Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

HOUGHTON

H e was a pitiful excuse for a man, Houghton thought wretchedly as he saw his wife’s lonely smile as she walked toward him with a cup of eggnog and handed it to him.

“There’s a touch of whisky and cinnamon, just like you like…” she whispered and leaned down to kiss his forehead. He simply grunted and took a sip, because if he said anything else in front of everyone, he was going to figuratively shred his man card into teensy-weensy pieces that would make glitter look like sheets of notebook paper.

Oh yes, the emotional blabber and freakin’ baby talk was so close to his lips he could taste it because tomorrow morning, his surprise arrived. He was so grateful for the connections he’d made over the years to pull this off, and when he’d casually mentioned it as a sidenote during a phone call, that was when the wheels were put into motion.

“This was such a good idea to take this trip,” Lily smiled openly at the children playing in front of the fireplace together. “We don’t get snow like this back home and this makes it feel just so much cozier than a normal holiday.”

“Are you saying that I don’t make it feel like Christmas?” John teased – and Houghton smirked at the couple.

When John first told him he was getting out of the Army and retiring, the streak of envy was pretty strong. Not because he finally found someone but because he was so close to his own exit. Logan stayed the longest, and he understood why. There was a sense of obligation to those men around you that was hard to explain. When he finally left the base for the last time, it had been such a strange and eerie feeling turning his makeshift office over to Gretchen and saying ‘goodbye’ to everyone… but the only thing that got him through those heart-wrenching moments was knowing that Jill would be waiting for him.

“Only because ‘Santa’ is getting a ‘bowlful of jelly,’” Logan teased, leaning over and poking John in the gut. The two swiftly started arguing about ‘Dad-Bods’ and how they became ‘footrests for tiny toes’ when the kids stood on their stomachs… making him look down at his own slight pooch that was starting to appear.

And I don’t even care in the slightest, he thought, fighting back a smile as he took a sip of his eggnog again and simply patted the seat beside him as Jill returned from the kitchen with her cup of hot apple cider. The surprise in her face and rush of pleasure to her smile made him quickly take another sip before he disgraced himself. Jill sat down beside him, thigh to thigh, and gave a little wiggle as if to snuggle against him.

Oh heck…

I wuvs you, Tootsie-Wootsie was on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he swallowed painfully and gave his two friends his strictest glare, putting step one of his secret into motion.

“Are you two numbskulls taking the kids out to see the deer shortly?” he said bluntly and knew the children were looking at him in shock. Rose moved from a seated position to standing like a meerkat on her knees, her head higher than the two boys, her eyes blazing with awareness. Yeah, she was a cutie-patootie and understood why John was wrapped around his daughter’s little finger.

“Deer… like Bambi?”

“Yup.”

“Mr. Houghton, sir, there are Bambi-deers at your house?”

“And Moo-Cows just like Clarabelle from the cartoons,” he chuckled, unable to fight the smile at the little girl’s awestruck face… that quickly faded.

“Who’s Clarabelle?”

“Griffin,” he barked, looking at John’s grinning face. “You are slacking on your daughter’s Disney education. Everyone knows who Clarabelle Cow is.”

“Everyone born after 1980,” Logan quipped, sending everyone laughing – including him. “C’mon, little man,” his friend said, scooping up his son and blowing raspberries on his stomach. “We’ll go see the ‘moo-cow’…”

“Daddy, I wanna go!” Rose piped up immediately, and before Houghton or anyone else could speak, Jill leaned forward to look at the excited child, her face full of love.

“Sweetie, I made all of you some magical reindeer food that you can sprinkle on the snow,” Jill murmured tenderly, and he couldn’t love her more, knowing his own child growing beneath her heart would be the luckiest kid on this planet – no, the universe – to have her as their mother.

Daddykins wuvs you so much, Mama-Snookems.

And he physically bit his tongue, welcoming the pain before he spoke again.

“Griffin, Logan, why don’t you take the kids out and do something constructive with your offspring – and your wives. We’ve got plenty of coats, mittens, and anything else to get you outdoors for an hour or so. I need a break from you two.”

“Krampus…”

“Dang, Houghton, tell us how you really feel, buddy… I swear my one feeling just felt a twinge,” Logan retorted, before giving him the finger – and John slammed his hand over Logan’s, causing the man to wince.

“Nuh-uh,” John blurted out sharply, glancing at his daughter. “That’s a bad thing, and Rose isn’t allowed to do that… LOGAN,” he stressed pointedly, staring him down. “Do not teach my daughter that, or I will teach your son something.”

“Touché,” Logan chuckled, leaning into the other man’s face only for Griffin to rear back in alarm. “You sure look pretty…”

“Oh heck,” John muttered. All of the women laughed uncomfortably as Logan winked at Jill.

“Y’all be good, kiddos ,” Logan said obnoxiously, smiling, before holding out a hand toward Juliet. “Come, Sweetheart. We need to wear out the kids because I’m itching to rub that sexy belly.”

“You are insane, Dasher,” Juliet retorted, but the woman responded to the man’s obvious flirtations – and Houghton tucked that little nugget away in his mind to use later for Jill.

The moment the backdoor to the cabin closed, Houghton left the room. His heart was slamming in his chest wildly because one of two things was going to happen. Either Jill would start crying – which he sincerely hoped didn’t happen - or she would be angry, speaking her mind, and he nearly tripped as a throw pillow hit him hard on the back of his head.

Welp, I have my answer… it’s showtime.