The Sweetest Gift - Scarlett Cole Page 0,15

the hallway.

His phone buzzed and he checked the screen.

Do I need to get anything special for Lexi to fly?

Jordan.

Dred had a feeling that while Jordan was most definitely embracing the idea of pending fatherhood, it would trigger some of Jordan’s deepest fears of loss and abandonment. He thought back to when Pixie was pregnant with Arwen.

If she still gets morning sickness, you might want to be prepared for that, he typed.

There was a pause.

Does our travel policy include pregnancy-related stuff?

Dred smiled. Dude, yes… she’s covered. But given the size of your bank account, you could buy a fucking hospital if you needed to. RELAX.

Jordan sent back a photograph of him flipping the bird.

Dred grinned at the camera and sent it back.

As Pixie had promised, the rest of the morning went by in a blur. Arwen was dressed, then cried so hard about her banana already being peeled that she threw up on her dress. Petal was a prima-donna about her outfits because she’d arranged to wear the same color as Jordan, then had a meltdown when Dred refused to let her bring the Christmas tree to Miami with them. Pixie was in knots about Lia’s dress, such that it was packed and repacked approximately thirty-seven times.

By 9:15, their ride, a minivan because limousines no longer had the trunk space their cargo needed, pulled up at the private airfield next to Toronto Pearson Airport. Ten minutes later, they were inside the terminal. Nik and family were already there.

“Uncle Jordan,” Petal cried as she went flying toward him. “I thought you said you would wear blue like I am?” Dred left Jordan to figure it out and pushed Arwen in her stroller.

Elliott and his brood filed in behind them.

“Look at all this shit,” Elliott said, throwing three cases and a backpack next to the huge pile of luggage, car seats, strollers, portable baby cribs, coats, and gift bags. “What the fuck happened to us, Dred?” He placed his arm over Dred’s shoulder and shook him.

Dred couldn’t help but laugh. “You fucking love it, though.”

Elliott looked back at Daniel, who was carrying Holly, and Kendalee, who had Noah. “Not going to deny it, but damn, this is a lot of stuff for a week.”

Dred looked at the ever-growing pile. “The next tour is going to be chaos, isn’t it?” They hadn’t toured since the accident and Lennon’s injury. Their new sound was gaining all kinds of ground, and Ryan, their manager, was pushing for a new tour. But they hadn’t signed a new record deal for their music yet. Nik had recently proposed starting his own record label with Preload as the first act to be signed, something they were all considering.

Elliott nodded. “I spoke to Ryan about it yesterday. I think Kendalee and the kids are going to stay home for the international legs, and for North America, I want dates to be scheduled, such that after four gigs, we can fly home for a couple of days.”

Dred’s gut curdled at the thought. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. I can’t keep taking Petal out of kindergarten. But I don’t like the thought of leaving them all home, either.”

He looked over to where Pixie stood chatting with Kendalee. He and Pixie had barely been apart in their time together.

“Jesus fucking Christ. It looks like a fucking bomb went off in here.” Lennon finally joined them.

“It’s fifteen minutes until departure,” Dred said.

“Yeah, well. Gia and I had shit to do. You know, the kinky kinda shit that you Dad bods only dream about.”

Elliott patted his flat stomach. “Dad bod my ass.”

Lennon batted the comment away with his prosthetic arm. “You know what I mean. The only person I had to bathe was Gia in the—”

“Shut up,” Gia exclaimed, placing her hand over his mouth. “Remember that filter we talked about.”

Lennon winked at his fiancée salaciously. “Remember what I did to you against the tile?”

“He’s all yours. You can have him back,” Gia said, pushing Lennon toward Dred, who laughed as he caught him.

“We could have told you he was like this,” Dred said.

“Like what? I’m just a man who loves grabbing his wife-to-be by the ass and pinning her against the wall of the shower, and I don’t care who knows it.”

“But you said you’d wear bloooo.” The wail came across the private lounge they were all assembled in.

Dred shook his head. “She’s tired and didn’t take the news of, in her words, Uncle Jordan not needing her because he’s getting his own