31. Chapter Thirty-One

The smell of coffee drifted up from downstairs, tickling my senses and waking me up. Sniffing, the air held the hint of something sweet, possibly cinnamon.

“Mmmm,” stretching, I blinked my eyes open, running a hand over the empty sheets next to me. They were cold and I frowned, before I remembered what day it was.

It was Christmas morning!

Excitement got me out of bed, and padding down the stairs quickly after a quick glance in the nursery showed me Julianna was already up.

My parents had–thankfully–departed early yesterday morning. I would like to say I was sad to see them leave, but it had been more of a relief than anything. Mother hadn’t even held Julianna, though my father seemed completely in love with his granddaughter and promised they would visit more.

They had left just in time for us to attend the friends and family Christmas Eve dinner at Mary Sinclair’s. It had been another wonderfully warm family affair, full of great food and lots of laughs. Even though we’d been instructed not to bring presents, we had somehow managed to come home with a backseat full of gifts for Julianna. Mary, Maeve and Allan had gotten her a gift, as had Miss Rose, Gigi, and all of the Sinclair quads. Those gifts, along with ones Grayson and I had picked out together–mostly clothes, because she had gone through another growth spurt–were nestled under our tree.

I didn’t even try to contain my excitement as I raced down the stairs, nearly tripping in my haste. Skidding to a stop, I heard a low growl coming from the living room, followed by Julianna’s sweet baby giggles. She’d just started laughing last week, and it was the most amazing sound.

Leaning against the doorframe, I watched as the huge gray and black wolf crouched down and got nose to nose with my daughter. She was on her tummy on her pad made just for tummy time and had pushed herself up on her arms. The wolf let out a low rumble in the back of its throat, and Julianna chortled, trying to reach out her pudgy hand to touch the beast. Losing her balance, she ended up rolling to her side, where she floundered like a turtle, since side rolling was as far as she had mastered.

Grayson shifted, placing her back on her tummy.

“Whatcha doing?” I smiled at them both. The Christmas tree lights were on, sprinkling the room with multi-colored lights, and the stockings, full of trinkets, were resting against the pile of presents under the tree.

Grayson glanced over his shoulder at me, grinning broadly, his dimples on full display. “She giggles every time I growl at her.”

“Not the usual reaction you’re used to when you growl, I’m sure.”

He snorted, “Only from you. She keeps getting annoyed with herself when she falls over.”

“That’s because she has the patience of a gnat. Coffee?”

“Please,” he shifted back to his wolf form, sliding onto his belly and touching his snout to Julianna’s nose. She chortled, falling to her side and gave a cry that was nothing but temper.

“She has your temper,” I called, making my way to the kitchen just as the oven timer dinged. Grabbing some potholders, I pulled out the tray of cinnamon rolls Grayson had made up yesterday morning. They smelled wonderful, and I set them on the counter to cool, thankful for his cooking skills since mine were practically non-existent. Pouring two cups of coffee, I carried them carefully back into the living room. Setting them down, I scooped Julianna up in my arms, then helped her place her hand on the top of Grayson’s furry head so she could pet him.

Grabbing a tuft of fur in her little fingers, she yanked hard, and he yelped. Untangling her grasp, I kissed her fingers, then gave her a peck on her cheek. “Good morning, love.”

Grayson shifted, bending to kiss my lips with a soft, “Merry Christmas.” Pulling on his discarded pajama pants from the floor, he handed me one of the mugs of coffee.

Taking a sip, I eyed him over the rim. “Why are there full stockings under the tree?” We’d agreed to not buy each other presents and only get Juliana a few practical things. Which had turned into much more than a few, but I wasn’t going to tell Grayson no when he kept coming home with things for her. We both knew this Christmas was more about us enjoying it with her, since she really didn’t have a clue what was going on. We’d bought a few items for her stocking, little teethers and a couple of small stuffies.

But the stockings we had bought for ourselves, and Julianna’s, were stuffed full of things.

“Because Santa came,” Grayson grinned, sipping his own coffee, looking like the cat who ate the canary.

“Of course he did,” rolling my eyes at him, I placed the baby on her back on her play mat, moving the mobile over her head so she could try to reach up and grab the different toys on it. “Silly me.”

“How does some hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls sound before we dig into the presents?” He set his coffee down, then crouched in front of the tree and dug through the piles of brightly wrapped packages, clearly looking for something.

“Amazing,” my stomach rumbled in answer. “What are you looking for?”

He pulled out three packages wrapped in the same bright red foil wrapping paper, holding them to his chest triumphantly. “These. Before I whip up the icing for the rolls, we need to open these.”

