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Chapter 37
"Anybody heard from Cassie?" Jakob asked as he came out of the kitchen and into the main room.
At seeing four equally startled expressions on the faces of Frank, Alex, Nash, and Owen, he felt vaguely guilty; obviously interrupting… whatever it was they had been talking about.
"She offered to run to the store for a can of cranberry sauce for dinner tomorrow," he explained. "But that was nearly two hours ago. If I'd have known it would take her this long, I'd have told her to forget it."
"Maybe they were out?" Nash suggested. "If she's checking over on the mainland, it'll take a while to get across the bridge and back."
"You tried texting?" Alex asked.
"Or calling," Frank added, with the expression of someone who'd rather eat a live fish than text.
"Of course,I've texted her," Jakob said,tryingnot to huff at the help, but… C'mon — that was thefirstthing he'd tried, well over an hour ago. "She's not picking up. She knows she's not allowed to leave the island without permission, either."
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Jakob," Frank told him.
Jakob sighed. "I know. It's just… It's dark, it's cold, it's late, and — and it turns out we don't need it anyway because I just found an extra can tucked in the back of the pantry. Not sure how she missed it this morning when we were double-checking our supplies. Itoldher I'd gotten some at the store last week…"
Jakob trailed off, his eyes narrowing. Over in the corner, Alex was trying to casually hide behind the older — and more importantly,shorter— Frank, a very suspicious expression of total and complete innocence pasted rather poorly on his face…
"Well, then we'll just have two," Cassie's mom declared as she walked in behind Jakob. "What's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that everyone'shere, Sophia. You know how much she looks forward to this, and now she's missing out," Jakob frowned. "I know she's anxious to lend me a hand, and that she wants everything to be perfect to make up for Ethan not getting discharged from the hospital until after Christmas Day. But a can of cranberries isn't going to make or break Christmas dinner."
"Neither is her getting held up at a busy store and running a few minutes late," Frank told him. "I'm sure she'll be along any moment. Maybe she had some last-minute shopping to do?"
"Maybe," Jakob sighed, rubbing tiredly at his temple. "It's just… she always puts in the seasoning for the Christmas Eve crab boil ever since she was little. It'stradition. But I can hear y'all's stomachs rumbling from the other room. I need to start the pot boiling, or at this rate, the crabs are all going to scuttle away."
"I don't mind waiting a mite longer," Frank told him. "I'm sure whatever's keeping her, she's got a good reason for — "
He stopped at the sound of someone coming up the steps outside, footsteps loud on the wooden boards.
"Oh,finally," Jakob muttered, relief flooding through him as he moved to open the front door. "No one tell her about the extra can, alright? No sense upsetting her on Christmas Eve, making her think she's wasted all that time…"
But his words were drowned out by a booming voice coming from the other side of the door as it opened; the sound alone stopping Jakob dead in his tracks as it rumbled out a —
"HO HO HO!"
Chapter 38
Jakob froze, arm still outstretched as he reached for the door, by the booming"HO HO HO!"coming from just the other side.
And that voice —
That voice was familiar, achingly so. But — But he wasn't supposed to arrive untilafterChristmas Day…
"Ethan?"Jakob asked in disbelief as he opened the door, only to be treated to the sight of the very man in question.
The sling was a stark white against the red suit, though not as bright as the white fur trimming. The black boots and red hat were a nice touch, as was the wide black belt with its shiny golden buckle.
The fluffy white beard might be a bit much, however, at least in Jakob's opinion. It was too tickly against Jakob's own scruff as he grabbed a fistful of that cheesy Santa costume and hauled Ethan in for a thoroughlynaughtykiss.
"Merry Christmas, Dad. Nice to see you too," he heard Cassie saying somewhere off in the distance.
He broke the kiss, ears flaming with embarrassment as he realized he and Ethan had an audience — a third of which was Jakob's exes — for that very public display of affection.
Oops. Acting like a ho ho ho indeed.
