An Underestimated Christmas (Underestimated 3) (24 page)

BOOK: An Underestimated Christmas (Underestimated 3)
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“I don’t mean that. If you don’t like it here and you want to leave after the holidays than that’s fine by me.”

“Okay, then it only makes sense to not buy this school and wait until we’ve given it a try, right?”

I rolled my eyes and walked in front of Drew, glancing inside the empty rooms. He wasn’t going to wait. I could see it in his eyes. This was nothing more than a plot to get me on his side. He didn’t care what I thought.

“I still want to do it for John, even if we don’t stay here. He’s doing a lot of good for these kids, Morgan. This is more important to me than anything I’ve ever done before,” Drew explained. I got that, I did. I just felt like it was on a whim, and he wasn’t thinking it through. “I have thought about this for weeks. I eat it, breathe it, and sleep it. I really want to do this, Morgan.”

“Why couldn’t you have told me all of this?”

“I tried. Every time I try to talk to you about anything, you start an argument over it.”

I turned back to look at Drew with a frown. “No, I don’t. You do,” I accused.

“Regardless of who starts it, we end up in a fight. I’m tired of fighting, Morgan. I don’t want to do it anymore. I want this month to be magical for us. I want you to get better, and I want our family back,” Drew explained with great conviction.

I took a deep breath and reminded him of the foundation we’d built our life on. “Drew, we’ve never had that. We’ve always struggled and you know it.”

“But there isn’t a deeper love than ours. You know that, Morgan. Yes, we have a fucked up relationship, we do things most married couples don’t, and we fight just as strongly as we make love, but we’re us. We’re a family and I want nothing more than to have all this animosity between us gone. I miss you, Morgan.”

Well damn…

The rest of the day was superb. The boys stayed at the barn with Nicole and John while I took Morgan grocery shopping. We even went into a little shopping center and bought the boys some warmer clothes, boots, gloves, hats, all the things a mom instinctively know to get.

Morgan and I had lunch at some little diner with amazing warm apple pie, and we talked. A lot. I knew she was probably getting tired of hearing about the school and the barn, but I couldn’t help it. I had never in my life done something so noble, something for someone else, something for Nicky. I wanted it more than anything.

I made Morgan let me take her hand while we walked across the street to the parking lot when she insisted for the third time we needed to get back to the boys. I don’t know who was more protective, her or me. I was starting to feel a little anxiety about them not being with Morgan or me, too.

“This town really does Christmas,” she alleged, pulling her hand away as we neared the car. I felt like we were in a pretty good place from where we started the day, although I could tell Morgan was getting more and more fidgety as the day progressed. Her shaking hand in mine wasn’t hidden well either.

“Yeah, it does. I kind of like it. Why didn’t we ever do Christmas like this?” I asked, locking her between me and the car with my body. “Your nose is red,” I said, kissing the tip of it.

“That’s because it’s cold as balls out here.”

I laughed and kissed her, purposely thrusting my cock into her. Even through the puffy coat, I felt her go limp in my arms.

“Hey this isn’t Hollywood. People around here get rooms for that stuff,” I heard the familiar voice. I pulled away and held out my hand.

“Tim,” I greeted with a hand shake. “This is my wife, Morgan.”

“Pleasure,” Morgan smiled, shaking his hand.

“Tim’s the banker that took care of the house for us.”

“How do you like it, Mrs. Kelley?” he asked.

“I love the house, thank you. It’s beautiful.”

“I’ll let you folks get going. You enter the tree decorating competition?” Tim asked, taking steps backward.

“Yup, I saw Macy, picking yours out. Pathetic,” I assured him.

“I’ll see you Saturday,” Tim pointed.

“Are you like friends with the whole town?” Morgan asked. I kissed her again and opened her door.

“Well the population is two, so… I don’t know that guy, or that one,” I pointed to strangers. We drove in silence back to retrieve our kids. Morgan’s mind was on something else. She was too distracted to have a normal conversation with and kept asking me to repeat things by saying uh, or what?

“What’s going on, love?” I quietly asked, taking her hand.

She pulled it away and sat up straighter with a grunt. She was withdrawing and it shattered my heart. How could I let this happen? “I’m just ready to be home. I’m fine,” she lied.

“You’re a liar. Tell me what it’s like, what are you feeling?”

