Lexie and Killian by Desiree Holt Page A

sign. Immediately, she came running to him.
    “Killian, you have to help me.” He hated the look of distress on her face but he knew it would be gone in a moment.
    “What’s the problem, sugar?”
    “I told the committee my painting was not for sale, and it’s got a Sold ticket on it.”
    “Sure does,” he agreed.
    “B-but I don’t want to sell it. It’s too personal to hang in some stranger’s home. I painted it because I wanted you to see how much I love you.”
    “My thoughts exactly.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. “That’s why I bought it myself. I wanted to be the buyer for your first sale, and I want that painting to hang in our bedroom.”
    A smile broke out like sunshine, and she threw herself at him.
    “Oh, Killian. I really, really, really love you.”
    “And I’ll never doubt it again. I love you as much, sugar.”
    When the evening wound down and they finally broke free, Anatole Rudman called a cab to take them back to the hotel. This time, they held hands and the silence was comfortable rather than strained.
    But Killian had one more thing to tell her, and he figured he’d better do it now while he had the courage. As soon as they were in their room, he turned her to face him.
    “I hope this won’t upset any apple carts,” he said, “but I don’t know if you noticed. Yesterday, when we made love, I forgot something.”
    She wrinkled her forehead. “You did? I can’t imagine what.”
    He pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, “A condom.”
    She froze in his arms for a moment. “Is-is that a bad thing for you?”
    “Hell, no. I want a baby with you more than anything. How about you?”
    “I think a little Walker would just be the frosting on the cake.”
    He swung her up in his arms. “Then let’s make sure we hit a bull’s-eye.”
     

Epilogue
     
    At approximately five in the evening on December twenty-fourth, the entire family arrived at Dusty’s house on Osprey Lake.
    Marliss opened the door for the group as they crowded together on the porch, giving hugs to the women, and manly pats on the back to the brothers. Hunter jumped up and down with excitement.
    “Oh, good.” Marliss grinned at them. “You’re all here together. Well, come on in and let’s get to celebrating.”
    Marliss and Lou had gone all-out in decorating the place. Flickering electric candles glowed in every window, pine greenery graced the mantel of the big flat stone fireplace, and garland wrapped in white lights ran along the railing of the walkway on the second floor.
    The tree was a massive white pine culled from a local grower, since no pine trees called Kansas their native home. Multicolored lights shimmered among the green needles, but no ornaments hung from the boughs.
    Theresa Walker had boxes of white bulbs that she’d always decorated the tree with, but after the brothers discussed it, they’d all agreed with Marliss that those could stay in the basement storage room this year.
    Killian and Lexie, Rogue and Kit, Jackson and Rori, and Dylan, Zoe and even little Hunter each brought a few ornaments to hang on the tree as the beginning of a new tradition for their extended families.
    They’d chosen to gather here on Christmas Eve so they could travel the next day to whichever other family holiday they wanted to attend.
    As the brothers hauled in wrapped packages by the dozens, a number of them looking suspiciously like bicycles in the perfect size for a five-year-old, the women congregated in the kitchen. Lou, running at full throttle in his Santa apron, had all four ovens going, one with a turkey, one held a beef roast, and the others emitted the amazing scents of side dishes.
    Wearing a red-and-black plaid dress, black leggings, and gold lamé shoes with tiny bells on them, Marliss shooed them out of the kitchen to the formal dining room, where hot plates bearing fancy appetizers sat on the sideboard, and a wide variety of cocktail options awaited them at the portable