33. Lake

LAKE

"A doll?"Stormi stared at her gift with much confusion.

Since the day we read her letter to Santa, Bronson and I had been working to make her wish come true every chance we got.

It wasn't a hardship by any means.

I glanced at my husband and we shared a small smile. We wanted to give Stormi what she so dearly wanted as much as she wanted it. We just needed a little more time since it hadn't even been a full month since we threw out the condoms.

My face heated as the memory of the first time Bronson entered me bare came to the forefront of my mind. With my eyes still on his, he chuckled and winked. The man always knew when I had sex in the brain.

"What"s so funny?" Stormi asked him.

"Nothing, Muffin." Trying to change the subject because sometimes our daughter was like a hound dog when she wanted to know something, Bronson pointed at her gift and said, "Wow, that was nice of Santa."

While Stormi mentioned she knew it could take a while to get what she wanted when she gave us her Christmas list to mail, I think she still believed that being Santa, he could work a miracle.

Maybe one would come soon.

Our angel, not being one to be unappreciative of the things she got, plastered on a smile, and told her dad that it was really cool of the man in the red suit to give her a gift.

"Is there anything else in the box?" I asked her casually.

She turned and rummaged through the tissue and pulled an envelope out. "Santa wrote me a letter?" Confusion etched across her angelic face.

"Well open it," Bronson urged her.

Brows furrowed in concentration, she did as he asked and began to read. But unlike Bronson, when he'd read her letter to Santa, she didn"t read her letter out loud.

We of course didn't need to hear it to know what it said, since we had written it ourselves. It was short and sweet just like hers had been and I remembered every word.

Dear Stormi,

I'm sorry I couldn't bring you exactly what you asked for but babies take time.

However, I am still working on it and believe it will work out.

And while I can't promise a brother instead of a sister, I will do my best.

Please take this babydoll and practice, for one day, hopefully soon, you will hold the real thing.

Love, Santa

I saw the moment she finished. That bright smile of hers lit up the room and a happiness twinkled in her eyes.

"Santa wrote me back!" she exclaimed excitedly before getting up and racing toward her room.

"Hey, Roadrunner, where are you off to?"

Stormi stopped and turned around at the edge of the hall looking back at Bronson. "Who's Roadrunner?"

Always curious. So much so, I heard Bronson call her Curious George a few nights before and had to explain that one. It was becoming a thing with them. He would call her names, say something silly, or make reference to things she had no clue about, and then they'd talk about it together.

Part of their father-daughter bonding time, it was special.

"I'll show you later," he answered.

"Okay. I'm gonna go put my letter in my room. Be right back."

While she was out of earshot, I moved onto my husband"s lap and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"She's counting on us," I told him as I leaned in and kissed the side of his neck. "Hope your swimmers are Olympic champions so it doesn't take too long."

A deep bark of laughter rumbled from my man's muscled chest. The vibration ran straight through my body and hit my core causing it to tingle with need.

"Later, baby," he whispered in my ear as his hand slid seductively over my ass.

Our daughter's feet pounded back down the hallway and I gave myself a little shake as I moved off his lap. He gave me a knowing, sexy smirk and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"I'll get you back later," I taunted as Stormi ran into the room.

She plopped down on her butt close to the twinkling tree. We followed suit and sat down next to her to open more gifts together as a family.

We'd had a beautiful Christmas Eve at Lance and London's home the evening before, sharing in their magical moment when they said their vows. And later we were going to Gemma's house. But for a short time on Christmas morning, I was soaking up the time we had with just the three of us.

I glanced at my daughter and then Bronson.

My heart nearly burst with love.

"Now that's a hideous sweater,"Bronson said, laughing hysterically.

I playfully socked him in his upper arm, hurting my hand more than anything else. "That's the point, butthead."

"Butthead? Wow. We really took it back to our childhood days. I recall you calling me that often back then." Still laughing, he wrapped me up in his arms. "I'm not sure I can even kiss you with that thing on."

He was full of shit and I knew it because he was so close, his lips a mere inch from mine and his eyes were full of need.

"I dare you not to," I challenged, knowing full well he would lose.

Placing both hands on his chest, I slowly ran them down the valley of his abs, curving them as I went lower so my fingers were facing the ground and both palms could cup his growing erection behind the denim of his jeans.

