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We laughed as we jogged up the stairs, and I realized that I’d never laughed this much with anyone, even my own family. When we got to the bedroom, I grabbed Abby by the waist and tossed her on my bed. She landed with a bounce, and I dropped down next to her, kissing her until we were both breathless.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I told her when we came up for breath. My eyes bounced between hers. “I just want to be honest and tell you that I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”
She looked thrilled, then a shadow passed across her face. “This is all very new, Peter, let’s not move too fast.”
“Are you afraid of moving fast? Or afraid I’ll change my mind? Because I have to be honest with you, I fell in love with you the minute I saw you.”
“Before or after I kneed you in the balls?” she joked, but it fell short.
I could practically see her shutting down right in front of me.
“Let’s just take this day by day,” she mumbled, rolling away from me.
From our conversations and observing her reactions to my family, it was apparent that Abby had a deep fear of being left out or thrown away. With her history in foster care, it totally made sense, but I needed her to understand that she didn’t need to worry. I intended to keep her forever if she’d have me.
I only hoped that she would...
Rolling closer to her again, I waited for her to meet my eyes.
“I get that you need time, but I’m not going to change my mind. The men in my family, we fall hard, and we fall forever. You’re it for me, Abby. But we can go as slow as you want.”
When she gave me a small smile I added, “Now take off your pants. It’s time for my dessert.”
Abby
“Should I have brought something else?”
I gestured towards the bag in my hand. When I was in the city for work yesterday, I’d picked up a couple of bottles of wine, a box of expensive chocolates, and a fancy scented candle to bring with me for Christmas dinner.
It was ridiculous that at my age, I’d never really gone to a Christmas dinner, other than hanging out on the fringes of dinners with foster families who hosted events. Despite the fact that Peter had just rendered me senseless with not one but two orgasms this morning, I was still feeling nervous.
It was because it mattered, I realized. Normally I tried hard not to care about what people thought of me, but I wanted Peter’s family to like me. I wanted to spend all my holidays with them. For the first time in my entire life, I allowed myself to want a family. And love.
“It’ll all be great,” Peter promised, once again picking up on my anxiety.
He was a very observant guy and had an uncanny ability to know what I was thinking despite my years of experience learning how to hide my emotions.
When we got to the main house, everyone was in the kitchen. The room was a flurry of activity as they finished preparing the Christmas brunch. Peter had explained that since they had work to do on the ranch in the morning, over the years they’d created a tradition of having a holiday brunch around eleven on Christmas Day, then opening presents and watching football or Christmas movies, depending on who was playing.
With Allen staying the night over at the main house with Clara, he’d told Peter he could sleep in while he and the others handled the morning chores. We’d used that time to snuggle in bed drinking coffee before getting to the aforementioned orgasms. It was the perfect morning.
“Oh good, you kids are just in time to set the table,” Mary announced when we arrived.
It cracked me up that we were both over forty-five and she still called us kids.
Peter’s mother hustled over to give us both a big hug, as if she hadn’t seen us the day before, and I handed her the gift bag with the items I’d brought. She seemed appreciative, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Navigating social situations always felt like a challenge for me.
Brunch was a chaotic, noisy affair due to the addition of other guests I hadn’t known about. That was probably for the best, since I would have freaked out if I’d known more people were coming.
Peter and Allen’s cousins arrived right after we did. George and Josie’s mother was Mary’s sister, although their mom had passed on. Mary explained that the four kids had all grown up together.
George, a big burly factory machinist, brought his girlfriend Cassie and an ancient and stinky basset hound named Bart. Josie was accompanied by her husband David, who worked as a manager in George’s factory, and their whip-smart little daughter Sofia.
Peter pulled me into his side and proudly introduced me as his girlfriend, rolling his eyes at the good-natured ribbing from his cousins about their shock that Peter had found someone.
Peter’s cousin Josie clearly took after her aunt because she grabbed a seat next to me and proceeded to barrage me with questions. I did my best to deflect until Peter finally leaned across me and told her to quit being ‘so damned nosy’.
The group of us ate an obscene amount of food. The cousins had each brought dishes, and between that and the spread that Mary and Lionel had cooked up, we had some of everything: bacon, scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, sausage, a frittata, chili rellenos, biscuits and gravy, toast, croissants, fruit, and ham.
