O Come, All Ye Kellys (Love & Luck #7) - Isla Olsen Page 0,17

“Look, buddy. Look what Santa left you!”

“Sa!” Chase cries, clapping his hands.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Connor says, grinning at his son. “See, Santa’s not a scary guy. He brings presents.”

Connor sets Chase on the ground in front of his presents, and we all spend the next ten minutes helping him unwrap them. By which I mean Laura, Connor, and I unwrap the presents while Chase seems more fascinated with the wrapping paper than any of his new toys.

Probably not surprisingly, Connor’s favorite of Chase’s new toys is a little plastic guitar that plays Beatles music. Or at least it’s supposed to; it seems the batteries ‘Santa’ left aren’t the right ones for this toy. As Connor messes around with it on the coffee table, trying to figure out how it works, I watch in amusement as Chase comes up to the other side of the table and pulls himself up, his eyes glued with fascination to everything Connor is doing. That kid could not possibly be more obsessed with his dad; it makes my heart glow just thinking about it.

“Shit. These definitely aren’t the right ones,” Connor mutters. “I’ll see if we’ve got any in the kitchen.”

He rises from the sofa and strides toward the kitchen; I watch his retreating ass for a brief moment before returning my gaze to Chase, and let out a gasp of surprise when I see him standing up on his own, without holding on to anything.

“Oh my god!” I cry, slapping my hands over my mouth in excitement.

“What?” Laura demands, before letting out a little squeal as she no doubt sets eyes on her son.

“Connor, get in here!” I call.

“What? What is it?” he asks, rushing back into the room.

As soon as he sees Connor, Chase puts one foot forward, his arms outstretched toward his dad.

“Oh my god! Oh my god, he’s walking!” Connor exclaims.

Yeah, not exactly. That one tiny non-step is pretty much all Chase can manage right now, and he topples over onto his backside, his arms still held out toward Connor.

“I don’t think that really counts as walking,” Laura says, her nose scrunched up in amusement.

“It was a step,” Connor declares, reaching down to scoop Chase into his arms. “We all saw it!”

I let out a soft chuckle. “I don’t know, babe. I’m not sure anyone will believe it until we have video evidence of it happening.” All our families have been waiting a long time for Chase to start walking; they’ll want to make sure it’s legit.

“You have an annoyingly good point,” Connor grumbles.

10

Jamie

* * *

“Where are you going?”

I pause at the sound of Shay’s rumbling voice, my hand hovering mid-air before the handle of our bedroom door. I glance back at my boyfriend, offering an affectionate smile. “You were sleeping so I thought I’d make us a nice Christmas breakfast.”

Shay arches a skeptical brow. “You were going to make breakfast? A special Christmas breakfast.”

I spin around to face Shay and come clean. “Alright, it was just going to be toast. But I was going to serve it on those elf plates I bought the other week to make it more festive.”

Shay grins. “That’s sweet, but I don’t want toast right now, red. Now, take those pants off and get over here so I can have a proper Christmas feast.”

I snort with laughter at that but nonetheless cross the floor over to the bed and shimmy out of my pajama bottoms before climbing back in and joining Shay under the covers.

My phone chimes with a text and I consider reaching for it but Shay rolls on top of me, pinning me down.

“Ignore it,” he murmurs, trailing kisses along my neck.

I figure it’s probably just my mum sending her Christmas wishes; we’ll be chatting with her over Zoom later this morning so it’s not hard to follow Shay’s suggestion. Especially when he’s started working his way down my chest, his tongue circling one of my nipples.

I let out a groan of pleasure, which only gets louder as he reaches down and wraps his big hand around my hard cock.

And then my phone chimes again. And then again.

With a grunt of annoyance, Shay moves away from me and motions toward the bedside table where my phone is currently charging. “You might as well check it. Could be important.”

“Or I could just switch it off?” I say with a grin.

Shay’s eyes flare with desire. “Oh yeah, I like that plan.”

I reach for my phone and am about to switch it off when I see