of fundraising donations inside. I cleared away the furniture from my living room so we could all sit on the floor and count everything.
“And the final total is…” I tapped my notepad with a pencil. “Just shy of twelve thousand dollars!”
My three men cheered. “That goes a long way towards replacing the money Pierce stole,” Harper said.
“It’ll keep the lights on for a while, that’s for sure,” I said. “I want to donate ten percent of it to Sandy’s Girl Scout Troop. They definitely deserve it.”
“They’ll be happy to hear it,” Logan said. “It’ll help buy supplies for the hiking expedition I’m taking them on in the spring.”
We were too exhausted to celebrate. We went upstairs, got ready to sleep, and crawled into my big bed. Logan slept in the middle with me on his chest, and Riley and Harper were on either side of me. All of us fell asleep before we could even think of having some sexy fun.
The sky was grey outside the window when I woke up. But there was strange movement, too. I blinked away the gunk from my eyes and realized what it was.
“Snow!” I whispered. “It’s snowing!”
Riley groaned and rolled over. “Snow?”
“Snow! Falling from the sky!”
I snuggled against Riley, and Logan cuddled up behind me. Harper got out of bed and went to the window to gaze outside.
“It’s really coming down. At least an inch of accumulation already.”
“A white Christmas,” I said.
Logan grunted. “Oh yeah. It’s Christmas.” He kissed the back of my neck, and his bristles tickled my skin. “Merry Christmas, Christie.”
“Merry Christmas!”
We eventually dragged ourselves out of the warm bed. The guys took care of the dogs while I made bacon and eggs for breakfast. I watched them through my kitchen window as they ran and played with the dogs in the snowy field. Riley laid down and made a snow angel. One of the German Shepherds rolled on his back next to him playfully, kicking up lots of snow. Logan threw a snowball at Harper, but the yellow lab leaped into the air and caught it in her mouth.
“Intercepted!” Harper shouted.
Once the dogs were exercised and fed the boys came back inside for breakfast. They wolfed it down with plenty of coffee. I caught Riley sneaking a piece of bacon to Slinky under the table, but I didn’t say anything. It was Christmas, after all.
“I’m afraid I didn’t plan Christmas dinner very well,” I told them. “I’ll run up to Wal Mart to see what food they have, but they might be wiped out…”
“Don’t worry about dinner,” Logan said with a pat on my hand. “We’ve got it taken care of.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You have it taken care of?”
“Sure do. Wait and see.”
Apparently their idea of taking care of dinner involved calling for reinforcements. At one in the afternoon a truck rolled up to the farm and Bubba hopped out with grocery bags full of food.
“You ain’t gettin’ sick of me yet, are ya miss?” he asked.
I smiled. “Not even a little bit. You don’t have to cook for us though…”
“I was gonna cook this all for myself, but then I’d have to eat it all myself! Y’all are doin’ me a favor by helpin’ get rid of the leftovers.” He jerked his head. “There’s a couple more bags in there. Be careful with the peanut oil.”
“Peanut oil?”
“Y’all never deep-fried a turkey before?” he asked. “Oh, y’all are in for a treat!”
The boys spent the snowy afternoon playing with the dogs in the field while Bubba and I made dinner. He did most of the heavy lifting while I helped with the sides. I turned the radio on so we could listen to Christmas music while we cooked. When Little Drummer Boy played, Bubba grabbed two mixing spoons and banged loudly on the pans in time with the music.
“Mind if I say somethin’?” Bubba asked while we peeled potatoes. “I don’t want to overstep my bounds and whatnot…”
“Go ahead,” I said cautiously.
Bubba removed his cowboy hat and rubbed his bald head. “I ain’t never seen them boys so happy. It’s like their spirits been lifted, and I got a feelin’ it has somethin’ to do with you.”
I blushed and focused on my potato. “That’s a nice thing to say.”
“Well, it’s the truth.” He shrugged. “I won’t lie. I thought this whole reverse harem thingamajig is weird…”
“Reverse what?”
“That’s what the internet calls it,” Bubba explained. “Like one of them harems the sultans used to have or whatever, but reversed on