The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,54
the drive you can see the house from the street through the trees,” Margot declared.
“Barely,” Dave muttered.
Margot went on like Dave didn’t speak. “And what will the neighbors think if they see a tree in Adeline’s window that’s off-kilter?”
“There’s at least three acres, most of it forest between Addie and either of her neighbors, so I don’t reckon they’ll care,” Dave fired back.
“Well, I care because whoever sees that tree will know at least Tobias put it there and they’ll think he doesn’t care enough about Adeline and Brooks to center their tree,” Margot countered.
“Think they’ll be more apt to jabber about the fact that Toby and Johnny spent now until New Year’s tryin’ to center a tree, instead of decorating the damned thing and then eating chicken, rolls and that pie that looks like it was made by the hand of God and not Izzy,” Dave rejoined.
“I know one thing that isn’t helping,” Toby put in. “You two bickering about this.”
I looked that way and watched him catch Johnny’s eyes.
“Here,” he declared.
They set the tree down.
“It needs to go back to the left!” Margot cried.
Toby looked to me and did what he did when he didn’t want to get into it with Margot.
Ignored her.
Now Johnny . . . Johnny handed her shit. He teased her like crazy.
Not Toby.
“You got a tree skirt, baby?” he asked.
I jerked my chin across the room. “In that box over there, honey.”
He moved that way.
“Baby,” Izzy murmured.
“Honey,” Deanna mumbled.
They both giggled, even Deanna, who wasn’t a giggler.
Okay, maybe folks were noticing a difference between Toby and me.
But they were noticing it to wind up to giving me crap about it.
“See those lights outside?” Izzy asked.
“I sure did,” Deanna answered.
“All Toby,” Iz told her.
“Shoowee,” Deanna replied.
Totally winding up to give me crap.
And then giving me crap.
“Dee-girl,” Charlie rumbled his warning.
“What?” she asked her husband.
He knew better than to fight it.
So he sighed.
Deanna looked to me. “Told you that storm would blow.”
I rolled my eyes.
“And it blew all over a street in Matlock,” she concluded.
“I have a feeling something also blew at Toby’s house today,” my good girl, straight-laced Iz put in on a hushed whisper.
They burst out laughing.
“Somebody kill me,” I muttered.
Izzy’s laugh turned to giggling.
Deanna grinned at me.
Charlie let out another sigh.
“I’ll arrange the tree skirt,” Margot declared.
“Woman, you get down there, you’ll never get up,” Dave said, and the temperature of the warm and cozy family room, with it’s burgeoning Christmas cheer and the fire in the fireplace that Toby had lit while everyone was arriving, dropped fifteen degrees when Margot shot Dave a glare.
“You keep running that mouth, David, you’ll be down in a way you’ll never get up either.”
It was hard, but I didn’t even let out a snort in fighting back my laugh.
“Dodo!”
My attention went back to Toby just in time to see him swinging my son into his arms.
I was a tough broad most of the time.
But that?
Every time.
Serious melt.
“Johnny, Margot gets that skirt down, will you light it up? I wanna see Brooks when it goes,” Toby said to Johnny.
“Sure, brother,” Johnny muttered, hunkering down to help Margot with the skirt.
It was then, I quit watching Toby holding my son close to his chest.
It was then, I glanced around.
Johnny and Margot arranging the tree skirt.
Tissue and newspaper all over the floor from unwrapping the ornaments.
Dave sitting on the arm of Izzy’s loveseat, monitoring the tree action.
Charlie in the couch next to Deanna, a beer to his thigh, a small smile on his lips, wisely keeping silent.
Deanna on the couch, and me and Iz cross-legged on the floor, ornaments all around.
Dapper Dan snuffling through the tissue and newspaper.
A fire crackling.
Roasting chicken filling the air.
Christmas music on low coming from the Bluetooth speaker Johnny and Izzy had brought over.
I looked to my sister, seeing her head tipped back and she was saying something to Charlie I wasn’t paying attention to.
She was getting married to the love of her life in August, plans were in full swing, her face was aglow with happiness, along with the fact that nothing on this earth, absolutely nothing, now not even me, weighed her down.
But Charlie was giving her away.
Because Mom was gone and Dad was barely even a memory.
This was her first Christmas with Johnny. They’d already decorated their house and tree, by themselves, as it should be.
But we’d never had this, all of this, not with each other, definitely not when Mom was alive.