A strangled groan slipped from his very kissable lips that I intended to have on mine.

"You cheat, Cupcake."

He closed the last bit of space and his mouth captured mine, taking it prisoner and punishing it as he savored every taste right along with me. My eyes closed, pleasure rippled through my body and I didn't want it to stop.

The doorbell rained on my parade and Bronson pulled back, my eyes fluttering open as reality kicked in. With just his mouth, my husband could send me into fantasy land where I forgot about everything around me.

"Guess you like the sweater, huh?" I managed to say softly.

He grinned. "You could be wearing a potato sack, no makeup, and your hair could be in disarray and I would still want you."

I batted my lashes at him flirtatiously. "You say the sweetest things."

Bronson gave me a quick kiss on the tip of my nose. "You know it, baby. I'll grab the door and get Stormi moving so we can head out."

When he left the room, I wondered who could possibly be here on Christmas day. Dressed in leggings and yes, my ugly Christmas sweater because that was the theme for Gemma's party today, I ran in the bathroom to throw my hair up before heading out to the living room to see who was there.

There stood River, holding a big sack full of gifts.

But to my absolute shock, she wasn't alone.

I froze, my gaze taking in, what I assumed by looking at them, were two teenagers. They must have been her kids, but every time she said her kids, I thought of Stormi or the young children that belonged to all of our friends. The boy and girl standing there, silent and looking like they wanted to be anywhere but at my house, were not little ones as I'd assumed.

Nervously, River thrust out the bag toward me and that got my feet moving closer to her. "I hope it's okay I stopped by really quick, I wanted to give Stormi a couple gifts we bought for her."

Taking the bag from her grasp, I smiled at Stormi, who with wild abandon, thrust herself against River and hugged her tight around her legs.

"For me? That's awesome!" Stormi exclaimed.

River stumbled backward a tad but managed to stay upright. She laughed at my child's untamed exuberance.

Suddenly, my daughter released River in a flash. "Oh wait," she said as she rushed like a gush of wind toward the tree, grabbing what I knew was the gift she'd helped pick out.

"This is for you, Auntie River." Stormi held out the small sparkly red bag with the silver bow on the side of it.

My sister looked down at the bag with astonishment. When her gaze came back to Stormi, then me, a sheen of tears filled her extraordinary violet-colored eyes.

"Open it, open it!" Stormi cheered, jumping up and down.

She was just as excited to give out presents as she was to receive them and my heart swelled with pride.

When we had all gone Christmas shopping together, my daughter had slyly convinced me she randomly saw a charm bracelet at the Pandora store. What I hadn't known was that Bronson and she had already gotten me one too and she thought it would be a good gift for River.

And to make things even funnier, Stormi had liked it so much that Bronson and I had gotten her one as well.

River knelt down on the ground and the teens watched her in continued silence. They still hadn't said a word and my sister hadn't gotten too much in either with Stormi stealing the show. My daughter crowded her aunt, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Bronson stood beside me and placed his hand on my lower back in support. Not physically, but emotionally. Having River come to the house and bring her kids was huge. And then watching Stormi interact with her just added more to the moment.

"You're going to love it," Stormi announced as River pulled the box from the bag.

They shared a sweet smile before River opened the top and sharply inhaled. Her fingers tentatively touched the bracelet inside as if she thought it would bite her. Stormi thrust out her arm and pointed down at her wrist.

"See me, you, and mom all got one," she said this as she half-turned, pointing at me, before whipping back to give her full attention to her aunt. "Want to put it on?"

River finally plucked the bracelet all the way from the box. "I do, love it," she said softly. "And I would like to put it on for sure."

Stormi smiled proudly as they did just that and she rattled on about the couple of charms already on it. One was a silver, circle, dangle charm that read, ‘Promoted to Auntie', with a heart under the words. My girl had insisted she had to have that one. And the second charm was two double hearts dangling with the words, ‘Sister Forever' engraved on them.

It was clear my sister was choked up. I knew how new and hard this was for her. It was for me too at one time, but I was getting used to all the people in my life. They were a blessing.

"Thank you," River whispered, looking at me over Stormi's shoulder as she pulled her in for a hug.

I gave her a soft smile. "You're welcome."

She released her niece and stood, swiping at a lone tear that had tumbled down her cheek. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she said, heading over to her kids.

