Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
It was awesome that the grandkids—and even my kids—got to experience a white Christmas.
“Is dinner ready yet?” Titus asked. “I’m fuckin’ starving.”
“You were starving an hour ago and ate half that pumpkin pie you bought at Costco,” Slone countered. “How are you still hungry?”
“Because I’m a growing boy,” Titus countered, patting his belly.
Titus’s daughter, and Slone’s daughter, both snuck up behind their fathers and stuck their cold hands to their fathers’ cheeks.
Both men screamed like little girls.
“Ahh!” they both cried.
“Don’t you dare curse, Titus King,” Viddy warned.
Viddy had a strict no cursing policy.
Nobody abided by it, but everyone knew she had it.
It was hilarious to see her head start to spin like in the Exorcist when things got intense during family gatherings.
“Who wants to eat now?” Oakley asked as she picked up a piece of turkey. “Where are all the drumsticks?”
Viddy’s face went red, and not because of the cold she’d just come out of.
“How was I supposed to know that they sold the damn turkeys without drumsticks or wings?” Viddy asked, throwing up her arms in consternation.
I grinned.
Ford and Banner had given her so much shit about her legless turkeys when they’d been opened and seasoned to fry up.
“Well,” Oakley drawled as she used a piece of a roll to scoop some of the mashed potatoes off her child and ate it. “It did say right there ‘breast only’ on the front of the package.”
Viddy rolled her eyes. “What about that one time you thought you were buying camp chairs, and they came in as doll camp chairs? Whose chairs did you borrow when you needed them for camping the next week, huh?”
Pace started to laugh, leaning against the counter so he’d be stable.
Pace had gotten some new prosthetics. So new, in fact, that he was still getting the hang of the balance thing in them.
He was doing quite well, though, all things considering.
I couldn’t even walk in the snow without threatening deadly harm to my person. Then there was Pace, no legs, navigating it like he was born to be in the snow.
Though, that also might have to do with the fact that he didn’t mind stepping in two feet of snow to get to the house, mostly because his toes wouldn’t get wet if he did.
“Are we going to eat or just stare at it?” Ash asked.
Everyone got up at once, but it was the new mother who got her plate first, much to the chagrin of her husband who’d told her he’d get it himself.
“You have the baby,” she countered. “And, just sayin’, I plan on letting someone else hold her while I eat. I’m starving.”
“Breastfeeding does that to you,” Oakley replied. “I’ve never been hungrier in my life as I was when I started to breastfeed.”
“Ugh,” Perry patted her still very much there belly. “How do you get rid of the extra weight if you eat so much?”
Banner caught her around the waist and whispered something in her ear causing her face to flush.
I grinned and caught her plate of food, deftly placing it at the spot where she’d been sitting quietly, enjoying the atmosphere.
“Your parents are almost here?” I asked.
“They’re on their way, yes,” Perry confirmed. “They had to go back home for the presents and all the baby stuff Mom had washed for me.”
“How long will they be hanging here in the area with you?” Viddy asked as she took the seat next to her.
“Mom and Dad rented a place for the winter.” Perry grinned then. “But Dad didn’t quite think about how cold it would get here, so if they make it another month, I’ll be surprised.”
“Our Texas blood can’t handle it,” Ash snickered.
“No,” Perry’s dad agreed as he blew into the door, a look of horror on his face. “And I don’t think I can handle the snow chains. On. Off. On. Off. I might as well just buy a snowmobile and make the drive to Perry and Banner’s on it.”
“This is the first day for snow,” Viddy frowned. “And it doesn’t even snow that much here. Why have you been putting them on and off?”
“The man thinks that every single time he gets a ‘it might snow’ warning, he has to put them on,” Perry’s mom breezed in, a laundry basket of clothes in her hands. “This place is gorgeous.”
“Because we’re from Texas! When it snows there, we panic, okay?”
“You’re more than welcome to cancel your reservation at your place,” Slone offered. “Then you can stay here when we’re gone. And you’re closer to the new grandbaby.”
Christmas dinner went off without a hitch.
Even the black skin of the turkey tasted amazing.
It was seasoned to perfection, and even if we got salmonella, it would be worth it.
Mostly because the people we’d had dinner with.
To have all my children and grandchildren in one room was something I’d been wanting for a while.