Die In California

42

Devyn's POV:

Boxing Day was spent down in Cleveland with the EST family, Pops, Andrea and Cole joining us too. Pops had driven us down with Cole, JP and I squashed together in the backseat of his truck, Luna and Chapo across our laps just to add to that comfort. It's safe to say there was quite a bit of arguing throughout the drive, elbows being jabbed into ribs, claws digging into our skin through our jeans, and beginning to lose all feeling in our legs. 

But finding an over-excited Kells waiting for us on the driveway of our Cleveland home was totally worth the painstaking drive down. He was standing waiting for us in Christmas patterned shorts, and a non-matching Christmas patterned button-down shirt (there was no point in the buttons on his shirts though, since they were never done up anyway). There was absolutely no coordination with his outfit, but that was nothing new with him.

I don't know who he was most excited to see though - me, JP, Pops or Chapo. But either way, he nearly passed out from excitement and rushing around between us, trying to get his fill of hugs in before the others came wandering over. We all smothered the blonde giant in hugs and kisses, bringing a child-like grin to his face as he grabbed JP and I's hands to drag us inside, nearly yanking our arms out of their sockets in the process.

It took about half an hour to greet the boys and each of their families, followed by introducing Luna to the crew, and then an additional half hour to get us all sat down around the mismatched tables for dinner. We'd gotten them from the shed in the garden, and the neighbour's who had gone away for the holidays. We had one big table, with two other little tabled joined on - one of which was a square, the other a circle.

Our dinner consisted of a fry-up of a mixture of everyone's Christmas dinner leftovers. We all dug straight into Slim and Dub's moms' cooking, since they'd used a home recipe for dinner instead of the traditional shit that the rest of us had done. We'd brought a selection of leftover turkey, stuffing, and Andrea's speciality roasted potatoes, along with a two batches of brownies I'd made that very morning, half asleep with a lingering limp in my step. Thanks for that one, JP. 

Sitting down together was definitely eventful (as expected), with us all fighting over dishes of food (mostly Slim's and Baze's), and laughing and joking together, sharing stories from the tour and the holidays. It seemed that Kells got dragged into some wholesome Christmassy activities by Case that he definitely didn't want to take part in, but the huge beam on Casie's face said it was all worth it in the end. And the little upturn to the corners of Kells' lips said that deep down, he really did enjoy himself. After all, he was a toddler trapped in a lanky 26-year-old man's body.

"Devy, can I have a brownie please?" Casie asked as she grabbed my tattooed hand between her tiny ones, beginning to lightly swing my arm to grab my attention.
"Of course you can, my dear." I lightly chuckled as I ran a hand gently around the side of her face, tracing the soft curve of her cheeks. "Get one from this box, though. The others are for daddy later." I laughed, showing her which ones were safe for her to eat.

"What's for me after?" JP's low, gravelly voice was suddenly in my ear, an arm having wrapped around my waist as he pushed his front up against my back, taking me by surprise. Casie laughed at the little squeak that escaped me, before running off with her brownie to condemn Baze's mum to being shown Casie's new toys, in detail. Thankfully it seemed she hadn't heard her uncle.

"Fuck off." I laughed as I turned in JP's hold to back-hand his chest, before sinking against him as I rested a hand on his chest, the other around his neck. "Are we not gonna talk about last night, then? Are we gonna ignore that you called me 'daddy'?" His bluntness caused a burn to ignite on my cheeks, pink flushing my face.