Page 4 of A Very Titan Christmas (Titan #14)
Colby and Mia Winters’s Home, Virginia
Cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and oranges simmered lazily on the stove. Cranberry muffins were baking in the oven. Mia Winters labeled the gingerbread dough and shoved it into the cold belly of the freezer.
Normally, the weekend after Thanksgiving meant the kickoff to her holiday baking.
For Mia, baking was the start of the holiday magic.
She liked her first round of gingerbread dough to coincide with her husband, Colby, hanging holiday lights and pulling boxes of decorations out of the attic.
He’d start on that as soon as he and his Titan Group teammates were back in town.
The front door opened. Voices rolled in like an avalanche, smothering the silence that had been driving her nuts and breaking the tension that had been knotting her shoulders. Laughter mixed with kid voices, and her blood pressure immediately lowered.
Sugar Westin, Jared’s wife, and Caterina Savage swept into the kitchen in a flurry of scarves and pink-cheeked laughter, their arms filled with dishes for the night’s potluck and, hopefully, their brains brimming with ideas to stave off the impending holiday disaster.
“You don’t look worried.” Cat’s dark eyebrow arched as she set down the glass bowls, the cling wrap crinkling under her touch.
She tapped the surface of the dish with her fingernail.
“Bean salad with peppers,” she said, then tapped the next bowl.
“Tomato and butter bean dip. Crostinis and crackers are in a bag one of the kids was supposed to bring in.”
“You’re still on that bean kick Ella got you on, huh?” Sugar asked. Her large tote bag crinkled as she reached in and produced two warm casserole dishes. A whiff of oregano and melted cheese followed. “Mia never looks worried.”
Mia leaned over to survey the food. “Oh, that looks good. What is it?”
“Baked ziti and turkey-broccoli casserole.” She shrugged. “I had to do something with the leftover turkey.”
“I would have had the same problem.” Cat folded their bags and shoved them into a storage cabinet. “Except Jace and Adrian fed it to the dogs when I wasn’t looking.”
Mia and Sugar laughed.
“Not funny. Do you know what turkey and dressing does to dogs?” Caterina pressed her nose. “Ay, Dios mío. So bad.”
The front door opened again, and kids rushed in.
More voices echoed through the halls—young, energetic, high-pitched.
Kids called out for their friends, laughter trailing behind them like shadows.
Ella O’Kane and Sarah Gamble waltzed in, cheeks red and hair wind-tossed, as if they’d escaped the weather only to cross through the riptide of children swarming Mia’s home.
Ella held up a large glass pan in one hand and a bag in the other. “The butterscotch bars are Bishop’s favorite, but I also brought sweet potato pie and no-bake cookies.”
Sarah’s laugh was as bright and cheery as her smile. Glass bottles clinked. “I can’t beat the desserts, but I have wine—”
Caterina cheered.
“And the paper plates, napkins, and green beans sitting on the stoop.” She placed them next to the other dishes with a slight clatter. “Nic, Beth, and Cassidy are out front overseeing some kind of push-up contest. Boys versus girls. It’s mayhem.”
A minute later, the door opened again amid cheers and jeers and calls for another contest. Boots and sneakers were kicked off, and the newest round of Titan kids melted inside the home they knew so well. Nicola Garrison, Beth Hart, and Cassidy Oliver entered with dishes, boxes, and bags.
Nicola set bottles of juice and sparkling water on the counter with the wine. “We had more in the car.”
“Nic made mac and cheese. And I picked up a pizza since I was running behind.” Beth scooted over the dishes on the counter to make room for the casserole dish and pizza box. “Cass, here, put that”—she rearranged the dishes to create space for another bowl—“right here.”
“So glad you brought a salad,” Mia added. “I wasn’t sure if we’d have enough veggies.”
Ace Winters and Adrian Savage poked their heads into the kitchen. “Is it time to eat?”
“No.” Caterina shooed them away.
Dylan Garrison popped in next to the boys. “What about now?”
“You’ll know when it’s time,” Nic said over her shoulder as she arranged the paper plates.
The scent of roasted garlic and herbs drifted from the slow cooker on the counter. Mia leaned down and cracked open the lid over her pot roast, letting the rich aroma of tender meat fill the room.
“That smells amazing.” Nicola peeked over Mia’s shoulder. “Thanks for hosting us all.”
Every year, this group of women and children gathered at the Winters’ home on the weekend after Thanksgiving if their husbands were on assignment.
This year, many of them were out of the area.
Some even out of the country. The house was filled with laughter, mess, and warmth.
Even without their Titan men, this was Mia’s kind of family gathering.
“You know I love having everyone over. We’ll do it again when everyone is home. ”
Ace popped his head into the kitchen again. “Ready now?”
“Almost. Count to one hundred.” Mia pulled the lid off the slow cooker, releasing a wave of savory deliciousness.
Everyone else took that as the sign to uncover the lids, foil, and cling wrap from the dishes.
The spread, hot and steamy, wafted with a mixture of mouthwatering scents.
