Did you miss the first six chapters? If so, you can find them by clicking on the one you need here: Chapters 1-3 and Chapters 4-6

Christmas at miller ranch, A Miller Family Novella

Chapters 7-Epilogue

Chapter Seven

James

James found himself pacing again. It wasn’t something he normally did as, for several years, it had been impossible for him to walk back and forth idly, with every bit of his locomotion taking great effort. But ever since becoming comfortable with his prosthetic, he’d picked it up. It was comforting, in a way, to effortlessly move this way and that when it had been barred from him for so long. It made him feel a little more in control. 

And he needed just about all of that feeling that he could muster. 

“Santa already came, James. I’m pretty sure there’s no need to wait up for him.”

Benji’s voice tried to pull James out of his studious traveling, but it didn’t quite work. James, however, did send his brother-in-law a polite chuckle.

“Just anxious, is all.”

“Oh, is something going on that I forgot about?”

James chewed his lip, another habit he’d picked up that wasn’t nearly as beneficial as the pacing. He had told Ma Miller about his invitation, which she’d been quite pleased to hear. Apparently, helping her complete nearly a half dozen batches of gingerbread cookies was a fast track to get on her good side, and she was already pretty enamored with Katrine. 

“I have a… a friend coming over.”

“A friend?” Benji said, his tone pleasantly suspicious. “What kind of friend?”

“Just someone I reconnected with recently. And her son.”

But the grin on Benji’s face just grew wider. He was already naturally a pretty amiable guy, but he’d always been especially interested in James’s happiness. Probably as an extension of the man’s affection for Dani. James had never seen someone his age so deeply, irrevocably in love. Naturally, he’d been a bit suspicious when he woke up from his coma to find out his baby sister was in a relationship with a richy-rich Miller boy, but Benji had proved himself over and over again. 

“So it’s a female friend,” Benji said, waggling his eyebrows.

“Don’t say it like that,” James groused.

“Say it like what?”

“Like that. You know what I mean.”

“Alright, fine, fine. I’m sorry if I came on a little strong. It’s just good to hear that you’re out and socializing again. It’s been a while, you know?”

James most certainly did know. “Yeah, it has.”

“Cool. And you know if you need anything, you’ve got me, your sister, and all the rest of us, right?”

“Yeah, I do know that.”

“And I’ll make sure that people don’t say anything stupid while she’s here. That way you can, you know, concentrate on enjoying Christmas.”

James heaved a sigh of relief at that. Although sometimes Benji had an exhausting amount of energy and positivity, James really did appreciate his brother-in-law. “Thanks, man, really.”

“No problem. And, uh, not to get too sentimental, but you deserve something nice.”

“Huh?”

“Just saying, no matter who this friend is, you deserve, ya know, something nice. That’s all.”

“I’ll… keep that in mind.”

Benji gave a nod and then headed inside, leaving James to stand on the porch. And by stand, he mostly meant more pacing. 

Thankfully, Katrine didn’t leave him waiting for too long, her car coming up through the freshly plowed driveway. While their year hadn’t had much snow, enough had come just in time for the state to have a white Christmas. Which, of course, all the kids were thrilled about. And Pa Miller too. The guy was even less talkative than James, but he was a softie at heart and clearly was thrilled the moment the white flecks had started coming down a few days earlier. 

“Hey there!” she said, parking and helping her little guy out. He was bundled up in an adorable amount of protective winterwear, including a child-sized puffer coat, a scarf, oversized mittens, and earmuffs. Little kids were so adorable. “Wow, this place is huge! Not exactly what I thought when you mentioned a cabin.”

“I guess it’s sort of an uber cabin, now that you mention it.” There had been a time when the Miller’s wealth had staggered James, but he’d long since grown accustomed to it. It helped that they were a humble lot.

“That’s one way to put it! Anyway, I hope you don’t mind, but I brought some stuff.”

“Is this all a part of your nice-off?”

“I will neither confirm nor deny that,” Katrine answered, but even as she did, there was an impish grin across her features. “But here, hold this.”

