Page 1 of A Perfect Holiday
Chapter One
BOONE
I hauled air into my lungs, the rage so intense I literally saw red. I wanted to kill this bastard. Piece by piece. Slowly and painfully. All the disgust, rage and compassion I felt on behalf of a little boy who had just lost his mother went into the blow to his jaw. When he reeled away, I kept moving and hit him again, knocking his slimy ass down.
Chester Skeet Baker. He was Sharon Doucet’s good-for-nothing husband. He beat her and she took it. But cancer took her today—Thanksgiving Day—and she’d died asking for me.
I hadn’t made it in time. But I came directly over here to look for Henry, her son. He and I met when I was working on the Church landscaping for Verity’s father. I had Deke build Henry a whole new playground, and later we went frogging together and bonded over our dead daddies. He was bright, had personality to spare, but he was hurting so bad right now.
“I’ll press charges, Outlaw!”
My strength fueled by rage, I hauled him up to his feet, jerked one arm behind his back and slammed his face into the side of his house. Gritting my teeth against another surge of murderous fury, I gave Baker another sharp shove. “Go ahead, Skeet, press charges. Why don’t we call the sheriff right now, and you can explain why you were shouting at and manhandling Henry. He’s only eight, for fuck’s sake. His mother just died, you asshole!”
“She coddled him. He’s nothing but a crybaby.”
I twisted his arm higher, exerting more pressure. “You aren’t dealing with a woman and child now, Baker,” I said, edging my voice with cold steel. “You touch him again, or God help you, hurt him in any way, and I’m coming back here. We’re going totake a walk in the bayou. You won’t be coming out, and no one but the ’gators will ever know where your bones are. Got that?” Skeet moved his head in acknowledgment.
I gave him another hard shove into the clapboard, then let him go, wrestling my fury back under control.
“I’m taking him to Outlaws for dinner, and you can pick him up tonight.”
When we got in the truck, Henry burst into tears, great, tearing sobs, making my chest hurt and my eyes burn. I hugged him for a long time. “I’m so sorry about your mom,” I murmured.
“I miss her so much. Do you think she’s in heaven with my daddy?”
“Yes, I’m sure she is,” I said, ruffling his hair. “We’ll go to Thanksgiving dinner, and you’ll feel sad, but every day, you’ll keep her in your heart, and it’ll get easier.”
“I still have Bonkers,” he said sniffling and wiping at his nose, and I thought my heart would break. I hauled him close to me for the rest of the drive. Bonkers, that cute little beagle that Henry’s mom had given him to help him over the death of his father and to teach him a little responsibility was a big source of comfort in Henry’s life.
***
When we arrived, Thanksgiving was in full swing at Outlaws, my brother Brax’s bar and grill on the bayou. With the number of family members, extended family, and guests, Braxton had decided hosting it at Outlaws made the most sense.
His huge kitchen and plenty of seating room made it easy to accommodate everyone. There was me, my wife Verity, and our son Duel, Verity’s momma, daddy, and brother Ethan, one of my triplet brothers Booker and his wife Aubree, Aubree’s momma and stepdaddy Mike, my other brother Brax and River Pearl,Ma and Win, my aunt Heloise and uncle Otis, and my cousins, Remy, Dempsey and Creed, Aubree’s friend Ashley and her boyfriend, Liam, River Pearl’s momma, daddy and brothers Jake and Chase (who was a no-show). Plus we invited Minnie, Deke, Rory and Savannah. That brought our count to a whopping thirty people minus Chase.
I settled Henry in next to me and hoped being with my family would help ease some of his sorrow for now. I couldn’t do anything about his piece-of-shit guardian, but I could threaten the asshole within an inch of his life.
“My God, Brax,” River Pearl said as she bit into one of the three turkeys Brax had prepared. “You are a cooking god. This turkey is so delicious.”
“Of course it is. He’s also part fowl god,” Booker quipped, and Brax gave him a bland smile.
“Yeah,” I said. “Fowl is the right word. He is a king turkey.”
“Ha freaking ha,” Braxton muttered while everyone within earshot laughed. Ribbing Brax would always be one of my favorite pastimes. But River was right. Everything was delicious, from the turkey to all the fixings. My brother only got better the more he plied his talents.
Life could not get any sweeter than this.
I’d just landed a huge job with Lafayette Hospital, and my business had grown so much in the last year and a half, I needed to expand, and had bought this great old building in Lafayette, which was now manned by a full-time receptionist. I had three crews working all my clients, a new apprentice landscape designer I had just hired, and Savannah, who was into her first semester of her online Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Landscape Architecture.
My business was thriving. My beautiful, sexy wife and Minnie were still in business, and they were making a hugesplash in the fashion biz with another very successful Fashion Week this past September.
After dinner, in a glow of contentment, I cuddled Verity while Brax played and River Pearl sang. Duel was dancing in front of the stage, and my Ma was cuddling Henry. We had a brief discussion about him. I wasn’t happy he had to go back to Skeet, and neither was she, but our hands were tied. He was so subdued it hurt my heart. Ma pulled the sheriff aside, and he nodded while she talked. He would keep an eye on the situation.
“When are we going to hear the pitter-patter of little feet, sweetheart?” Aubree’s mother asked. “Any plans we should know about?”
Mike, her husband, squeezed her arm, and she gave him an I’m-just-asking look, which he answered by shaking his head and giving Aubree and Booker a sympathetic smile.
Aubree smiled back. There was a new confidence to her that was tangible, and I was so proud of them, I wanted to stand up and cheer. Their engagement and marriage had been rocky there at the end, but they had reconfirmed their commitment to each other and weathered the shitstorm caused by Aubree’s lifelong goals.
