He knew what they did.

They stared at the stars.

And tried to find peace.

He guided his woman toward the blankets.

Halfway there, the porch door banged behind them.

Johnny turned and saw Addie coming toward them wearing one of Toby’s hoodies over a nightgown, green Wellingtons on her feet.

Like what Izzy was wearing, except Johnny’s contribution was a sweatshirt and she didn’t have wellies.

Addie was carrying two bottles in her hand.

One was bourbon.

One was tequila.

“We bought into shit like this, we lassoed two Forrester Girls,” Tobe muttered when Johnny and Izzy made the blankets.

There were worse things.

Like one mother showing out of the blue to fuck with them for her own selfish reasons.

And their real mother dying of cancer.

Johnny shot his brother a grin.

It was fake.

Toby grinned back.

It was fake too.

After he got that, Johnny didn’t hesitate.

When he claimed the blanket Toby wasn’t on, he pulled Iz down, arranged her at his side, then threw the blanket over them, tucked it around as best he could, and fell to his back.

Iz snuggled into his body, her head on his chest, neck twisted so she could look at the sky.

Johnny turned his head and saw Toby not far away, Addie on his other side, arranged the same way.

Tobe felt his gaze and returned it.

His smile was slight.

But this one was real.

“Who wants booze?” Addie called.

“Me,” Izzy said.

Tobe handed the tequila to Johnny who gave it to Iz, who lifted up long enough to take a swig.

Then they handed it back for Addie to do the same thing.

The men sucked back some bourbon then set the bottles in the cold snow.

Holding his Iz close, Johnny looked up into the stars.

And he got it.

It wasn’t about being reminded what a small part of the universe you were, a speck, not even dust, a cell of nothing that exists and then fades away.

It was about being reminded about the magnificence of the universe, and how you were an integral part of it, and you should not waste a moment, you should find time to savor its beauty while you had your time amongst its majesty.

“Merry Christmas, everybody,” Eliza called.

“Merry, Christmas, Iz, Johnny,” Adeline called back.

Johnny didn’t say it to everybody.

He pulled his girl close and murmured, “Merry Christmas, baby.”

He heard his brother say quietly, “Merry Christmas, honey.”

Johnny took in a big breath, feeling Iz go up with it, then come down when he let it out.

From what Dave said, the prognosis was far from good.

Johnny had lost his grandparents, his father, and learned that day that this shit did not get easier.

He felt cut up inside.

Raw.

And he knew for Toby, who was Margot’s favorite, maybe even of her own boys, it was worse.

But they’d be okay.

Because right then, the message was clear.

The Forrester Girls had this.

Moonlight and motor oil, they could get through anything.

So he laid beneath the stars under a blanket in the warmth made of him and his future wife and thought, at least right then, it was a Merry Christmas.

The Initiation Was Complete

Toby

“OOF! WHAT THE . . . ?”

Toby woke, groggy, and saw nothing but Brooklyn’s face.

“Dodo!” he shouted, then bonked Toby with his head either trying to give him a hug, a kiss, or chew on his beard.

When he did, beyond her boy, he saw Addie and all her hair.

“Up and at ’em, Talon,” she ordered. “It’s Christmas!”

Her face disappeared but he did an ab curl, located her, kept hold of her son in one arm, body slammed her to her back on the mattress using his other one and rolled on top of her.

He then kissed her.

Wet and hard.

“Dodo. Mama. Booboo. Dada. Bray. Jaja,” Brooklyn babbled as he escaped Toby’s hold and crawled up on Toby’s back.

He collapsed and slammed his chin into the back of Toby’s head.

“Glah!” he shouted, then started laughing.

Tobe broke the kiss reaching behind him to drag Brooks around.

He set him on Addie’s chest and her arm went from around Toby to put a hand to Brooks’s diapered ass.

Brooks pushed up with a hand in Addie’s throat, reached to Toby and yanked hard on his beard.

Toby ignored it and looked into Addie’s eyes.

“Merry Christmas, Lollipop.”

Her eyes warmed.

“Sissis!” Brooks yelled then pushed up and tried to rearrange Toby’s facial hair, planting it in the back of his head.

He wrapped both arms around his kid, fell to his back, and Brooklyn bounced on his chest but fortunately let go of his beard.

He also giggled.

“Merry Christmas, Brooklyn,” he said.

“Sissis!” Brooklyn repeated, looked left, reached left and shouted, “Dada!”

“C’mon, boy,” Addie called.

And with that, Dapper Dan was on the bed, excitedly snuffling and licking everything he could get to.

“Dada! Dada!” Brooks cried then started giggling and rolling all over trying to get to Dapper Dan while also trying to get away from his wet tongue.

Toby felt Addie move, so he tipped his head back to see she’d pushed up to sit in bed, her back to pillows at the headboard, a smile quirking her mouth, her eyes on the action happening mostly in her lap and around her legs.

Those eyes shifted to him.

She reached right out, and using her fingers, pulled the hair out of his eye.

“You could be as broke as me, and if you gave me a version of this every day for the rest of our lives, I’d be happy,” she said softly.

Jesus Christ.

He caught her around her thighs, yanked her to her back in the bed, dislodged their dog but not their kid, and made out with her as Brooklyn grunted and tried to force his way out from between them, chanting, “Broke, broke, broke, broke, broke.”

Toby lifted his head and they both look down at Brooklyn.

“Broke, broke, sissis! Dada!”

With Tobe going up, now free, Brooks made a lunge for the dog.

Dapper Dan scuttled away and dropped with a sigh on Addie’s and Toby’s legs.

“I think he just said his first full word,” Addie breathed. “And it was ‘broke.’”

Then she snatched her kid to her, shoved her face into his neck while he squirmed to get to his dog, and busted out laughing.

Toby had found out yesterday that it was a very real possibility that Margot would not make it to next Christmas.

And this morning was already the best Christmas he’d ever had.

Because Addie dumped her son on him to wake him up and invited her dog into the bed.

And she was Addie.

He was glad he was rich as fuck.

He still knew all he’d ever need was her.

Pain would come and go. Life would do its damnedest to fuck them up.

But she’d be Addie.

And she’d be his.

So no matter what . . .

He’d be all right.

And he needed to know that, which was precisely the reason she’d woken him up this way.

Because they both knew, Addie more than he, that the next few months were going to be a bitch.