27. I Know

TWENTY-SEVEN

I KNOW

W e were the Avenging Angels, they were the Hottie Squad, with a dash of Rock Chicks and a rumble of Hot Bunch thrown in.

Therefore, even after we solved the case of the missing homeless folk, the month of December was far from boring.

Allow me to sum up:

During the week before Ava and the girls were in town, Eric and I, the Angels and the Hottie Squad, with Javi, Jeff and Cody, attended Jamal’s funeral (by the way, Cody shocked the crap out of me because he didn’t look like a computer dweeb, but instead was a blond-haired, green-eyed Adonis, not as buff as Javi or Jeff, but he was taller than Jeff (not many were taller than Javi)).

Jamal’s family were wrecked, but they were lovely.

The rest of it totally sucked.

The next day, with Javi, Jeff and Cody, me, the Angels and the Hottie Squad hung at the back at Joaquim’s memorial service and disappeared before it was over so Javi and Jeff wouldn’t cause Joaquim’s family any distress.

That sucked more.

Harlow came to both of these, and Javi and Harlow circled each other like predator and prey each time, though for the life of me I couldn’t tell who was predator and who was prey. That said, it wasn’t the time to take it there, so nothing came of it.

But we would see.

* * *

The Monday I went back to work after our tree trimming party, Luna told me Tito was calling a staff meeting.

This did not bode well seeing as Tito had never called a staff meeting.

Tex was still in town, and since he was no longer undercover, he was also in the coffee cubby.

At the tree trimming party, I got the news from Shirleen that Tex’s wife, Nancy, was still in Denver. Nancy’s daughters and sons-in-law, Eddie and Jet and Lottie and Mo, were helping her get their house ready to put on the market.

Tex was sticking to Phoenix, considering his Rock Chick experience started at the beginning with Indy, so now that the Angels were on the move, he wasn’t leaving anything to chance. That being leaving Phoenix in case he might miss some action.

Thus, he was also at the staff meeting.

In fact, we stood in the employee break/locker room with Tex and Tito standing in front of us like a deranged Penn and Teller, and precisely like Penn and Teller, Tito didn’t say a word.

But Tex did.

“Shit is gettin’ real here, so there’s gonna be some staffing changes,” he stated. “Shanti is moving from evening shift to afternoon shift with Harlow and Jess. Willow is coming in full-time. She’ll be baking in the morning in the kitchen with Lucia, and then working with Raye and Luna until one. We’re hiring someone else to help with the evening shift and we’re hiring a daytime and nighttime busser slash dishwasher so you women don’t have to clear the tables and load the dishes along with everything else.”

We glanced at each other because this was all rad .

Truth told, things had been getting busier and busier. Fortunately, our crowd was pretty chill. Equally fortunately, busier meant more tips.

But it was beginning to get hectic, and it was never fun to do any kind of dishes (even if Tito had one of those industrial sprayers on his faucet in the dishwashing area, and that had its times when it could be fun, though that fun didn’t involve rinsing dishes).

“That’s it,” Tex said. “Any questions?” Before anyone could even begin to open their mouths to ask a question, Tex clapped his hands and boomed, “Great! Get back to work!”

He then lumbered off.

Tito shuffled after him.

We all milled about for approximately two point five seconds before Tex bellowed from the restaurant, “Do I have to explain getting back to work?”

Lucia was already gone, Otis and Hunter wandered out, me and my chicks came up the rear.

“Did he become a boss without that being added to our two-minute staff meeting agenda?” Luna asked as we all headed through the kitchen toward the main area.

“I don’t care if he’s boss, I don’t have to do any more dishes,” Harlow spoke aloud my thoughts.

Tex was at the doorway to the restaurant, and as we girls came through, he stopped us.

“You, you, you, and you,” he said.

With each “you” he tossed army knives at us so we had to hop to in order to catch them before they fell to the floor.

Everyone caught theirs except Harlow. Her pink version clattered on the tiles, but she swiped it right up and shot Tex a sunshiny smile.

