Page 23 of Home For Christmas

Oh, that was the worst situation to be in. Nothing like sticking your ass out for someone who didn’t want you there. We’d all been there, of course. In Oklahoma, it was usually a spoiled rich kid whose parent thought there was a threat when really there was nothing. In California, it was usually a spoiled person who thought they were invincible while a very real threat loomed over their head, and their handlers were trying to protect them.

Me: Yeah, Brett nearly got kidnapped instead of his client because he was arguing with the guy and the kidnapper mistook him for the client in the scuffle. I laugh about it now, but that’s really only because Brett leveled the guy with a single punch, he wasn’t hurt, and the guy was arrested. I don’t think the client ever did thank Brett either.

Greg: Entitled brats.

I hummed in agreement but before I could continue texting with Greg, loud voices filled the lobby then began approaching my office. Four heads popped through the door, all smiling broadly. How the four managed to poke their heads around in a perfect vertical line was totally beyond me, but the first thing I noticed was the bright red hair of Gavin at the bottom followed by Tony’s dark brown head of hair. Above Tony, Koji’s head appeared, his hair an interesting mix of pink and purple that week. Above Koji, Russ’s head appeared.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the men. “What the hell are you doing here?”

They all filed in, bright smiles on their faces. “Coming to rescue you from yourself. You know how word travels on base. Your boss was talking with Stevens, Stevens talked to Perch, Perch talked to us. Word has it you’ve been spending way too much time in this office,” Tony said.

Damn SEALs gossiped like old church ladies.

Gavin’s head bobbed up and down. “Ty confirmed.”

And so did my husband.

“We’re here to take you out for lunch,” Koji announced with a flourish of his hands, and I was pretty sure I saw glitter float to my floor.

Russ held up a gift bag. “We also come bearing gifts.”

These guys weren’t going to leave at any point in the near future if I didn’t go with them. Knowing Tony and Russ, they’d likely kidnap me if I didn’t go willingly. “Okay, okay. Let me pack up.”

“Are you ready to go home?” Koji asked me as we walked down the street toward the cafe at the end of the block.

Was I ready to go home? “I’m ready to see Marla and Brice again. I love spending time with Ty’s brothers and their men…” I trailed off.

“But you always worry about running into the bio family.”

I chuckled at Gavin’s bluntness. “Yeah, basically. There’s always that risk. But this time, it’s different. We’re going to be there so much longer and I don’t know how long my luck can hold out.” I rolled the sleeves of my dress shirt up toward my elbows. It was hard to believe it was nearly Christmas. It never seemed to cool off in San Diego. We went from hotter than hell to warm, and right back to hotter than hell.

Koji hummed in agreement. “Yeah, I can see that. Time changes people, though.”

My shoulder lifted in a noncommittal way. “Yeah, sure, but my dad’s the pastor at the church now.”

Tony was quiet as we wove our way through the cafe’s open seating. He didn’t speak until we’d all sat down. “As long as I’ve known you, Ty’s family has been your family.”

My head bobbed up and down in response. They had been my family as long as I could remember, but I still wondered how my sister was doing. Marla kept up on the gossip, but I wondered if Katie hated me as much as my parents. She was a few years younger and we hadn’t always been close, but she’d still been closer to me than either my mom or dad had been. “I know. There’s no question that the Scotts are my family. The holidays can just be strange.” I wasn’t going to let my family bring the mood down, so I changed the topic. “Where’s Joshua?” I asked Koji. The two were usually attached at the hip.

Koji’s gold-and-silver nails caught the light as he waved his hand about. “Christmas shopping at the mall.” I wasn’t going to bother telling him that he’d just gestured toward the ocean and there wasn’t a mall between our location and the two miles to the beach. The malls were all in the opposite direction, but I’d given up correcting him on his lack of directional skills a decade earlier.

Gavin smirked at something over my shoulder and I looked back to see my husband’s blond hair and our twins’ identical curls as they dodged chairs as they made their way over. “Gav!” Ty scolded as he came to a stop beside me. “It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“If you want to surprise a SEAL, don’t tell anyone else about it,” Tony responded with a smirk.

We all shuffled around to make room for Ty, Meadow, and Mason. They’d barely sat down when two more men joined us at the table. To say I was shocked to see Cody Stevens and Perch taking seats next to us would have been an understatement. “Merry Christmas,” Perch said as he handed a bag to each kid.

“What is going on?”

Cody raised a shoulder, just as casual as could be. “Since you all won’t be here for the annual Christmas party, we brought the party to you.”

“Glad you could make it, Captain, Lieutenant,” Tony greeted them.

It was still strange to be on a first-name basis with the men now that they were no longer my superiors, and since I’d retired, they’d both moved up in rank. And Perch had taken over for Cody. Things had changed, and while I missed the navy, I was happy with my life now.

As people filtered into the cafe’s patio, the group got louder, and a half-hour lunch break quickly turned into two hours. Ty had come with an armload of gifts for the guys who had joined us and more for those who couldn’t make it. Joshua had eventually made it, and somehow my children had ended up with what amounted to new wardrobes and a few toys that I was pretty sure would be relegated to outside use only.

As Ty plucked his last gift out of a snowman gift bag, my jaw fell slack and I prayed no one around us could see he was holding a large blown-glass butt plug that looked just like a Christmas tree. The way Koji was giggling told me exactly who’d gotten it for him. But looking at the toy, I couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful it was. Ornaments of gold, yellow, and silver sparkled beneath the surface as did a red spiral of what looked like ribbon. “It’s almost too perfect to go up my ass,” Ty exclaimed once he double-checked the kids were still asleep in their stroller. “Almost.”

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