“Hey, let her keep thinking it’s gross and yucky. Then I won’t have to stand on the deck with my shotgun,” Max said.
“I want sex, too!” Oliver announced.
Max grabbed his five-year-old’s shoulder. “Not until you’re twenty-five.”
“Dad!” Hannah cried. “You told me I had to wait to date until I was thirty! How is that fair?”
“Life isn’t fair, my darling daughter. Best to learn that now,” Max answered, his lips quirking as he tried to hold back his laughter.
“I told you fifty,” Ron reminded her.
Hannah rolled her eyes.
“Well, there you go. Your father was out ruled by his father.”
“Dad!”
Max shrugged. “He outranks us all.”
Ron clapped his hands, getting everyone’s attention. “And as the supreme ruler of this house, I agree with my brother, we should all go for a walk.”
“What? Now?” Teddy whined. “It’s cold out. And snowing. And winter. And brr.” He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered.
“Yes, now, before we eat,” Ron said. “We can work up an appetite.”
“We can’t eat if there’s no food,” Teddy grumbled under his breath.
“When have you ever starved around Mary Ann?” Adam asked him.
“Never.”
“I told you to eat breakfast.”
“I was saving space for dinner.” Teddy made his way over to Carly, who was standing by the car seat, where Levi was sleeping. “I can stay with the baby.”
“He’s going on the walk. I brought plenty of layers for him and we’re going to strap him to Matt’s chest again. My husband is like a walking, talking furnace.”
“Well, that I have to agree with. Matty is very hot. And when he’s broody, he’s smoldering.”
“Everyone bundle up,” Adam’s dad yelled.
Teddy’s lower lip jutted out. Adam approached him and dragged a thumb over it. “Baby, it’s just a walk. You aren’t going to die. It’ll be fun.”
“How do you know I’m not going to die? We could be attacked by a rabid pack of rabbits. Haven’t you ever watched a horror movie before?”
Adam put his lips to Teddy’s ear. “I’ll protect my Teddy Bear. I promise.”
“Oh,” Teddy breathed. “Don’t make me hard in front of the children.”
“Good idea. Put on your coat and your five thousand winter accessories that are color coordinated and get ready.”
“I’ll have you know those accessories are vital to my winter survival.”
“You live in Manning Grove, not the arctic circle,” Adam reminded him.
Teddy sighed and moved with the rest of the family toward Randall as he stood by the closet and handed out coats, gloves, hats and scarves to their owners.
Adam stood back and Max paused next to him, whispering, “We got it from here. Just take a breath.”
Easier said than done.
“Okay, let’s go,” Adam heard his father say in his best retired cop’s voice. “As soon as you’re dressed appropriately, go outside on the porch. Let’s keep this orderly and organized.”
If Adam wasn’t so sick to his stomach, he’d laugh. Retired or not, you can never remove the cop out of the man.
He purposely stood at the back of the pack. His father handed out the last coat to Max, who waited for Randall to walk outside first. “I’ll keep him out,” his cousin mouthed.
Adam nodded, pulled out his cell phone and said loudly, “You go on ahead. I need to make a quick call.”
“What?” came a screech from outside on the porch.
“You all go on. I’ll catch up.”
“Who are you calling on Christmas?” Teddy shouted back into the house.
Max shut the door firmly, cutting off Teddy’s complaints.
Adam turned and sprinted up the stairs as fast as he could. He was either going to throw up or his heart was about to explode.
He wasn’t sure which would be worse.
* * *
“I told you something suspicious is going on,” Teddy hissed at Amanda as everyone else filed down the porch steps and headed down the snow-dusted stone sidewalk. “Who is he calling on Christmas? Everyone he would talk to on a holiday is here.”
Amanda hooked her arm in his and pulled him along. Teddy wanted to dig in his heels, run back inside and demand to know who Adam was talking to.
“It’s nobody,” she said. “Probably work.”
He twisted his neck to glance at Max who was coming up the rear. “Why would he call into work today? The freaking chief is right here with us!” His voice was getting higher the more he melted down.
“Dunn had a question about a case they were working together, that’s all,” Max said. “Remember, everyone else is working today so we could all spend Christmas together. Dunn did a selfless act by volunteering to work and is missing out on Christmas morning with his family. If he has a damn question, then Adam can spend a couple minutes answering it. Teddy, stop being so goddamn selfish.”
Teddy pouted at Max’s scolding. “Well, how is he going to find us?”
“He’s a cop. He’ll find us,” Amanda assured him.
“Look down,” Max ordered.
Teddy looked down at the ground as the group rounded the back of the house and headed toward a row of trimmed evergreens like a herd of sheep with Chaos circling them, making sure everyone stayed together.
“He’s not going to lose us,” Max said.
True. With the group they had, there were plenty of footsteps, even in the light dusting of snow. “I should go back and keep him company.”
Amanda tugged him along, almost pulling his arm out of the socket. “No, he’ll catch up quicker without you to slow him down.”
“Fine,” Teddy huffed. “If we have to send out a search party... And then we find my Adam frozen like a popsicle...”
“Then, bonus, he’ll be stiff forever,” Amanda said, yanking him along.
Twenty minutes later, his nose was numb, they were still walking with no end or Adam in sight. He’d texted his fiancé five times with no response. “I don’t like this. Someone needs to go back and look for my fiancé.”
Everyone ignored his panic, like he was just a silly boy, and kept walking. Like they didn’t care that Adam could be found frozen to death amongst rows of Christmas trees or... or...
Having an
