Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Had he not been paying attention?
“Well, first of all, he bought me an expensive bear.” Duh. Regular guys would’ve rolled their eyes and bought something for five bucks at Walgreens. “And second, he signed the card Your Secret Santa Daddy.”
He really needed to pay more attention in life.
I was starting to think the food mix-up hadn’t been my fault…he was definitely going to pay to make up for making me doubt myself.
Dinner was on Leander.
Chapter 2
Enzo
“He still doesn’t know who his Secret Santa is.” Carlo stepped closer, watching Terrence out of the window as he paced the backyard. “I’m starting to think he’s just going to keep all of us.”
“He doesn’t get enough sleep. His brain isn’t working enough to figure anything out.” Which was why he was talking to himself and throwing his arms up in the air like he was losing the argument.
The people in his head weren’t always nice to him.
“He might be talking to someone on the phone. He has those pods things.” Sergio always talked about tech like he was eighty but he wasn’t wrong. “They always make people look insane.”
Well, he usually wasn’t wrong.
“He thinks he lost them in the laundry room, but I’m pretty sure he set them down near the pile of papers that tipped over.” Orlando pushed between us, not bothering to pretend he wasn’t watching Terrence. “He talks to himself more when he doesn’t have them in, though, so I haven’t reminded him about them yet.”
Rolling my eyes, I glared at the imp. Being the youngest cousin got him entirely too much leeway sometimes. “He likes music when he’s working and the over the ear kind gives him a headache and makes him look like a DJ. He doesn’t like either of those things.”
Orlando shrugged, not looking repentant at all. “I like hearing what he’s thinking.”
He was so fucking nosy.
“But no headphones mean no dancing.” Sergio couldn’t help putting his two cents in either. “He said I’m cuddly and he hasn’t tried to dance with me in days.”
For fuck’s sake.
“You guys would get more done if you remembered he was mine.” It wasn’t a hard concept to grasp but they were being pains in the asses about it.
“Finders keepers.” Sergio shrugged. “He thinks I’m cuddly.”
I’d rolled my eyes so much lately they were starting to develop muscle tone, but I couldn’t help doing it again. “No. He needs a Daddy and that’s me.”
He was a little who was about as subtle as those neon blue cabinets he’d tried to say were beautiful.
“I could learn.” Orlando was just being ridiculous, but it made everyone start coughing to cover their laughter. “It’s not rocket science. You make rules and glare.”
For fuck’s sake.
“Terrence said so, huh?” Carlo grinned when everyone else started nodding. “Well, I guess that just means Enzo gets to keep him. The rest of us don’t glare enough.”
One day I was going to kill them all, and the rest of the family would just have to understand.
“Since that’s settled, can someone magically help him remember where his headphones are so we can get back to work?” The house was older than dirt and every time we fixed one problem, another cropped up…and if they kept wandering around to see what he was doing, we’d never get the house finished. “Terrence is getting tired of cooking in the laundry room.”
He’d done an amazing job of working in the makeshift space, but his patience was starting to run thin.
“He said he can’t make Christmas cookies in the small kitchen because there isn’t room to lay out the dough.” Orlando’s helpful gossip had everyone going quiet. “So if we don’t get it done soon, we won’t get any.”
Judging by the silence, that was deemed unacceptable.
“He said he was going to make Christmas tree cookies.” Sergio seemed personally offended at having them snatched away from him. “He promised.”
Reminding myself that Terrence was supposed to be the little, I shrugged. “He makes the cookie rules, but…but if he ever figures out who his Secret Santa is, then I can let him use my kitchen.”
It’d be weird to just randomly offer, so I had to wait.
The patience it was taking was mind-blowing, though.
“He’ll get to that eventually, right?” Carlo raised one eyebrow as he glanced in my direction. “I think you’re going to need to up the incentive. Right now, he’s getting to smile and flirt with everyone and he’s getting presents.”
“You’re going to have to hide his toys.” Orlando didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with talking about Terrence’s sex toys. “He doesn’t have enough incentive to figure out the Daddy thing.”
I wasn’t going to admit the ridiculous idea had merit.
“Yeah, he’s getting all the attention he wants and then he’s having fun attentioning himself all afternoon. He’s not in any hurry to figure out who wants to give him rules.” Sergio shrugged like the whole conversation was perfectly reasonable.