I noticed Tex had scored an orange one for Luna.

Rad part two.

“This is also for you,” Tex said, pulling an envelope out of the back pocket of his jeans and handing it to me.

It was thick, but wasn’t sealed, so I opened the flap and felt my eyes bug out at what I saw inside.

“Reimbursement for supplies for the camp from Tito and me,” Tex explained what had to be at least two thousand dollars in cash in the envelope.

I looked up at him. “You didn’t?—”

“Shut it,” he ordered. “I didn’t request a convo. I handed you reimbursement.”

I didn’t really want to shut it. This was too much.

But the thing was, after all that spending, including adopting Henny and all that entailed, I was running low on Christmas funds.

Now, I was not.

I didn’t get the chance to get another word in, however.

“Uh, are you our boss now or something?” Luna asked.

“Yeah,” Tex stated without hesitation, and we all stared at him even before he went on to share, “Nance and me bought into The Surf Club. We now own a third of this joint.”

That had us all blinking at him.

“You think maybe that was worthwhile to share during our staff meeting?” Raye asked.

“Why?” Tex asked in return.

“Because it’s news worthy of the first-ever SC staff meeting?” Raye suggested.

“Why?” Tex repeated.

Raye had nothing more.

“I told you four,” Tex pointed out. “You’ll blab it to everyone else. News shared. Done.”

He wasn’t wrong about that.

And he was definitely done, considering, without another word, he trudged back to the coffee cubby.

We all huddled.

“I don’t know what to say,” Harlow started it. “Seeing as I’m totally okay with all of this so I don’t have anything to say.”

“Me too,” Raye said.

“Totes,” Luna added.

Before I could add my affirmative, I heard, “Hey.”

I turned my head and saw my brother there.

“Sorry to interrupt, but can we talk?” he asked me.

The girls moved away, but not too far, because they were my girls, and we took care of each other that way (and other ways besides).

Jeff got close.

“You want a coffee or something?” I asked him.

“No, I don’t have a lot of time. I just wanna run something by you.”

I nodded.

“Javi and I just got done with a meeting at Nightingale Investigations and Security.”

Oh boy.

Eric hadn’t given me any heads up, so this could mean anything.

“Yeah?” I prompted.

“They offered us jobs.”

Okay then.

Eric had kinda given me a heads up.

I sucked my lips between my teeth.

My brother watched me do this before he asked, “You knew they were gonna do that?”

I let my lips go to use them to state, “Eric had mentioned he thought it was a good idea and he was gonna run it by Mace.”

“And you didn’t stop him?”

I was confused. “Why would I stop him?”

A beat went by and then Jeff was hugging me really, really tight.

As his arms squeezed me, my heart squeezed itself. It didn’t feel bad in the slightest.

Nope.

It felt great.

He let me go and said quietly, “I really wanna take the job, and not just because starting salary is three times as much as I make now.”

Whoa!

I mean, I knew those guys made bank, but… wow .

“Okay,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say.

“Jess, I’ll be working with your boyfriend.”

Ah.

I saw his concern.

“Well, I mean, that’s the loose description of what he is to me,” I shared. “He’s more like the love of my life. But since we’re not even a month old, I’m not making that official at least for another week.”

Jeff grinned. “Just so you know, I’ll be working in their control room. I might go out in the field occasionally, but they need help there the most. Since they know about my illness, I don’t think I could push that, and I really want to work with those men.”

I nodded.

I got that.

“Is Javi going to work with them?” I asked.

Jeff cocked his head to the side. “Blew my mind, but after they left us to discuss, we talked for about five minutes, and he was all in. They’re taking on Cody too, though they told him he has to lay off the weed, and Cody won’t have a problem doing that. He’s good with computer shit, and other tech. He’ll be doing night shifts in the control room. I’ll be working days.”

So NI&S was making moves to completely fold the Shadow Soldiers into their operation, tapping a direct vein to the street and scoring themselves two really good men in the process (probably three, I didn’t know Cody that well, though he seemed solid).

