“Another ten bucks for the jar, Kat,” I yelled, then gestured at Third. “Little ears!”
Of course, Star’s potty mouth wouldn’t be vanquished. “Motherfucker.”
“She owes twenty now.”
Kat made an appearance, hand outstretched. She shoved the twenty into a purse she tucked into her low-slung jeans then leaned down and whispered in my ear, “I’ll cut you in if you keep this up, Aunty S! You’re really good at pumping Mom for the dough.”
I hid a smile as she pecked Third on the cheek, not caring that she had chocolate frosting liberally coating her. “Where are the proceeds going?”
“A trip to Lapland.”
“Lapland, huh?”
“Oh, yes. Now that I can legally travel out of the country, I want to see the reindeer.”
Star shot her daughter an unimpressed look. “And I told her she can go upstate and see those.”
“That isn’t the same and you know it. Plus, I want us all to experience the northern lights.”
“You can see those in North America.”
“Not. The. Same.”
“Has nothing to do with St. Nick, huh?” I teased, just to watch her blush.
She’d grown oddly mature in the last couple years. Childhood didn’t set well on her shoulders, but neither did adulthood. I’d experienced the horrors of the teen years with my sisters, so I had a point of reference—Kat was nothing like them.
“I’m too old for Santa.”
Star immediately scowled. “No, you’re not, and if those little shits in school are?—”
“Ten bucks, please!” Kat held out her hand. “I’m running out of time, Aunty S. So any help is appreciated,” she told me sweetly before grabbing Third around the waist, then stomping over to the other side of the room where the kids gathered.
Shay graced us with his presence for once, and the fact that Kat was more interested in catching her mother out than hanging all over him spoke of her desperation for a trip to Lapland.
The mania of an afternoon with the sisters-in-law never changed, apart from at this time of the year—the holidays had come back around. Which meant chaos had escaped the building to spare itself a headache.Thanksgiving. Check. We were officially on Christmas watch.
“How did you ‘convince’ Conor to ‘convince’ Lena that she needs a break?” Aela bit into her macaron.
“Paddy helped me.”
“Paddy wanted a vacay too, huh?” Aoife teased.
“Yup.” She snagged one of the club sandwiches from a silver tray and stacked three on top of each other. “I don’t think he reckoned on pilgrimage sites in Europe. Probably figured it’d be Boca Raton, but them’s the cards.”
Inessa sipped her mint tea. “Knowing him, he’ll turn it into a pub crawl.”
“I’d pay to go with him. He has a fab eye for a good pub.” I stole one of the sandwiches from Star’s hands. “So, when are we free of the wicked witch?”
“The twenty-third?—”
“Meeee?!” my precocious child shrieked with glee.
Aoife tutted. “Baby Aidan, what did we tell you about listening in?”
Third sang, “I’m doing what my daddy taught me. Information is queen!”
While Aoife facepalmed, I directed with a laugh, “Keep watching your show, sweetie.”
