The Davenport Christmas Chronicles
beat a dead horse about you drivin’ here, but I need you to promise you won’t do that again, sunshine.”“I can do that, darling. I should have trusted Hawk to keep the secret.”
“Yeah, baby, you should have.”
“But I can’t say I regret rushing over here... I’ll take a thorough fucking as punishment any day.”
Hatch laughed. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I leaned over and kissed him. “And I win.”
From our first Christmas together, we’d been competing to out-Christmas Christmas. So far, Hatch had won all but one year, because he was so incredibly sentimental and romantic, and I just wasn’t. But this year, I was pretty confident I’d won.
Hatch slid off the bed. “It’s not Christmas yet, Sunshine.”
I sat up with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter. I win.”
He grinned as he dragged on his clothing. “You that confident, baby?”
“Well, I was.” I bit my lip. “What have you done?”
“Me?” he asked, all mock innocence and shit.
I jumped off the bed and slid my arms around his waist. “Did you buy me a pony? Because a pony might give you a lead in the contest, but if it’s not a pony, then I win.”
He grinned, leaning down to kiss me. “You’ll have to wait until Christmas morning.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I hate waiting.”
“I’m aware... further proven by the fact you couldn’t wait to show me my surprise.”
I donned my clothes and said, “I had to do that.”
“Yep, sure you did,” he deadpanned.
I gripped his cut and grinned up at him. “That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.”
“Doublin’ down. I like it.” He kissed me again and stroked my neck. “Come on, baby, I’ll drive you home. A couple of the recruits can bring my truck back tomorrow.”
“Where’s the Christmas truck?”
“Safe,” he said. “I’ll tell you the story on the way home.”
I nodded and followed him out of the room, then down to the great room where Hatch spent some time hugging his brothers and thanking them for keeping the secret, then he led me out to my car and took me home... where he thanked me some more.
Dani
The morning of the party, I woke up with a tightness in my belly and a general uncomfortableness, but I refused to say anything to Austin, because he’d just freak out and overreact. The same thing happened with Archer, and Austin had rushed me to the hospital three times, in less than a week, before the doctor said not to come back unless my contractions were less than five-minutes apart. I thought my man’s head would explode... or he’d kill the doctor, so I’d had to keep my pain to myself for several weeks and it wasn’t easy.
“Baby, you ready?”
I took a deep breath, and called out, “Yep!”
I ran my hands over my stomach and took another couple of deep breaths before heading down the hall and into the foyer. Austin grinned, holding my coat and helping me into it. Once it was over my shoulders, he placed his hands gently on my belly, leaned down, and kissed me, before standing with a frown. “You’re rock hard, baby.”
“Am I?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You in pain?”
“No.” It wasn’t a lie. I wasn’t in pain right at that second.
“We should call the doctor.”
I smiled, reaching up to stroke his cheek. “Honey, I’m fine. The baby’s fine. I promise, I’ll take it slow and let other people do the work, okay?”
He continued to study me.
“I’m dying to meet Gator and see all the kids. Don’t make me miss it by rushing me to the hospital. It’ll just end up being nothing, and a total waste of time.”
“Dani—”
“I promise if I feel pain, I’ll tell you.”
“Dad, we need to go,” Cash said.
“I know, bud.” Austin sighed, but gave me a reluctant nod. “One twinge and I wanna know about it.”
“Deal,” I said.
He kissed me again, then we headed downstairs and piled into the truck.
Arriving at the compound, I waddled inside while Austin and the boys grabbed all of the food.
“Dani!” Kim called, rushing to me and pulling me in for a gentle hug. “How are you?”
“The same as I was yesterday when you ‘were in the neighborhood’ and dropped by to check on me.”
She chuckled as she guided me to an oversized chair and forced me to sit down. “Macey and Dallas are coming later, so maybe Macey can check you over.”
Macey was a registered nurse and just happened to be Payton’s bestie.
“Honey, I’m fine,” I insisted.
“Awesome,” Kim retorted. “She’ll be able to confirm that.”
“God, lady, you’re worse than my husband.”
She grinned. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I rolled my eyes, but sank lower in the well-worn chair.
“I’ll get you some cider.”
“Thanks,” I said, just as Austin made his way to me.
He hugged Kim as she passed, then closed the distance between us, leaning down to kiss me gently. “You good?”
“I’m good, honey.”
“Prez said Doc’s here, so I’m gonna go find him.”
Doc was the president of the Savannah Chapter, and had flown in to join in on the festivities. I’d met him a couple of times over the past few years and I really liked him. One day, I hoped I’d actually make it to Savannah and meet the rest of the guys there... the clubhouse sounded insane and I was dying to see it.
Doc and Hatch had been buddies for a while, and Doc had apparently brought his Sgt. At Arms, Alamo, with him. They were only here for a couple of days, so I had a feeling more might be going on. If there was, however, it would be considered club business, so it was none of mine.
“Okay, honey.”
He kissed me again and then headed toward the kitchen.
“Is Santa coming now?” Jagger asked as he made a run for me.
I held my arms out and scooped him onto my lap. “Soon, baby.”
“Jagger,” Kim admonished gently, returning with some warm cider for me. “Auntie can’t have you climbing all over her, baby.”
“He’s fine,” I countered. “I always need some Jagger love.”
He grinned big and