I took my brother’s wrist and pushed up the sleeve of his thermal.

Doing this, the tattoo of a shadowed horse that looked like it was running directly toward you was bared.

I covered the tat with my hand and looked at my baby bro. “You boys going to be good with working with another crew?”

Jeff let out a melancholy sigh.

“Our crew included Joaq and Jamal,” he told me. “It’s not the same. We’d already talked about it. We didn’t want to stop, but we didn’t know how to go on. This is a way we can go on. We’re together, but we’re different. We’ve moved on. You know?”

So, Eric had been right.

I nodded to tell him I got it.

“Is Javi still—?” I started.

“Yeah.” Jeff confirmed before I even had to say it. “Joaq was a good guy. The best. But he could do stupid shit. Javi was trying to help him work on his control. His temper could spark, and shit would get out of hand. This makes Javi see it as his failure. He knew Clown dealt to Joaq’s sister. He thinks that’s his mistake. He thinks he shouldn’t have told them, because Joaq hadn’t locked onto his control.”

“He’s not responsible for another man’s actions,” I noted.

“I told him that. Cody told him that. Jamal’s momma told him that. He isn’t letting it sink in.”

“You should probably share that with Eric,” I advised.

“I don’t think any of those men are missing it,” Jeff informed me. “But yeah. I’ll share. There’s time before we’re totally active. They got a hella training schedule that might last two years after Mace does an assessment of us.” A smile spread on his face. “But it sounds pretty cool, and I think we’re gonna surprise them.”

I loved this. I loved it for him. I loved it for the NI&S team. And I loved it for Javi.

I smiled back at him.

“Mace also told us part of our jobs was to watch you and your crew’s asses, so bonus is I get to keep an eye on you.”

My smile turned upside down.

My brother started laughing.

Whatever.

“Are we done? I have to get back to work,” I reminded him.

“You know the coolest thing in the world?” Jeff asked.

I had a feeling I knew several of the coolest things in the world, and Jeff was going to be working with all of them.

Still, I asked, “What?”

“They’re assholes. They’re wastes of space. But you and me didn’t just make it out from under their bullshit, we got out and we thrived. I’d say, ‘So fuck them,’ but I don’t care enough to say it. They’re dust. And we’re concrete. I’m that because I had you, and you never let me down.”

He was talking about our parents.

And why were people always trying to make me lose it?

Really, I wanted to know.

“You never let me down either,” I replied, trying to hide my voice was croaky.

He grinned. “I know. I’m the shit.”

That got me over it.

I rolled my eyes.

He socked me in the arm a little too hard.

I socked him in the arm harder.

He busted out laughing and walked away.

I got back to work.

* * *

That night, all the girls met up at Raye and Cap’s because Raye had gotten a message from Arthur and from what was in this message, according to her (and Luna, and Harlow), we had to do a ceremony to bless our new army knives and the Taser holsters Arthur had gotten us.

Even though this was ridiculous, I participated because first, I was outvoted, second, I got to pick which shot we did during the blessing ceremony (I selected kamikazes), and last, it didn’t take that long, then we went out to were Cap and Eric were hanging in the living room, drinking beer.

There was some small talk.

I made a fresh batch of kamikazes so Eric and Cap could have one.

Then it was time for Harlow to start her bed preparations (this had a different slate of activities every night including but not limited to bubble baths, herbal tea or hot chocolate, facials, do-it-yourself mani/pedis, and a variety of other things), therefore, she left.

Luna had to take Jaques for his evening stroll, so she left.

And Eric and I had to fuck, thus, we left.

“You survived,” Eric observed as we made the short trek to my pad.

“Barely,” I answered.

With a smile on his face, he let us in, locked the door behind us and took my holster from me to inspect it.

“Tactical. Hardshell. Nice,” he decreed.

It totally was. I could tell Arthur didn’t scrimp.

