Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 24578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
There’s laughter now.
“Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
“Oh my God, yes! Of course, I will.”
“This calls for celebratory mimosas,” Olivia announces, and her fiancé, the one and only Vaughn Barrymore, kisses her squarely on the mouth.
Uncle Luke is right. Our family is changing. Growing. And it won’t always look like this: so simple—if that word can even be used to describe our family.
I’m so, so glad that I came for this. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for the world.
* * * *
“All the cousins are putting on the Christmas pajamas we got this morning and going to the conference room where the movie theater is set up,” Haley informs me after we’ve all had food and opened presents. “I think it’s going to be a double feature. It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas.”
“Okay. I’m heading down to my room for a bit, but I’ll catch most of it.”
“You can always nap during the movie,” she suggests with a wink.
Despite being more than a decade younger than me, Haley and I are close. We don’t have anything at all in common, but that doesn’t matter.
So, I promise to come back up after I put some stuff away and change into the green pajamas that say Ho Ho Ho in red all over them.
Before I can leave my room, I get a text from Dylan.
My stomach does a little twirl in anticipation as I open it.
Dylan: How is your day going?
Me: So far so good. How about you?
I bite my lip and sit in my chair while waiting for his reply. Finally, his message pops up.
Dylan: It started amazing, then went a little flat. But it’s going to start looking up.
Me: Oh? How so?
Dylan: You’re going to come to my room for a while.
I laugh and remember that I’m supposed to watch Christmas movies with my cousins. I could probably make an excuse for why I was even later than I told Haley. And It’s a Wonderful Life is a long movie, isn’t it?
It always seems like it.
Deciding to fit both into my afternoon, I text him back.
Me: What room number?
Dylan: 4067
He’s just down the hall from me. I slide my feet into my slippers and, remembering the key to the room, hurry down the hall and knock on his door.
When he answers, I have to take a breath.
My God, how did he get more handsome? And how did I not notice that he has a dimple in his right cheek?
“Ho Ho Ho?”
Chapter Four
Dylan
Maddie frowns and then looks down at her adorable pajamas and laughs.
“This was our present this morning,” she says and shrugs her shoulder. “We all got pajamas. Even the grandparents.”
“Your grandparents are here?” I ask in surprise, taking her hand to bring her into my room.
“Three sets of them,” she says. “I told you, it’s a big family. What about yours?”
“My what?”
She sits in the chair and crosses her legs. I want to yank her to me and see exactly what she has on under those PJs.
“Your family, Dylan.”
“Right. Sorry, you distract me.”
Her eyes widen, and then she looks down at herself again. “You can’t see anything.”
“Exactly. My imagination is running wild. Anyway, I have both of my parents, and they’re still married. A few aunts and uncles, cousins sprinkled around here and there.”
“Any siblings?” She flips her dark hair over her shoulder.
“I had a younger brother, but he passed of childhood cancer when he was three.”
Her jaw drops, and then her face turns sad, the way I’m used to when I tell people about my brother.
“I’m sorry, Dylan.”
“You didn’t kill him. The cancer did. And it was a really long time ago. I’m mostly just close to my parents.”
“The Montgomery family adopted me when I was small.” She frowns as if she didn’t mean to tell me that, but I nod, wanting to hear more. “I don’t remember much about my biological father, which is weird because we lived with him until I was at least in kindergarten. He wasn’t exactly the salt of the Earth. Got in with the wrong people, and they killed him. I still don’t know the full story. But my mom moved us to Seattle, where her cousin lived. They were close. And the cousin, Stacy, is married to Isaac Montgomery, the eldest sibling. Mom met Caleb, who made it his life’s mission to protect us, and then they fell in love.”
“I think that’s probably the CliffsNotes version of the story.”
“Of course, but I was a kid. I don’t remember a lot of it. I do remember that Dad—Caleb—made us feel so safe. And he was kind of moody at first. Of course, he’s always a little moody.”
She grins, and I can see that she loves her parents a lot.
“They had Drew, and that rounded out the family. Basically, Josie and I went from just having our mom to having the biggest family ever.”