Lizzie laughs softly, her face already falling into that classic expression everyone makes when they meet Melody and can’t help but instantly adore her. I’m no stranger to that.
Mel waves her over to the screen door, and Lizzie opens it and steps off the patio and onto the grass, glancing back to make sure no one in the house notices. “What’s this about?”
“Well, it’s about Jeanette and John.”
Lizzie puffs out a breath. “Total misery fest. Did he fill you guys in?”
“Yeah,” I say, feeling about ten times more comfortable with this whole situation than I did two minutes ago. Melody tends to have that effect on things. “At the team Christmas dinner two nights ago.”
“It’s heartbreaking!” Mel holds her hands to her chest.
“You’re telling me.” Lizzie nods toward the house. “I have Jeanette here moping around like a teen who just got stood up for the prom. And I’m like, sis, I love you to death, but you’re the one divorcing him. No one says you have to do that. But…” She shrugs and purses her lips. “Says her mind is totally made up.”
“What if…” Melody looks at me, then back at Lizzie, smiling with contagious enthusiasm. “What if we told you that we have a very elaborate, very amazing plan in place to change her mind?”
Lizzie frowns, drawing back in surprise. “What do you mean? What kind of plan?”
“Look.” Melody whips out her iPhone and holds it in front of her. “I’m sure you know the story of how John and Jeanette met, right?”
“Oh, of course. The sleigh ride to end all sleigh rides. Twenty years ago today. Believe me, love, I’ve been hearing about it since last night.”
A real, palpable sense of hope rises in my chest.
This could actually fucking work.
“Well…” Mel scrolls through photos on her phone, leaning it toward Lizzie to show them to her. “Some of the guys on the team and their wives, as well as Dyl and I, are working together to re-create that magical sleigh ride.”
“In…” Lizzie tilts her head, processing the confusing information.
“Miami Beach,” I finish with a chuckle. “It sounds crazy, but we really have thought of everything.”
Mel gestures wildly. “Fake snow, pine tree smell, special maple drink. We even have one of our guys getting an actual reindeer from Santa’s Enchanted Forest! See?” She points to the phone, showing Lizzie the selfie that Leo and Elliot took with the reindeer.
She leans close and laughs in surprise and amusement. “Well, I’ll be damned. This is actually an awesome idea. You guys pulled all this together in a day?”
“Yep.” Mel nods with certainty and pride. “And the last piece of the puzzle is the most important of them all. Jeanette.”
“Yeah. Shit.” Lizzie turns and looks back at the house. “How are you going to convince her to go?”
I hold my breath for a second, really curious as to what my unpredictable, if insanely brilliant, wife is going to come up with next. All my anxiety is out the window. Mel’s got this. Somehow, by whatever crazy energies of the universe are at play here, she’s got this.
“We were actually hoping for your help with that.”
“My help?”
“Yes.” Melody bites her lip. “Is there anything, anything at all, you can think of that would get Jeanette to drive down to Miami Beach today?”
“Today,” Lizzie clarifies. “On Christmas Eve. Miami Beach.” She scratches her head and thinks hard. “Actually, there was this ridiculously specific doll I got for my daughter for Christmas. The Princess Penelope Limited Edition.” She leans in and lowers her voice, as if said daughter could be within earshot at any moment. “I got literally the last one in the state of Florida, and I had to drive to Miami to get it. Jeanette has no idea I went.”
Melody gasps. “That’s perfect!”
“Huh?” I frown, unable to follow the wicked speed of my wife.
“If she asks Jeanette to go and pick up this toy for…” Mel looks at Lizzie.
“Arabella.”
“Arabella,” Mel adds quickly, “we could send her straight to the address of the sleigh ride on the beach!”
“Ooh!” Lizzie holds up a finger. “I could just tell her she’s meeting a seller from eBay, so she’ll know she’s not going to a store.”
“Brilliant! Yes!”
“I have people coming over tonight, so I have to be here to get ready, and she loves Arabella more than life itself. She’d do anything for her.”