She pulled the same basket Ma Miller had sent her off with at the cookie baking out of the car, handing it over to James. He took it, spotting sparkling apple ciders of all types as well as sparkling grape juices, pectin, some mason jars, and citric acid. There were other things as well, like cheesecloth, extra lids, and what looked like organic cheeses from some sort of Amish seller, probably from a farmer’s market.

“I figure she probably has all of these, but as a rancher, it couldn’t hurt to have extra laying around, right?”

“I’m sure she’ll love it. She makes an insane amount of preserves.”

“Oh yay! I also found this specialty hot cocoa mix that I put in there. I figure with so many kids around, you guys probably go through it like water in the winter.”

“Especially when our cousins from down south come. They’re not the best at handling the cold. Ma Miller practically mainlines them tea, coffee, and hot chocolate.”

“Score! Glad to know my gift senses are still on point.”

“They most certainly are.” James shifted the basket to his other hand, offering his arm to Katrine. He didn’t know why he did it, it wasn’t like the ground was slippery, but it seemed like the right thing to do. “Shall we?”

There was the slightest tinge of pink across her cheeks as she took his arm, Remy then holding her hand in turn so that they were all attached. 

Kind of like a family.

“Let’s,” she said softly.

And they walked in like that. 

Normally for holidays they had an impressive open setup outside, with a pavilion for people to walk in and out of when they wanted shade. But considering it was winter, there was so much more to it. 

The Millers had a large outdoor tent that was sealed off and heated from the outside elements. James was sure it must have cost an arm and a leg, but they could more than afford it. 

The tent was actually fairly impressive, all things considered. It went from one of their side doors to behind the house with nearly a dozen tables set up and a temporary vinyl floor. Between that and the living room, dining room, and kitchen inside the house, there was plenty of room for everyone. 

However, if the Millers kept reproducing like they seemed to like to do, they were certainly going to need to upgrade it. Add on a second wing or something like that. Honestly, at some point it would probably be more prudent to just set up in the community center. 

But then the holiday meal would miss the homey feel. Even though James didn’t live on the Millers’ ranch, there was something nice about having a big Christmas meal there amongst the wrapping paper and new gifts that littered the entire area under the tree. It was comfortable, welcoming, and warm. 

“Wow, it’s even more beautiful on the inside,” Katrine murmured, craning her head this way and that the moment they entered.

“Yeah, they always do a bang-up job with the decorating,” he said, continuing to look at Katrine’s face with her rosy cheeks and wide eyes.

“What, you’re telling me that you didn’t do all this?” she kidded, fake shock on her face.

“I cannot take any credit for the beauty you see around you. Didn’t even hold a ladder.”

Katrine let out a gasp of mock offense. “What!? You bum.”

“That’s me. A real bum, alright. I just helped decorate our own place and cut down our tree like a real cowboy.”

“I knew it,” she said, grinning from ear to ear and squeezing his arm. And that was about all the conversation they got to have on their own before Remy pointed to a large, wrapped present sitting at the center of the tree. 

“Mommy, that one has my name on it!”

“Oh honey, no, it doesn’t. That’s probably—Oh. Oh, it does!”

James looked over to where the kid was excitedly pointing, and sure enough, there was indeed a box sitting there in shining, holographic wrapping paper with a giant nametag on it. Which read For: Remy exactly. 

He should have known.

“James, you told me not to bring a present! I don’t have anything in return.”

He appreciated Katrine’s sense of politeness, he really did, but he didn’t like the panic beneath it. “Sometimes, it’s okay to accept kindness without having anything to give back. Besides, you brought that big, full basket for your nice-off.”

Katrine huffed and opened her mouth as if she was going to object, before it snapped shut again without a single word uttered. Remy, however, couldn’t be more thrilled.

“Can I open it? Can I? Can I?”

Before she could answer, Ma Miller, Mom, and Sophia all came out of the dining room, smiling and laughing with eggnog in their hands. 

