Page 66 of The Holidays with Dr. Mitchell
EPILOGUE
(Because we all deserve a Merry Christmasanda Happy New Year…)
Jake
You didn’t think this would end with some cheesy version of us all singing Christmas carols by the candlelit tree in a beautiful chalet in the middle of the Swiss Alps, did you?
No. Not even close.
It was New Year’s Eve, and I was back to work after what seemed like having a month off. Lucky for me, my gorgeous wife decided to join me for lunch at the hospital. After lunch, I took her to the private room connected to my office, where I slept when I worked twenty-four-hour shifts, and we got busy like we did in the days before we had kids.
“I love you, baby,” I said as she double-checked her outfit, ensuring her clothes and hair appeared just as crisp andperfectly fashioned as they were when she met me for lunch. “And hey, we should do these impromptu lunches more often, eh? It’s like back in the old days.”
“You had way too much fun in the Alps, Dr. Mitchell,” she laughed.
“I had way too much fun torturing my brother if that’s what you mean.” I reached out to her to lead her out of my office. “Come here,” I said, not wanting her to leave. I kissed her neck and inhaled the spicy vanilla perfume John had hunted down as the perfect fragrance to buy his mother for Christmas. “Consider our vows renewed after the way your sexy ass has me performing these days.”
“It does feel like old days, doesn’t it?” she said with an adorable smile that reminded me of when we first met, making me want to bring her back into my on-call room and ravish her body again.
“You have no idea. Happy New Year, my love,” I said. “Tell John to keep his Uncle Jim out of my thirty-year-old, single malt Macallan while I’m working, and he is enjoying the company of the rest of our friends who aren’t on-call tonight.”
“You know Jim will drink that if he sees it,” she said.
“Well, the decoy bottle that I assume he’ll go for is set out for the old man, so I hope he indulges himself in that one,” I chuckled.
“Jake?” Ash arched an eyebrow at me. “It’s New Year’s Eve, as in making resolutions about not playing silly pranks on everyone around you.”
“That’s one New Year resolution I willnevermake, and if my brother thinks I did, and he dares to raid my expensive liquor cabinet?”
“What did you spike it with? Tell me now, in case I’m foolish enough to touch your booze.”
“Yeah, you’ll want to stay away from that scotch,” I warned, nodding at the office secretary, who walked by with a humorous smile.
She must’ve seen the decorations I’d put up in Stone’s office this morning.
“What’s in it?”
“Let’s just say Jimmy wasn’t so discreet with the videos of Collin and me shitting our lives away in those woods, and when I returned to find Dr. Stone was amused by that, it just made me think of one final retaliation move that needed to be done on those who fucked with Collin and me.”
Ash rolled her eyes, “What other booze did you tamper with?”
“Just the scotch,” I said, pulling on my lab coat and preparing to head to the ER, where I’d spend my time this New Year’s Eve with Collin, Cameron Brandt, and John Aster.
“Jake, you’ve got something else up your sleeve,” Ash said, knowing me well.
“Well, Collin laced the figs that Spence, Alex, and Jim love so much because they’re fucking weirdos. I wasn’t going to say anything because those smug assholes like to eat those while amusing themselves with cigars and cognac, and everyone else stays away from them.”
“So, you were willing to take a chance that the kids wouldn’t?”
I rolled my eyes. “Eatfigs? Uh, no, I wasn’t worried about that. The kids hate that shit.”
“What’s in them?”
“Laxatives, no biggie,” I said. “Injected them, so they’ll be none the wiser.”
“So, that’s what we’re all dealing with? Jim, Alex, and Spence shitting their brains out all night…atourhouse?”
“They need to feel what Collin and I felt in those woods. They had way too much fun doing all the Christmas gags. The retaliation just wasn’t over yet,” I said. When I leaned down to kiss her, she moved her face away from mine.