Melody takes both of Lizzie’s hands in her own and looks into her eyes. “You have such a beautiful soul, I can just tell. I’m so grateful I got to share your light.”
Lizzie holds a hand to her chest and smiles widely at Melody. “You’re like an angel!” She looks at me and raises a brow. “Lucky man, Dylan the Kicker.”
“Oh, believe me, I know.”
“Now…” Melody glances at me with a smirk and then back at Lizzie. “Let’s fix this marriage.”
“I’m on it.” Lizzie heads back into the house and gives us one last thumbs-up.
“Hah!” Mel walks in front of me back toward the car, giving a way-too-dramatic hair flip and an I told you so look over her shoulder.
I slide my hand around her waist and lean against the passenger’s side door, admiring every ridiculous, baffling, awe-inspiring quirk that makes this woman who she is.
“What was that about a plan, Mr. Rivera?” She sticks her tongue out teasingly.
I shake my head and don’t even try to fight my smile. “You never cease to amaze me.”
“The universe wants this to happen.” She opens the door and slides into the car. “I can feel it.”
Thirteen
Whitney Kennedy
“Where did Frankie and Leo go?” I ask Elliot, checking my phone nervously as we pace on the warm sand, feeling the time tick away.
“Reindeer was a no-go. Not allowed on the beach.” Elliot shakes his head and looks out at the ocean, shrugging. “Frankie said she had some kind of idea, so we’re watching Sammy while they figure it out.”
“Oh boy.” I swallow.
“Better question is…” Jessica narrows her gaze at me. “Where in the world is your husband?”
“Chase claims he has the pine thing figured out.” I hold up my hands. “I was totally at a loss, so I came here to help with setting everything up.”
“What happened with getting pine from Fairchild Gardens?” Elliot asks, painfully oblivious to how royally Chase and I screwed up because we can’t seem to keep our damn hands off each other.
I bite my lip. “We…couldn’t find any.”
“Hey, guys.” Smoke walks onto the beach with Kendall clinging to his arm, holding a glass bottle against her chest.
“Hey.” I wave, noticing that they’re both moving a little slower than usual.
“We got the…” Kendall winces in the bright sunlight, swiftly covering her eyes. “Drink.”
Elliot and Jessica walk over to join us, and Elliot takes the bottle from Andre, swirling around a bizarre-looking liquid. “What…” He chokes on a laugh. “What is this?”
Kendall rubs her temples. “Vermont maple vodka. Obviously.”
Jessica gives a bubbly laugh. “This is homemade, isn’t it?”
Andre and Kendall share a look, both seeming exceptionally tired and bothered by the sun. “We did our best,” Andre mumbles. “Please, no more questions at this time.”
“Good Lord.” I look at Elliot and Jessica as we all laugh and shake our heads.
“We got fake snow!” Another groggy-sounding voice, coming from Ellie, makes us all turn toward the boardwalk where the beach access is.
She and Matt are rolling an artificial-snow machine, struggling a little more than they probably should be.
“Here.” Elliot jogs over to help them drag it onto the sand and position it near the sleigh, which is, so far, the only component of this that’s actually where it needs to be.
Matt g
runts and rubs his eyes. “Hey, Whit. You get the pine?”
I puff out a sigh of shame. “No. Chase says he’s on it, though. He had one of his brilliant ideas at, like, six a.m.”
“This should be good.” Matt smiles weakly.
I study the four of them, Matt, Ellie, Andre, and Kendall, tilting my head to the side and examining the special kind of tired they all seem to be suffering from.
“Are you guys…” I cross my arms. “Hungover?”
Kendall scrunches her nose, and Andre chuckles with embarrassment.
Ellie holds up her index finger and thumb close together. “Maybe a little.”
I snort and shake my head, pulling my phone out of my pocket and debating whether I should tell sweet Melody what an absolute shitshow this has turned into.
Ellie points to the nasty-looking drink in the glass bottle. “It looks so good!”
“Y’all are nuts.” Jessica laughs.
