“You might need to roll me out of here in a wheelbarrow,” Meghan joked to Alex after covering her dinner plate with a napkin.
He gave her an adorable smirk. Gesturing with a nod to her empty plate he teased playfully, “Time to play taps for turkey dinner?”
A well-fed belch shot from her throat. She covered her mouth and laughed with embarrassment. Remembering what Lacey advised about sharing everything, she ran her foot up his calf under the table and turned on a serious expression.
“Well, that’s new,” she said with a lowered voice. “My mom says I’ll be a veritable sound effects pro by the time the twins arrive.
Alex’s deep, masculine laugh was just what she needed to hear.
Her eyes swept the formal dining room and gazed affectionately on the crew gathered around the enormous table. Counting heads, she came up with fourteen adults and three kids. Missing from the group was Betty, who flew home to be with family for the holiday, along with Parker and Angie who spent the day with the Sullivans.
She couldn’t stop her mind from making the jump to next year when the twins would be here. And Alex’s parents too. Sophie, she was recently informed, was also set to make this corner of Arizona home once more.
They made a little fuss over Tori and Drae. Designating turkey day for the twice wed couple’s official anniversary gave everyone a chance to share their loving best wishes.
All the women, Bella included, grabbed sweaters and wraps and wandered out onto the terrace where a blazing fire crackled in the outdoor fireplace while the men cleared the table as Carmen and Ria shook their head and barked orders.
“What’s this, Bella?” she asked.
“Daddy and I have a surprise, Aunt Meghan. We practiced and everything.”
Meghan eyed the equipment set-up and looked to Heather for confirmation. “Karaoke?”
“Better have tissues handy.”
Stephanie had Tori in a bear hug as Lacey snapped a picture with someone’s phone.
When the dogs exploded onto the terrace with a rowdy display she knew the men weren’t far behind.
Ben and Ria appeared first. “Got my dang head snapped off for trying to be helpful,” he muttered.
“Benito,” Ria chided with good humor. “Leftover cranberry sauce does not go in a zip-lock bag.”
Drae and Daniel came bounding in next. “Dog!” the baby yelled with glee.
Calder materialized as though the terrace was the transporter room aboard the Enterprise and stole a giggling Danny from his father’s arms.
Finn was the next face to appear. He was pushing a serving cart that had hot carafes and mugs on top and two deadly looking pies beneath. As usual, Carmen and Ria thought of everything.
Alex, Cam and Brody brought up the rear, each man wearing a comically sheepish expression.
“Got thrown out of my own kitchen,” the grouchy alpha muttered.
As Cam slid by with Dylan in his arms he told her, “Carmen is having a Spanish bitch-fit. She flipped her gourd when Brody asked if he could check out the wishbone. Started ranting in broken English about tradition and wishbones or whatever. You’ll have to ask her.”
She already knew what had the housekeeper’s knickers in a bunch. The tradition she referred to involved leaving the wishbone near Abuelita’s picture overnight. One of those this-is-how-we-do-it things that Meghan didn’t question.
When they were all gathered and Carmen passed around hot chocolate for the ladies and coffee for the men, Brody asked for everyone’s attention.
“As you probably figured out by now,” he said with a comical glance at the karaoke machine, “we’ve got a holiday performance planned, right Bella?”
After a bit of organizing he sat on a low stool with Bella by his side, both of them clutching microphones.
“Go ahead, honey,” Brody sweetly encouraged.
“This song is about us,” she gushed. “Family Justice. Daddy picked it out and ‘splained what the words meant. It’s called You Raise Me Up.”
Brody started the machine, muttered “Josh Groban,” and as Meghan looked around she could swear everyone was holding his or her breath.
Alex clung tight to her hand and when Brody began singing the hauntingly beautiful song, she had to grab onto him or start bawling like a baby. When Bella’s lovely clear voice joined his on the second verse, Heather wisely started passing the box of tissues.