“Ever see a fairy wearing a taser holster?” I asked.

Eric’s eyes cut right to me.

“She’ll be naked, except for her wings,” I continued, and with that, I smirked.

He wiped the smirk off my face by tossing me over his shoulder and carrying me to the bedroom.

He brought the holster with us.

Once there, though, it was me who dug out my fairy wings. They were black with opalescent netting.

I learned in short order that Eric had never fucked a fairy.

But he liked doing it a whole lot .

* * *

Things at the Oasis were always hopping.

With the help of the Hottie Squad, moving Harlow in had been a breeze. She scored a unit across from Raye and me, on the bottom floor, about two doors down from where Luna was on the top.

I helped her unearth all her new decor, and if a power tool was needed, between Eric and Cap, they had assisted.

Now, we were all in at the Oasis.

And it was awesome, even if half the time, Henny and I were over at Eric’s.

* * *

The pool and pool deck were done in time for the Holiday Extravaganza, and the new, kickass pool light had been set to cycle through red, green and blue.

I’d already set up the bar and premixed the gimlets so all anyone had to do was transfer into a shaker with some ice, shake them up, pour and garnish.

Eric texted that something he and Brady were doing meant he was going to be a little late, which was good, because I couldn’t decide what to do with my hair. Middle part and long, or side bun?

I eventually decided to go whole hog with side bun and was putting the finishing touches on it when I heard the front door open and Eric call, “Babe?”

“Almost ready,” I called back.

I turned my head when I felt him in the doorway of the bathroom.

“Jesus, fuck,” he whispered, his eyes on my dress.

I knew what he was talking about, but not the dress.

He was wearing a dark blue, three-piece suit, white shirt open at the throat, burgundy pocket square. Ah-freaking-mazing.

“Will I do?” I asked after I tore my eyes off my hot guy in his suit.

“I’d marry you in that dress.”

I stood completely still.

“We’re already late, there’s people all over the courtyard. How much later can we be?” he asked.

“I don’t even care if we go now.”

He gave me his wicked sexy smile then said, “After. The mood I’m in, I’ll mess up your hair.”

I’d just spent forty-five minutes on my ’do.

“I do not give two fucks about my hair.”

He came to me, slid a hand from my midriff around my ribs to my back and put his lips to mine, not for a touch or a brush, but to whisper, “After.” He then let me go and walked away, ordering, “Hurry up. I’m hungry. And Raye’s pudding is already half gone.”

Seriously?

“You are such a tease!” I shouted.

I heard him chuckle.

Guh.

Though, if Raye’s pudding was already half gone, I had to hustle.

When I got out of the bathroom, I found Eric in my living room staring at my new PhotoShare frame on the kitchen bar.

He didn’t even look at me when he said, “You’re not supposed to buy yourself presents before Christmas.”

Oh crap.

“Did you buy me one of those?” I asked.

He finally looked at me. “No. But if I’d known you wanted one, I would have.”

I shrugged. “Don’t want to spoil the surprise, but this is a sharing frame. You can send your pictures to it, and I can send mine to the one wrapped and under your tree.”

I saw his lips curl up before he turned back and watched the photos cycle.

“These are all of Henny,” he noted.

“There’s one of us,” I said as the selfie Eric had taken at the bar at Steak 44 cycled through. We’d gone early for our reservation to have a drink before we sat at our table.

It was our first “official” date. Something I told Eric was unnecessary (Steak 44 was hella expensive).

It was the second time Eric insisted.

Again, I didn’t put a lot of effort into fighting him about it.

That had been a great night.

That photo cycled out to another of Henny. Which cycled to another one of Henny. And then to another.

They were all black and white. They were all perfection.

Eric turned to me and raised his brows.

“So I’m a cat lady now. I have no regrets,” I said.

Eric laughed as he hooked an arm around me and pulled me to him, finally giving me a brush on the lips.

“Ready to party?” he asked when he was done.

I nodded.

With his arm still around me, we headed to the door.

