Christmas dawned sunny and pure white, and as Kelly opened her eyes and saw the icicles hanging from the eaves just beyond the windows behind their bed, she smiled even as she blinked sleep out of her eyes. It was a picture perfect Christmas morning--or it would be, if Amy and Alyssa were both home as well. But, they would be home soon and then it really would be Christmas. Probably the most perfect Christmas she could recall in a long time.
Tony's arm lay draped over her waist, his fingertips brushing her stomach, and he snored softly behind her. She snuggled closer, letting the heat from his body sink into hers. She was perfectly content to lay there, cozy against him. It was something she once daydreamed about, but those daydreams didn't even come close to what the reality of it was.
His fingers twitched in his sleep, tightening against her. Then his arm tightened. And his snores became a soft sigh as he tugged her against his chest. She smiled into her pillow, watching as the diamonds in her engagement and wedding rings sparkled like those icicles in the sunlight. He had excellent taste in jewelry, which was a good thing, since he'd picked both out on his own. And although they had only been together a short time, he nailed her tastes beautifully. Simple. Elegant. Perfect.
"I am a lucky woman," she murmured, threading her fingers through his and smiling as his hand tightened about hers.
"Why this time?" Tony whispered, making her jump as he brushed his lips against her shoulder.
"Because I'm right where I want to be, with the man I want to be with," she replied, turning to look at him over one shoulder. "And I didn't know you were awake."
"I wasn't, until you pressed up against me." He pulled her a little closer still. "Actually, you woke part of me and it woke the rest of me."
"Oh, sorry."
"Don't be. There are worse ways to wake up, trust me." He eased his hand beneath her camisole to brush her stomach. "How're you feeling this morning?"
"I haven't felt queasy in a few days. I think it's finally tapering off."
"Good." He kissed her shoulder once more. "Merry Christmas, Kelly."
She carefully rolled to face him, sliding an arm about his waist. "Merry Christmas, Tony."
His eyes were still heavy-lidded with sleep and his hair poked up at odd angles, but he smiled as he said, "I'm amazed no one else is awake yet. I thought for sure Shane would be up with the sun. What time is it?" He lifted his head to peer at the clock on her nightstand. "Eight-thirty. Maybe we should go check on--"
"Mom? Tony?" Shane's voice floated through the door, slowly rising with excitement. "Santa came!"
"You can come in, honey," Kelly told him.
The door opened and both Shane and Deirdre stood on the opposite side, smiling sleepily, "Merry Christmas, Kelly! Merry Christmas, Daddy!"
"Merry Christmas, guys," Tony said with a grin. "Did you just get up?"
"Merry Christmas, Dee," Kelly said as she and Tony both sat up. She waved them over the threshold. "Come in. It's okay, really."
"We've been up for a while, haven't we, Shay?" Deirdre carried in a tray bearing two plates with pancakes and bacon on them, two cups of coffee, half and half, sugar, syrup, and silverware. "We thought for once, we'd make you guys breakfast."
"And the paper was already here, so..." Shane came around to Kelly's side. "Can I come up?"
"Sure." Kelly patted the bed beside her. "There's room for both of you, and from the looks of it, plenty of breakfast as well. Have either of you eaten yet?"
Deirdre shook her head as she eased onto the bed near Tony's feet. "I got Shane a PopTart because he couldn't reach, but all I've had is coffee."
Tony gestured to a pancake. "Help yourself, honey."
"Alyssa texted us Merry Christmas," Shane said, snaking a bacon strip from Kelly's plate. "Are she and Amy coming home today?"
"I certainly hope so," Tony said, lifting his coffee cup. "Dr. Gregory said they should. I'll finish this and give Amy a call to see what's going on and whether or not we're doing Christmas in their hospital room or here later on."
Shane's face fell. "We have to wait to open presents?"
Kelly ruffled his hair. "I guess we can let you open one for now. But the rest wait until we're all together." She glanced over at Tony. "And I think your dad and Rebecca are coming over as well."
"Really?" Shane's forehead furrowed. "Why?"
"Because he's your dad and he wants to spend part of Christmas with you and your sister?"
"And you aren't mad about that?" Shane directed this at Tony.
Kelly held her breath for a moment, exhaling softly when Tony shook his head. "No. I'm not mad about it at all. Your dad and I had an interesting conversation last night.