She was a red-faced, snotty mess when father and daughter finished their poignant duet only this time she couldn’t blame the hormones. Not entirely.
Not for the first time nor the last, Bella Mia Jensen reduced a pack of mature alphas to jelly. The combination of the sweet child singing a song with such deep meaning was powerfully moving. Even the boys listened with quiet fascination.
When the amazing performance was over and Bella passed from person to person for hugs and kisses, Calder stood up and comically griped, “Darn kid stole our thunder.”
She looked at Alex. “Any clue?”
“Nope.”
From her large satchel purse, Stephanie pulled out a stack of white envelopes, which she promptly handed out by passing the stack around so everyone could take one.
Calder stood at Stephanie’s side and held onto her hand as she sat with a serene smile on her face and patiently waited.
Alex tore open the envelope and showed her the beautiful card with an elegant entwined calligraphy of Stephanie and Calder’s names, she bit her lip when she saw the rest.
You are cordially invited …
Tori let out a shocked gasp. “Oh my god! Mom?”
“Hope nobody has plans for the third Saturday in January,” Calder exclaimed. A wide smile big enough to be photographed by a satellite spread across his face.
“Wolfie,” his uncle called out. “Best man?”
“Hell yeah,” Alex chuckled.
“St. John,” Calder gritted out. “Unfortunately the presence of innocent ears prevents me from calling you by a more apropos name—but the question is still the same. You in as a groomsman?”
“Totally,” Drae answered with a sneer.
Stephanie broke out her thousand-watt southern belle smile and Scarlett O’Hara drawl. Looking at Tori she said, “Shugah, darlin’? Matron of Honor?”
Tori was clinging to her husband with a happy, watery smile on her face. “My pleasure.”
Then she looked straight at her and Meghan smiled. “Double M, shugah! Please say yes. I need a bridesmaid who won’t start bawling at the drop of a hankie.”
Nodding happily, Meghan brushed away tears of happiness. Here was one change she was overjoyed about.
Finn asked, “Uh, not to come off as daft or anything but the invitation doesn’t say where.”
With there being no love lost between her brother and uncle-in-law, Calder could have answered a dozen different ways just to be a dick. But when she glanced back at the invite and realized Finn was right, she turned expectant eyes on Calder and found his expression expectant. He knew the question would be asked.
“Got a few details to pin down yet.”
“Oh,” Lacey mumbled. “So are you thinking about doing it at the cottage cabin? How lovely.”
Meghan saw something pass unspoken between her husband and his uncle and found the exchange curious.
“We’ll let you know.”
How any of them found room to top off with pie was beyond her but that’s what they did. Spread around the terrace with several lively conversations going, Meghan looked on her Arizona family with love. This was her second Thanksgiving with Family Justice. She didn’t think much could top last year’s gathering where Drae surprised Tori with a surprise exchange of vows in front of all in attendance.
Talk about being wrong, she silently laughed. Babies had been born and new faces came to stay. Angie returned and the world kept turning. Life with this crazy family was like a colorful tapestry woven with strength and reinforced by bonds of love and friendship. She wouldn’t trade it for any
thing.
36
With a holy shit-storm of wrapping paper, bows, ribbons and tags spread out around her, his wife was parked on the floor sitting cross-legged next to a stack of boxes, talking in a breathless rapid-fire way to an empty room. Alex stuck his head around the corner and looked to see who she was talking to.
“I got the coolest shirts for the kids’ trip to Hawaii. Oh, and a really ghastly Tiki print button down for Dev. Make sure he takes pictures of everyone wearing the stuff or I’ll be pissed.”
“Oh, Meggie,” he heard her mother’s voice croak with laughter. “That’s so funny, mo stoirín. He’ll hate that!”
“What’s going on?’ he asked, striding into the room and stepping around the wrapping mess.
“Wrapping presents with Ma,” Meghan chirped happily. “Look.”