“Be good,” I said to Henny, though I didn’t know why. He was asleep on the black fur Christmas skirt I had under the tree. He was also always good.

We walked down, and with all the fab Christmas décor, and everyone decked out (even Martha was wearing a shimmery sliver number), the place seemed more like a holiday wonderland.

When I’d set up the bar, I’d seen there was a drum kit, a set of keyboards, an upright piano, and some microphones and amps on a portable stage, so I was expecting a band. But instead, there was Christmas music playing from some speakers Bill and Zach had set around.

Eric went right to the drink table to shake our cocktails.

I went right to the food table to get us some pudding.

“Uhhhhhh…”

I turned my head to see Raye in a red, off-the-shoulder, to-the-knee bodycon dress with long, puffed sleeves sidling close.

“What’s going on there?” she asked.

I aimed my eyes at her, then to where she was looking, and I saw Luna, in a glittery gold, plunge-front, floor-length dress standing behind the striped baubles with Knox.

They were both face to face, or more aptly, nose to nose.

Even from where we stood, halfway across the courtyard, it appeared they were also significantly ticked.

“Whoa,” I muttered right before I shoved some pudding in my mouth.

“I’ll say,” Raye agreed. “Then there’s that.”

She nodded her head toward Javi, who was smiling at Shanti, who was saying something. And about ten feet away, Harlow, in a seriously sparkly ice-blue number that looked like something Elsa from Frozen would wear, was standing with another resident, Jenn, and she was glaring daggers at them.

“Hmm,” I mumbled.

“I will note, Cap and I have been here for half an hour, and Javi tried unsuccessfully three times to make an approach to Harlow, and she instigated evasive maneuvers each time.”

God, my bestie could be a dufus sometimes.

I turned back to Raye. “Then she’s getting what she deserves.”

“It’s like two live-action Hallmark movies,” Alexis said as she came to stand with us.

She wasn’t wrong.

We all turned back to the baubles in time to watch Luna poke Knox in the chest before she stomped to Harlow’s apartment, entered it and slammed the door.

Knox watched this, then he stalked in the opposite direction and out the security gate.

Man, it had to be said, Knox was nearly as good at stalking as Eric was at sauntering.

Our attention shifted when Shanti’s musical laughter could be heard.

Javi was still smiling down at her.

Harlow, though, had a face that was crumbling, before she dashed across the space with almost as much grace as Alexis would do it, right into her apartment.

When her door closed behind her, I looked back to Javi.

He had his his eyes on Harlow’s door.

Shanti did too, and she looked concerned.

Javi looked contemplative, but he morphed to pissed, at who—himself for playing games, or Harlow for doing it—I didn’t know.

“He screwed the pooch on that one,” Eric muttered as he handed me my cocktail.

“Absolutely,” Cap said as he showed and offered a fresh one to Raye.

“Raye said she was avoiding him,” I noted. “He went the flirt-with-another-chick route.”

“Not a good call,” Jacob, also joining us, grunted, then he shot a flinch toward Alexis who leaned into him and put her hand on his chest in a nonverbal I’m over it, baby .

Oh yeah.

Right.

Jacob had pulled that shit with Alexis too.

“If you only got eyes for her, you should only have eyes for her,” Cap gave us some man wisdom.

“Yep,” Eric agreed.

Shanti showed at our group. “Is Harlow all right?”

“She’s into Javi,” I told her.

“Okay,” Shanti said like she didn’t get it.

“And he was flirting with you,” I pointed out the obvious.

Her eyes got big. “We weren’t flirting. We were just talking. He’s funny. He’s gorgeous. But really, he wasn’t flirting. I saw how he looked at Harlow, and it totally wasn’t that, not only because it wasn’t because he wasn’t taking it there, but because Harlow’s my girl, and I wouldn’t take it there.”

Good to know that about Shanti.

“Well, she doesn’t know that,” Raye said.

“And it looked like flirting,” I semi-repeated.