“What did you do? We said no gifts.” Still, I greedily reached out for the pretty present with grabby hands when he held it out to me. Sitting down with it in my lap, I turned it over, carefully picking at the tape with my fingernail.

“They’re for the three of us,” Grayson told me, then reaching over, he yanked the paper on my present, ripping it in half. At my outraged gasp, he ripped another piece off. “Wrapping paper is meant to be ripped, Wyatt. We aren’t going to use it again.”

My mother had hated the mess wrapping paper made, so ripping paper hadn’t been allowed. Grayson ripped open the smaller package with childish glee, tossing the remnants on the floor without a care.

Opening the box, I pulled out a pair of long john style pants, white with red candy canes all over them. The shirt was a baseball tee style, with red sleeves, a white front, and red lettering. “These are my Christmas movie watching pj’s,” I read the front of it.

“Yup,” he nodded his head, holding up the sleeper he’d gotten for the baby. It was white and had matching candy canes. He flipped it over so I could read the front of it.

“Baby’s First Christmas,” smiling, I took it from him, while he opened his box. Pulling the shirt that matched mine over his head, it stretched nicely over his muscles and wide chest. “Did you buy us matching pajamas?”

He grinned, popping the p when he said, “Yep. We’re starting some traditions around here.”

Raising a brow at him, I couldn’t help the grin that lit up my face. I loved when he was silly like this, laughing and easy with his smiles. It wasn’t a side of himself he showed many people, and it made me feel special that he shared that side of himself with me and Julianna. “Oh, are we?”

He nodded earnestly, “Hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls, followed by presents.”

“I can get behind that idea.”

“Leftovers from Mary’s and I haven’t forgotten your baked spaghetti,” he assured me when I was about to protest, “we’ll have that later tonight. Pajamas and movies all day, and maybe a nap. We’ll probably need those when she’s older and wakes us up at the butt crack of dawn.”

“This was on my list,” I whispered, still holding the pajamas close to my chest.

He caressed my cheek, then gave me a smacking kiss on my lips, followed by a sharp swat on my ass as he brushed by me on his way to the kitchen.

“Ow!” I complained, even though the sting had also brought with it a sharp stab of desire. Yes, a nap later was definitely happening today.

“I know,” he called, “I told you I want to help you cross off as many items on your list as possible.”

An hour later, our bellies were full of hot chocolate and gooey cinnamon rolls, and we were surrounded by mounds of torn wrapping paper from all of Julianna’s presents. She had fallen asleep on her mat and missed most of the unveiling of a truly astonishing amount of toys.

Frowning, I pushed the button on one of them, wincing when it started playing the most obnoxious song about wheels on the bus. “These all make noise. Every single one of them.”

Grayson looked over the pile, then muttered, “Those fuckers.”

“What?” Pushing the button on the police car, the red and blue lights flashed and the siren shrieked. Frantically, I tried to find the off button.

“This is payback,” he told me, looking annoyed.

Giving him side-eye, I sat the finally silent car down on the floor. “What did you do?”

“I might have made it my mission to buy all the Sinclair kids the loudest, most obnoxious toys for every birthday and Christmas. This is fucking payback. Jamie would always tell me what goes around comes around, and I would smart off that I was safe because I didn’t plan on having any pups.”

“So, we can look forward to more of this on her birthday, then?”

He ran a hand over his beard, nodding, “Probably.”

I shrugged, picking the car back up and turning it over. “I do have an engineering degree. I can silence all of these, no problem.”

And that’s just what I did the rest of the day. We spent the day in our pajamas, watching Christmas movies, and munching on the leftovers Mary had insisted we bring home. I was pretty sure she deliberately made enough to feed fifty people, just so no one had to cook on Christmas Day.

Grayson pulled out one more present that he had hidden under the tree, and I was flustered because we had said no gifts. He shushed me and watched as I opened the beautiful chess set he had gotten me. The pieces were hand cut in white and black marble, and I rubbed one of the knights with my thumb. It was heavy, the carving detailed and intricate, and emotion clogged my throat until I could barely speak.

“Do you play,” I finally managed to croak out.

He nodded, “I do. Probably not as good as you, but I thought it would be fun.”

“It will be, it’s beautiful,” I put the pieces back, “but, I didn’t get you anything. We said no gifts and,” I wrung my hands in my lap.

“Sweetheart,” his warm tone had me meeting his dark gaze, “you gave me the best gift anyone has ever given me.”

Swallowing hard, I looked around in confusion, “What? I didn’t get you anything.”

He pointed to Julianna, asleep on her mat, her little lips making smacking noises in her sleep. “You gave me Jules. You gave me our daughter. Best present ever.”