It was a week before Christmas, and Justin pulled the SUV up the long drive to the Montana house. It hasn’t snowed for a few days, but the weather was cold enough to keep any snow from melting. 

“I feel like I’m in a Hallmark movie or something; a big city girl goes to the country and finds love and the true meaning of Christmas.”

“Well, you have all of that already, so enjoy it all. We’ll unpack, then I wanna get our tree cut and put up. That way it can really start feeling like Christmas. I’m sure it was hard for you to not want to decorate our place back home.”

“Can I play my favorite Christmas music?” she asked. 

“As long as there’s no teenage me singing, sure,” he laughed. 

“Hey, that album is a holiday CLASSIC!  The vocals on ‘O Holy Night’ are amazing…”

“You can thank JC for that, for most of our songs, really. I sometimes feel it should be him instead of me with all this success…”

“Babe, you deserve this, too.  Now, let’s get us a Christmas tree!”

Justin parked in the garage, it being below freezing and they were already going to be out in it to cut down the tree.  “I know it’s not super great for the environment, but I wanna have some real fires for your family when they’re here. There’s just something about the crackle of the fire, the pops, the smells, that you don’t get with an electric fireplace. Don’t get me wrong, we can have some magical nights together next to any fireplace, but I want the boys to have a more rounded Christmas memory.”

“Please don’t mention my nephews right after talking about how you want to fuck me…”

“Duly noted,” Justin laughed.  “Tree first, making love by the fire, second.”

They bundled up in jackets and scarves and beanies before heading out onto their property for a perfect Christmas tree. Justin grabbed an ax, ready to chop once they found the right tree. 

“I know we could just buy one, but this just feels like the right thing, and I get to feel all manly and shit chopping down a tree,” Justin laughed. 

“Whatever you wanna do, baby. I’m not gonna complain about my man being all manly, as long as you don’t hurt yourself.”

They found the perfect tree. Justin put on gloves before grabbing the ax to chop. 

“Hang on, let me get a picture of you taking your first chop,” Deana said. Justin put the ax against the trunk of the tree, Deana snapping pictures as he aimed the ax and swung to make the first cut. “Ok, let me get a slow mo shot. THAT would be great for your Instagram.”

He chopped away at the tree, until it finally fell. Being on the larger side, it wasn’t until he went to carry it that he realized its weight. “Well, shit.  

I mean, I can drag it, but it’ll take a bit.”

“You brought extra gloves, right?” Deana asked. “I can help take the other end. Teamwork, baby.”

“We can try, sure.” He handed her a pair of leather gloves. She found a perfect spot near the top of the tree to grab hold. “Ready? 1, 2, 3, lift.”

They lifted, Justin surprised at how well she was doing on her end.  “I’ve always been surprisingly strong, I used to get yelled at for trying to lift so much, then they saw how easily I lifted it, and were like ‘well, never mind’.” 

“I’m sorry I ever doubted you,” Justin said. They thankfully weren’t too deep into the property, that it took less than half an hour with a few rest breaks to get it inside the house and up to decorate. 

“I wasn’t ready for it to be this cold, coming almost straight from New Orleans.  I’m excited we’ll get more snow before Christmas, the boys are gonna love it.”

“You wanna help me put lights up outside? And by help, I mean spot me so I don’t fall…”

“I think I can handle that,” she smiled. “Though, can’t you just get somebody to do this for you?”

“I could, but where would be the fun in that?” he laughed. “It’s our first real holidays together, we only saw each other for short bits last year, cuz I was still trying to be Bruce.”

“Yeah, my sister would’ve blown your cover unless J told her to keep quiet.  I still can’t believe he knew then.”

“He’d known for a while, yeah. So I’m wanting to make this one special for us, especially having your family flying out.”

“I know they flew on your plane before, but I think it’ll be weird for them without us. And not everyone went, I think this is the first plane trip for the boys.”

“I’ll let the pilot know, grab some special stuff for them.  Is your brother in law coming?”

“No, and I’m ok with that. I’m not his biggest fan.”

“Anything in particular?”

“When the boys were younger, they lived with my parents. My parents would make dinner for the boys, do bedtime, while my sister and brother in law would just go out, not asking if Mom and Dad could watch the boys, just straight up walk out the door without so much as a goodbye.”

“I feel like something else is going on, but I don’t know what, I just feel like nothing is as perfect as it seems.”

“That’s usually how it is. Unfortunately, the whole world knows about Paul now, but then again it’s not like it’s some scandal waiting to be found out.  Otherwise, I feel like our relationship has been pretty perfect.”

“I want to agree, but I’m sure if we asked those that are closest to us, they’d find something.”

“But why ask? It’s like you’re trying to poke holes in this.”

“I guess I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I thought maybe it was Paul, but things are almost TOO perfect.”

“I have no intention of dropping a shoe, we know each other’s baggage.  Now that I’ve proposed, I have no secrets from you, hopefully you don’t have any from me.”

“None. I’m an open book, I have nothing to hide from you.  Come on, let’s go put up the lights so we can work on the tree next.”

They headed outside, bundling up again. Deana helped hold the ladder, watching to make sure he didn’t fall or hurt himself. She smiled to herself, certainly not minding the view, and also at how normal it felt, even if it wasn’t their regular home.  

They went inside as soon as they finished, warming up inside. Justin started a fire and Deana made a quick Christmas playlist, sans *NSYNC.  I’ll get the last laugh, she thought, putting an *NSYNC ornament on the tree. She hoped he wouldn’t notice since it wasn’t with his face facing out.  They both had ornaments that were special to them, along with others they had bought to decorate the tree. 

