Merry and Bright: The Water, Air, Earth, Fire Holiday Novellas by Riley Nash

Author:Riley Nash [Nash, Riley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-13T18:30:00+00:00

Bang. I jump, flinching at the slam of a door even after all these years. But I’m sprawled safely in front of a roaring fire in the way-too-fancy vacation rental we’re sharing with Gray and Jonah’s family. We’re spending tomorrow at Colson’s house, but Jonah found lights and garlands in the garage and threw them everywhere, like Christmas vomited in here. He also left a holiday playlist tinkling in the background that I’ve been too lazy to turn off. It’s kept me from losing my temper over the last hour.

“Sorry,” my daughter Megan hisses theatrically from the entryway as she and Eli noisily throw off their coats and shoes.

“You’ll be sorrier when you wake up Charlie and I send you to get her back to sleep,” I offer, frowning at the tangle of yarn and plastic needles in my clumsy hands. Ollie and I only adopted baby Charlotte four months ago, and that little screaming thing with her plump face and wisps of red hair rules our household. The evenings where I fall asleep on the couch with my head in Oliver’s lap and Charlie splayed out on my chest are the best moments of my entire life.

Eli sprints past me toward the room he, Megan, and Kenzie are sharing at the end of the hall. He’s not fast enough for me to miss the bag of candy rustling under each arm. Megan wanders in, her spoils dangling shamelessly from one hand. She and Eli are in their mid-teens now, plenty old enough to explore the neighborhood by themselves and find a store. I guess they’re not old enough to think buying four massive bags of Reese’s Christmas trees might be a bad idea. I’m gonna let Ollie deal with that later.

“What on earth are you doing?” She plops on the couch next to me and blinks at the fucking woolen disaster in my lap.

“I’m finishing your dad’s secret Santa gift,” I grumble, wishing I could throw it in the fire and watch it incinerate. “I need your help.”

“You’re knitting him socks?” she asks incredulously.

I blink at her. “You’re kidding, right?”

“What?”

“Goddamn it.” Throwing my head back against the cool leather couch, I close my eyes. “It’s a hat, not a sock.”

She snorts loudly and dissolves into giggles.

“Show me how to fix it then, twerp.” Sitting up, I flick the middle of her forehead.

Holding up her hands, she scoots away and tosses back her blonde braid full of flyaways. “How the heck should I know?”

I narrow my eyes at her, and she narrows hers right back. “You’ve lived around the man your entire life and you have no idea how to knit at all?”

“Let me get this straight.” She crosses her arms with a sassy flounce she’ll never grow out of. “Daddy’s the most epic knitter you know, so why did you think knitting him something shitty was a good gift idea?”

“Don’t cuss,” I growl like a reflex. “So are you gonna help or are you gonna be a dick?”

One of her dimples pops out as she grins, then flops over with her head on my shoulder.

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