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The next morning over breakfast, Ryan stifled his yawn and sipped his much-needed coffee as Blake laid out his plans. Mikos had kept him up far too late the night before, like he’d threatened to do, and then he’d been at it again early that morning. He was almost ten years younger than Ryan, and sometimes, it showed.
The others were all still in bed, and Mikos had finally left for some meeting or another an hour ago, after he insisted on bathing with Ryan, which had inevitably led to even more sex.
“I’ve had the cook lay out all of the food in the kitchen and get out all of the pots and pans I’ll need,” Blake said. “I have the recipes on my communicator, so we should be all set.”
“And you’re still planning on having this dinner tonight?”
“Yes. Then I’ll let the regular cook do breakfast tomorrow morning while we’re opening the gifts by the fire.”
“What about the tree?”
“Oh, I thought I might get the boys to put it up this evening after dinner. Make it a family activity for them. I’ll tell them to set it up in the grand hall, and then after we eat, we can trim it.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easy. There will be seven men to do it, counting the husbands—except for you and me, of course. You’ll be helping me in the kitchen—and surely, the bunch of them can figure out how to get the tree into the grand hall and make some kind of stand for it.”
“I wish I was as confident as you.”
“You worry too much. I’ve given them simple instructions to follow, and my boys are highly intelligent. They take that after me. Anyway, I’m sure they can do it. I even got this Santa hat for one of them to wear.”
“Do they know who Santa Claus is?”
“I’ve told them numerous times. Nicarr and Larz sat up all night one Christmas Eve to capture him and force him to take them to his sleigh so they could ‘liberate’ all the reindeer and steal the toys. Davos actually thought it was funny.”
“Have they ever even seen a real Christmas tree?”
“Oh, I’m sure they have.”
Ryan looked dubious. “If you say so.”
“Now, let’s take a look at the menu again. The ham is easy—it’s pre-cooked, so we just stick that in the oven to warm. That leaves the turkey and the cornbread dressing. By the way, you do know how to make cornbread, don’t you?”
“Who, me?”
“Yes, you. You’ve from the south too, aren’t you?”
“Not the cornbread making south. My family didn’t eat that.”
“What kind of southerners are they? Oh, never mind, I’ll make it. I can find a recipe. You can handle the turkey. I told them to get a big one—big enough to feed all of us. I still hope Mikol will be coming with his husband, and you know, Larz could still surprise me.”
“I hope so too, Blake, but don’t get your hopes up too high about Larz. He said he probably couldn’t make it.”
Blake sighed. “I know. He still has hard feelings over what happened with his consort.”
“To be fair, Janos was beaten up a little by my husband. And Davos was still trying to get Larz to put Janos in prison as recently as last year. That kind of thing has a tendency to cause hard feelings.”
“Oh, that’s all water under the bridge. I’m still holding out hope. It’s Christmas, after all.”
“Uh-huh. It’s Christmas for you and me. Not so much for the rest of the family.”
“They’ll come around. You’ll see. Now let’s go see about that bird.”
Putting down their cups, they strolled into the kitchen and stopped dead as they reached the threshold. Sitting on the counter, already unwrapped by the cook and ready for the oven, was a huge raw bird. One that looked a little like a turkey, but with some significant differences.
“That’s a strange looking turkey,” Blake said. “Why is the meat so red?”
“Never mind that. Why is its neck so long?”