“I heard the reindeer thing was a bust, though,” Matt looks around at the boardwalk and peers toward the parking lot. “What are we gonna do?”
I shrug helplessly. “Not a clue. Frankie and Leo are off trying to come up with something.”
“They better hurry.” Kendall holds up her phone, still squinting a little. “Melody just texted in the group that Jeanette is on her way to this location.”
My heart rate spikes. “I gotta find Chase.”
I walk down to the water, looking back at the two-seater red sleigh sitting on the sand and the snow machine positioned next to it. We really are close. We can pull this out.
I dial Chase’s number and thank God he picks up after two rings.
“Nit Whit.”
“Babe, please tell me you are, like, five minutes away with a big-ass, real-life Christmas tree? We gotta come through with the pine smell thing, and it’s important that—”
“I got something even better,” he says slowly, way too proud of himself.
I can practically hear him half smiling and nodding as he drives his ridiculous Lamborghini to the beach.
“Oh no. What?”
“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”
I glance back at the sleigh and the others standing around it. “Now’s not a great time for surprises, Six.”
“Just trust me, we’ll have pine smell out the ass. See you soon, baby.”
“Chase, I—”
He hangs up. Awesome.
I jog back over to where everyone else is standing. Asher and Sammy are playing in the sand, and Andre is trying to convince Jessica and Elliot to try the experimental beverage.
I nod at the bottle. “What happened to the original that Coach gave you?”
“There was…” Kendall gathers her hair and pushes it over one shoulder. “An incident.”
I nod slowly and frown a little, unable to hide my amusement at the fact that it seems everyone screwed up in their own, special way.
Ellie sits down on the sand. “Any word from Leo and Frankie?”
“Not that I know of.” I plop down next to her. “I don’t have the heart to tell Melody there’s no reindeer.”
“I know…” Jessica sits next to us, hugging her knees to her chest. “It won’t even be a sleigh ride. It’ll be a sleigh sit.”
I laugh and drop my head against my knees, letting my hair fall over my face. “We really did try.”
“We certainly did.”
Ellie suddenly looks up, straightening her back and pointing to the side toward the boardwalk. “Oh my God, look!”
We all stand up and turn to see Frankie and Leo stumbling and laughing as they lead Tebow, their enormous love of a pit bull, on a leash onto the beach.
Laughter bubbles in my chest as we race over to talk to them.
“Is he…” Kendall holds a hand to her mouth, smiling in shock and amusement. “Wearing antlers?”
“Damn right he is.” Leo gives the muscular dog a pat on the back. “Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to our reindeer.”
“Puppy!” Asher races over with Sammy following behind him as fast as his stubby little legs can move.
Tebow wears a wide smile and has a wet, floppy tongue as he eagerly looks up at all of us, grinning at everyone.
“He’s so adorable,” I coo, giving him a scratch behind the ears where his reindeer antlers are secured on his head.
“That is beyond precious.” Jessica holds a hand to her chest.
“I love it, I really do.” Elliot crouches down to greet the happy dog. “But…how is this guy gonna pull a two-seater sleigh on the sand?”
“He’s not,” Leo says matter-of-factly. “He’ll just be there for the aesthetic.”
Jessica purses her lips. “So it’ll still be a stationary thing, but at least the ‘reindeer’ will add to the whole vibe.”
Leo bites his bottom lip, glancing at Frankie in a moment of obvious telepathic communication. “I didn’t say it would be stationary. Danes.” He nods at Elliot. “We’re going to push it.”
Elliot draws back, laughing and looking at the rest of us as he processes this. “You and me… We’re going to push…” He gestures toward the beach and the sleigh. “Seriously?”
“Yep,” Frankie jumps in, walking past all of us with Tebow’s leash in hand. “We’ve got a reindeer for show…” She straightens the antlers on Tebow’s head. “And we’ve got the manpower to move the sleigh.”
I smile and shake my head, still wondering where the hell Chase is and what he meant about the pine-scented surprise. “I think it’s brilliant.”
Leo shrugs. “Effort that counts, right?”
Elliot holds a hand up to high-five Leo. “Let’s do it.”
