Regardless, sleeping the entire day away seems like a waste, since I have so few free ones. I wiggle around in Ronan’s arm and he mutters something about being impatient and greedy and nuzzles into my neck.

His phone goes off again, and then again a minute later. Someone is clearly trying to get hold of him.

“Ronan, your phone keeps going off.”

“I’m not awake.” His raspy sleep voice does tingly things to my body, specifically in the area between my thighs.

“Then how come you’re talking to me?”

“I’m not. You’re dreaming.”

I laugh and he rubs up against me.

“I can go get your phone for you so you don’t have to leave this bed,” I offer.

“No.”

I try another tactic. “I need to use the bathroom, and when I come back I can help even out the lopsided orgasm tally from last night.”

He releases me from his hold, rolls onto his back, and throws the covers off, giving me a great view of how excited he is about that prospect. “We’ll be right here waiting for you.”

Muscles ache that I didn’t even know existed. And my tailbone is sore, probably from the counter sex. I use the bathroom first, then go in search of his phone. I find it on the edge of the kitchen counter; it looks as if we very nearly knocked it onto the floor last night. It starts ringing again on my way back to the bedroom.

“Six missed calls in the past twenty minutes. I think you should probably answer before we get sidetracked with extracurriculars.” I toss the phone on the bed beside him.

He eyes it like it’s a poisonous spider. He’s ridiculously appealing, lying in bed, hair sleep-messed, pillow lines on his cheek, body art on display. I want to spend some time exploring all the designs and learning what each one means. After morning sex. Or afternoon sex, as it were. I climb back into bed and snuggle into his warm body. He slips his arm under me and pulls me closer. His lips find my temple as he glances at his phone.

“Oh shit, it’s after one?” Ronan brings the device to his ear. “Hey, brother, I know I’m late. I’m sorry. It was a busy night and I slept in.” He’s silent for a few seconds. “I just woke up. Give me an hour and start without me if you need to, but save me a few of the cinnamon raisin ones, please. No, fuck off. And I’m bringing a friend.” He ends the call and tosses his phone on the nightstand.

“What’s going on?”

“We have to go to Gramps’s place in a bit.”

“We?”

“Yeah, you’re coming with. It’s a family tradition that we get together on New Year’s Day. I was supposed to be there at noon, but forgot to set my alarm. I’m not letting you out of my sight for the rest of the day. But first, orgasms.”

Half an hour later we have a very quick shower since our antics have put us even further behind. I’m forced to put my dress from last night back on. Not ideal, but then I didn’t expect to ring in the New Year in Ronan’s bed.

We have to Uber to the bar to get Ronan’s truck before we can do anything else. “We’ll stop at your place on the way so you don’t have to wear last night’s dress again.”

“That’d be great.” I slide into the passenger seat.

Since we’re already running late, later than before, I rush up and decide to forgo the dress today, and throw on a pair of jeans and a sweater. I don’t often wear jeans, but I do own a few cute pairs. I also pull my hair up into a ponytail. I’m mostly makeup free, but I give my lashes a quick swipe with the mascara brush and throw on a coat of lip gloss. I shrug into my winter coat and rush back down to Ronan, who’s busy scrolling through his phone.

I slide back into the passenger seat and buckle up. His eyes move over my legs and up my thighs. From mid-thigh up, they’re covered by my coat. “Is this okay? I don’t need to be more formal, do I?”

“No. You look great. Jeans are perfect.” He puts the truck into gear. “I’ve just never seen you in a pair before.”

His gaze lingers on my legs before he shifts his focus to the road.

“So who’s all going to be there?”

“My brothers, their significant others, and Lars may or may not come. Depends on what he got up to after the bar closed.” Lars had a lot of attention last night. And I’m pretty sure three girls took advantage of the mistletoe hanging over the bar, and that was only what I saw when I wasn’t too busy serving drinks. “Daniel is the oldest. He’s thirty-seven, and a big-time financial advisor. His wife, Celia, is a teacher.”

“Is she the pregnant one?”

Ronan nods. “Yup. And she’s kind of at that weird in-between stage where she just looks like she’s put on weight but there isn’t enough of a bump that you can be sure she’s pregnant, so she’s taken to wearing shirts that advertise the fact that she hasn’t eaten too many Christmas cookies, and my brother is ridiculous about it. So fucking proud that his sperm managed to hit the mark.”

I chuckle at that. “Aw, that’s kind of cute, though, isn’t it?”

“Kind of, I guess. Mostly it makes me want to gag. You’ll see what I mean.”

“I literally cannot imagine Maddy or Skylar having children. God forbid they don’t get a full night’s sleep or have to change a messy diaper.” I’d ask Ronan how he feels about kids, but I don’t feel like that’s a great conversation post first-sexy-times sleepover. “Okay, so Daniel is the oldest and he’s married to Celia, who’s a teacher and is pregnant. And your other brother, is he married, too?”

“Engaged, actually. Aiden and Leslie have been together for eight years, and living together for six, so the wedding is pretty much a formality. They were going to elope in Vegas, but she’s an only child and her mom would have been devastated if she didn’t have a real ceremony, so they decided a destination wedding was the best option.”

“Oh, that’s fun.”

“We’ll see. She’s also in finance, and so is half of her family, so most dinner conversations revolve around the state of the stock market when they’re all together.”

“That sounds…”

“Boring?”

“Normal?” I offer.

“Boringly normal. Anyway, with Celia there we’ll at least have some balance and I’m sure they’ll ask you all sorts of questions and try to get you to let them manage your financial portfolio.”