“Again, it’s like a Christmas card or something out of a movie. It’s perfect,” Deana sighed. 

“It’s just us, I say we recreate our first time at my place, or that night in Vancouver.”

“Ooh, good choices. I’m feeling like the music sets the mood too. I just have one question.”

“What baby?”

“Is it beautiful under your tree?” she laughed. 

Justin rolled his eyes.  “Why don’t you come over here and find out?”

…

They arrived at the airport to pick up Deana’s family, bringing their SUV and a rental to hold B everyone and their luggage. Hugs were exchanged as they got off the plane, loading the vehicles before heading to the cabin. 

They pulled up to the house from the long driveway, everyone getting out of the cars.  “Justin, this is a beautiful home, thank you for inviting us,” Deana’s mom said.

“It looks like a movie,” JJ said.

“Can we build a snowman?” Josiah asked. 

“Let’s get settled in first, boys,” their mother said. 

They showed everyone their rooms, the boys getting a room that has bunk beds and C a ton of toys. “Christmas came early…” Justin said with a smile and a shrug.

“These are really for us?” the boys asked.  Justin nodded. 

“Justin, this is too much,” Deana’s sister said. “We don’t have room…”

“We can keep it here, for whatever kids might be here. My goddaughters could play with a lot of this, too.  Feel free to take what you want and can take, the rest can stay here.”

“Thank you,” she replied softly. The boys were playing with the toys. “I misjudged you. I never said anything to Deana, but I believed the rumors about you. She’s old enough to make up her own mind, but it turns out she was right…”

“Thank you for looking past your preconceived notions. I’m sure she would have felt the same way if she’d known it was me the whole time. I have no regrets about how things worked out between Deana and me; it let her see the real me instead of this version of me she’d had in her head since she was 16.  I’m not that same person anymore, yet people treat me like I am.  I’m ready to settle down, and I want all of that with her.”

“Ok, we put our stuff down, can we go play in the snow now?” the boys begged.  Their mom sighed, giving a nod.  They raced down the hallway and out the front door.

…

It was Christmas morning, the boys were up early again in excitement.  “I’m glad they got their mom and grandparents up first…” Deana sighed.

“I’m glad we could hear them before anything else,” Justin joked.  “Gave us enough time to get actual pajamas on.”

“It helped that I knew they’d be up early and we had stuff ready by the bed,” Deana laughed. “They all leave tomorrow, so we’ll have plenty of time to ourselves before we go back to New York.

“Merry Christmas, beautiful,” he said, kissing her softly.

“Merry Christmas, Justin.”

They put robes on over their pajamas, joining the rest of the family in the giant living room, the boys almost foaming at the mouth to run over to their stockings to see what all they got from Santa.

“I haven’t had a stocking at Christmas in years…” Justin whispered to Deana.

“Well, you’ve been VERY good this year… It’s not much, little things compared to the presents we get each other.”

Once they confirmed everyone was awake and in the room, the boys rushed to their stocking to see what they got.

“Pokemon cards!” JJ yelled.

“Dino toys!” Josiah cheered.

They all opened stockings, putting their gifts away before starting on breakfast.  The boys played with their toys from Santa and some of the ones from Justin while they waited to eat.  Deana helped make eggs and cook sausage, stealing quick glances of Justin playing with the boys.

“He’s really good with them, he’ll make a great dad someday, D,” Danielle said.  “I’m glad I got to come and see all of this, this is gonna be the holidays for the rest of our lives, isn’t it?”

“I think so, and I’m totally ok with that,” Deana smiled.  Justin looked up at her, flashing a quick smile before blowing her a kiss.  Deana’s cheeks flushed a little.

“It’s cute how you’re still flirting across a room, you get a little flustered just by him smiling at you.  It’s a love for the ages, D, and you’ve got yourself a great one.”

They ate breakfast, Justin getting J to help wash dishes.  They went back into the living room to open gifts.  The boys played Santa, handing out all the presents to everyone.  They took turns opening gifts, going in birthday order, one person at a time showing the group what they got from who.  Deana and Justin saved their gifts from each other for last.

Justin’s turn came first, he opened the box.  He pulled out a bottle of Japanese whiskey, leather gloves, and a Theragun massager.  “These are all really cool, you know I’ll have to do a taste test between Japanese and Tennessee whiskey, really note the difference in flavor and all that.”

“The massager I thought could be if you’re on set somewhere or after rehearsals for a tour.  I know you don’t have anything planned yet, but it helps to be ready.”

“The gloves will come in handy around here, that’s for sure.”

Deana opened her last box.  Inside was a light grey and black bag.  She smiled, seeing the embroidery on the side.  “I know it’s not official yet, but I figured I might as well…” he said.  It had DMT on the side, her initials with his last name. “Look inside the bag.”

There was a warmer and wax melts, a pair of ballet flats, an electric tea kettle, and a box of tea flavored chocolate truffles.  “Baby, these are all so great.”

“Think of it as a little bit of relaxation.  Slip on some comfy shoes, make a quick cup or two of tea, enjoy some aromatherapy and have a little something sweet.”

They all relaxed for most of the day, enjoying dinner together, which Justin and J took charge of cooking the meat and some of the sides.  Deana smiled, thinking of what Christmas would look like once they were married, the traditions they would start of their own.