Forever in Fire: A Hot in Chicago Christmas Short by Meader Kate

Author:Meader, Kate [Meader, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Kate Meader Books
Published: 2017-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Eli stood at the door to Ella’s nursery, listening to her steady breathing, a sound that supposedly assured the world she was only terrorizing grown men in her dreams. Tonight had been interesting. Scary, but then of course he’d known it would be. His motto had always been to never let them see your fear.

And that included six-week old infants.

“Hey,” he heard behind him. He stepped out of the doorway and faced Brady.

“Getting nervous?”

“About tomorrow?” Brady shrugged as if he got married every day. “I don’t like handing off the food to someone else.”

Guy was even more of a control freak than Eli. “It’ll be your chefs with your menu in your restaurant, Brady. You can relax and enjoy being the center of attention.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” He rocked back on his heels, clearly building to say something, but supremely uncomfortable with whatever it was. “Eli, I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while now.”

“Tell me what?”

He looked down at his feet, then up, and held Eli’s gaze. They’d known each other for thirteen years, four of them spent in the same platoon where Brady was Eli’s CO and one week in a Taliban dungeon where Eli had shot his way out, dragging Brady’s tortured-and-ripped-to-shreds body with him.

“Thanks. For being there. Through everything. But mostly thanks for introducing me to Gage. You saw something there, and I know you were probably only thinking I needed to get laid to get me out of my funk, but well … thanks.”

No, Eli had seen more in Gage Simpson, consummate flirt and playboy, but it was less scary to pretend we’re motivated by our baser instincts. Eli had held onto that fallacy for a while after meeting Alexandra. “It was an auspicious night for us both, meeting the people we’re going to marry. And tomorrow you’ll celebrate in the place where it all started. I like that. It has symmetry.”

Baby Ella gave a little snuffling sound that put them both on alert. Brady popped his head around the door, then pulled back. “False alarm.” They both took a few steps away down the corridor leading back to the condo’s living room.

“Gage wants a kid,” Brady muttered. “As soon as we get married, he wants us to start looking for a surrogate.”

“What do you think?” Eli asked. His friend had gone through some troubles recovering from PTSD, and he had to be a bit worried about his fitness to be a parent.

“I wasn’t sure but—”

“Gage is sort of persuasive?”

“Yeah. But more than that. He makes everything seem possible. Small steps lead to big strides. That’s how he sees the world. As one amazing journey.”

The definition of love, right there.

Speaking of amazing journeys … “Alexandra’s pregnant.”

Brady’s grim demeanor cracked open in a smile. “Nice work. How’s she taking it?”

“How do you think? She’s freaking out about how everything will change. Her job, her life, even the wedding because she’ll be near eight months gone by then.”

“And you’re just fine.”

“No, I’m freaking out as well.

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