Page 3 of A Dye Hard Holiday

“I don’t want him to get a papercut when he opens up the boxes of frozen macaroni and cheese,” Deanna told her husband. “A true artist like Josh needs his hands to create magic.”

I wasn’t sure if she meant the food he made from scratch, which was ninety-five percent of his cooking, or his hairstyling skills. In either case, he needed his talented hands to accomplish it. Then there was the sorcery he worked on me, but I doubted the group wanted to hear my take on that.

My cell phone rang just as we sat down to dessert and coffee. I glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was the dispatcher from the police department, which rarely happened after I was promoted to captain. Adrian’s phone went off just as I answered the call. “Captain Roman-Wyatt,” I said into the phone. I smiled at Josh’s little shiver of awareness. He swore up and down I used a deeper tone of voice with my new title.

“Captain, I’m sorry to call you at home on a Sunday night, but there was an incident at Santa’s Village,” Officer Parks said.

“What?” Adrian and I asked at the same time. I glanced up and my eyes locked with my former partner’s. It was obvious that someone, most likely Officer Wen, called to tell Adrian the news.

“The village has been vandalized and there’s an effigy of Santa hanging from the flagpole,” she replied.

“What?” I repeated. I was cautious about what I said out loud with Adrianna and Dorchester’s kids watching me.

“You heard me, sir. It appears that someone is waging a war on Christmas.”

“Ho ho hoooooo,” Adrian said from across the room.

“AH, SOMEONE’S EXCITED ABOUTChristmas,” Al said when he walked into the kitchen the next morning and caught me cooking breakfast to Christmas music. While it was true that I was looking forward to the holiday season more than any in my life, that wasn’t the reason I was jamming to “Jingle Bell Rock” while flipping pancakes.

“He’s nervous, upset, or trying not to kill one, or all, of us,” my mother said to Al before I could respond. “He’s been this way his entire life. One year in high school, he was blaring Christmas music in the middle of May because he was anxious about final exams.” She got quiet and I felt her eyes on me. “I’m wondering if he’s slept yet.”

“I slept,” I replied with a wry grin. Well, a few hours before my little alarm clocks woke me up because they were hungry. Luckily, I managed well on short sleep.

“Which is it?” Al asked me. “Are you nervous, upset, or trying not to kill us?”

“You’ve only been here one night, Al. How angry could I be at any of you?” I adored my father in-law, especially when I caught him grabbing Martina’s ass that morning. It made my heart happy to know that the Wyatt men remained affectionate and grabby long after the newness faded.

“We don’t want to be a burden to you and Gabe,” he replied.

I put my spatula down after I turned the banana nut pancakes I had whipped up after I fed and changed Destiny and Dylan. I knew the parental units would be up and at it early, Gabe would have a long day ahead of him, and we could all use a good breakfast to start our day off right.

“You will never be a burden to us, Al. None of you will. We love you and we want you here to share the twins’ first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and their birthday. I’m over the moon that you guys got to see their first tiny steps.

“I’m just anxious about the call Gabe took from the police department that had him out late.” I had joked aboutmewanting a Norman Rockwell Christmas, but Gabe was the one who wanted the holidays to be perfect. I knew how much he hated working late nights, but I also knew he wouldn’t let some asshole ruin the holiday season for our town.

Gabe had tiptoed into our room and headed straight for the shower to either warm up or try to unwind. I climbed out of bed and joined him. He said nothing for several moments, choosing to hold me tight instead of talking. When he finally spoke, it was my favorite four words. “You are my world.” I never got sick of hearing it, and I knew that “you” encompassed our children also. Dylan, Destiny, and I were the luckiest people on the planet.

“Good morning,” Gabe said as he entered the kitchen. He walked straight to me, wrapped his arms around my waist, and rested his chin on my shoulder. “Mmmm, my favorite pancakes.”

“I wanted to do something special for you.”

“Any day that has you in it is special, Sunshine.” Gabe kissed my cheek and unwrapped himself from my body so he could spend some time with our children before he had to leave.

I heard Dylan squealing excitedly, and I knew what I’d see when I turned my head. Gabe made a big production of stealing a few of his Cheerios each morning, and Dylan would slap his high chair like he was angry, but the giggle that always followed proved how much Dylan loved his morning entertainment. Destiny did her best to bounce her Cheerios off Papa’s forehead. She had shockingly good aim and I thought we might be looking at the future softball pitcher for Blissville High.

“I only gave him a few Cheerios to tide him over until his pancakes are done,” I warned Gabe. Dylan had a voracious appetite like his papa and got cranky when he was hungry like his daddy.

“What kind of pancakes are the babies getting?” Martina asked me.

“Apple cinnamon,” I replied. “I use applesauce as the liquid that binds the dry ingredients together. They love it, and I don’t have to worry about them choking on a walnut.”

“Daddy makes them healthy, whole wheat pancakes that Papa drowns in real butter and syrup. We make a great team,” Gabe said, smiling at me.

“That we do.”

After Gabe left for work, I headed out to run my pre-feast errands. I felt eyes on me as I made my way through the grocery store adding items in my cart, and I knew damn well it wasn’t because they were admiring my outfit, although I did look damn good. They wanted to know what occurred the previous night and were looking for the courage to ask for details. Surely, the husband of a police captain would know the salacious details of whatever happened. They didn’t know their captain very well then because I didn’t even know where it—whateveritwas—took place. Hell, I’d probably be the last person to know unless someone else told me. Gabe took his oath seriously and blabbing about an unsolved case was against everything he believed in.

Of course, by the time I left the grocery store, I’d learned enough from everyone else to piece together some of the puzzle.