“Should I go talk to her?” Shanti asked.

I searched for Javi.

He was now chatting with Jeff, Linda and Rhea (Raye’s next-door neighbor) like he hadn’t just blown it huge, the big oaf.

“Let them figure it out,” Eric advised.

“I feel bad,” Shanti mumbled.

“Don’t,” I said. “It’s not on you. Really.”

“All right,” Shanti agreed, but I could tell she wasn’t committed to it.

Ugh.

Javi and Harlow both needed a kick in the ass. If they wanted to play games, great. But collateral damage wasn’t cool.

The music from the speakers cut out and the piano intro to The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” started playing from the direction of the stage.

We all turned to where the drums and amps were set up only to see Stella freaking Gunn at the piano with Buzz, the Blue Moon Gypsies’ bass player standing at a microphone ready to sing.

“Holy fuck,” I said.

“Holy shit,” Raye said.

“Oh my goodness,” Alexis said.

“Fucking hell,” Jacob said.

“Good Lord,” Shanti said.

Cap and Eric had nothing to say.

But Eric threw his arm around my shoulders, and when I tore my gaze from the makeshift stage to look at him, I saw his eyes on Stella and a huge smile on his face.

It only got bigger when Buzz began singing.

The rest of the band—Pong, Hugo and Leo—showed with their instruments and started playing just before Stella jumped in on the Kirsty MacColl part.

The Blue Moon Gypsies— all of them —were playing an apartment complex Holiday Extravaganza.

This was insane .

It was also insanely beautiful.

Man, Stella totally was the shit.

We all wandered closer to them as if pulled by an invisible rope.

As for Raye, Alexis, Shanti and me, we were swaying, dancing and singing with them.

Tex sat on top of one of the outdoor tables, a bottle of beer in his hand held up high swinging back and forth, his head bowed, his torso moving with his hand. Linda was clapping with the beat. Bill and Zach were whirling around with arms hooked at the fast parts, and swaying side to side in each other’s arms on the slow parts.

When the song ended, Hugo went to the keyboards, Stella got up from the piano, grabbed her guitar and moved to an unused mic.

“This one is for Kai,” she said to someone offstage.

I looked that way to see Mace standing close to the bar, arms crossed, shaking his head but smiling, his eyes locked on his wife.

This happened before the band dropped right into Stevie Wonder’s “What Christmas Means to Me.”

That did it.

I handed my drink to Eric, and Raye, Shanti, Alexis and I gave up on the swaying and went into straight up dancing.

Within seconds Luna and Harlow had joined us.

So had Martha, Linda, Rhea, Patsy, Bill, Zach, Jenn, half the other Oasis residents and Tallulah and Walsh, Stella and Mace’s two kids.

And just to say, Walsh was barely out of toddlerhood, but the kid could cut a rug.

“Angels get up here,” Stella ordered after “What Christmas Means to Me” was over.

We all glanced at each other before we headed up.

I mean, when Stella Gunn, multi-platinum artist and Rock Chick, tells you to get onstage, you do it.

Right?

While we did, things got concerning as Tex handed each of us a microphone, and Tito moved to the front of the stage with his iPad facing out in front of him.

We barely got there before the Gypsies jumped into The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping,” and I got a bad feeling that was confirmed when the karaoke words to the song scrolled on Tito’s iPad.

I hated karaoke.

I mean, seriously.

The worst.

But it was Christmas.

So…

What the hell?

Right?

Wrong.

I’ll tell you, if there’s a karaoke song to cut your teeth on, this wasn’t it.

We were a disaster.

Catastrophic.

But we went for it, everyone was laughing with us, dancing in front of us, and the best, Mace had joined Eric, Cap and Jacob, Javi and Jeff did too, Knox reappeared, and Brady, Gabe and Liam joined the crew, and they were all smiling at us.

Fortunately, Hugo could play a damn fine horn, and everyone out in our audience was screaming the words with us (or trying, seriously, that song was hard ), both mostly drowning us out.

