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“Well, hovering happens no matter where I am. At least this way I get my favorite view.” Margo took her plate into the kitchen. She didn’t even try to do more. It wasn’t worth the argument. And her back was screaming anyway. Obviously, she needed to walk around a little.
The Christmas songs were still going strong in the kitchen. Nick was using a glass to keep time with the doo-wop background to Simon’s sing-along to Michael Bublé and Shania Twain’s “White Christmas”. Simon was doing both parts. One in a super low bass and the other falsetto.
Nick was wiggling his butt and over-singing the background vocals.
She backed out of the kitchen and waved for Lila to come and see. Lila rolled her eyes and followed, a smile spreading across her face at the overacting going on at the sink. They couldn’t even blame it on the boys performing for the rest of the room. The idiots didn’t even know she and Li were watching.
As Simon held out the last note and Nick did the deep bass of the backing vocals at the end of the song, Margo couldn’t stop a laugh from rolling out.
They both turned around with innocent looks on their faces. No shame at all.
It was so good to see Simon and Nick back to their usual crazy selves. Simon cha-cha’d his way across the room to her with suds all over his fingers as the next song came on. Elvis’s “Santa Bring My Baby Back” played at full volume, and Simon’s voice was as strong as the legendary singer’s for once.
He’d grown so much in the last year. Between his continuing vocal lessons and their baby’s impending arrival, the light in her husband’s eyes was incandescent. He wiped the suds on her butt, then pulled her into his arms and twirled her slowly around the room.
Not one to be outdone, Nick went for Lila, who tried to escape back into the dining room. He chased after her and the party moved from baby bombshells to music.
The one thing all of them had in common was a deep and abiding love for music. Lila and Zoe might not have started out that way, but being around all of them had converted them. Besides, Nick and Simon were much like a tsunami when it came to forcing their will on others.
She knew it all too well.
Simon slowly danced her out of the kitchen and into the living room where Ian and Zoe were cuddled up on the couch. Nick was slow dancing with Lila. They were a fairly private couple about most things, but Elvis’s caramel voice could lure anyone into a slow dance. Especially his slower Christmas songs.
“Did you find the Christmas channel on XM or something?” Margo looked up at Simon, who was grinning down at her as he sang along with Kelly Clarkson. “And do you know every song?”
He shrugged. “You should know better than to question my musical catalog, Violin Girl.”
“What was I thinking?”
Simon twirled her lightly and settled her in the big rocking chair—the only one she was comfortable in. Then he dragged Zoe off the couch and twirled her around the room in a dizzying bastardized swing dance.
Ian watched with two parts jealousy and three parts happiness. It had been an excruciating road to get the men to be able to be in the same room together again. The first time around had been hard enough, but after what their mother had put them through, it definitely hadn’t been the easiest of transitions into a sibling relationship. And if not for Ian’s patience, it probably wouldn’t have happened.
Her husband wasn’t an easy man when he was hurt.
Both of the Kagan boys felt everything hugely. They also protected their hearts with barbed wire, sarcasm, and insults. But when they loved, they loved with everything. She wasn’t sure if it was in their DNA or just that both she and Zoe were incredibly lucky, but damn if they both wouldn’t make amazing fathers.
Annoying ones too, but the amazing would outweigh the rest.
A blast of warm air knocked the shutters wide open and a pile of books toppled from the shelf under the window.
The music stopped and Nick and Ian rushed for the shutters. Ian locked them and Simon hovered over Margo.
“I’m fine.”
Nick’s jaw clenched. “That wind is really kicking up.” He dug his phone out of his pocket, seemed to check an app or two, then tossed a worried glance at Lila. “Hurricane Bertha? Really?”
She crossed the room to him and plucked the phone out of his hand to read it. “It’s still in warning status, Nicholas.”
Simon exhaled. “The church and our additions were built very well to withstand this sort of thing. Top of the line in all ways.”
The Christmas radio station came back online and Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen sounded unnaturally loud after the quick knock from Mother Nature.
The song transitioned into an old orchestral Christmas song. Only not the sweet and sentimental type, but the hair metal band version. Simon went over to the piano and tapped out a few keystrokes in the song.
Margo smiled as he slowly picked out more notes as if by an old memory. He’d had the same focus when it came to improving on the guitar. Nick and Gray were the superior guitarists in the band, but Simon had a deep and abiding love for his instrument. He just had to practice a little more than the others in Oblivion.
However, the piano wasn’t something he jumped on all that often. She played piano as well as her strings, but occasionally, Simon could still surprise her.
