Merry Humbug Christmas (25 page)

like a suspect at the front of a lineup.

“Hey. She looks like a normal human being,” Matthew remarked,

and Sofia smacked his arm.

“Estúpido!”

“Reese Pendergrass,” Damian said. “Meet the first segment of the

Palmer clan. My older brother Matthew, my younger brother Elijah, and Eli’s forgiving wife Sofia.”

“You’re here?”

They all reeled before the introductions came to full fruition as a woman slid into the kitchen in a green terry bathrobe and matty pink slippers.

“Reese?” she cried, and Reese unlocked the mystery immediately

at the sound of her voice.

“Reggie?”

The two women collided in an embrace, and Reggie rocked her

from side to side as she told her, “I’m so happy to finally meet you!”

“You too.”

Damian chuckled. “What about me? You’re not happy to see me?”

“Only because you brought Reese with you,” she teased, and

then she set Reese free long enough to hug her brother.

When they settled down onto barstools around the island, Sofia

had already added another cup and filled each of them with steaming coffee.

“What happened?” Reggie asked Damian as she doctored hers

with cream. “I thought you were arriving early in the evening.”

“Dr. Perfect hit a moose,” Matthew cracked.

“You what!”

“A deer,” Damian corrected. “We hit a deer, and the car veered

off the road and got stuck in the snow.”

“How did you get here then?”

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“We hiked.”

Reggie looked at her for confirmation, and Reese shook her

head.

“Nice indoctrination to Sugarloaf Mountain, huh?”

Reese shrugged.

“Oooh!” Reggie cried. “Let’s see the ring.”

Reese grinned. Those had been her four favorite words ever

since Damian had proposed. She lifted her hand and extended it out into the middle of the island, wiggling her fingers.

“Where is it?” Damian asked dryly.

She didn’t
actually hear
the piercing music from Janet Leigh’s shower scene in
Psycho
, but it sure did seem like it in the first instant her eyes lurched against her completely ring-free hand.

Turning to Damian, she cried, “Where is it?”

“JUST CALL ME HOLMES,” Damian said as he looked up at Reese

on the porch. “Sherlock Holmes.”

He produced the mittens from the mound of snow where she

said she’d thrown them, and with one little shake, Reese’s engagement ring tumbled out into the palm of his hand.

“Elementary, my dear Pendergrass.”

She shook her head as he joined her on the porch. “I can’t believe I did that.”

“And all because you were embarrassed by these fine-looking

winter mittens,” he teased. “You really think my family is shallow enough that they’d think less of you for these gloves . . . when they have those
boots to judge you on
?”

She nudged him and reached for the ring, but Damian yanked it

back.

“Not so fast,” he said, moving in close until they stood face-to-

face with no more than a couple of inches between them. “Let’s do this right.”

Damian took her left hand and kissed it before placing the ring

back in its rightful place on her finger.

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“Will you still marry me?” he asked.

“Hey, if you still want to, that’s your problem,” she joked. “You’re not getting out of this, mister. I know a good thing when I’m offered it, so yeah. I’ll marry you.”

“It’s a good thing,” he told her. “I’ve already ordered the mono-

grammed towels.”

“We have the same last initial,” she reminded him, and Damian

lifted one shoulder into a shrug.

“See, I told you. Match made in heaven.”

He pulled her closer into a warm kiss. They parted quickly as the frenzied scamper of little claws on the floor accompanied a familiar bouncing growl. When the tiny brown-and- white Chihuahua

reached the door, he skidded to a stop just a few feet away from them and kicked into a chorus of high-pitched barks.

“Shhhh,” Damian said, raising an index finger. “Paco, hush. You

know me.”

Paco paused for a moment before he wagged his tail so hard it

nearly knocked him off his stubby little legs. He stretched up the length of Damian’s calf, wagging as he gave the dog a scratch behind the ear.

“There, that’s better,” he said.

But when the dog noticed someone standing next to him, it

turned toward Reese and growled.

“No eye contact,” Damian reminded her, and Reese lifted her

gaze to the top of the doorway.

“Okay,” she said. “Tell it I’m friendly. Tell it, Damian!”

“Come here,” he said, but Paco flattened both ears and sneered,

showing a full mouth of sharp, white teeth.

After a long, disenchanted growl, the dog’s attention jerked

to somewhere beyond the porch. When Damian heard the distant

crunch of snow, he turned, expecting to find someone approaching

on foot. Instead, a large deer stood at the edge of the driveway, about fifty yards out.

“Damian, is that—?”

“I don’t know.”

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Paco flew off the porch and bounded across the yard toward the

animal, barking and snarling. With every leap came a landing down into snow taller than the dog, but the Chihuahua pressed on in his pursuit. The buck bolted away, a severe limp evident as he did, Paco hot on his tail.

“Paco! Be nice!”

Damian recognized the familiar sound of his mother’s voice as

she padded quickly across the foyer rug toward the open front door.

