An Aces Christmas (The Aces' Sons)

“Good call,” Draco agreed.

“So, when are you guys buying the tickets for prom?” I asked after it had been quiet for a minute. “Do you want to go halves, or—”

“I’m not paying for half!” Charlie griped, poking me in the stomach with her toes. “Why would you even offer, you lunatic? We’re doing them a damn favor.”

“I’m impressed you made it this long without bringing up the dance,” Curtis said at the same time. He was grinning.

“We’ll buy the tickets,” Draco said, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

“What? It’s not like it’s a date!”

“We’re still paying,” he replied firmly.

“Fine,” I huffed.

“And we’re paying for dinner, too,” Curt said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Charlie groaned, but I lit up. “We’re going to dinner?” I asked, trying and failing to seem nonchalant about the whole thing.

“Of course we’re going to dinner,” Draco said dubiously. “It’s prom.”

“We’re going to dinner,” I said to Charlie, squeezing her feet in my hands.

“Yippee,” she said unenthusiastically.

“Stop it,” I ordered, pulling hard on one of her toes until she yelped and yanked her feet from my lap.

“Fine, it’ll be fun,” she said in exasperation as she sat up. “But we do need to figure out one important detail.”

“What’s that?” Draco asked in amusement.

Charlie’s lips twitched. “Which one of you is taking your aunt to prom, and which one of you is taking the stacked underclassman with hair down to her waist?”

My eyes bulged out of my head when both boys yelled, “Dibs!”

As the three of them laughed, I stared at them.

“Wait, dibs for who?” I said in confusion, making them laugh even harder. “Dibs for who? Me or Charlie?”Chapter 3FarrahPresent

“You know, I try not to overstep,” I said as I poured chocolate pudding into a pie tin.

“Uh, huh,” my best friend Callie muttered mockingly across the kitchen.

“But I really wish I’d gone with them today,” I finished, ignoring her.

“You did the right thing staying home,” she told me, pulling a pie out of the industrial oven and putting a different one in. “They need some space.”

“If I wasn’t going over to Cam’s tonight, I probably would have gone.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” she said, rubbing my back lightly as she moved around me. “You might be a huge pain in the neck, but you know when to take a step back.”

I nodded.

“I mean, your radar is a little off, so you don’t always take a step back when other people would—”

“Shut it,” I shot back, making her chuckle.

“How’s Charlie doing? She excited?” Callie asked, a little out of breath as she kneaded dough on the island beside me.

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. Honestly, it was kind of hard to read my youngest daughter. She was a mix of me and her dad and both of her sisters put together. She was wild like Cecilia and tenderhearted like Lily—even if she refused to show it, like me—and she was street smart, just like her dad. A mix of contradictions, that one.

“I can’t believe it’s been almost four years,” Callie said. “It feels like just yesterday.”

“And also a hundred years ago,” I replied quietly. “It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that three of them kept growing and learning and changing, and one just—I don’t know—was frozen in time or something.”

“You know he’s been growing and changing, too,” Callie reminded me.

“His entire life was just put on pause,” I snapped.

“Hey,” Callie said, her head jerking back in surprise. “I know that. What, do you think it’s easy for any of us?”

“Sorry,” I mumbled, shaking my head. “Guess I’m on edge.”

“With good reason,” she replied, forgiving me easily like always. “I remember when Asa got out.”

“Me, too,” I said with a scoff. “Loser.”

“Now that was a hundred years ago,” she joked. “Think you could let it go yet? I forgave him a long ass time ago.”

“That’s because you’re nicer than me,” I said stubbornly. “He stayed up here and partied while you waited for him at the old apartment like a lovesick puppy.”

“Jesus, you’re on a roll today,” she complained.

I laughed. “Sorry, that didn’t come out quite how I intended.”

“Sure, it didn’t.”

“I just mean, I remember how excited you were and what an ass he was.”

“Yeah, me, too,” she said with a soft smile. “Hey, you wanna hear some news that you can’t tell anyone?”

“No,” I replied firmly. I hated keeping secrets. Inevitably, I slipped up and made some comment about it and then I spent five minutes trying to backtrack, making it worse. I knew some things that I’d take to my grave—but the small secrets? I could never keep track of who knew what and I always ended up spilling the beans.

Callie ignored my reply and whispered, “Heather’s pregnant again.”

“Dammit, Callie,” I said in exasperation.

“What?” she replied innocently. “They’re going to tell everyone soon anyway. Plus, Heather’s like me—she can never hide it because she’s always throwing up.”