Page 16 of A Dye Hard Holiday

“It’s like you don’t even know me sometimes.” I kissed his cheek and headed upstairs to the nursery. I wasn’t sure I would dress the kids up extravagantly for every holiday, but you better believe I would for their first holidays. We had memories to make and hold onto.

Mama Richmond made Destiny the cutest little turkey day outfit I ever saw. It was a brown onesie that had a bedazzled turkey in crystals on the front. She sewed on an orange and yellow tutu and made brown, orange, yellow, and white striped leggings. We topped the outfit off with a big yellow headband that looked so beautiful against her coal black hair. She blinked her big blue eyes at me and clapped her hands because my daughter was already a fashion guru before the age of one. I knew she’d have our friends and family eating out of the palm of her hand. I was also certain that she knew it too.

I set her in the crib and turned my attention to her brother who was eating his fist. The kid was like his papa, ready to tear into his food. Dylan’s outfit wasn’t as fancy as Destiny’s but it was equally adorable with a turkey face embroidered on the front of the brown corduroy overalls and feathers on his cute little tushy. His little turtleneck was made of the same soft cotton material as Destiny’s leggings. Dylan’s brown eyes sparkled in mischief as he tried to wrestle away so that I couldn’t redress him. Our boy was a nudist at heart.

Gabe and I had the cutest damn kids in the entire land, which was proved by the aahs and oohs when we returned downstairs. Gabe grinned from ear to ear when I set them down and they toddled toward him. “There’s Papa’s little gobblers.”

“Gobble! Gobble!” Sassy squawked.

“Eat me!” Savage added.

Gabe’s eyes rounded innocently. “I’m trying, Sunshine. I think it will be easier to apologize for our kids’ foul language than it will be to change Savage’s.”

“Probably.”

Buddy ran into the living room from the kitchen looking guilty as fuck. “What did you do?” I asked him, not that I expected him to answer. He just lowered his head in shame then hid behind the couch.

I hurried into the kitchen to see the damage, confident it couldn’t be too bad because the meats and side dishes were in the ovens. The only thing left on the counter was… “Oh no.” I covered my mouth with my hand.

“What?” Gabe said, rushing into the room. “Did he get a turkey?” He skidded to a halt when he saw the carnage on the floor and gasped. “Worse!” He sounded so miserable that I expected to see tears in his eyes. “Please tell me you have a backup pie saved someplace. Don’t fail me, man!”

I shook my head in disgust as I looked at the overturned pie plate and the sticky mess it made. “Well, of course I made an extra one just for you, but now it’s the only one I have.”

“My house, my pie,” Gabe said sternly. “They’ll have to eat pumpkin pie or that pumpkin crunch crap you made.”

“Pumpkin crunch cake, not crap,” I corrected, looking at him in disbelief. “You really want to deprive our guests of apple pie?”

“Fuck yeah,” Gabe said in a tone a person reserved for the word duh. “Call Deanna; I bet she has one of those frozen ones.”

“How about I make you another one this weekend?” I countered. His response was a glower that Brenda Leigh Johnson used on the shadiest of suspects. Here’s the thing; I can’t deny Gabe anything. The right thing to do would’ve been for me to put my foot down and use the reserved pie for my guests, but I couldn’t do it. “Fine, but you’re telling everyone it wasyourdog who ruined their dessert.”

“I have no problem with that. I have plenty of experience managing hostile crowds.”

“Well, let’s hope this won’t require riot gear,” I quipped.

Our guests started filing in not long after the apple pie incident. Destiny and Dylan lit up like little Christmas trees when the older kids showed up. They gave up trying to walk because they were too slow to keep up with the Dorchesters and Adrianna. They dropped to their butts then scrambled after the kids at a fast-paced crawl, squealing and giggling as they went.

Gabe followed me to the kitchen to grab some drinks for our guests while I checked on the progress of the food. Everything looked and smelled delicious. Gabe must’ve thought so too because he swatted my ass on his way back to the family room.

Chaz and Mere were the next to join me in the kitchen. I told them everything that happened since I last saw them on Tuesday, which was surprisingly a lot.

“So, you’re not looking for a new doctor?” Chaz asked humorously.

“Or a new place to live?” Mere inquired.

“No to both,” I said. “We’re mature adults now.”

“Uh huh,” Chaz said. His grin told me he was enjoying my potential misery way too much. “We’ll see what happens when the kids have their next doctor’s appointment.”

“Bet Gabe takes them by himself,” Mere added.

“Nah,” Chaz said, shaking his head. “He’ll stand in the corner with his arms crossed over his chest looking as menacing as he can.”

“Hand on the butt of his gun,” Mere added. “It would make a lasting impression.”

“You two are a couple of comedians,” I told them, but I couldn’t stop grinning at the image they created in my mind. I still hoped for the best outcome, which would be Trenton moving on from Blissville.

“Where’s Dare?” Chaz asked. “I thought he said he was joining us today.”