She drew his attention to her iPad mounted to a tabletop size tripod. Now it all made sense. They were FaceTiming while handling the holiday present duties.
“Hi Mom,” he said with a wave. “My folks behaving themselves?”
“Alex!” Maggie O’Brien happily cheered. “We were just talking about you. Paddy and Cris want to do an Indian sweat lodge thing after Christmas, while we’re there. Can you arrange something like that?”
He wasn’t sure what the expression on his face registered because at the moment all he could do was stand with his jaw cranked open.
“Are you serious?”
Meghan folded a precise crease into the wrap for a small box as she sniggered at his dumbfounded reaction. “They’re dead serious,” she whispered.
“Oh, my yes,” his mother-in-law assured him. “And Matt Sullivan wants in on any plans. Matter of fact,” she happily chirped, “I bet Calder would be a trip to have along.”
Meghan’s hands dropped into her lap and she looked at him with wide-eyed wonder. “Trip?” she whisper-mouthed. “What’s next? Groovy?”
He could barely hold in his laughter. “I’ll ask around and see what pops up.”
“Oh, thank you, hon. And maybe while you’re at it the ladies could take a field trip to one of the yummy spas around Sedona. Your mom has a thing for hot stone pedicures. We’ll arrive on the twenty-seventh. Paddy wouldn’t hear of interfering with Captain Sawyer’s family time.”
Bending down he kissed Meghan and smiled into her happy green eyes. “Sorry to interrupt ladies, but I have to head over to the shooting range and check something out. I’ll be back in about an hour. Is that okay?”
He heard Maggie’s amused laugh. It was the same sound Meghan made when he was being overprotective.
“I’m fine, Major. Go do your thing.” She waved at the wrapping chaos and groaned. “Clearly I have my hands full.”
As he made his way from the family property deep inside Camp Justice he thought about the last few weeks and how great things were.
Meghan’s morning sickness was normal and not the dreaded hyperemesis gravidarum Lacey suffered from. And not just that, she was happier than ever and sporting the most adorable twin bump. A bump he lavished tons of attention on from nighttime stories to playing his favorite music for them through specially designed earphones that rested on his wife’s tummy.
Amending the Dickens quote to just one line, “It was the best of times”, summed up his life.
Christmas was on a fast approach and his parents would be arriving the week after a visit in Boston with Meghan’s folks. The old Sedona house was now a thoroughly updated and beautifully decorated home, courtesy of Angie’s many talents, complete with a specially poured pad for parking an RV.
He still had a hard time wrapping his mind around what he viewed as their impetuous plan to join the Good Sam club and wander around the country bucket-listing the sights.
Uncle Matt and Aunt Wendy got in on the act and as of last weekend were the proud owners of a stately RV that made Alex alter his dim view of homes on wheels. And because trouble and insanity had a habit of picking up followers along the way, now Meghan’s parents were talking about renting a vehicle next summer and joining the senior citizen caravan.
Good lord. Anything else?
He laughed out loud. Hell yeah there was something else.
Sophie.
Sophie was moving into the casita temporarily while she looked for a house. When he complained she was being ridiculous because there were easily seven or eight unoccupied bedrooms at the villa, he’d been surprised by how fast his dad shut him down with an admonition to back off. Let Sophie do Sophie, he kept saying.
What the hell did that mean exactly?
Well, at least Angie finally got her shit together and stepped up to the plate. His parents and Parker’s were on a serious high now that a firm date was set. He was damn glad those two figured it the fuck out because he’d been ready to banish them both off the island if they didn’t get their shit together.
Right now, things were clear sailing for all of them and for the first time in a while, he didn’t feel helpless and worried all the time.
Now all they had to do was get through his family’s arrival and all the Christmas festivities. Tough job but somebody had to do it, he thought with a chuckle.
After that came the end of an unforgettable year for him, his wife, and the start of more fantastic and memorable times.