“Drew, no. Not now. I can’t,” she assured me, bouncing her knee in a frantic manner. “What time is it? The boys are probably ready to be home too.”

“The boys are fine. John just took them back out to the barn to play basketball.”

“Where’s Nicole? Is Nicole there?” she asked worried.

“I don’t know. Did she take it? All of it?”

“Yes, but you still have some. Where are they, Drew?”

“They’re in a box someplace with my shaving bag. I want to talk to Nicole. She didn’t tell me what to do to help you.”

“Let’s run by the house first. I know where that box is.”

“No, Morgan. Let me call Nicole first.”

“Okay, do you have service?” she asked with a raised sarcastic tone.

“They’re only a few more miles down the road.”

“I don’t want to wait a few more miles. I can’t, Drew. Please just stop by the house first. Please,” she begged wringing her hands, bouncing her knees, and flipping her hair. I wasn’t sure what to do. I supposed she knew her body more than I did, but I still didn’t think it was a good idea.

“Morgan—,” I started before she cut me off.

“Drew, look at me. Don’t pretend like you don’t see me. I can’t go around the boys like this and I don’t want John and Nicole to see me either. Please take me home first. It’ll take me five minutes.”

I guess I was a little embarrassed for her to go there too. I did what she requested and turned right rather than left. Five minutes later Morgan was rushing me to unlock the door. She darted up the stairs and right to the box she knew would bring her relief. I followed at a snail’s pace compared to hers. 

“Don’t say anything, Drew,” Morgan ordered while I stood with my hands in my pockets and watched. My arms crossed and my body leaned into the door trim while Morgan retrieved a razorblade from her makeup bag. My mouth dried up and my heart hurt when she chopped up the tiny little pill and snorted it up her nose with a ten dollar bill. What the fuck was going on? This wasn’t right. Things like this didn’t happen to people like us.

Morgan grabbed the counter and lifted her face toward the ceiling while her lungs filled with dust and her body relaxed. Just like that, she was calm.

“I feel like you’re two people again,” I spoke, swallowing the hoarseness in my voice.

“What do you mean?” she asked, hiding her paraphernalia back inside the little bag. Her demeanor was a lot calmer than it had been, and her eyes stayed down. She was too embarrassed and ashamed to look at me.

“You know what I mean,” I said, moving to the toilet.

Morgan slid down the wall in front of me, contemplating. “Riley loves Dawson, Morgan loves Drew,” she quoted.

“Morgan loves her family, and this person loves something that’s not part of her.”

“But it is, Drew. It’s been a part of me for a very long time. I should have done this three hours ago. That’s a long time for me to go without it.”

I shook my head unbelieving of the mess we were in. “What’s a normal day like for you?” I wanted to know. “Tell me what’s it’s like from the time you get up until you go to bed.”

“I want to get the boys.”

“Tell me.”

I watched Morgan swallow and fill her lungs with a deep breath. “I do it before I ever brush my teeth. That’s the first time, right after I pee, but it’s only a half a pill. Sometimes when I’m not sleeping well I’ll get up and do a half a line or so,” Morgan explained, playing with the seam of her jeans around her ankle.

“That’s usually plenty to get through until the boys lay down for naps. I usually do another line once they’re down. That’s normally by one. It’s after five. That’s a long time.”

“And you’ll do it again later tonight?” I wondered.

She shrugged still rolling and unrolling the cuff of her jeans. “That depends on if you and I fight, how Nicholas does with no blanket, how much of a whiner Tadpole is because he didn’t get a nap, maybe, I don’t know.” At least she was being honest with me and we were talking and not yelling.

“I’m sorry, love. I never saw this coming. I was too busy trying to make a few million dollars that I don’t need.”

“It’s not your fault, Drew. It’s mine.”

“It’s ours, and we’re going to fix this. I promise.”

“What if we don’t? Do you really think we’re good for each other? I mean, look at us Drew. I’m thirty-four years old, I’ve been with you since I was a kid. When has it ever been good? When haven’t we had one problem after another? Maybe we should try and be apart for the boys. They don’t even pay any attention to us when we’re arguing now. That’s how used to it they are. I don’t want that. I’m tired of fighting. I’m just not sure what we’re fighting for anymore.”

