she met his gaze. Gage kneeled beside him, his mouth lowering until…
“Fuck,” Travis groaned when Gage’s lips wrapped around the sensitive head of his cock.
Kylie continued to stroke him while Gage laved him with his tongue.
Because Naughty Holidays Can Be Oh So Nice 2015 Page 7
