An O'Brien Family Christmas by Sherryl Woods

moment,” he conceded. “I should have known it would come back to bite me in the butt.” He gave her an earnest look. “You can stop worrying now, Suze. I’ve got the situation under control.”
    She looked vaguely disappointed, but she nodded. “Okay, then. I’ll leave you to it.” She grinned. “But I will be watching, little brother. Don’t mess this up.”
    “Not my intention,” he assured her, giving her a fierce hug. “Love you.”
    “Love you back,” she said, then turned to Laila. “You, too, by the way. I want you happy, that’s all.”
    “And I appreciate that,” Laila assured her.
    After Susie had gone, Laila turned to Matthew. “We are on track, aren’t we?”
    “We are,” he confirmed. “And getting more on track every minute.” He reached for her, settled his lips over hers and kissed her until she was weak-kneed and breathless. “What do you think?”
    She met his gaze, barely able to speak. “I can’t think at all at the moment.”
    He gave a nod of satisfaction. “Exactly what I was going for. You ready for our date?”
    She nodded. If she was any more ready, they’d never get out of this room.
     
     
    Matthew and Laila were just finishing their decadent dessert when he gazed into her eyes and announced casually, “I think we should talk about children.”
    Laila choked. “I beg your pardon? Whose children? Caitlyn and Carrie? Little Mick?”
    “Ours,” he said calmly.
    She swallowed hard. “I’m not following. Give me a minute to catch up.”
    Matthew waited patiently as she tried to process the abrupt introduction of the subject of the two of them having children. He’d figured it was time to get to the heart of the kind of future they were likely to share.
    Eventually, though, she shook her head as if to clear it. “Still not following,” she admitted.
    “We’ve never talked about kids before,” he explained. “Do you want them? How many? I think it’s an important thing for two people to discuss when they’re getting serious about each other.”
    “Don’t you think it’s more important to discuss if they’re getting serious about each other first?”
    “I figured that goes without saying.”
    She shook her head. “There you go again, making assumptions. I agreed with you earlier that we’re on track. We’re not pulling into the station. I’m not there yet, Matthew.” She gave him a chiding look. “Children? Really?”
    “I’d like to have several,” he said, pressing forward despite her obvious discomfort with the topic. He liked the blush he’d managed to bring to her cheeks. Keeping Laila off-kilter generally worked in his favor. She claimed to hate it, but he knew better. She thrived on the unpredictability of their relationship and the audaciousness of their conversations.
    “I’m thinking five,” he added. “I always envied the size of Uncle Mick’s family.”
    “Envied?” she asked skeptically. “I thought you were just daunted because they outnumbered you, Susie and Luke.”
    “Which is why I want my kids to have a lot of backup. Since we don’t know if Susie and Mack will wind up adopting—though my money’s on that happening—and who knows what Luke might do, then expanding my side of the family could be up to us. What do you think?”
    “I think you’re certifiably crazy,” she said.
    “So, five’s too many?”
    “I mean you’re crazy if you think I’m going to commit to anything like this now.”
    “It’s a discussion, not a commitment. I’m just interested in how you feel about having kids in general.”
    She didn’t look as if she believed him. “In general, I favor the idea of having kids,” she said cautiously.
    “How many? Two? Ten?”
    “Three or four,” she said eventually, picking numbers out of thin air just to end the subject.
    He nodded. “I suppose I could compromise at four,” he said agreeably. “See how good we are at this? Marriage is all about compromise, or so they tell me. Now