The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,1

and me.

“How are we going to fit everyone in there?” I blurted. With his new wife, Bethany, and their three sons, how was that going to work? “Are you and yours going to stay in a rented cabin nearby?” He couldn’t seriously be considering forcing me to den down with Beau and his lot.

Not only did my brother and I not get along, never had, he had six kids. His wife, Carrie, was nice, sure, we could hold a civil conversation if need be, but their kids ran amok. I’d wake up with gum in my hair, if there was any left to put gum in it, and god knows what else if they had access to it.

My nose twitched just thinking about the one time I’d allowed my father to talk me into staying at little bro’s, stuck on a layover one horrible holiday a few years ago. My cheeks phantom burned from the toothpaste his little freaks had smeared on my face while I’d slept like the dead. They’d also cut all the zippers off my luggage—how, I had no clue and was too horrified even now to find out—and had given me a haircut. And what had good old Beau said of it all, once he’d stopped laughing his ass off—which gave me a niggle of a doubt as to his innocence in all of that—boys will be boys. I’d never wanted to beat a gaggle of boys in my life. I mean, I rocked that pixie cut, but was the impromptu trim really warranted? I’d been ready to give those little shits a fat stack of video games they’d wanted. Not after that. After that mess, I’d returned all but one each to pay for the emergency haircut their dear auntie had needed, and they hadn’t gotten them until I’d released the three games to their mother’s discretion until right before I’d left, after she’d demanded apologies and their father punish them.

“How is any of that even going to work?” I queried evenly, though I wanted to bark at him and ask the old man if he was losing it.

“You see, Lumi girl…” he started to say, but then his voice faltered.

My stomach dropped. I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. When Dad had bad news or was about to say something I really wasn’t going to like, I was Lumi girl. Not Lumi, kiddo, or the dreaded sweetie, the sugary pet name to Beau’s Champ, when he wanted something from us and knew we’d balk. In this moment, I was reduced to his Lumi girl, and I could feel the walls closing in on me as my body stiffened.

“Dad,” I barked quietly, voice hardening. Contemplating pulling over in this mushy muck, snow steadily pelting my windshield, I was not about to get into an argument with dear old in the middle of this and risk crashing.

No, I could handle this. I was fine. I’m an adult after all. We could be adults about this. I hoped...

The last time he called you Lumi girl was to tell you Mom was dead. He’d said it with such a wooden tone, I had hope when the same wasn’t reflected this time.

“What? Tell me?” I was still barking. I couldn’t help it. He dragged crap out, like he didn’t want to say it or wasn’t prepared to deal with me and my reaction. I was going with a bit of both. I’d never met such a passive aggressive man in my life.

I’d dated enough losers close to it, but none quite matched father dear.

Dad liked to think he ruled the roost, and I was sure his wife let him think that, but Bethany ran the show. His next words confirmed it.

“Beau cancelled. Carrie is pregnant again, and hasn’t been feeling well.”

“Uh-huh…” Get on with it. What’s that got to do with anything? Carrie preggers, there was really no surprise there. Beau treated her like a broodmare. Every pregnancy, she insisted this was the last one, but Beau would just smirk like he knew better. Why he kept knocking her up when he was never around to father the progeny he’d already brought into this world, I had no clue and it was none of my business. They wanted an army of mini Damiens and live out The Omen, more power to them, but I wasn’t about to be left to tend to that satanic brood like a built-in babysitter every family get-together. I shuddered at the