Page 39 of Once Upon a Holidate
“No. Sometimes you shoot them or set them on fire. Your mind can be a dark place.”
“How do you come up with ideas like that?” Joylyn asked.
Jasper shrugged. “I wrote a detective series for several years. Those ideas grew out of what my hero did for a living. Now I’m writing about a former soldier turned investigator. He has a different perspective.”
“Were you in the military?”
“I was, for nearly ten years. Military police. When I got out, I was really messed up. I started writing as a way to clear my head, and it turned into a career.”
“So you use your military experience to help you write your books?”
“Some. I do a lot of research.”
“Especially when it comes to fight scenes and weapons,” Renee added. “I’m forever coming home to the sound of grunting and throwing.”
“I like the fighting sticks,” Garrick added, then flexed his hand. “When you mess up with those, you know it.”
Joylyn spun to stare at him. “You use fighting sticks?”
“Not in real life. We practice with them.”
“I have a few friends who help me out,” Jasper added. “They spar with me so I can get fighting scenes right. Your dad is my resource if I need information on how the police would do something. I know a few private investigators I can call on.” He chuckled. “Sometimes it really does take a village.”
“How did you two meet?” Joylyn asked.
Jasper raised his eyebrows. “I picked her up right here in this bar.”
“You did not,” Renee protested. “I picked you up.”
“You wanted to, but you were scared.”
Joylyn stared at them. “You really met here?”
“We’d known each other for a while, but yup, this is where the magic started.”
“Being picked up in a bar does not sound romantic,” Renee said with a sigh. “We need a better story.”
“Who cares how it started? Look at what we have now. We’ve got the happy love. What else matters?”
She laughed. “You’re right. The happy love is the best.”
Garrick saw longing in his daughter’s eyes and knew she was missing her husband. He was doing a little missing of his own, he thought regretfully, wishing Wynn was with him. Not that he wasn’t having a better than expected time with Joylyn, but it wasn’t anywhere near the same. With Wynn everything was easy. Plus he enjoyed looking at her. She was sexy and gorgeous and a great kisser. Yes, having her around was always a good time.
“When is the snowman wedding?” Joylyn asked.
“December 12,” Renee told her. “It’s our second to the last wedding of the year. I’m practically giddy. We never get the holidays off, but this year Pallas, my business partner, and I were determined to have some time at home over Christmas. So we blocked out the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Then the wedding on the eighteenth got canceled, and suddenly we have a huge block of free time.”
She grinned at her husband. “We’re thinking of going somewhere tropical.”
“You’d look good somewhere tropical.”
Renee lightly kissed him, then turned back to Joylyn. “When are you due?”
“Christmas Day.”
Renee’s expression turned sympathetic. “Mixed feelings about that?”
“A lot. Chandler’s due home on the eighteenth, so he shouldbe here. He says he doesn’t care when our son is born, as long as he’s healthy.”