Topping that, Tito’s Santa-hat-topped head was bouncing to the beat, his beard sometimes obscuring the words on the screen. Tex was stomping around the pool deck dance floor in some bizarre version of dancing. Tallulah had joined us girls in singing onstage, while Walsh seemed to be attempting to break dance by his mom where she was playing the guitar, and that was hysterical.

And I was up there with my girls, doing stupid shit, my stomach hurting because I had to sing and couldn’t do what I needed to do: bust a gut laughing. My chicks all looked gorgeous. They looked happy. And it was nearly Christmas.

So I was oh so very wrong.

It wasn’t a total disaster.

With Eric standing with his phone in front of him, videoing this mess, a huge smile on his happy, handsome face, his gaze on me, watching me make a massive fool of myself with my chicks, what it was, was one of the best memories I’d made in my entire life.

And spoiler alert.

It always would be.

* * *

By the way: I got Jacob’s name to be his Secret Santa. He was totally jazzed by the bottle of McCallan 12 I gave him.

See?

I had this shit down.

Martha was mine. She gave me a box filled with a dozen different colors of edible glitter.

Some mixologists might set those aside for sole use in their cocktails.

I might use some of it in cocktails eventually.

But when Eric and I got back to my place after the Holiday Extravaganza, we had other ideas.

* * *

“Right, it’s officially not Christmas anymore, so I’m out,” Jeff stated as he pushed himself up from the recliner angled beside the one Eric and I were cuddled in.

We were in Eric’s man cave, and it was now seventeen minutes after midnight, the day after Christmas.

Somewhere along the line, Eric had strung multi-colored Christmas lights around the edges of the ceiling, and that was our only illumination.

The room smelled of movie theater popcorn, and we’d just finished Violent Night .

This was after our movie marathon that started with Lethal Weapon then moved into Die Hard and finished with Santa kicking ass and taking names.

Jeff had Henny cuddled to his chest. “Great day, sis. Eric. See you two in the morning.”

FYI: Eric had insisted on yet another thing. Jeff spending the night Christmas Eve so we could all wake up and start the day together, as well as him staying that night, so he didn’t feel he had to leave, and he didn’t have to be alone at all on Christmas Day.

That afternoon, we’d all hit up Mace and Stella’s for an open house Christmas buffet that Stella, Cap and Raye had put together, and the gang was all there.

So all day, our Christmas was about family.

Thought I was crazy for falling in love with this guy in about a week?

As you could see, you were wrong.

“You can leave Henny,” I told him.

“Henny’s coming with me,” Jeff replied.

I opened my mouth, but my brother was out the door with our cat.

I glowered at the door.

“Babe,” Eric called.

I shifted my attention to him and stopped glowering.

“Thanks for not giving me my Christmas present of porn comics in front of my brother,” I said.

He started chuckling.

And…yeah.

Eric had run across my stash of porn. He’d thought it was hilarious, but clearly hadn’t thought it was a turn off, considering that day, he’d augmented it.

In front of Jeff, he’d given me a Disney Villain Maleficent heart-shaped onyx pendant with a vine of diamond thorns.

It was sheer perfection.

So much so, I was never taking it off.

“Thanks for waking me up with a phenomenal Christmas blowjob,” Eric replied.

I grinned at him.

That had been present number one.

The biggie had been a kickass, decorative firepit for his yard.

He’d loved it.

Henny, by the way, did not get thousands of cat toys for Christmas, but he was allowed to scatter the spent wrapping, bat the bows and squeeze into the boxes to his heart’s content.

“It’s not Christmas anymore,” he told me something I knew.

“Okay,” I replied, not sure how I felt about how his expression had changed.

“You’ll want to know,” he murmured. “But I hope you’ll get why I delayed it until after the big day.”

“Know what?” I asked.

He blew out a breath.

Then without a word, he righted the recliner, put us on our feet, took my hand, led me to the door and out went the lights.

