against me. “Or get a jacket.”
“Okay, Dad,” I teased.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t want to get sick, do you? We just got here.”
He shook his head at me with disapproval, and my eyes grew wide. If I got a cold while we were here, I’d be so mad at myself.
“You’re right,” I agreed quickly and ran inside.
Mac followed, closing the door behind him before trying to chase me toward the kitchen. “I’m what? Say that last part again.”
“Back to your couch.” Danika pointed at Mac.
He stopped mid-step. “But I—”
“Couch. No boys in the kitchen.”
Mac gave Danika a wiseass grin. “Don’t hate the sound of that.”
Typical male.
“Okay, I’m ready. How can I help?” I asked, and Danika’s shoulders sank as we stared at the ridiculous amount of food that she’d bought that we still needed to prep and cook.
“I honestly have no idea. Why didn’t I order in? I’m going to ruin our holiday,” she said, and we both started laughing.
“We’ll figure this out. It can’t be that hard. Right? I mean, everyone does it,” I said, and she gave me a crazy look.
“We should probably start drinking. I think it will help.”
I glanced at the clock on the microwave. “It’s still morning.”
“So?” She looked past me and into the living room. “You guys want a beer?”
Both boys’ heads turned quick. “Yes,” they shouted like she might take the offer back.
Twisting off the caps, she walked to the couch and handed them each one. Chance grabbed her, pulled her down, and gave her a kiss before thanking her. Her cheeks turned bright red. Still. After all this time.
“I have some Lambrusco,” she said like I had any idea what that even meant. “We can drink that and pretend to be civilized.” She opened up one of the cupboards and pulled out a bottle before going to another cabinet and grabbing two of the smallest wineglasses I’d ever seen.
“Why are they so small?” I reached for one and studied it, spinning it around with my fingers.
“We drink Lambrusco in tiny glasses. I don’t know why!”
I dug inside one of the drawers, searching for a bottle opener. “Yes,” I said as I pulled it out and handed it to her.
She opened and poured the wine, and we swished it around inside our little glasses. I had no clue what we were doing, but I did it anyway.
“We’re letting it breathe,” Danika said in a thick, fake British accent.
“Oh, yes, darling. It must breathe an ample amount of time before we devour it,” I added, my accent as bad as hers.
We eventually finished off the entire bottle of wine, and all we’d done was make even more of a mess in the kitchen. Potato peels were in the sink, but we hadn’t sliced or diced them yet. The turkey was sitting in some turkey cooking thing that Danika had started calling his bathtub because neither one of us could remember the name of it. The fresh-bread stuffing was still sitting in a bag, waiting to be made. There was asparagus on the chopping block. The oversize rolls were in the fridge. And the two of us were hammered.
“I think our girlfriends are drunk,” Mac said, suddenly standing in front of me, his hazel eyes looking all dreamy.
“When did you get here?” I asked as I reached out to run my fingers across his face. “You’re so hot.”
Mac started laughing, and Chance appeared out of thin air.
“Are you two magic? How do you just appear like that?” I asked, snapping my fingers.
“They didn’t just appear,” Danika explained, her words slower than usual. “They walked. From the couch. You know”—she pointed over to the couch where the parade was done and some football game was playing instead—“over there.”
“I think you two had better slow down, or we won’t have anything to eat,” Chance said, sounding all reasonable and annoying.
“You’d two better slow down or …” Danika mouthed off back, but when she couldn’t think up a retort, she started giggling instead. “Crap. We drank too much.”
“It’s the little glasses! They seem so harmless,” I complained.
Mac handed us each a bottle of water. “Here. Drink these. You girls need any help?” he offered.
I shook my head. “No. We want to do it. Go away.” I shoved at him, but his stupid, strong body refused to move. “Out of the kitchen.” I kept shoving. He kept staying put.
Giving me a quick kiss, he grabbed another beer and left like a good boy. Even with my