Page 49 of The Holidays with Dr. Mitchell
“You should know that by now. Was Jim bitching when he came in to light your fire?” he asked.
“I didn’t see Jim come in the room. I was in the shower,” I answered, looking at the fireplace. “I’m confused.”
“Jim lit the fire. That was his job this morning since the staff aren’t here.” He took my hand and walked me over to sit on the sofa next to the fireplace. “Sit, angel,” he said, acting like he was my servant as he walked over to the bed, grabbed the tray of food, and set it in my lap. “It was already announced last evening that the men will do everything on our own to ensure our wivesare doted upon and spoiled this Christmas. We’re always busy and never around, so to show all of you how much we appreciate what you do while we run off to work, we’re going to take care of you in every way we can. It’s a lesson for all of us, not just Jim, Spence, and Alex. We need to show our wives how much we appreciate what you do to give us a warm, loving home to come to every night.”
I listened to the line of shit he was feeding me while I spread blackberry jam over my toast, “Perhaps Avery and Nat are falling for your cute, kiss-ass way of sucking up to us just so we don’t stop you from torturing those guys, but I’m not buying any of this.”
Jake knelt and took the poker to move the logs in the fireplace to create more flame. “You are definitely my wife,” Jake chuckled, then looked back at me. “I can’t get shit past you.”
“No, you can’t.” I took a sip of coffee and immediately spit it back into the cup. “Jesus,” I said, quickly taking a swig of orange juice to remove the bitterness from my taste buds.
“Too strong?” Jake asked, taking a sip. “Fucking hell, that’s disgusting. Well, that’s Alex’s fault. I told him not to let the percolator boil the water, and he must’ve neglected to?—”
“Hold the hell up,” I said, looking at him in question. “Percolator? Are we suddenly camping on the frontier now? What happened to using a regular coffee maker?”
I smiled at Jake’s devilish grin, which would’ve been handsome if it wasn’t so worrisome at the moment. “We’re not using one.”
“Why not?”
“Collin and I believe that if we all go the extra mile to show we are willing?—”
“Stop it with the bullshit, Jacob,” I interrupted him. “What did you make Alex do? The poor guy has to fly to Austria today, and I know that?—”
“Poor guy?” Jake stopped me. “Allow me to remind you that thepoor guyof whom you speak hired an actor to give Collin and menatural laxativesso we’d shit our brains out all night long for two days in a row in holes that we dug with our hands.”
I covered my smile because it was a pretty awful prank.
“You think it’s hilarious,” he pointed to my smile.
“No,” I said, trying to be serious. “Listen to me, I thought the prank was harsh,” I framed his handsome face with my hands and tenderly kissed his pouty lips, “but you don’t need to punish these guys all week, and I know that’s what you’re planning.”
“Who gives a shit if Alex was outside, freezing his ass off while waiting for coffee to perk?” he said. “He’ll survive, and it’s not inconveniencing any of you ladies. The rules are still being followed.”
“The coffee tastes disgusting, though, and we all know how seriously Avery takes her coffee,”I said, trying to warn Jake that their silly games would end up ruining things for the innocents.
“Well, she can blame Alex. Coffee isn’t that fucking hard to make. He should’ve taken the small task he was given seriously.” He pointed at the fire, “Jim seems to have successfully handled his first Christmas task well, don’t you think?”
I nodded. “Seriously, though, Jake. You’re skating on thin ice. Everyone is here to enjoy the holidays, and Jim and Avery have gone out of their way to make this enjoyable and memorable for everyone.”
“Jim definitely went out of his way to make the Maldives memorable forme,so I merely want to ensure that he views Switzerland the same way I now view the Maldives?”
“That’s how you’re going to screw something up. You’re not thinking clearly in your retaliation,” I informed him. “In the Maldives, Laney and I were pleasantly pampered on that island of bliss while you two were being screwed with. The differencenow is that you’re planning to screw with them while we’re all in the same home.”
“Who gives a shit?” Jake said, almost upset that I was spoiling his plans. “I promise this will not affect any of you.”
I studied my husband’s youthful expression and knew it was eating him alive not to get back at his brother quickly and easily. Everything was slowed down because it was a family holiday, and the women and children could easily become innocent victims if he weren’t careful.
“Listen, baby,” Jake said, “I know you’re concerned about some holiday fuckups happening, but what family out there doesn’t have some drama over the holidays? Things go wrong when you’re trying to make everything perfect. So, allow us to make it all wrong for those bastards who chose to fuck with us, then it will eventually go all right.”
“That’s the hill you’re willing to die on if all this backfires in your face?”
“No one is dying on hills, and this isn’t a war?—”
“You made Alex sit outside and percolate coffee in the freezing cold like an old cowboy,” I said.
“I promise you, angel,” he said, running his hands excitedly up and down each side of my legs, which he’d been bracing while acting like a little boy begging his mom to go to the park and play. “You all will have a wonderful andextremelyfestive traditional and classic Christmas. It will be one that the kids will talk about for years to come, and in the end, we’ll be laughing about it. Collin and I have planned this out very nicely, so allow us to pamper and spoil all of you with the best, most entertaining Christmas season you could ask for.”
A moment later, the bedroom door opened, and I almost laughed when I saw that Jim and Spencer both looked like they’d just fallen out of bed and hadn’t slept all night. That wasn’t the concerning part, though. It was that, for the first time since I’dknown the two extremely powerful executives, they didn’t seem to care that they looked like they’d barely survived a buffalo stampede.