"This is—"

"My cousins!" Stormi yelled.

The adults laughed and the teens" eyes widened as she ran to each of them hugging them like she had River. They stood stiff as boards, but small smirks played on their lips.

"Yes, that's right," River confirmed.

Stormi released her new family members and smiled brightly.

"This is Lennon, he is sixteen and Breland, Bre for short is fourteen," River told everyone, a heartfelt smile on her face as she introduced them to each of us.

Unsure how to proceed and knowing they were uncomfortable, I was grateful for Bronson's quick reaction. He stepped forward to shake Lennon's hand in a gentlemanly manner. Then without trying to touch Bre at all—the man was smart, we didn't know what the kids had been through—he welcomed them to the family.

After I had done the same, following in my husband's footsteps, River announced that they should get out of our way so we could get to Gemma's house.

"But you can't go," Stormi said. Once again, she raced to the tree and brought back two more gifts, handing one to each of the teens. "These are for you."

The look on their faces made me want to run out and buy them many more gifts. I didn't need to know River long to know she would make sure her kids had everything they needed and probably wanted. But just as it had been with her, I knew it was probably only the three of them and none of them were used to getting things from others.

Sounded familiar. Stormi and I had been in the same place not so long ago. While the guys and gals I worked with tried often to pull me into their fold, I'd never really caved outside of work. I realize now that I had done Stormi an injustice.

She was eating up all the attention, the new family, and the socialization.

So was I.

When Lennon and Breland went to open their boxes, I rushed to explain we didn't know how old they were or what they liked, so I was sorry the gifts weren't that exciting. Inside of each small box were Dave and Buster's gift cards, because anyone of any age might like games, I'd thought. Then along with that was fifty dollars in cash so they could get anything they'd like.

They looked so stunned, they hadn't moved a muscle. "What do you say?" River asked, jumping into mom mode.

Both of them flushed with embarrassment and then quietly thanked us. They were a striking duo, both looking so much alike. I had a feeling they were biological brother and sister, but I would save questions for another day.

River told Stormi to open her gift, something she'd completely forgotten about with all the excitement. She pulled one small bag out of the larger one and River stepped forward to take it. "This one is actually for your mom and dad," she said, holding it out to us.

Now it was my turn to be stunned.

Bronson nodded at me to open it and I did the honors, pulling out a wonderful bottle of wine and then an envelope. Inside we found a gift card to an amazing restaurant in downtown Portland and a homemade note that said it was good for one night of babysitting.

The surprises kept coming.

Not only had River come on her own accord to our home, but she brought her kids, and she was offering to spend an evening with Stormi at her place. Her baby steps were getting a lot bigger.

Stormi didn't really get boundaries as a free, fun-loving kid, but I did. So, stepping forward, I asked if I could hug her. At her nod, I embraced her, telling her thank you.

"Is it my turn?" my daughter asked, politely.

"Yeah, Muffin, it's your turn," her dad said.

She dug into the other two gifts in the bag with giddiness. To say she was thrilled with her new jewelry making kit and art set, would be an understatement. She doled out thank yous and promised to make Lennon and Breland bracelets so they had one too.

At Lennon's unsure facial expression, Stormi said, "It's okay, boys can wear them, my daddy does, see. I made him one at my friend Embry's house."

Not caring one lick if it made him look less manly, Bronson wore that gift from our daughter, proudly and with love. Bronson held up his wrist to show it off.

Lennon's lips twitched and then a smile broke out across his face, transforming him completely. Damn, that kid was handsome even at sixteen and would one day, if not already, have the girls swooning.

"Can't wait," he told Stormi.

She flashed him a smug smile. "I knew it."

I knew Stormi had won them all over when they all laughed. She had a positive effect on people and she brought happiness to everyone with her sunny disposition.

Once again a pang hit my chest at the thought of me keeping her to myself for so long. I know she was okay, but my girl, no our girl was meant to love and be loved by many.

As we said goodbye, I tried once again—having asked a few weeks back—to get them to come with us to Gemma's, but River declined, stating they had plans already. I let it go, knowing today was already so much more than I could have hoped for and there would be more days to get to know our new family.

Bronson held Stormi in his arms as she happily waved goodbye.

It had already been a phenomenal day and we still had more to go.