“There you are!” Mom said, coming over and kissing James’s cheek. “We were worried you were going to wear a hole in the porch.”

“It’s good to see you, dear,” Ma Miller said, her expression absolutely delighted. “Did you like your basket?”

“I did!” Katrine answered brightly. “And I brought you one as well.”

“Oh?”

James took that as his cue to hand it over to Ma Miller, and she took it gleefully. “Goodness, would you look at all this? How incredibly thoughtful! I was needing to resupply my canning equipment.”

“Glad to be of service,” Katrine said, also very evidently pleased as punch. 

“That’s my present in there. Can I open it?” And that was Remy, who had just about all the patience one could reasonably expect a five-year-old to have. Really, it was impressive that he’d lasted as long as he did with such an impressive box just a few feet away. 

“Of course you can, my dear! A little birdie told me that there was something you very much wanted, but you were too scared to ask Santa for. Well, I just couldn’t have that, so I called my friend up in the North Pole and had her have a chat with the old man himself.”

Katrine’s eyes went wide at that. “What?”

“I didn’t wanna look greedy,” Remy said. “You said Christmas isn’t supposed to be about wanting stuff. It’s supposed to be about Jesus and being together.”

Goodness, if James’s heart was capable of melting, it would have right then and there.

Katrine bent down to pull her son into a hug. “Sweetie, it’s okay to ask for some bigger things for Christmas. That’s not being greedy. As long as you don’t throw a fit when you don’t get it, that’s what matters.”

“O-okay. I think I get it.”

“It’s okay if you don’t. We can talk about it more later. For now, go open your gift.”

“Okay, Mommy!”

At that he raced off, covering the space quite quickly for his short little legs. After a flurry of frantic tearing and excited squeals, Remy managed to unwrap a box bigger than he was. And there, on the side of it, was a picture of two kids riding in a bright green miniature jeep, the kind that was for kids to drive around in like they were in a real car.

“Mommy! Mommy! This is what I wanted! Santa got me it! He did, he did!”

“Oh, my goodness, he really did ma petit chou! You have worked very hard this year and he must have heard!”

Remy busied himself with running circles around the box, looking at every detail of the outside and reading what words he could, which was most of them. Meanwhile, Katrine looked like she was going to cry as she whispered to Ma Miller.

“How did you know?”

“He mentioned it offhandedly to Keiko when she was talking about her favorite Christmas present and how it had been her most expensive toy for a very long time. Poor boy was worried that he was bad for even wanting it.”

“I didn’t mean to make him feel guilty,” Katrine murmured, hands going to her cheeks. “I just didn’t want him to get swept up in the commercialization of it all. I wanted him to know that just being with him was a gift enough for me.”

“That’s very admirable, my dear,” Mom said, crossing over to give Katrine a sort of side hug. “We know you’re a good mother. He’s a wonderful boy, and we just wanted to do something special for him.”

“He’s clearly having an amazing Christmas now, both with family and gifts,” Sophia offered, sipping at her eggnog. “He’s going to remember this for years and how much his mommy loves him. Not everyone can say that.”

Katrine nodded, dabbing at her eyes. “You’re right. I just… wow, this is so much. I never expected any of this.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Ma Miller said, her voice so sweet, so understanding. “I know we can be a bit much, but we all feel as if we owe you.”

“Owe me?”

“Of course, Dani and James have told us so much about you. Like that you were a key part of his recovery and being able to function again. We’re so grateful that it’s hard not to go a bit over the top.”

“I didn’t do that much,” Katrine objected, because of course she did. She was just as humble as the Millers.

“You did,” James said, pouring all the sincerity he could into his voice. “You absolutely did.”

Katrine didn’t say anything back, her head upturned towards his and so much emotion in her eyes that it nearly stole James’s breath away. She was so beautiful, so sincere, that he felt like he could stand in the entryway forever, locked into her gaze. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Sophia who broke the haze of it all.

“So, uh, does someone wanna help me put the appetizers out?”

