Mason's Winter

“Thank you for your quick actions, officers.”

“You’re welcome. It was your acquaintance Mr. Smith that did the work.” We leave the police station on State Street and head home. I just want to wash my hands of all of this. Since the crime was perpetrated on his friend, we won’t have much to do with the case even though we were the intended targets.

Chapter 16

Mason

Christmas morning comes faster than we expected. After a night of passion, we slept in. I wake up, slinking downstairs to make some coffee for us.

When I come back, she’s stretching in the bed, smiling at me. “Merry Christmas, Winter.”

“Merry Christmas,” she replies, kissing me as I hand her the coffee. It’s hot, but I made sure not to fill it too high. “This feels too good to be true,” she moans, taking a sip from her mug.

“Well, it is.” I take a drink of mine and set it on the nightstand. “In a few years, we’ll be waking to kids jumping on the bed, rushing to open presents.”

“How many babies do you want?” she asks me. We haven’t really talked about exact numbers. I can afford a whole brood of them if we want.

“A hundred,” I tease.

She scoffs and takes another drink. “Um, I don’t think that’s possible. Even if I could manage to have kids in my sixties.”

“Fine. I suppose five is good enough,” I grumble. I’m so happy, I want to pin her to the bed and claim her all over again, but I’ll just steal some kisses for now. I take her coffee and set it on the nightstand next to mine. “We better get to it then.” Then I pounce on her for a lovely Christmas morning that started with deep kisses and finished with Winter screaming my name.

We finally make it downstairs around noon. There’s a game on today, so we’re going to watch some football and have dinner with a couple of my friends and my mother. She loves Winter and can’t wait for us to marry. Although not as much as I want to marry Winter. I’m losing my mind, hoping that we can get married before the new year, but with the drama with her mother and everything happening so fast I didn’t want to push her.

Winter’s in the kitchen prepping our dinner while we wait for our guests. I tried to help, but she kicked me out. The gate buzzes just as I plop down on the sofa with my beer. I open it the gate with my phone when I see it’s my mom.

“Merry Christmas,” she cheers as I meet her at her car. She brought her boyfriend with her. It’s not a big deal to me. I’ve already had him investigated, not that I’d tell her. He’s clean and seems to be on the up and up. We’ll see from there. “Harry, this is my son, Mason. Mason this is Harry.”

“Hello, Harry. Merry Christmas.” He doesn’t shy away from my hand, shaking it with a firm grip as he looks me in the eye.

“Hello Mason, your mother has told me a lot about you. I hear congratulations are in order.”

“Yes, I’m getting married as soon as I can convince her.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll get her to it. A quick service for the New Year sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?” my mom says, smiling and walking into the house.

Before we even eat dinner, my mom has Winter planning out the wedding for the new year. I could kiss that old woman.

James and his sister, Rebecca arrive before dinner. Followed by my friend Rob, who’s a bigger loner than I used to be.

“Hey Mason, thanks for the invite,” Rob says, shaking my hand.

“Thanks for coming. Dinner’s about to be served. Let me introduce you to my future wife.” After a quick introduction to everyone in the room, I notice that Rob’s not paying attention to anything other than Rebecca. This is the first time they met. Her eyes turn to his several times as she tells a story to Harry and my mom. The stolen glances aren’t missed by James who is very protective of his sister.

After dinner, we gather around the tree with pie and coffee. “So Mason, since you’re not taking the deal with Grable. Are they going under?” James asks.

“I’m not quite sure. I’ve cut all contact with them, but with the scandal going around, they might sell it to you at a fair price if you’re interested.”

“Hey, I hear he’s fired his daughter and taking over until he can sell the company,” Rob adds.

“Sounds good to me. She’s killing the brand,” James remarks, biting into the apple pie that Winter made. “Winter, this is fabulous.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you interested in it, James?” I ask him, wondering if he’s willing to invest that kind of money into a failing company.