Meredith rubbed herself up against his side, pushing onto her tiptoes to speak in his ear. He was so tall that she had to grip his shoulders and hold herself up there long enough so she could speak. "We've gotta get them to bed, otherwise we won't have enough time to set out the Santa gifts."Tyler glanced at the clock just over Meredith's head and was surprised at the time. She was right, it was much later than he'd thought it was. "When did it get to be almost ten o'clock?"She laughed affectionately, wondering the same thing. "I have no idea! Between making cookies for Santa, Addie dragging you outside to put out reindeer food, and Caelin coloring a picture for the elves, it's been a busy night."She felt every one of those activities tonight, too. Her eyes were dry and she wanted nothing more than to go lay in bed and take a power nap. She knew they wouldn't be able too, though, because as soon as her head hit the pillow… without a doubt, she'd be fast asleep. Being a parent
Meredith grabbed her own two boxes, and brought them with her into the living room and set them down on the coffee table next to Tyler's."You go first," she pushed them towards him. "I wanna see your face when you open it.""If you insist," he gave her an indulgent smile as he reached for the smaller of the two."You sure you wanna open the smaller one first? I think I'd go for the bigger one. More stuff," she teased."It's not about the size," his voice was confident as he pushed his fingers through the wrapping paper. He was still hesitant to open gifts since he'd never really gotten any before he and Meredith were together. "It's about what's on the inside."She held her breath as he opened it, his eyes widening as he saw what lay inside."Mer…" he started to speak, but nothing came out."Jessica took it when she was messing around with the camera Layne got her over the summer. Do you remember? She was metering light or whatever?"He did remember. Turning it around
ROOSTER & RONI"I'm tellin' you, you're insane," Denise Walker told her sister-in-law, Sharon Hancock, as the two of them sat in the office at Walker's Wheels. They were supposed to be going over inventory, but Sharon, known to everyone as Roni, was laying out all her troubles and Denise was telling her how crazy she was."I'm not," Roni shook her head. "I think he misses it."The he in the conversation was Roni's husband Rooster, member of the Heaven Hill MC, former Warren County Sheriff's Deputy."What makes you think he misses it? I mean from what you've told me, there's nothing screaming out at me that says we're gonna lose Rooster to the other side."How did she explain this to someone who had the kind of relationship Denise did? Roni's brother, Liam worshiped the ground Denise walked on; she would never be questioning her husband like this. Roni had to admit though, she'd never questioned her husband like this either, but she couldn't deny in the past few weeks things h
Rooster yawned so wide his jaw popped as he made his way along the backroads of Warren County. Glancing at the dashboard, he shook his head and rubbed his eyes as he saw the green numbers flash two AM. It had been a long fucking day, and he was going to have to get up and do it again tomorrow. In five hours to be exact.That was okay though; he didn't mind working hard for his family. Didn't mind how his knees ached from standing, how his head hurt from the loud noises of everyone talking around him, how his stomach clenched because he hadn't eaten dinner before he left. He would do it for Roni and Carter. He would kill himself with the hours he was keeping before he gave up and let them feel like he wasn't taking care of them.But Lord, he was tired. Tired as hell. One more week, he kept telling himself. One more week and Christmas would be over, the security gigs would be done and then things could go back to normal. Tightening his grip on the steering wheel, he tried to think ab
Roni realized pretty quickly that she'd made a big mistake accusing her husband the way she did. All the feelings she'd thought he was having were obviously all in her head and that made her feel awful. The only thing he'd been doing was going to work and making a better life for their family and all she'd done was dump on him for her feelings of being "abandoned". He hadn't wanted his old life back, he was working himself to the bone to provide for her and Carter and all she'd done is add to the heavy load he'd already shouldered for them."I'm sorry," she whispered again. There was no way he'd know exactly how sorry she was. Normally she wasn't quick to assume the worst when it came to him but she'd been looking for a fight, apparently feeling sorry for herself when she'd no call to at all."You're sorry?" he gave her a dark grin. "You're gonna have to come up with something a little more than you're sorry, Roni. This could all have been avoided if you would have just been up fro
"You should have told me you had a cop fantasy," Rooster teased as they lay in bed that morning. Both of them had called in sick to work and dropped Carter off at daycare so they could have the day to themselves. The first thing they'd done was come back and relax under their warm comforter.She snorted, rolling over so she could face him. "I wouldn't exactly call it a cop fantasy per se. It's just always been a fantasy of you losing that firm grip you always have on your control."He chose to ignore what she said, because nothing could ever change who he was, and how he conducted himself. He'd had to keep a firm grip on himself for most of his life to make it through what he'd been through."What time do we have to go get Carter?" he asked, as he glanced at the ceiling, seeing the time on their projection clock."About three, so we have a few hours," she told him, yawning. "I'm so tired. I don't know how you've been keeping this work schedule you've been doing.""I'm doing i
DREW & CHARITYCharity Walker did her best to stay awake as she sat in Christine Steele's salon chair getting her hair done. "If I start to doze, yank on me," she warned the older woman."Those babies keeping you up at night?" Christine smiled at her friend through the mirror.Charity nodded. "If Harley gets going she wakes up Justice or vice versa and then we're stuck there for hours. I think Drew is catching cat naps at work," she pursed her lips and wrinkled her forehead. "But every time I'm almost able to get one, I'm due in court."She sighed. She wouldn't give her children up for anything. Granted the twins had been a huge surprise when she and Drew found out they were expecting, but they'd been okay. The first few weeks things had been confusing and it had taken them a bit to get used to the needs of two newborns, but they'd done it like they did everything else, together. Now that the twins were older, she was hoping like hell they'd be able to start sleeping through wh
Drew Walker had never been so bored in his life. Business shindigs weren't his thing, but they meant a lot to Charity and her law firm. Here, he couldn't wear his cut, couldn't show most of the tattoos he had, and he had to pretend like he'd never done anything wrong.It all made him feel claustrophobic, but he'd do it for Charity. There wasn't really anyone here for him to speak with, no one here who pretended to be friendly with him, but that was okay. He was doing a great job holding up the bar. Especially after Steele and Christine had cut out an hour ago. He checked his watch and let his gaze roam the room for his wife.For the first time he noticed that the room they were in was nauseating in its Christmas cheer. It looked like a giant Christmas present. He and Charity had already done the exchanging of gifts, back in November. He had to smile, they'd never been good at hiding gifts from one another. Usually they flat out told each other what they were getting the other. It h