Chapter Forty Five - Living Together
Milo's P.O.V -
The flight back seemed to be a lot faster than the flight there. Soon enough Lucy was picked up by her mum while I waited for Leslie.
I sat in a chair looking around for her but stopped when I spotted a familiar face. Why was Lincoln's dad here? Lincoln wouldn't be landing for another hour.
His eyes landed on me and he walked over to me.
"Hi." I smiled in greeting.
"Hello." He stared at me expectantly. "Well aren't you going to stand up?"
"I just thought you'd sit down because Lincoln won't be here for a while." I spoke confused but stood up anyway.
"What?" He frowned. "I'm not here to pick up Lincoln."
"You're not?" I stabilized myself on the crutches.
"Didn't you mum tell you that you're staying with us?" He asked me.
I laughed lightly. My mum must've wanted it to be a surprise, she probably should've let Lincoln's dad in on the plan.
"I think my mum wanted to surprise me." I grinned at the realization.
I would be staying with Lincoln. He was going to be so happy. I couldn't wait to see his reaction.
"Lincoln doesn't know yet." I told him.
He chuckled. "He'll be happy when he finds out."
I nodded in agreement. Nothing else was said as Lincoln's dad took my suitcase and we made our way out of the airport and to his car.
"So you have a dog?" Lincoln's dad asked as we began to drive.
"Yeah." I said. "I hope you don't mind him staying with you."
"If he is well trained then I don't care." He muttered staring straight ahead.
"He is, for the most part." I told him.
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow.
"He isn't very fond of werewolves." I explained.
He laughed at this. "Not a lot of dogs are, they can sense our wolves. It's most likely a territorial thing."
"Yeah." I nodded.
We were silent for the rest of the drive apart from me giving him the directions to the kennel.
"Buddy." I grinned at him as the woman walked into the reception with him.
He would've ran into me if it wasn't for the woman having a tight hold on his leash.
She passed me his leash, Buddy seemed to have acknowledged my broken leg and walked slowly beside me as we made our way to the car. I opened the back door letting him jump up onto the seat before putting my crutches on the floor. I hopped to the passenger door and climbed inside.
"Ready?" Lincoln's dad asked and I nodded.
Buddy's head snapped up at the unfamiliar voice and he growled lowly at Lincoln's dad but didn't do anything else.
Lincoln's dad smiled in amusement as he started the car and drove to my house. It didn't take long for me to empty my suitcase of dirty clothes and refill it with more clothes. I filled a bag with buddy's food and toys and then grabbed my backpack to put in my laptop and charger along with a few other essentials.
"Have you got everything?" Lincoln's dad asked me picking up my suitcase.
"I think so." I mumbled looking around.
"Lincoln can always bring you back to get more stuff later." He said.
"Yeah, okay let's go." I grabbed my keys before following him out.
He put my stuff in trunk of the car before driving to his house. Once we got there he offered to carry my stuff up to Lincoln's room and I thanked him.
I grabbed Buddy's leash and walked in after him. I let Buddy sniff around on his own to get used to the house while I sat down on the couch.
"Milo!" A voice exclaimed.
I looked over to see Victoria walking over quickly before falling into the seat beside me.
"How was Italy?" She smiled at me.
"It was good, it was nice seeing my family again." I forced a smile.
"I heard you're staying with us for a bit." The smile got even larger.
"Yeah I am." I nodded. "I didn't know until your dad picked me up from the airport."
"That's exciting." She paused when she heard buddy's footsteps in the room.
She frowned and looked around the room quickly, she seemed to think that the noise was a threat. Her eyes landed on Buddy and her face lit up even more.
"Is this your dog?" She squealed running over to him.
"His name's buddy." I watched as Buddy reacted warmly to Victoria, he didn't growl like he had with Lincoln and his dad. Maybe he liked females more than males.
She rubbed his belly cooing at him and his tail wagged hitting against the ground loudly.
The door opened and Lincoln, Wyatt and Wyatt's dad stepped in. Lincoln immediately spotted me and a smile spread across his face.
"Hey Milo." He walked over to me. "I thought you'd still be with your Mum's friend."
"Actually-" Lincoln cut me off.
"Why is your dog here?" Lincoln looked at Buddy confused.
"I'm not staying with my mum's friend, I'm staying here." I told him.
He stared at me confused for a moment before a smile spread across his face. "Really?"
He sat down on the couch beside me.
"Yeah." I nodded quickly.
He pulled me into a hug. "That's so great."
I smiled although I felt quite nervous. Living with Lincoln seemed like a big leap in our relationship and I was worried we wouldn't get along once we began to live so closely. Living with someone was very different to seeing them everyday. Maybe he'd get bored of me after a while.
"Let's go up to my room, and get you settled in." Lincoln offered standing up.
I nodded and he helped me up. Buddy watched me, he followed after us as we made our way up the stairs.
Once we got to Lincoln's room I stood around awkwardly, sure I had been here before but it felt different now that I knew I would be staying here.
"What wrong?" Lincoln turned to me confused, I was still stood in the doorway.
"Oh, nothing." I said before remembering what Lucy had said about how I should be more open with Lincoln. "I'm just a bit nervous that's all."
Lincoln smiled. "Me too."
I felt some of my nerves disappear knowing he felt the same way I did. Maybe opening up to him was a good idea after all.