Chapter Eight

Katrine

Katrine wasn’t sure she’d ever seen so much food in her life. Between the dining room table that was piled high with covered main dishes, and the larger table out in the heated tent that was nearly completely obscured by all the appetizers and side dishes, it was a veritable smorgasbord. 

And it wasn’t like Katrine hadn’t been to her own fair share of shindigs. She’d been to plenty of hospital and doctor functions that were supposed to feed about a hundred people or so, and even those seemed to pale in comparison to the spread the Millers had out.

Then again, there were a whole lot of Millers and Co, as she heard one of them say. Bryant perhaps? It was hard to say since the clan seemed to like to name all of their children with the same consonant sound. And they were of all ages as well. She met Pa Miller, James’s mother and father, as well as Uncle Monty and Jeanette, then a cadre of Millers around her age. Ben, Benji, and Bryant, to name a few. After that, it got a bit hazy, as they were all tall, stunningly handsome, and very obviously head over heels in love with their partners. There also were two from New Mexico, who were much tanner than everybody else and bundled up way more. Clara and Charles, she thought? It was hard to say. Then there were the significant others like Sophia, Keiko, Missy, Nathan, Dani, really the list went on and on. It was basically a small town’s worth of people, and Katrine was both intimidated and impressed.

Remy, however, was absolutely loving it. Although Katrine said he’d have to open his toy once they were home, he was still having a blast running around with the kids until it was time for the meal. At first Katrine had been concerned that she would be separated from her son and he would be forced to sit at the kids’ table or something like that, but the Millers did nothing of the sort. Sure, there was a kids’ table if they wanted to sit at it. It was shorter and had smaller chairs, but that was about it. Naturally, Remy chose to sit next to Katrine for the first half hour so she could cut his food and they could spend their meal side by side. No one complained around them or gave her the side-eye, and some even had a good conversation with him, making him feel plenty included. 

But of course it didn’t take him nearly as long to eat his food as it did the adults, so after a little over half an hour, he asked to be excused to go play. Katrine let him, allowing her to focus on James.

It could have been her imagination, but she swore she caught him smiling dreamily at her. It was only for a split second, the expression disappearing off his face in an instant, but she was pretty sure of what she saw.

Huh.

She didn’t say anything about it, however, and instead answered his father’s question about how her work at the hospital was going. The conversation drifted naturally from there, with everyone participating and plenty of laughs all around.

It was nice. Really nice. Katrine would go so far as to say downright amazing. She liked to think that she had coped very well since her ex had abandoned her, but the truth was, she did wish she had a man around sometimes. Even with Gabi, Mark, and Remy, it was hard not to feel like something was missing. And although she’d never mentioned it out loud, she’d been a bit melancholy at the idea of spending Christmas with just her and her son. 

But now, sitting amongst so much joy and love, she felt so warm. So welcome. She’d never had a huge family, or been very close with her father, but she remembered watching old movies and sitcoms, longing for something like that.

Had she finally found it?

Maybe, but it wasn’t really hers, was it? It was borrowed. A temporary mercy from a man who knew what it was like to not have much. 

But even if it was temporary, a one-off in a year that was already hard enough, that didn’t mean she had to take it for granted. She could enjoy it and build cherished memories that would warm her in cold, future years.

“You alright?” James murmured after a few moments, leaning in so his lips were only a bit away from her ear. It was an innocent enough action, but it sent goosebumps out along her skin in a rippling wave. 

Goodness, did he have any idea of what he did to her? Probably not. But she wasn’t sure she wanted him to. She valued her growing friendship with him so much, and it would be an utter tragedy to mess that up. 

“I’m fine. Just enjoying all of this.”

“I’m glad you are,” he said, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he grinned. “I’m also glad that you’re here.”

“Me too. I really am.”

They shared another moment, and this time there was no Remy to interrupt it. Turkey, ham, and mashed potatoes forgotten, Katrine let herself get lost in his gaze for much longer than she should have. And if anyone thought anything about it, they didn’t say. 

