AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sounds good to me!” Jade gets up. “I’ll take him…”
“No,” Nixon says almost instantly.
Jade glares at him. “You’re lucky I can’t throw for shit now because you’d have that pillow in your face.”
“How about we try not to burn anything down?” Yasmin asks calmly.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I’m not the one who has a shitty aim,” Nixon says, his teeth flashing in the light of the fire.
Jade grabs the pillow out of my hand, but before she can throw it, I take it from her and toss it right at Nixon’s head.
“Who has a shitty aim now, Cole?”
Everybody bursts into laughter.
“That still won’t change my mind. Last night was an exception.”
“Don’t be a shitty loser, Cole,” Mason yells, still chuckling.
The front door opens, and Alyssa joins us, her daughter, Edie, in her arms, dressed in a puffy pink jacket.
“What happened?” Yasmin asks.
Alyssa looks down at her daughter. “Somebody’s fussy.”
“She wouldn’t fall asleep?” Maddox asks as the girls join him on the swing.
“No, I think it’s her teeth,” Aly sighs.
“Poor little Princess,” Maddox says in a gentle voice. Edie looks up from the crook of Aly’s neck, her face lighting up as soon as she sets her sight on him. “Who’s Daddy’s best girl?” Maddox nuzzles her cheek as he takes her out of Aly’s arms and transfers her into his lap. Aly grabs the blanket and puts it over Edie, who’s already dozing off on Maddox’s lap.
“I swear you have some kind of magic touch or something.” Aly shakes her head and takes a cup of hot chocolate Yas offers her.
“Right? It amazes me every time.”
I shift my attention to Jade to find tears glistening in her eyes. Silently she blinks them away, her gaze meeting mine.
No words are said, but I don’t need her to say them out loud to know what she’s thinking.
Who she’s thinking about.
A vice grip squeezes around my heart as I brush one lone tear that slipped away.
This could have been us.
In a different world.
But that world isn’t ours to have.
Brushing my lips against the top of her head, I pull her to me, wishing I could take her pain away.
The conversation shifts, people dividing into smaller groups while I sit here, holding Jade in my arms. She relaxes into me, her head leaning into the crook of my neck, and she listens to Grace talk about her dance students from the center, Penny tells her about her music classes, and then they shift to their plans for the rest of the year.
“Anything you wanna do for the New Year?” I ask so only she can hear me, my lips brushing against her temple.
Jade shakes her head. “As long as we’re together, I don’t care.”
We all stay out for a little while longer, but soon the snow starts to fall stronger, so we gather our things and get back in the house, everybody retreating to their rooms.