"Big step, living together." I let out a breathy laugh making my way into the room and sat down on the bed.
"Yeah." Lincoln nodded sitting beside me. "You don't mind living here with me do you?"
"No." I shook my head. "It'll be great."
Lincoln smiled tilting my head towards his, as his lips met mine.
***
Someone knocked on the door loudly, Lincoln groaned pulling away from me.
"What?" He yelled to whoever it was.
"Come downstairs, we're drawing names for secret Santa." Cora spoke loudly.
"We can do that later, leave us alone." Lincoln grumbled but sat up anyway.
"It's tradition we do it now, come on Lincoln. We're all gathered and we'll let Milo join." Cora continued to knock on the door.
"We're busy." Lincoln replied.
"Well stop what you're doing, put some clothes on and get downstairs." She said before seemingly walking away.
I laughed sitting up. "Can you pass my suitcase?"
Lincoln sighed but grabbed it for me anyway. He got up from the bed and walking over to his wardrobe. I quietly admired his naked form before getting dressed.
"Isn't it a bit late notice to do secret Santa? Christmas is in four days." I asked Lincoln as we finally left his room.
"That's the point, it's supposed to make it harder. More chaotic." Lincoln explained. "It's tradition to draw names at seven pm on the 21st."
"When did this tradition start?" I spoke curiously.
"When Wyatt and I were twelve and Cora was fourteen." He told me.
We entered the living room to find Wyatt, Cora, Cole and Lucy. When did Lucy get here?
"I'm looking forward to this year, more people makes it better." Wyatt smiled at us as we walked in.
"Yeah remember when it was just the three of us and we always knew who each other had." Cora laughed.
"And we had to include our parents to make it interesting." Lincoln added as he sat down in an armchair pulling me into his lap.
I blushed but didn't protest.
"So now that you two are done having sex we can get started." Cora said folding pieces of paper and placing them in a baseball cap.
Wyatt turned to look at us with wide eyes. "Wait-"
I cut him off. "She's lying."
Wyatt nodded before looking back at Cora as she stood up.
"Let me explain the rules to the newbies." Cora glanced at Lucy and then at me. "You have a maximum spending limit of fifty dollars and a minimum of twenty dollars. You can not tell anyone who you have, not even your mate, this is to stop people from figuring out who has them and we don't want people get ideas from other people. The gift idea should be yours and yours alone."
"We get it." I told Cora as Lucy nodded.
"Tradition states we go youngest to oldest." Cora looked between Lucy and I. "Which of you is younger?"
"Me." Lucy spoke up.
Cora smiled at her and walked over with the hat, I could see now that her pregnant belly was beginning to show.
"Open it now to make sure you haven't got yourself." Cora told her.
Lucy picked up a piece of paper and shielded it from Wyatt as she unfolded it and read it before folding it again.
"I didn't get myself." Lucy told her.
Next it was my turn. I picked up the paper and unfolded, I had to turn away from Lincoln so he couldn't see.
Cole.
Cora then held out the hat to Lincoln which surprised me. I had assumed that Lincoln was older than Wyatt. Lincoln's face didn't change as he read the piece so I couldn't figure out who he had. It was then Wyatt's turn, then Cole's, then Cora's.
"To double check." Cora spoke to us all. "No one has got themselves right?"
Everyone shook their head.
"Also, if you have already got your secret Santa a gift you can't use that because you wouldn't have gotten it in the time frame." Cora explained.
Everyone nodded.
"Alright, you can all now start." Cora announced before pulling out her phone.
"Happy with your person?" I asked Lincoln.
"I can't answer that, it'll give you hints about who I have." Lincoln poked my cheek.
"Okay, best person you could have got and the worst." I suggested.
"Alright, best would be Wyatt because I know what I'm getting him for Christmas but I haven't brought it yet just in case I got him for secret Santa." Lincoln explained. "Worst would probably be Cole, no Lucy. Lucy because I've known her for the least amount of time and know her the least."
"Makes sense." I nodded.
"You're turn." He told me.
"Best would be Lucy, because I know her the most." I started. "Worst would be, Cora? No because I could just get Cora baby stuff. Wyatt would probably be the worst."
Lincoln chuckled. "So we're opposites then."
I smiled in amusement. "Together we'd be able to get everyone good presents."
"Teamwork." Lincoln nodded in agreement.
Lucy and Wyatt left to go to Wyatt's room so Lincoln and I headed to Lincoln's room.
He smirked at me as soon as we walked in. "So who did you get?"
I gawked at him. "That's against the rules of your sacred tradition."
He rolled his eyes. "Wyatt and I always used to tell each other who we had when we included our parents."
"Well I'm not telling." I replied.
"Come on." Lincoln whined. "Wyatt and Lucy have probably already told each other who they have."
"Of course they have, Lucy is awful at secrets." I laughed.
"So you're not going to tell me?" He pouted as he approached me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. "No." I pecked his lips.
"It's because you have me isn't it." Lincoln said.
"I will not say yes or no, because that will help you figure it out." I replied.
"Okay, so it's not me." Lincoln stared me in the eye. "Is it Lucy? No it's Cole. It's Cora!"
I started laughing at his guesses.
"Does laughing mean I'm wrong?" Lincoln asked. "It is me isn't it? Did you get yourself and not switch papers?"
I just continued to laugh.
"Just tell me!"