The whole meal passed in a pleasant mishmash of tastes, sensations and great conversation. By the end of it, when she was full to bursting, she didn’t feel like a one-off stranger at all. No, she felt like part of the family. It was easy to let herself daydream, imagining what it would be like to have access to that full-time. 

What a life.

Not to scramble for help when she got the flu or too run down to function. No staying up all night by herself when Remy got sick or had nightmares about his father leaving and never turning back. She would have so many people to call on, to help her, or even just to hang out with because they enjoyed each other’s company. 

Wouldn’t that be nice?

And maybe it was silly, but Katrine really did genuinely enjoy giving gifts to people, especially on birthdays. After being broke, overtired, and stressed out of her skull in high school, she liked that she could spoil everyone who was close to her. The issue was that the only people close to her were Gabi, Mark, and Remy, which meant that she really only got to indulge in spoiling about three times a year. 

But if she was a part of the Touhey and Miller clans… goodness, there was a birthday at least once a month! And Remy would never be lonely either. Sure, he had Mark, and a few friends at school, but she could tell that he wished he had more.

“Thank you again for coming,” Ma Miller said as people began to get up from the table and excuse themselves to various places around the house or their own homes. Katrine couldn’t help but wonder what it was like for them to all live on the same property, or at least super close by. It sure seemed convenient. 

“Thank you for having me. And seriously, thank you for Remy’s gift. He’s gonna ride that thing into the ground.”

“Be sure to send plenty of pictures and videos! I’d love to see him cruising around.” Katrine knew her surprise must have shown across her features because Ma Miller let out a laugh. “Yes, I know what texting is, dear. I’m not a complete dinosaur.”

“Sorry. I’m just used to older folks being a little techno-illiterate.”

“Oh, I get that. But without my cellphone, I wouldn’t be able to get all the pictures and videos of my grandchildren.”

Katrine couldn’t help it; she had to laugh at the earnestness of Ma Miller’s response, especially when she whipped out her phone and started sliding through pictures. 

“She has the highest level of cloud storage possible, and she still has to download them onto a personal drive,” Ben said, leaning across the table conspiratorially. 

“I will not apologize for cherishing my beloved grandkids.”

“Nor should you,” Katrine agreed dutifully. “You don’t even want to know how much data I’ve taken up with pics of Remy.”

“I imagine! He’s as cute as a button, isn’t he?”

“An especially shiny button!” Katrine agreed happily. 

They probably would have kept right on going, as Ma Miller was opening another folder on her phone that was no doubt full of adorable pictures, but James yawned and stretched his arms.

“Hey, I know it’s a bit cold out, but you mentioned wanting to meet the goats. This isn’t our herd, but they’ve got a great one here if you’d want to go see them.”

The idea of some one-on-one time with James was enough for Katrine not to care about how chilly it was, and she nodded eagerly. 

“Sure, I’d be up for that.”

“Alright then.”

With polite goodbyes for now to everyone around, they bundled up and headed outside. While the ground wasn’t icy, it was somewhat sloshy, with plenty of snow sitting around. Katrine maybe got about ten steps away from the porch when her foot slipped in the mud. It wasn’t enough to fall, but it was enough for her to yelp in surprise and pinwheel her arms. 

James moved far faster than she thought he could, catching her by wrapping an arm around her waist. It steadied her easily, but once she was righted, she found herself nearly face-to-face with James.

Oh.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I’m f-fine,” she sputtered, her words barely more than a whisper. Yet again, she was enraptured by him, studying his face with a determined effort to burn it into her memory. 

Time dilated, stretching out impossibly long, but she wanted to soak up every single nano-second of it. The tension she felt between them built, coming to an impossible precipice, promising something. Something she didn’t know whether to be terrified by or embrace wholeheartedly. 

“I’d like to kiss you, Katrine. Is that okay with you?” James asked.

Katrine nodded, and he moved his lips closer and closer to hers. Her heart rate spiked and she closed her eyes in anticipation. Then suddenly, they were kissing. 

