Page 36 of Terms and Traditions

Gabe still didn’t say a word. This wasn’t a good sign because Gabe’s poker face was impossible to read. Hello, military training. Which left me no choice but to deploy my own training. A little something I called Operation Dollface. Which I hadn’t used since I was sixteen and trying to soften him up to let me go to prom with a boy. The same guy who Anika dared me to kiss, but Gabe didn’t know about that, and I’d take that news to my grave. This was almost the same thing. Kinda.

Slipping out of Hailey’s hug, I crossed the room and paused in front of Gabe. At over a foot taller than my five-foot frame, he towered above me, which worked to my advantage. Lightly gripping his folded forearms, I leaned into him and gave him my best soulful, wide-eyed pleading expression—the same one his daughters now used. As a youngster, I’d discovered I had Gabe wrapped around my finger and only had to flash this look at him to get him to cave. It had worked the last time I used it for prom, but I was twenty-eight now. Were the odds still in my favour?

Gabe’s cheek twitched, and the firm muscles under my hands relaxed. Oh, I had him.

“Please understand?” I added for good measure. “He’s a really good man.”

The military stance crumbled, transforming him into my squishy big brother with a heart of marshmallow fluff. “Fine.”

Score! I bit my lip to hold in my laughter. I hadn’t been sure it would still work, but man, I was good.

As if he could read my thoughts, Gabe flicked my forehead lightly.

“Hey!”

“I’m only agreeing to this because I’ll get to keep an eye on him for the week, and if he hurts you, he’ll have my guns to answer to.”

I patted his biceps and cooed, “So you did this for me, too, and not just Ivy?”

Gabe swatted my hand away with a grunt. “Not those guns.”

“Chill out, big brother. I said no bad-guy routine.”

“You should have thought of that before you pulled that ridiculous stunt. Your eyes look weird when you do that.”

“More ridiculous than you still falling for it?”

“Dork.” But the word didn’t sting as Gabe chuckled and kissed my forehead. “You’re a good judge of character, Steph. No one’s questioning that. We’re just surprised you sprung this on us.”

“But we’re happy.” Ivy stood and hugged me. “Truly.”

“Thanks.” I shifted uncomfortably, trying to find the words to tell them how much they meant to me. How much their trust and opinions mattered. How much I wanted them to love Nash like I did. Whoa, there. We’re not at love yet, girl. Not if you can’t even commit to not-fake yet.

Hailey squeezed my hand. “We’ve got you, Stephie.”

Roaring laughter erupted from the floor below, and there was absolutely no telling what sort of torture the rest of the Addams clan was inflicting on Nash. This family played low and dirty, particularly with the enemy. And if they were laughing, chances were high it was at Nash’s expense.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” I said, grinning through my apprehension. “I have a boyfriend to save.”

It was so much worse than I thought.

Nash was cornered between Great-Aunt Edith, the mistletoe, and the punch bowl. A triple trifecta of a bad idea.

Someone had the brilliant idea to go all out on the mistletoe this year—whoever you are, you are dead to me. But it was probably Nana, since she was in charge of assembling a team to decorate the cabin. But Zoe did interior design on the side so… maybe it was her? I did a quick scan of the crowd for my oldest half sister—her expensive platinum hair as bright as a lighthouse beacon—but I didn’t see her.

Moving on. I had bigger flames to put out.

Great-Aunt Edith was a scary woman on a good day. But catch her at Christmas in a bah-humbug mood that included spiked eggnog, and you’d better run for your life.

But Nash clearly didn’t have the same level of self-preservation skills because he engaged her in conversation, all the while slowly moving backwards in the direction of a sprig of mistletoe.

Great-Aunt Edith was no fool. She knew exactly what she was doing, luring her prey with senile complacency. And Nash was about to become her victim.

I rudely shoved my way across the room, tripping over someone’s foot. And a random elbow clocked me in the temple so hard I saw stars. Pretty sure that one was on purpose. My knees nearly buckled, and I grabbed the sofa back for support, but I needed to rescue Nash. Fainting could wait. Rushing up to him, I gripped his shirt front and hauled him towards me.

The momentum startled him, and he grasped my waist tightly. Questions swirled in his eyes as he glanced between me and the enemy… er, elderly relative.

“Hi,” I said breathlessly, my mind blanking on what exactly my escape plan was. I was no Marine and clearly no Great-Aunt Edith either. I’d gotten him away from her clutches, but now what? We couldn’t stay here all night.