He then guided me to the bedroom, turning off more lights along the way.

Once he got us there, he gently pressed me to sitting on the side of his bed. Only then did he open the drawer on his nightstand.

I knew this was no Boxing Day present when he pulled out a plastic bag.

“Getting on their radar, especially how they did, the cops cleared out Homer’s camp,” he said.

My throat closed.

I’d been to the camp twice since the first visit after his abduction, and Homer had not come out of his tent either time.

Due to that, I’d been giving Homer space.

But I had to admit, things had gotten hectic, what with Christmas and all, and the last couple of weeks, I hadn’t checked in.

“They were all moved, to shelters or other accommodations, or they scattered,” Eric told me.

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“Homer has disappeared.”

My heart stuttered to a stop.

“Oh my God,” I whimpered.

“We’ve looked for him, and we can’t find him. We’ll keep looking, honey. But in the meantime, a woman named Connie gave this to a shelter worker saying it had to get to me, so I could give to you,” Eric concluded.

He then handed me the bag.

Uncertain, I took it.

There was no weight to it. It just seemed to be an empty bag.

“There’s something in it,” Eric said.

I looked up to him, before I opened the bag and peered in.

A photo was in there.

Even more uncertainly, I reached in and took it out.

This time, my throat convulsed when I saw it was a picture of a much younger Homer standing behind a beautiful woman, his arms around her, his hands on her very pregnant belly.

They were both smiling huge.

“Sweetheart,” Eric called gently.

I looked up at him again.

He was wavy through the tears in my eyes.

“We’ve also looked into him.”

I knew I didn’t want to know, but I nodded anyway.

“She died of postpartum preeclampsia.”

I swallowed a sob.

Oh, Homer.

“The baby lived,” Eric went on. “Then she got leukemia and passed when she was four.”

I made a pained noise.

Oh, Homer .

I couldn’t hold my head up anymore, so I let it drop.

Eric curled a hand around the back of my neck and put his lips to my hair.

“Let’s get this done for you,” he muttered into my hair. “Look at the back, honey.”

To get it over with, I flipped the picture. I had to blink several times to clear my eyes, but I read:

This is home, Jessie.

I’m glad you found yours.

Hold on to it.

As long as you can.

I couldn’t swallow that sob, my whole body bucked with the power of it.

Eric kept his hand on my neck, his lips to my hair as I allowed the tears to come.

When I started to pull my shit together, I felt Henny jump up beside me, start kneading my thigh with his paws, and that was when Eric moved away.

It was also when I watched him open his nightstand again to commence giving me my last Christmas gift.

He took out a beautiful silver frame.

At this point, he slid the photo from my fingers, and I watched him put it in the frame. I then watched him walk around the bed and rest the frame on the nightstand at my side.

He came back around, gently removed Henny from my thigh, took my hand, pulled me off the bed and into the bathroom.

He made me brush my teeth standing beside him at his basin.

After I changed into a nightie, and Eric had put on his sleep pants, when we were about to get into bed, I put my hand on his abs.

“Stop looking for him,” I requested.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured.

“I don’t want him to feel hunted,” I said.

His curled a hand around the side of my neck. “We aren’t doing it that way.”

“I know. But he might feel it’s that way.” I leaned into him. “If he needs me, he knows where to find me.”

Eric gazed into my eyes a beat.

Then he nodded.

And when we were in bed, he tucked me close, and Henny tucked himself close to my back.

In the dark, I whispered, “I love my pendant.”

“I know,” Eric whispered back.

“But weirdly, Homer’s present was the best one I’ve ever got.”

Eric pulled me closer, and Henny adjusted so he didn’t lose contact.

“I know,” Eric said.

“Merry Christmas, baby.”

“Best one I’ve had for thirty years.”

Fuck!

Seriously!

Why was everyone making me cry?

“I take what I just said back, that was the best present I ever got,” I husked.

Eric pulled me even closer.

And Henny adjusted.

So neither of my boys lost contact.