“Cat and Ella, you want to make Luca’s and Ginny’s plates first? ”
They nodded and grabbed paper plates, racing against Ace’s speedy count to one hundred.
“Beth, do you want a high chair for Carson?”
“Nah, he’ll kill himself climbing out of it if I don’t watch him like a hawk. He can sit on my lap.”
Caterina and Ella called for their youngest. Luca Savage and Ginny O’Kane scampered into the kitchen in their socks, cheeks still flushed from play, and plopped into seats at the large kitchen table that could seat a battalion of kids and parents.
“Fifty-nine, sixty-two.” Ace sprang on his toes by the threshold of the kitchen.
Adrian elbowed him. “You’re not counting right.”
Ace elbowed back. “I’m counting faster so we eat faster. Seventy-five, eighty-two, ninety-one—”
“Ninety-nine, one hundred,” Sugar said, then raised her voice for the rest of the house. “Food’s ready.”
The stampede came instantly. A herd of children, tweens, and teens thundered through the hallway, socks skidding on the hardwood floor, jokes and laughter flying.
The kitchen bottlenecked as they scrambled for plates.
Their eyes were wide with hunger, as though they hadn’t recently eaten themselves full at Thanksgiving.
Older kids reached for the younger ones, sometimes helping, sometimes making it worse.
Sauce spilled, spoons clanged, and someone knocked over a lid.
The boys kept repeating the exact words over and over.
Things they’d pulled off the internet. The girls rolled their eyes.
Mia barely noticed. This was her happy place.
This beautiful, noisy, chaotic tribe was hers—and she was certain every person in the room felt the same.
Once the kids had filled their plates and disappeared to couches, corners, or wherever space could be found, the Titan ladies got their food and sat down.
Beth positioned Carson on her lap. Luca and Ginny made a mess of their plates, which no one minded.
Wine, lemonade, juice, and water were passed around.
Mia sampled a bite of everything before jumping into business.
“I told Boss Man we can’t have our holiday weekend at the resort where we always do because of the fire damage.
” She tried a spoonful of bean salad. Delicious.
“He told me to lean on the resort’s management and get the place ready, but that’s impossible.
Major fire damage. They’ll be lucky to reopen within a year. ”
Sugar sighed and pursed her bright pink lips.
“I told him the place had nearly burned to the ground. But he’s adamant that the show will go on, yada yada.
” A slight crease formed between her brows.
“It’s been a tradition since Beth and Roman’s wedding.
He’s never gonna admit it, but I think he’s having a hard time imagining something different for the holidays. ”
“I’m all in favor of changing up the tradition, but booking another place this close to Christmas will be hard.” Beth wiped green beans off Carson’s cheek and then took a bite of pot roast. “Especially with how many we’re bringing.”
“Even if we only stayed for one night, it would be hard unless we consider traveling farther out of the area,” Caterina agreed.
Her dark eyes cut to her children, Jace and Noè, returning for seconds.
Noè couldn’t reach the butterscotch bars.
Jace pushed it an inch out of Noè’s tip-toe reach.
She snapped her fingers twice. “Jacian Arrio, if you don’t help your brother get what he needs—”
“I am, I am. Jeez, Mama.”
Sugar’s eyebrows arched. Jeez, Mama, she mouthed and turned to Mia. “She’s gonna kill him in your kitchen.”
“Not today, she won’t.” Mia didn’t even turn around. “Jace, honey, give your brother a bar and your mother a break.”
Nicola rubbed her hand over her swollen belly. “They should give me all the cookies and butterscotch bars, and then”—she snapped her fingers, playfully copying Cat—“there would be no more problems.”
“Mom.” Asal Westin walked into the kitchen with a side-eye that only a teenager could muster and crossed her arms, hip cocked to the side. “You said it would be quiet enough for me to study.”
“Did you eat already?” Sugar asked.
“Yeah, but I need to study. I need quiet.”
“It’s quiet somewhere.” Sugar shrugged. “Wander until you find where that is.”
“If I fail—”
“You haven’t failed a test in your life.” Sugar wiped her mouth and pushed out of her chair. “All right. Let’s go find you someplace to study.”
Clara Winters and Violet Westin scooched by Sugar and Asal and walked into the kitchen, arm in arm. “We’re starving. We need more food.”
“Actually, you’re not,” Sugar called over her shoulder. “Make another plate, and don’t feed the dogs all your food. That will go a long way to feeling full.”
They giggled and dove into the food as if it were their first plate, not their second.
“Mom?” Clara balanced her plate in one hand and knelt on the chair Sugar had vacated. Violet moved in close behind. Both girls replaced their carefree expressions with anxious ones. “We heard Kelly and Asal talking, and they said the Christmas party is canceled.”
Sarah sighed. “I knew Kelly was eavesdropping. Sorry.”
“It’s not canceled,” Mia said and swept her gaze over the faces of women she trusted.
“We’re going to figure out what to do.” She’d make sure of that somehow, even with less than three weeks left, even if she had to stitch the entire thing back together herself.
These were her people. They could do anything.