"Dude, she's like the size of a football."

"Charlie, I swear to god," Ethan growled.

His brother laughed, "Obviously I'm kidding. Well, I mean, she is the size of a football but it's not like I'm going to spike my niece in the endzone, Jesus Christ."

So far, introducing Charlie to Maddie had gone pretty much how Ethan expected. He had Facetimed with his brother and his dad and his grandparents—Dad was the only one who still had his parents, Mom's were long gone—so everyone could meet the baby. But otherwise, Ethan had kept his daughter to himself. It was just him and Maddie and Mom and Alan. And after a month, they were doing pretty well. So it was kind of exciting for Charlie to come for Christmas and be the first person outside their household to meet Maddie in real life.

Ethan didn't want to admit it, but Charlie's opinion was super important. They weren't close, as far as brothers went. They weren't best friends or anything. Ever since they both moved out for college, they didn't talk every day or whatever like some people do. They texted periodically. Charlie had excellent taste in memes and was constantly sending him tweets and TikToks to make him laugh. But growing up the way they did, they often only had each other, and that bonded them for life. There were plenty of things that they could really only share with each other. And whenever they did get to be in the same place together, it was like no time had passed. It was like Ethan was back to being fourteen and Charlie was seventeen and they were sitting unmoving on the couch watching old movies together all day. There was so much that Ethan didn't share with anyone, including Charlie, but Charlie was his big brother always. For Ethan, it felt like he'd been trying to impress his brother and earn his respect ever since he was born. They were very different people, so Ethan often didn't feel successful in that regard.

And because of that, the whole getting his girlfriend pregnant and then keeping the baby to raise by himself and moving in with Mom and Alan thing had made Ethan very nervous in the days leading up to Charlie coming for Christmas. He wanted Charlie to see that he was doing good and that Maddie was awesome. He wanted Charlie to approve.

But honestly, thank god it was Christmas. There was a lot to distract from all that. It was Maddie's first Christmas, and they were all going to make it really special. Mom had winter break off from Stanford, so she was going nuts decorating the house. And they didn't have snow to contend with so she really went off with lights and garland and whatever the hell. Inside the house was similarly decked out. More lights and tinsel and a giant tree with every ornament that Ethan and Charlie had ever made as children. And obviously they'd both gone through dinosaur phases, so there were kid's drawings of all the classic dinosaurs on the little laminated paper ornaments all over the tree.

Part of Ethan wished that Maddie was a little older and he could actually show her stuff. She mostly just slept and ate and cried. Sometimes she would stare at a person when they talked, and she was the most perfect thing ever, but she honestly was a lump a lot of the time. Or as Charlie said, she was a football. Ethan had to admit, if only to himself, that she kind of was.

Next year, though, she'd be bigger and probably walking and maybe even talking. And then they could really have fun. Ethan was going to tell her stories about all the ornaments. He was going to watch Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with her. And Elf and The Santa Clause and all the old movies he and Charlie had always loved like It's A Wonderful Life and Christmas in Connecticut.

And maybe next year Mom and Alan would be married and a little out of this weird honeymoon phase. Because Ethan really did like Alan and was really happy that he made Mom so happy and that they were so in love or whatever. But he was scarred from walking in on them that first night and was now extra sensitive to their physical affection. Mom had put mistletoe around the house, and it was cute when she kissed Ethan and Maddie on the cheek when they walked under it. It was less cute when Mom giggled and Alan dipped her low to kiss her. There was one time—granted, Ethan had come downstairs in his socks so they hadn't known he was around—that he was pretty sure they were making out with tongue. Like good for them and all but no one wants to see his mom like that, damn.

"So," Charlie said, interrupting Ethan's many thoughts. He leaned in, still holding Maddie in his arms on the sofa and asked softly, "What do you think about Alan?"

Ethan frowned. Mom was cooking and Alan was picking out some wine for them to have while they hung out before dinner. It made sense that Charlie would ask about this now. But they'd had this conversation before. "Alan's cool," Ethan replied. "We spent last Christmas with him, too, remember?"

"I mean yeah, but you've been living here for like a year, right?"

"Eight months," Ethan corrected.

"Whatever. But what's the deal with him?" Charlie pressed.

"There's not like drama, Charlie. I told you the weird shit from when I first got here, but it's been good since then."

Charlie grimaced. "Oh man, I forgot about that. I do not want to think about that, dude."

"Yeah I try not to," Ethan agreed. Honestly it was the stuff of nightmares. Their mother topless and sitting up on the kitchen counter with Alan's face in her tits. It made him shudder just to think about now.

"But anyway. Other than that. It's good?" Charlie asked, putting the conversation back on track.

Ethan smiled. "Yeah, it's good. Alan's smart and thoughtful. He gives good advice, but he takes his time with stuff."

Charlie nodded. "So he's like you."

A warm feeling bubbled in Ethan's chest. It was a much more direct compliment than Ethan had ever gotten from Charlie before. And whether Charlie knew it or not, being compared to Alan was a really huge compliment.

"Ethan!" Mom called from the kitchen, "I've got Maddie's bottle here if you want to feed her before we get too settled."

"Sure," Ethan replied. He stood up and went over to Charlie to take the baby back from him.

"Aw man, I was getting used to her," Charlie complained.

"You can hang out with her later," Ethan assured him. "But she's a lot less cute and fun when she's crying, so don't push it."

On the way to the kitchen, Ethan passed by Alan, who held up a bottle with a familiar label. "What do you think we open up this?"

Ethan raised his brow. "Are you sure? The Georges de Latour is a pretty nice bottle…"

"Charlie's here. It's Christmas. What better occasion to open a nice bottle of BV?" Alan reasoned.

"I'm not complaining," Ethan said with a laugh. Alan had been teaching him about wine for a couple months now, since it was his hobby and Ethan liked to learn stuff. And Ethan was officially over twenty-one, so that wasn't a barrier anymore. It was cool to share in this stuff with Alan, and Ethan had really gotten a taste for it. Charlie probably wouldn't care, but hopefully he'd appreciate that Alan was doing something nice.

Ethan took the bottle from the counter where Mom left it out. He thanked her, and they both started laughing as they heard Charlie in the other room say, "Hey, wassup Dinosaur Man?"

Even after a year of upheaval and drama and everything that turned Ethan's life upside down with trying to figure out how to be a single parent to a newborn baby, some things never changed. Charlie never changed. Dinosaur Man, though now more commonly known as Grandpa Alan, never changed. And as Ethan shared a smile with his mother, he knew they were both thinking that same thing.