Chapter Twenty-five

“Wake up, wake up.” I groan and roll to my back, Rocky is standing over me jumping on the bed. “It’s Christmas,” he whispers. The excitement on his face is contagious. I hold my hands up and he helps pull me up. We both look down at all of the guys sleeping on the floor in their sleeping bags. I don’t think I have ever seen them look so peaceful.

“Come on guys, wake up!” Rocky shouts causing everyone’s eyes to snap open at the commotion.

I’m so excited that I feel extra jittery this morning. We all agreed that we wouldn’t go overboard with the gifts we give to each other. There's no way we could haul them all with us, so we focused our energy on buying presents for our families.

I look around the room and notice that Mercer is missing. Wonder where he ran off to.

Everyone else is up, after shaking off the startle that Rocky gave them when he shouted. We all head down to the kitchen, where the most amazing smell is originating from. Rocky insisted that we buy matching pj’s and because of that we’re all wearing matching Grinch pyjamas.

We were also lucky enough to get a last minute bulk printing order of ugly Christmas shirts from a local printer, Certified printing really came through. So everyone who walks through the door today gets to wear one. The best part was we were able to personalise each one to the individual person. So if you’re looking for a personalized shirt, they’re your people.

We find Mercer in the kitchen plating up breakfast. He has gone all out; eggs, bacon, pancakes and fruit.

I walk up behind him and wrap my arms around his waist. “Merry Christmas Merce.”

He spins around and leans down placing a kiss on my lips. “Merry Christmas JD.”

“Hey, enough of that you two. Let's eat so we can open presents.” Levi retorts and laughs when Mercer flips him off.

Maximus has his phone in hand, taking pictures of everyone. I love that he captures the moments that you don’t realise you have, before it’s too late and you can never get them back again. I bounce around the counter and to the table, leaning in to press a kiss on Maximus’s cheek. I’m so bummed that I missed his birthday, but he said it was fine, he hates making a fuss anyway.

“The catering company is going to be here shortly. They will convert the formal dining room for us.”

Rory’s mum had a formal dining room made -it’s massive- the table could possibly seat fifty people. Rory said when her and his father moved in they would throw these massive dinner parties. There are large windows lining one wall that overlook the perfectly manicured lawn.

After we all take our seats, we eat and talk, laughter filling the air as the guys joke around with each other. I’m so excited to spend the next year traveling with them and discovering who we are individually and as a group. I won’t be the girl who was beaten and lost her memory and they won’t be the little boys taken into foster care. We will just be a bunch of teenagers having fun and living our best lives.

“Let’s do presents,” I say once everyone is stuffed.

Rory didn’t have a tree, so we went and found a store that still had up all of their display trees. Rory used his money and Rocky used his charm to convince the manager to sell them the tree that had the lights and decorations already on it, just because I said it was the prettiest tree that I had ever seen.

“Us first.” Maximus says in a whisper. Even if no one else could hear him, I always would. His voice is like music to my ears. It gives me butterflies every time he trusts me enough to talk in my presence.

Maximus walks over to the tree and pulls out a gift from underneath it. He hands me a small box, wrapped in silver paper with a red bow on top. I open it and gasp, my hand flying to cover my mouth in awe. It’s the prettiest necklace I’ve ever seen. It's a floating locket, with my name engraved on a heart and all their birth stones floating around it. Each of their names are printed around the edges, surrounded by diamonds.

“I love it,” I say, as tears gather in my eyes. I can’t believe they got me something so meaningful.

I jump up and crawl under the tree, pulling out a gift for each of them. I climb back to my feet and pass them out. They all tear through the paper at super speed making me laugh. I found us all Versace sunglasses, stylish and extremely practical for our vacation.

“Heck yes, look how sexy I look in these,” Rocky announces as he gets up and starts posing with his glasses on. We all laugh at his antics. Maximus is quick enough to pull his phone back out and snap a picture.