Parking next to Drae’s truck, he grabbed a gun case from off the seat next to him and hopped out of the vehicle. They were putting five veteran agency operatives through a series of challenges and today they were basically scaring the piss out of them with live ammunition.
Betty had been pressing for more than a year for them to step back and allow permanent instructors and managers to handle the Justice security contracts and run the Camp training programs. Confine their activities to cameos and networking because after all, due to the extent the agency exploded and grew, the administration piece by itself was several full time jobs rolled into one.
None of them were averse to the idea but it was proving tougher than he imagined turning their baby over to someone else. That’s what today’s vetting was all about. They’d whittled down the applicants for camp director and Justice operations manager to a handful of people they already knew pretty well.
Hopefully a decision wouldn’t be too far off. He wanted to do nothing after the first of the year except focus on his wife and their babies.
Pushing aside a couple of nagging worries about Justice that were making his business life hell, he marched across the dirt parking area in search of Drae.
Plenty of time to worry later about dubious friends with questionable connections and the very real possibility he was going to be forced to break out his passport and step into the danger zone probably sooner than he was comfortable acknowledging.
She tackled him the second he came through the front door, knocking Alex off balance and almost sending him crashing to the floor.
“Whoa, girl,” he chuckled in a lame attempt to calm the overzealous dog but Zeus was having none of his shit. Crouching to her level, he dropped his keys on the tile floor and focused his whole attention on the rambunctious dog.
The large black Labrador was all over him in a flash. Licking his face, wagging her tail so hard her butt end was all over the place. He had to laugh.
Alex held her head with both hands, giving her a good scratch behind the ears, and accepted the doggie kisses.
She could slobber into his open mouth and he wouldn’t flinch. He loved Zeus like nerds loved The Big Bang Theory. The loyal lab helped bring him back from the edge during his dark times. They had a bond and an understanding.
And the dog adored his wife, so there was that too. The only time Zeus ever even came close to defecting or transferring loyalty to someone else was over Meghan.
With one knee on the floor he leaned in and gave the big black dog a hug. She curled into his chest and put her head under his chin to snuggle close.
Ending the love fest, he gave her a good all over body rub, patted her on the rump and stood up.
“Okay, girl. Show me what’s got you all riled up.”
Did she understand? Of course she did! Zeus tore off running into the kitchen, woofed, and then sped right back to his side.
“So the kitchen it is,” he chuckled, dutifully following her lead.
“Oh, hi you,” his wife cooed when he sauntered into the kitchen. “Kiss, kiss,” she demanded with some smooching noises.
Assured her tonsils were in working order after examining them with his tongue, he straightened and took a look at what she was doing.
“I’m slicing up carrots and don’t you say a single word,” she snarled with a dangerously waving knife. “Just because I can’t cook doesn’t mean I can’t help.”
She sniffed indignantly, went back to chopping the carrots and sniffed, “So there.”
Zeus scrambled into the kitchen, let off an enthusiastic bark, and flew back toward the mud room.
“What’s up with her?”
“Go and look, Daddy!”
“No hints?”
“She’s got a snazzy new dog lounger. Wait till you see this thing.”
He arched an eyebrow at the news. “I didn’t know she needed a lounger.”
“Yeah, well…about that. I suggest you go have a look and then keep walking. Stick your head in the breezeway and try not to swallow your tongue, okay?”
Scrubbing fingers through his unruly hair, he made an impatient sound. “Something tells me I’m not going to be happy.”
Meghan put the knife down and wiped her hands on a dishtowel. “Don’t be so dramatic,” she chided gently. “It’s not always about you, Major.”
An easy smile lifted his face. “Says you.”
Her animated laugh ended when he took her neck and pulled so he could drop his mouth onto hers. When they separated his cutely willful wife swiped the corners of her lips, smirked and asked, “Is your father this pushy?” Sheeshing him with a head shake, her hands pushed on his chest. “Move it buster before your girlfriend starts sulking because you’re ignoring her.”
Unforgettable (Family Justice Book 5) Page 47