I wanted to scream at her and tell her not to think like that, but I couldn’t. She was right about everything she said. Morgan was a pain in my ass from the day I laid eyes on her. We had a struggle around every bend, but I loved her. I was going to do everything in my power not to let that happen. On a side note, I knew what she was saying. We were both too much in love with our kids to let them think this was normal. It wasn’t and I didn’t want to fight anymore, either. This Christmas would either make us or break us.

We actually had a very good evening with our boys and I never mentioned the bathroom incident again. Not to her, anyway. I did call Nicole while Morgan was in the shower. She assured me that I did the right thing, but she wanted the pills. I was fine with that. I didn’t want to be the one that controlled that.

After a nice sudsy bath, I think Morgan even liked the dog a little. He was a cute little thing and he was making my son extremely happy. He asked if his grandma sent his blanket and when it would get here, but he didn’t have a meltdown about it like he normally would have.

“I better take Dasher outside first,” my grown up Nicky decided when I wanted to sit down with the tablet and look at ideas for our Christmas tree. He was such a little man. Morgan helped him with his new coat that she hated and the snow boots that she also hated. I was sure I’d be seeing an online shopping spree in my near future.

We sat around the beanbag chairs with Morgan’s tablet and researched Christmas tree decorating. Tadpole wanted Spiderman, Morgan wanted a gingerbread house theme, and Nicky wanted bridges.

“No, that’s not it. I’ll know it when I see it,” I said running my thumb up and down Morgan’s leg. I was tapping that shit tonight if I had to hold her down to do it. I smiled to myself more than once when I noticed how my not so discreet wife kept sliding my hand up her leg with hers. I’d slide it up there for her. No problem. “It needs to be bright, vibrant, something that’ll stand out from the other ones.”

“Is there power?” Morgan asked. My hand went up her thigh a little more when I reached around to get the printed rules from the sofa table.

“Why him name is Dasher?” Tadpole asked, petting the little gray dog.

“Hmmm, maybe he was named after one of Santa’s Reindeers, you think?” Morgan questioned, pulling him to her lap with a kiss to his cheek.

“No, I think him name after Kim Kardashian,” Tad decided, sending Morgan and me both into a hysterical laugh. Some of the things that kid came up with…

“Hey, Dad, we could do a beach Christmas tree, like at our house where my blanket it is,” Nicky suggested. He didn’t find the humor in his dog being named after the Kim Kardashian the way Morgan and I did. I still had tears in my eyes.

“I love it, Drew. You can order all kinds of little party favors that would work. We could do flip-flops, surfboards, life preservers, sailboats, go to Boston Owl,” Morgan said, swiping her finger over my page. Damn, if she moved her bare legs any closer I was putting the boys to bed.

“Boston Owl. Why does that sound expensive?”

“It’s actually not. Alicia told me about it. That’s where she got all the panda stuff for Christina’s birthday party. Oh, why did I have to go and think about them? I miss them.”

“We’ll see them soon. I love it, Nicky,” I said, ruffling his hair. The dog growled at me. For whatever reason, that made me very happy. Dasher was protecting my son.

“I’m going to call Alicia, you guys look, but I love it, too. I bet no one else will have a beach theme. You’re so smart,” Morgan said, getting the same growl from Dasher after doing the same thing. We exchanged a glance, thinking the exact same thing and smiled. I watched her walk away in boy shorts she was wearing to taunt me. If the temperature wasn’t at least eighty, Morgan was cold. She wasn’t fooling anyone. 

“You want me to start bathwater?” I called.

“Yeah, you can. It’s almost seven thirty. Get a bath, guys, and I’ll warm you up some of Nicole’s applesauce,” Morgan offered. “Shoot. I hate not having service,” she said, dropping her phone to the island after trying to call her friend. I chuckled and rounded up my troops for a bath.

“I’m not taking a bath with Tadpole,” Nicholas assured me. Shit. That meant it was going to take even longer and I had to get Morgan.

Morgan was sitting in one of the library chairs when I opened the pocket door. Her hand quickly pulled out of her shorts and she sat up a little, not missing one beat of telling Alicia about our day. My cock instantly woke up. Her eyes shifted to mine and then away. She knew I had seen enough. She knew I knew. I walked right over to her and dropped to my knees. Her eyes stared directly into mine when I placed her hand in mine and sucked on her fingers. Fuck. Yup, that’s what she was doing. The lust in her eyes forced my dick to grow even harder.

BOOK: An Underestimated Christmas (Underestimated 3)
9.22Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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