Goodness, Katrine had kissed a handful of people in her life, but none of it compared to pressing her lips to James’s. His strong arms wrapped around her, and she felt caught somewhere between total safety and a thrilling freefall into something she couldn’t name. 

But for the first time in a long while, she was excited to let herself tumble into whatever it was. She trusted James. That was probably crazy, but it was true. 

She just hoped he felt the same. 

Chapter Nine

James

James hadn’t kissed someone since he was nineteen. He fuzzily remembered being excited about it, and definitely wanting to do it again, but then the girl he’d been making out with had gone off to college and he’d gotten so caught up in ranch life that the opportunity hadn’t really presented itself again. And being in a coma and then the long road recovering from fatal level burns certainly hadn’t helped. 

But kissing Katrine was entirely worth the wait. It was probably too soon, he knew that, but he wasn’t about to push her away. No, that would be just about the last thing he wanted to do. Kissing Katrine was a revelation, filling him with fire and comfort, excitement and satisfaction, a rush of things that all combined together into a beautiful sort of rapture. 

He couldn’t say how long they stayed like that, lips moving against each other, but eventually they broke away, both of them breathless. It definitely made James feel pretty good that she was just as affected as him, as it would be pretty embarrassing if he was beside himself and she was unphased at their lip lock.

“Sorry,” he murmured, realizing just how fast everything was going. It was only their third time hanging out independent of the hospital.

“Sorry for what?” Katrine murmured, staring up at him through half-lids. “Giving me the best kiss of my life?”

…well then.

“Careful what you say, ma’am. You wouldn’t want to inflate a man’s ego.”

“What else am I supposed to do if that’s the truth?” she asked, a cheeky grin on her face.

Joy and pride bubbled in James’s chest and he pulled her into another soft, short kiss. It was much more chaste than the first, but that was perfectly alright. “I guess it would be wrong to lie.”

“Exactly! I’m just being a good, honest citizen.”

“I suppose I can’t fault you for that.”

James held her close, and she rested her head on his chest. It was so intimate, so comfortable, that he just wanted to hold her there forever. But eventually, she did start to shiver, and he realized maybe the outdoors on Christmas day wasn’t the best time to stay outside and have their romantic revelation.

…they were having a romantic moment, right? It wasn’t just something in James’s head, was it?

“What’s wrong?” Katrine asked softly, her hand coming up to cup his cheek. “I can see your thoughts racing.”

“I realize that I’m acting like a total cliche, but this… this kiss means something, right?”

Katrine didn’t answer for a moment, and James’s heart raced in his chest. But when she did answer, her voice was so soft, tentative even. “I would like it to. Would you?”

James smiled broadly, dipping down to kiss the top of her head. “It would be the best present I could ever ask for.”

Katrine let out one of those soft little giggles of hers, the one that always made his chest feel warm. “Then Merry Christmas, James, because I’d very much like to go out with you.”

“Well, it’s a plan then.” 

Hand in hand, the two of them walked to the porch. But as James opened the front door, he found something new in the entrance. 

“What’s the matter? Why did you stop?”

Katrine peeked around him only to see the brand-new mistletoe that had obviously been hurriedly hung up in their absence.

“Really, guys?” James called, although he wasn’t actually angry at all. 

“Well, tradition is tradition,” Katrine mused before stepping into the doorway and pressing her lips to his again. From deeper in the house, there was a chorus of positive sounds from the adults and “ewwws” from the younger kids, but James didn’t care at all. He kissed Katrine right back and was loathe to let her go.

He did manage to, however, not wanting to push his luck. But as his hands wrapped around her waist again, he couldn’t help but feel a novel sort of giddiness.

“Hey, Katrine.”

“Yes?”

“What are you doing for New Year’s?”

Epilogue

One year later

“Merry Christmas!”

James blinked as he entered Katrine’s apartment. She’d asked him to come over to help her with planning gifts for his family, only to be greeted with a giant box held up by his girlfriend and a smaller box held up by her son.