We open the rest of our gifts one by one. I end up with my necklace, a new bikini, a travel pillow, a new suitcase, a backpack, and a bag of travel adapters courtesy of Rocky.

Rocky declares he has to try on his new Speedo that I brought him. I knew he was going to buy me a bikini after he left his browser open and I went and made sure we had a matching set. My bikini came with a sarong and his speedo came with a Hawaiian style shirt.

He races off to get changed and the rest of us clean up the wrapping paper ready for when our families start to arrive, which will be any minute now. Carson and Phillip called to say they were leaving early. They tried to sleep in but it was no use. Carson was up and ready to leave over an hour ago, but Phillip insisted that he give us time to enjoy our very first Christmas morning together.

Rocky comes back into the room strutting his stuff wearing his new speedos, shirt and sunglasses singing “I’m too sexy,” by Right said Fred.

I cheer him on as all the others exit the room to go and change out of their pyjamas before anyone turns up.

“All the girls around the world are going to be so jealous when they see that I’m with you.”

I laugh as he takes my hand and twirls me around and makes me dance with him, even though there’s no music playing.

“How about you come and help me get ready for the day?” I say with a wink.

He bends down and faces his back to me. “Get on, your chariot awaits.”

I wrap my arms around his neck and he starts to stand, my legs wrapping around his body. He takes off in a slow run towards the stairs and doesn’t slow down once, not even when he starts up the stairs. My body jostles around and we both laugh all the way to Rory’s room.

Rocky throws me down onto the bed and pounces on top of me; he looks at my lips, unsure if he should make a move. We all need to talk about this, so we each know how this is going to work. I don’t want to rush into bed with them all, but I need confirmation on how they will each feel about it.

I slide my hand behind his neck and pull him down to me, making the first move. A kiss won’t hurt. His speedos and my thin cotton shorts do nothing to hide his erection that slides against me, the friction causing me to moan into his mouth.

He pulls away from the kiss, his lust filled eyes look at me for direction. “I want you so badly.”

“I want you too.” I say in a whisper, not wanting to break the little bubble we have.

He lifts my top and trails kisses down my stomach, goosebumps cover my body and I feel him smile against my skin. His fingers slide over me and dip below my shorts into my underwear. I arch off the bed as his thumb slowly rubs over my clit, his pace quickening as the pleasure in my stomach heats until my entire body tingles and an orgasm washes over me. I groan, as my body shakes from the aftershocks as Rocky trails kisses over my face and along my neck.

A cough from the doorway startles us and turns our attention away from what just happened. Levi leans against the doorway in his ugly Christmas shirt that says Merry Swishmas and a picture of a basketball going into a hoop.

I hide my face as my cheeks heat at being busted with Rocky. “Dude you could have knocked.” Rocky says and Levi smiles.

“And missed watching that? I think not but Carson and Phillip are here so it might be time to get dressed.”

“Shit,” I mutter, sitting up and racing into the bathroom, the door slamming shut behind me. Looking at myself in the mirror, my hair is a mess, my lips are swollen and my face is flushed.

Rocky opens the door and walks in with my Christmas shirt, a bra, a fresh pair of underwear and a pair of denim shorts. He places them on the sink, then comes to stand behind me and kisses my shoulder. “I love you JD and as soon as everyone leaves tonight, we are all going to sit down and figure this out. Because all I want to do is touch you and I need to know how they feel about that.”

I nod at his words, unable to say anything because I feel the same about all of them. How do we navigate this? I didn’t ask permission to lose my virginity to Maximus, that we had already spoken about. But now that I know I’m ready to explore with all of them, I need to make sure they all know that if they have any kind of feelings about it that they can come and we can talk it through. Jealousy is real and we will all need to communicate and be open about what we are okay with.

Once we’re both dressed we head back downstairs. Phillip is talking to Mercer, Maximus is on his phone, Levi bloody winks at me as I walk past and Rory is laughing as he motions for me to come closer. I stand behind him and lean against his back. “What’s happening?”