"Wow, it's a Christmas miracle," Kelly chuckled. "So you both let the testosterone levels remain steady?"
"What's testosterone?" Shane asked.
Tony ruffled his hair. "It's the hormone that will make your voice deeper and hair grow on you in weird places."
"Weird places? Like on my butt?"
Tony grinned. "Close, but not quite."
"Oh," Shane's eyes lit up, "you mean like I'll grow a mustache!"
"Not for a while," Kelly told him, spearing a piece of pancake on her fork and holding out to him, "but eventually."
"Tony, can you grow a mustache?"
Deirdre snorted. "He's Italian, Shay. He can grow one just by thinking about it." She smiled at Tony. "Right, Daddy?"
"Not exactly, but it doesn't take much, no."
Kelly gazed up at him. Sure enough, the telltale scruff that would soon be a beard shadowed his jaw. It wasn't entirely dark, but had a liberal sprinkling of white poking through, and she wondered how he'd look with facial hair. It was something she couldn't quite picture, as she'd only ever seen him clean-shaven. "Have you ever grown one?"
He nodded. "When I was about eighteen, I did. And again, when I was about twenty-five because I was tired of being carded. But not since then."
"I can't picture it."
"Well, now I'll just look old."
"Like Gandalf?" Shane asked.
Tony chuckled. "Not that old, Shane."
"Santa?"
Deirdre snickered at that. "Probably."
"Quiet, you."
Kelly leaned against Tony, tucking her head against his shoulder. "I bet you looked all kinds of dreamy."
Deirdre nudged Shane. "Your mom's weird, Shay."
"I know. Lyssa says its pregnancy hormones." Shane handed Kelly back her fork. "Is that like testosterone?"
"Kind of, only in girls it's something different."
Tony kissed the top of her head and then untangled from her to slide to the edge of the bed and stand. He padded over to the dressed to tug out a pair of black sweatpants and tugged them on. "Okay, you guys finish breakfast while I go down and give your sister a call and find out where we're doing Christmas."
"Okay." Kelly smiled at Shane and Deirdre. "Why am I weird? Your dad's a good-looking guy and he probably looked good with a mustache as well."
"I think there's a picture or two of him with it," Deirdre said. "But I think you'll change your mind."
Tony paused in the doorway. "I looked like Mario from MarioKart."
Kelly bit back a chuckle. "Really?"
He nodded. "Yep. Short and dark, with bushy dark hair and a bushy dark mustache."
Shane grinned. "Cool."
"Not really," Deirdre corrected him, shaking her head. "But Kelly will no doubt swoon."
Kelly grinned. "Probably." He might think he looked like Mario, but she had the feeling Tony Marino made the sexiest Mario ever. Maybe it was just pregnancy hormones, but every time she so much as looked at him, all she could think about was jumping on him, tugging off his clothes, and having her way with him.
He winked at her and for a moment, she wondered if he could read her mind. But then he was gone and she sighed softly as she speared another pancake bite. "So, you said Santa came?"
Shane nodded. "I've never seen so much stuff under a tree, Mom. He went nuts this year. I think he even left something for the baby, which is weird because the baby won't be here until, like, summer."
Without thinking, Kelly curved her hand against the small bump. "Santa just wants to make sure the baby knows he--or she--is part of the family, too."
Deirdre chewed thoughtfully on a bite of bacon, holding the rest of the strip in her hand. "Have you and Daddy talked about names?"
She shook her head. "Not really. I think neither one of us wanted to jinx anything."
"Well, if it's a boy, what would you like to name him?"
Kelly dipped her pancake into a small puddle of syrup. "I like the idea of naming him Anthony Constantine Marino, Junior."
"Like me?" Shane asked.
"Your dad's name is Dan, though."
Kelly shook her head. "Actually, Shane is named for his father. They're both Shannon Daniel. His dad never liked Shannon, so he always used Dan, and we just started calling Shane, Shane when he was a baby."
Deirdre nodded. "Oh, okay. I didn't know that." She took another bite of bacon. "Do you think Daddy will go for that?"
"I don't know. I haven't asked him." Kelly shrugged. "What do you think?"
"I don't know. Mom said that when they found out they were having Amy, he was dead set against naming her after him if she'd been a boy. I think he said her name would've been Aaron Michael instead of Amy Michelle."
