I'll Be Right Beside You

Dinner went smoothly, with only a few people coming up and asking the guys for their autograph. Thankfully I seemed to blend in with Lindsay and Tanya, because nobody really recognized me. It could have been the fact that I didn’t look anything like I had last season, and I hadn’t really been in the public eye enough for people to see me looking like a girl.

It hadn’t taken long for Parker to start entertaining everybody at the table; he came out with the cutest sayings and funny stories from the few times he’d been to day care, and it was all Eric could do to keep him in his seat. It quickly moved to talk of Christmas tomorrow, which led to Parker trying to get everyone to tell him what his presents were. I’d had to cover Jordan’s mouth more than once when he’d nearly slipped on telling what someone’s gift was, and Henry just gave us a happy look, seeing the way we acted around each other. It made me so excited that Henry and Linda seemed to accept me into the family as Jordan’s girlfriend rather than just his best friend, especially after everything that had went on. That had really worried me, especially after the whole boy-being-a-girl thing had happened.

When we drove home the car was quiet – we’d hopped in with Linda and Henry, with Parker sitting between us while everyone else was in Eric and Tanya’s SUV, with the exception of Jared, who’d drove himself so he could go visit a friend of his quickly before coming home. I’d teased him about having a girlfriend he wanted to go see, but I felt bad after he solemnly assured me that wasn’t the case. I really needed to find that poor boy a girlfriend, especially after he’d told me all about his last relationship falling apart. He was scared of getting hurt like that again, and I didn’t blame him one bit. But he was the kind of guy who hated being lonely, and so now being the only single one out of his family was making things a little rougher on him. At least when Jordan had been single or in an on-again-off-again relationship he had somebody he could talk to and relate to, whereas now he felt on his own and like he was miles behind his brothers again.

“Home sweet home,” Henry announced as he pulled into the driveway and cut the ignition. Eric’s rented vehicle pulled in right behind us, and I turned to unbuckle Parker’s seatbelt, trying carefully not to wake him.

“I’ll get him,” Jordan told me, and I nodded, undoing my own seatbelt and stepping out into the crisp and chilly evening.

Jordan carefully got Parker out of the car, keeping the little boy’s sleeping form tight to his body. He was so wonderful with kids, it was incredible to watch him with his nephews because he always knew just what to do or how to behave.

“Thanks for bringing him in Jord,” Eric grinned, carefully taking his son from his younger brother. Jordan simply shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it. We all decided to go to bed then, and once we knew almost everyone was in bed Jordan came downstairs to help me haul presents upstairs to put under the tree.

“What are you two doing?” Linda asked as we crept into the kitchen. We both froze, wearing our pajamas carrying a huge bag, plus a ton of other bags.

“Putting the presents under the tree,” I told her, and she rolled her eyes.

“You didn’t have to sneak around to do that,” she informed us, and Jordan shrugged.

“This way nobody could snoop,” he reasoned, and with that Linda hugged us goodnight and went to bed.

The other reason was that we’d been assigned the task of setting out the presents from Santa – Marc, Lindsay, Eric and Tanya had hidden the gifts in Jordan’s room when they’d got here, and so we’d agreed to set them out once the kids were all in bed.

We probably spent ten minutes arranging the gifts, making sure the tags and cards hadn’t been messed up and replacing the ones that had fallen off. Jordan put the duffel bag in Jared’s room beside his bag, and while I warned him against it he followed me downstairs. We could hear a movie playing from Marc and Lindsay’s room, knowing that Michael liked having noise to go to sleep, something they both attributed to their living in New York. Jordan smiled and all but pushed me through the door, closing it with his foot and then we were kissing, hands wandering as Jordan backed me towards the bed.

“I hope you know your mother is going to kick your ass for this,” I mumbled against his lips as he steadied himself overtop of me. He shrugged, kissing me again.

“It’s worth it – I can’t keep myself away from you babe,” he murmured, his warm mouth on my neck sending shivers down my spine.

“Well Merry Christmas to me,” I whispered, making him laugh before he kissed me slowly.