“Carson is explaining in great detail how things should be set up and is very flustered with the staff.”

I giggle when I hear Carson explaining that the centrepieces are too big and people won't be able to talk to the person directly across from them, but if they remove the bottom section it will work. I’m surprised he hasn’t completely taken over and ripped them apart to fix them himself.

Over the next hour everyone started to arrive; Maximus’s parents and sister, Rory’s dad and Chelsea, his mum unfortunately decided not to come, which is possibly for the best. Rocky’s parents and Levi’s aunt and Deacon. Lissa hasn’t spoken to me yet and there’s a slight tension in the air but we’re going to have to get over it and move past it all.

The doorbell rings, the chime echoing throughout the house, so I make my way over and open the door. My father and brother smile at me and I invite them in, but before I can shut the door, my uncle pulls up and so does Echo and Mossy followed by Chloe and Mac. As each person walks through the door they take their personalised shirts. The loud rumble of a V8 catches my attention as Chev pulls into the driveway. I'm not sure if I will ever be okay with him, but Chloe is and she’s my friend so I’ll try for her. I smirk as he stalks across the driveway, he’s clearly trying to make an effort and once he’s close enough to greet me I hold out his shirt, waving it around as my lips turn up into a smile. He opens it to read the front, and snaps his gaze to me as I giggle.

All I want for Christmas is a new attitude.

“Haha, very funny.”

“I thought so too.”

“I can’t wait until I don't have to see you for a whole year,” he says, pulling off his plain black tee and slipping the Christmas shirt on.

“The feeling is mutual but clearly we both love Chloe and have to deal with each other, so come in, have a good time and be nice. That scowl you wear permanently on your face needs to go.”

He fake smiles at me, but it looks more like a grimace. “Better?” he asks with a lift of his brow.

I nod and we both walk inside to join everyone else. I head into the kitchen to ask the staff how long until the food is going to be ready to see how much time we have to exchange gifts. As I’m about to round the corner, I hear a hushed conversation that is obviously not meant for anyone else’s ears.

“The guy is a murderer.” Lissa whispers.

“He saved your damn job. You have no evidence that he’s even done anything, that's why he has never been arrested.”

“Her family is dangerous, Levi.”

“Liss, those people are no threat to us. We have nothing to do with their business and never will. I thought you made a truce with Jarva.”

Liss sighs. “I did, he saved your life and he made it clear I owed him a favour. But if he breaks the law…”

I can’t listen to this anymore and make my presence known. I don’t let them know I heard what they were saying. It’s not my fault though, I can’t help who my family is. “Do we know how long until the food will be ready?”

“They said about an hour.”

I nod and turn around to leave, but Levi grabs my hand and pulls me back to turn around. I face him and Lissa moves around us, heading back into the main room. I understand her concern. I would probably feel the same way if I was her, but I can’t deny that it doesn’t hurt.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper to him, feeling tears well in my eyes. “I never meant to cause issues with you and her.”

“She will be fine. I’m a big boy now and she knows that.”

We hug and stand in comfortable silence holding each other until Carson finds us.

“Come on, it's time for gifts,'' he laughs.

We all gather in the living room and exchange presents. We had asked them to not go crazy but they clearly didn’t listen. Carson says we'll be back eventually and can have all of this stuff waiting for us when we come home.

The rest of the day is filled with easy conversation, a lot of food and I couldn’t be happier. At some point even Lissa and Jarva started talking and I wonder if they will ever find mutual ground and get along at family functions. She knows who he is and he knows who she is, but today he's just my uncle celebrating Christmas with his family and she's just an aunt who loves her nephew.

By the end of the night everyone is exhausted after a fun filled day and leaves to go home. It’s finally just me and my guys, but it’s time for us to have a talk and clear the air. I need to know how they each feel and my therapist said communication is the only way this would work between us all.