“You’re here!” she cried and nearly leaped into his arms. “I’m

so happy you’re both here! Come here, Reese.” When she grabbed

Reese and hugged her, Paco reappeared and exploded into another

wave of spitting barks.

“Paco!” she reprimanded before she looked Reese in the eye.

“They should have named him A-Paco-lypse.”

Reese chuckled, and Damian lifted Paco into his arms and began

to coo softly in the dog’s ear. Not because he wanted to but because he knew a soft lilt to the voice was often the only thing that kept the peace in The World According to Paco.

“Mrs. Palmer, I’m so happy to meet you.”

“Mrs. Palmer was Paul Senior’s cranky old mother,” she said with

a twinkle in her pretty brown eyes. “I’m Jeane to you.”

“Jeane. I’m really thrilled to be here.”

“Mom,” Damian interjected. “Let’s get in the house. We’ve been

out in the elements for hours.”

“Why? What happened?” she asked as he closed the door and they

all went inside.

“I’ll tell you all about it in the morning. Just tell us where you want us to bunk, go back to sleep, and we’ll see you at breakfast.”

“Oh, no, you don’t!” she exclaimed. “You think I could go back

to bed now? Let’s have some tea, shall we, Reese?”

Paco continued to growl all the way down the length of the hall.

When Reese turned around to look at Damian, the dog nearly leaped out of his arms to nip at her, and she jumped back at least two feet.

He nudged the dog with two fingers. “Hey! Be nice.”

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201

As they walked toward the kitchen to find his eldest nephew

standing next to his Aunt Sofia, Damian exclaimed, “P.J.! Is that you?”

Paul Jr. had sprouted a full foot since the last time he’d seen him.

Lanky and tall and sporting a shaggy head of dark unruly hair, P.J.

looked every bit the fifteen-year-old rebel his father Matthew had been.

The boy looked Reese up and down before offering, “’Sup.”

“What kind of greeting is that?” Damian teased. “This is my fian-

cée, Reese Pendergrass. Reese, this is Mattie and Courtney’s oldest, Paul Jr.”

“P.J.,” she said with a smile, and Damian beamed with pride that

she remembered. “It’s good to meet you.”

“You too.”

“Did we wake the other kids?” Matthew asked.

“Nah, they’re all out,” P.J. told his dad. “And Zeke is snoring like a bear. I hadda get outta there.”

“Which rooms are we in, Mom?” Damian asked.

“Are we . . .
doing separate rooms
, bro?” Matthew teased.

It felt as though every eye turned expectantly toward him. “Yeah, we are.”

“You don’t have to on our account,” Eli chimed in. “You’re

engaged.”

“This is Damian and Reese’s choice,” his mother defended, “and I

support it. There won’t be another word about it.”

“I’m gonna sleep on the couch in Grandpop’s den.” P.J. shook his

head as he headed out of the room. “Dude,” he chuckled as he passed Damian.

“Hey, if you’re going in there, take this guy with you, huh?”

Damian suggested, plopping Paco into his nephew’s arms. “Close the door too.”

“I thought you could take the small bedroom next to ours,” his

mom told him. “And Reggie has offered to share her room with

Reese.” Turning to Reese as if she needed to justify the decision, she added, “It’s a nice big king-sized bed in there. You won’t even know Merry Humbug Christmas.indd 201

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she’s on the other side of it. Is that all right with you? We’ve kind of got a full house this year.”

“It’s fine,” she exclaimed, and Reese grabbed Reggie’s wrist and

shook it gently. “I’m looking forward to the girl talk. As long as you don’t mind me barging in on you.”

“Are you joking? It was my idea.”

Damian’s heart puffed up a little as he watched them. In defiance of all her worst fears, Reese seemed to fit right in with this clan. Not that he’d doubted it in the least, but it felt nice to see it for himself.

And more importantly, he knew Reese needed the validation.

“We don’t have our bags,” Damian announced. “So Reese will

need something to sleep in, Sis.”

“You just worry about finding your room. I’ve got this.”

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On the fifth day of Christmas,

Murphy’s Law gave to me . . .

five frozen thiiiings!

four yapping dogs,

three wrenched necks,

two mismatched gloves,

and a big rockin’ Harry Winston ring.

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5

A platter of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes overflowing a

large bowl, a tray of bacon, three baskets of warm crois-

sants, a variety of cubed fruits, and two dozen pastries. Breakfast at the Palmer table looked like a restaurant buffet line to Reese.

Mismatched chairs, stools, and benches flanked three six-foot

folding tables on both sides. Set up in front of the glass windows overlooking the rolling hill in the backyard, nine adults and six children indulged in the meal while the chatter of more than a dozen

people at once gave Reese a bit of a headache.

A soft snowfall took on the look of silver glitter sprinkling out of the morning sky, and the tree skeletons doing their shimmy in the wind all around the property foreshadowed the hint of a breathtaking view come spring.

“Okay, okay,” Damian’s father called out above the din, “simmer

down. Let’s talk about the plan for today. What are all of you doing to get out of this house at the same time so I can take a conference call at ten o’clock?”

205

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