“Update from Mel!” I announce, checking my phone as it pings with a text. “Jeanette should be here in less than twenty.”
“Okay…” Kendall zooms in on the organized checklist on her phone. “We’ve got a sleigh. We’ve got a reindeer—almost. We’ve got the drink—kind of. We’ve got fake snow…” She looks up at me, her eyes now clear and sparkling with the rush of excitement we’re all feeling. “We just need pine. Where’s Chase?”
“Right here!” The unbelievably sweet and beautiful sound of my husband’s voice is music to my ears.
I relax with a massive sigh of relief as I turn toward the parking lot to see him.
You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.
I squint in the sunlight, trying to convince my brain it’s not actually seeing what’s in front of me. But it is. This is real. This is what’s happening.
“That’s hilarious!” Ellie blurts as soon as she sees Chase.
“You know what?” Andre laughs. “A for effort, my man.”
Chase Kennedy is jogging up to the boardwalk with his arms covered—I mean covered—in little green pine-tree-shaped car air fresheners. He must be wielding a hundred as they swing around in the breeze.
That proud smile spreads across his face as he reaches me, raising his brows and nodding. “Huh? Brilliant, right? Pine scent everywhere.”
He shakes his arms a little, jingling around the dozens of little green air fresheners and, well, I’ll be damned.
That’s a strong-ass pine smell.
I bite my lips and study this enigma of a man. “I can’t tell if you’re a genius or a complete and total idiot.”
He leans forward and kisses me. “That’s my magic, baby girl. Now let’s get these bad boys all over the sleigh!”
I follow Chase up onto the sand, hearing everyone laugh as they see his innovative idea.
“You know what?” I say as we walk over to the sleigh and start attaching them everywhere we can.
“What?” Chase gives me a playful nudge.
“You think outside the box. You never give up, especially for the people you love.” I smile at him, leveling my gaze with his and melting into the eyes that have brought me comfort and home since I was a baby. “You’re awesome, Six.”
“I love you.” He wraps his arms around me tightly, and I take
a deep breath of the salty ocean air, feeling a wave of happiness.
“I think I feel Christmas joy,” I mumble into his chest.
He chuckles and kisses the top of my head. “I think I do, too.”
“Coach is here! He’s parking now,” Leo announces.
“Did you tell him what’s going on?” Jessica asks.
“Briefly explained it. He thinks we’re out of our minds, but didn’t want to hurt us by not showing up.”
“I’ll take it,” Matt says with a laugh.
“People!” Melody comes sprinting down the sand like a bat out of hell. “We got here as fast as we could. Jeanette is on her way. She could be here any minute!”
We all stand silently as Melody looks around at the dog with antlers, the homemade gooey liqueur, and the pine-scented air fresheners hanging all over the sleigh.
“It…looks…” She steps closer, studying everything slowly.
I suck in a breath. “Mel, we really tried—”
“Amazing!” she blurts with a bounce on her tiptoes and a clap of her hands. “I love it. It’s authentic and creative and quirky and real. Is that Tebow? Oh my God. You guys are the absolute best. Where’s Coach?”
“Coming up now.” Leo points toward the parking lot.
“Perfect. Group hug!”
We all know better than to argue with Melody when she wants a group hug, so we huddle up on the sand, all six of us with the little boys at our feet.
“We’re one hell of a team,” Dylan says. “All of us.”
Chase gives me a squeeze. “On and off the field.”
Fourteen
Jeanette Watson
It honestly seems kind of sketchy to me, meeting a random stranger in Miami Beach to buy a special, one-of-a-kind doll for Arabella. But for that sweet girl, I’ll do anything.
I glance at the GPS, which says I’ll arrive in a few minutes.
That’s weird. It looks like it’s taking me to the literal beach. Bizarre. Oh well, it’s the middle of the day, and Lizzie would never put me in any danger.
I do wonder, for a brief second, if she sent me on a wild-goose chase just to get me out of the house for a few hours.
Sleigh Ride: A Holiday Novella Page 8