Page 134 of Back in the Saddle

He did the arm around my shoulders thing to the security gate, whereupon he punched the code in.

“You know the code?” I asked.

“All the men know the code,” he answered.

Cars tracked. Phones tracked. Security codes disseminated.

Well, tonight proved it was good they kept an eye on us. Because if that situation had been about someone with an unhappy (for me) message to deliver, they wouldn’t have had the time to alter the course of my life and mental health in delivering it before the guys got there.

We walked in, and I stopped dead at the holiday display before me.

There were illuminated, fake evergreen boughs looped the entirety of the upper walkway. At the top of each loop at each post on the railing, there was a big, red velvet bow.

The annual flowers in the planters had been switched out to poinsettias or baby pine trees, and those had Christmas lights too.

The green and red plaid, giganto baubles in one corner of the courtyard were mimicked by giganto red-and-green striped baubles in the other. These were illuminated from the inside.

There were elegant, life-sized white deer positioned here and there, and they had lights in their antlers.

There were lit wreathes with red bows attached to all the standing light fixtures.

In the big trees that shaded the place, there was an abundance of Christmas lights, and even if the trees were tall, the lights wereeverywhere, trunk to tip.

There was also a massive Christmas tree—seriously, it had to be at least sixteen feet tall—festooned with white lights, red baubles and red berries with fat, cascading red ribbons waving down from the huge-ass bow at top, towering over the north side of the pool.

And down one side, there was a gold Menorah that had to be at least three feet high, five feet wide, with none of the candles lit because Hanukkah hadn’t started yet.

It was a holiday wonderland, Phoenician style.

Man, Bill and Zach couldwork it.

I saw the renos on the pool had begun again after the Thanksgiving break, and the pebble finish had been sprayed that day. So once that cured, and the cool deck was installed, we’d have our pool back.

Last, at one of our new, fancy outdoor tables sat Luna, Raye, Harlow, Martha, Alexis, Daisy, Shirleen, and gracing us with her megastar presence was Stella Gunn.

Oh, and Jacob was pacing angrily.

They all stood at our approach, and we barely made it to them before Jacob clipped, “What are you women into?”

But Harlow hit me like a rocket.

I went back on a foot, but luckily didn’t go down before I wrapped my arms around her.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She leaned back but didn’t let me go. “Are you?”

No.

I was not.

My brother was a dick.

“It was my brother. He was trying to teach me a lesson in vulnerability.”

She screwed up her face in anger, and totally. Jinx was right.

She cute.

---