"What about you, Dee?" Shane asked.
"I would have been David Anthony. Instead, I became Deirdre Antoinette."
"That's so pretty," Shane said, leaning against her.
"It's okay, I guess. They always had a hard time finding personalized things for me, though."
Kelly smiled. "We did for Alyssa for a long time."
"Mom, what if she'd been a boy?"
"She would have been Shannon Daniel and you would have been someone else. See, Daddy and I knew you were going to be a boy, and since we already had your sister, we knew what we were naming you."
Shane scowled. "Man. No good story for me."
The bedroom door swung open and Tony was smiling as he came in. "Dr. Gregory's discharged them. I'm just going to go pick them up, so Dee, if you and Shane would, go make a little more breakfast for them, okay?"
Deirdre and Shane were both all smiles as they slid down from the bed. "Yay!" Shane exclaimed, practically skipping out of the room. "We don't have to wait for Christmas!"
Deirdre nudged him playfully. "That's the Christmas spirit, Shay."
Tony sighed as he pushed the door by. "What were you three chatting about?"
"They wanted to know what we were thinking about naming the baby." Kelly set the tray back so she could slip out from beneath it and get up. "If it's a boy, I'd like to name him Anthony Constantine."
To her surprise, Tony shook his head. "No. I don't want to do that to him, Kell. He should have his own name."
"It is his own name. We can call him Con, like your dad."
Tony padded into the bathroom and the shower door whooshed open. "You know what I mean. I never wanted to name a son after me. I'm only responsible for half of him."
"You want to name him Anthony Kelly?"
"No. No, that's not what I meant. I mean, it's about pride and I get that," Tony came back out of the bathroom and stripped off his sweatpants. "But he'd be as much your son as mine. And I think he should have his own name. He'll be his own person, not an extension of us."
"So, what would you want to name him, then?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't given it much thought. I don't want to jinx anything."
She walked over to him and eased her arms about his waist. "Tony, I think it's okay to talk about it."
With a soft sigh, he draped his arms about her neck, his fingertips brushing her shoulders. "I like the name Adam. I like the name Julian. I like the name Eli."
"Like in Manning?" She let her fingertips brush against the small of his back. "You want to name our son for the Giants quarterback?"
"His name is Elisha."
"Right. Elisha Marino?" She couldn't keep her nose from wrinkling. "Elisha Anthony? Elisha Constantine?"
"Eli. Not Elisha." Tony's eyes closed and a low sigh rose to his lips. He tightened his arms about her, pulling her closer until she pressed up against his chest.
"How about Mario?" she whispered.
He snorted. "Mario Marino? Do you want him to get his ass kicked on a regular basis?"
"Luigi, then."
"I don't think so." He opened his eyes and smiled down at her. "What about girls' names?"
"He's a boy, Tony."
"That remains to be seen, so give me a girl's name." He bent to brush her lips with his. "Renee, maybe? After her mother?"
"Renee what? We can't use Antoinette for her father, since that's Dee's middle name."
He pulled back. "What was your mother's name?"
"My mother? Her name was Judy. Well, Judith, actually."
"Renee Judith Marino?"
Kelly smiled. "It's not bad. But we need a boy's name or else I'm naming him after you and there's nothing you can do about it, because I get the final say."
Steam billowed out from the bathroom and Tony shook his head. "Fine. If we can't find anything else, we can name him Anthony Constantine, but I'm going to throw out every damn name I can think of first."
"Tony, why are you so against just naming him after you?"
"Because, he's not a mini-me." Tony pulled back and turned to go into the bathroom, where he stripped off his boxer briefs and tugged open the shower door. "Now, why don't you lock that door and help me scrub my back? Let's start Christmas off the right way, shall we?"
She sighed, shaking her head. Somehow, it just never occurred to her that he'd be against naming his son Anthony, Junior. When she was pregnant with Alyssa, and she and Dan discussed boys' names, he couldn't spit his name out quickly enough.
But not Tony. She shouldn't be surprised, since that was just how he was with everything else--everything came before him--but at the same time, she was absolutely surprised.
Then again, she knew of one way to possibly get him to agree and before she lost that opportunity, she locked the door and hastily peeled off her own clothes to join him in the warm shower.