“Uh, unless I time traveled, it’s only December twentieth.”

Things had gone quickly after Katrine and James had started dating. Despite both of them being relatively cautious people, they fell head-over-hills in love. It started with dinners together once a week, then those dinners plus a weekend movie. Then it turned into seeing each other at least every other day whenever they could and splitting holidays between the Millers, the extended Touheys, and Gabi’s family. 

On top of that, Gabi and her son started hanging around more often. James couldn’t say for sure, but he was pretty sure there was something cooking between his elder brother and the vivacious child therapist. It was hard to say, however, because both of them were pretty squirrely, but he had hope. It would be nice if the eldest in his family had a significant other to grow with.

Because James certainly felt like he’d grown. He was much more confident in his looks and his value as a human. He didn’t feel like Katrine was pity-dating him. No, she was too smart for that. When she looked at him, he saw genuine love there. And if someone as incredible as Katrine could look at him like that, well, he couldn’t be worthless, could he?

“While it may be the twentieth, we wanted to have our own little Christmas with you.” Katrine’s grin faltered ever so slightly. “That’s not selfish, is it?”

“What? No, not at all!” James swept forward and pulled her into a hug, peppering kisses all over her face. She laughed, as she usually did when he was sappy, but Remy let out an indignant sound.

“Where’s my Christmas hug?”

“It’s coming, little man,” James said.

Letting go of Katrine, James bent down and swept Remy up in a spinning hug. He shouted, as he was often wont to do, which ended in laughter that sounded a lot like his mother’s. 

In their nearly year of dating, James had never met Remy’s bio father, and as far as he could tell, the only thing Remy really inherited from the man was his hair color and his jaw. Other than that, he was nearly a clone of Katrine. Bright, witty, and so open with his emotions.

“Thanks, Uncle James!”

“No problem.” Setting him down, James’s attention returned to the presents, curiosity bubbling up. “So those are for me, huh?”

“Yup! Let’s go to the living room and open them.”

James nodded, following them along until they were all settled. It was a nice place but quite small, barely the size of the first floor of the ranch house he shared with his parents. 

“Mine first,” Katrine said, shoving her larger box towards him. James opened it, taking his time with the paper and enjoying how much Katrine and Remy were sizzling in their own anticipation. Maybe it was cruel, but it was their fault for being so adorable. 

But eventually he got it open and was confronted with… a piece of paper?

“What’s this?” he asked, picking it up and looking at it. “It looks like… an apartment layout?”

Katrine didn’t answer, and instead, Remy pushed his box forward. Beginning to sense that something very important was happening, James picked up the pace on opening that one. And there, nestled inside of it, was a set of two silver keys.

“This was our place with my ex, and I think Remy and I are finally ready to move on. We’ve picked out an apartment that’s about fifteen minutes closer to your land, and, well, we want you to have a key so you can stop by whenever you need. And so that we feel safe and protected.”

James stared at it a long moment, full of emotions.

“I’m not asking you to move in or anything, I know we both feel pretty traditionally about that, but I want you to be able to pop by whenever you need. And I know I can trust you if there’s ever a situation where I need your help, whether it’s taking care of Remy or what have you.”

James could feel his eyes prickling with unshed tears, but he couldn’t help it. He was just so happy.

“Last year, I thought you gave me the best gift I’d ever gotten. But this Christmas?” He took a deep breath, hoping they could feel every ounce of love he had for them. “You definitely topped it.”

“Yay!” Remy exclaimed, launching himself forward into a hug. So naturally James embraced them both, pulling them as close as he could. Holding them filled him with even more contentment and gratitude than usual, joy rooted so firmly in his heart that he knew no one could ever take it from him. 

“Merry Christmas,” Katrine murmured, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Merry Christmas,” he answered, kissing her right back. “And here’s to many more.”

“Together?”

“Together.”

Katrine let out a happy hum. “Sounds very merry indeed.”

The End

I hope you enjoyed Christmas at Miller Ranch!

Take care,

Natalie Dean