A larger sheet cake was placed in the center of the long tables. On top were the silhouettes of animals, like an elephant, a giraffe, a crocodile, an antelope, a lion, and a zebra. Severalsmaller, round cakes were then produced. The birthday boy got the one with leopard spots while his younger club cousins, sister, and Scotty got other animal prints.
Cameras were pointed every which way. Most kids were left in their bathing suits for easy cleanup after the mess that was about to ensue. A lot of the dads had stripped off their shirts too, and they seemed as excited as their kids.
“Okay,” Dosia said from her seat. “We sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and at the end the kids can go wild. Ready? One… Two… Three!”
A chorus of “Happy Birthday to you” started. Pumpkin was a little distracted keeping his son from going after his cake too soon. SJ was a little too young to understand that this party was for him, as well as what his birthday actually was. All he saw was fun and cake.
At the end of the song, laughter and screams of joy rang out as the babies and toddlers went after their cakes. Even Jenna and Steel’s grandson, Drew, was present. Each smash cake had pudding on the inside too, making the cakes softer for the little ones. Since most parents were busy helping one or more kid, the bulk of pictures and videos were being taken by the club members present without children. Plus, Keys no doubt was getting the entire day on the club’s surveillance system.
SJ turned and smacked Pumpkin right in the face with a glob of pudding. Laughing, Pumpkin wiped it off, careful of how close it was to his eye, and then ran his finger down his son’s nose, leaving behind a trail of pudding. SJ’s laugh was the best sound in the world, only equal to JJ’s. In about six months, there would be a third laugh that rivaled theirs.
Turning to see Dosia and JJ were as messy as SJ and him, Pumpkin leaned over, ignoring the pain in his groin, and kissed his woman. His balls might hate him, but at least she loved him. And that was worth any sacrifice.
CHAPTER 9
JENNA
“Mom, Dad, I’m home!”
Jenna’s ears perked up at Melanie’s voice down below. “Be right down!”
Jack came out of the bathroom, a toothbrush hanging from the corner of his mouth. Jenna absolutely loved moments like this when she got to see Jack as human and not some infallible leader with endless responsibilities. She got to see him at his vulnerable moments. She got to see beyond the unemotional mask.
“Don’t you dare go down those stairs without me,” he warned her around the foam in his mouth.
Jenna just waved him off. She hadn’t seen her daughter in almost a month. She was not waiting another minute.
Today was going to be emotional for several reasons. Melanie was home for the holidays after successfully completing her first semester of college. Sissy and Scissors were due to arrive any time now from their cross-country trek to get back in time for the holidays. The club was having their annual Christmas celebrations early because Jenna and Jack’s plane to the Bahamas was leaving in two days. It was also the club kids’ first Secret Santa exchange.
Jenna was feeling good, though. As much as it irked her to admit, Jack had been right to remove her from several tasks she normally volunteered herself for this time of year. First, hedemanded—which was so fucking hot, by the way—that the town council move the annual Fall Festival from beginning of November to the middle of October. This allowed three more weeks between that major event and the club’s annual Thanksgiving feast, where they opened their doors for the entire town to come in and have a meal. The club barely got a breather that day because they were either serving food, transporting residents, or managing traffic. And Jenna was normally the busiest of them all.
Then came the endless Christmas events, throughout the townandthat the club hosted.
It was frustrating, heartbreaking, and saddening to be faced with the reality that she just couldn’t do it anymore. Her MS symptoms were holding steady, and in order to keep them down, she needed to manage the stress and limit activities that could cause a flare-up.
Jack’s way of forcing her when he didn’t think she’d removed herself fromenoughactivities? Literally removeherfrom the town. Last year when she’d had a scare around Christmas, right after they had been given her diagnosis, Jack had joked that he would take her to the Bahamas next Christmas. Well,shethought he was joking.
He wasn’t.
All on his own, Jack booked the hotel, the airfare, researched hospitals in their destination’s area,andrented any medical supplies he thought she was going to need and then some. Hell, he’d even packed their suitcases already.
Jenna was torn because the Bahamas had been on her bucket list of places to see long before they knew about her illness. Butit was theholidays? Why couldn’t they go in Januaryafterthe holidays?
But, begrudgingly, Jenna had to admit that Jack had a point. If she were here, she would try to help. She hadn’t handled taking a backseat in the Fall Festival very well. Yet, this would be the first Christmas since Carter had been born that she wouldn’t have her kids, including the additions of Lucy and Drew, with her Christmas morning.
Jenna was having a hard time with that.
So Carter, Lucy, Drew, Jordan, and Melanie were coming this weekend to have a faux-Christmas morning with Ollie, Jenna, and Jack. Drew was still young enough that he wouldn’t understand the significance of December 25thor that itwasn’tactually Christmas Day. As far as he knew, Santa would be coming tonight.
Today was for the club, tomorrow was for family, and then Monday, they were headed to the Bahamas.
Jenna kept a tight hold of the railing as she descended the stairs. Her legs felt sturdy, but the exertion of going either up or down stairs tended to exhaust her more and more of late. Jack liked to think of stairs as an opportunity to hold her and carry her, which she didn’t mind in the least, but she was also stubborn enough to want to be able to get herself up and down them on her own.
Ollie and Melanie were in the kitchen by the time Jenna made it to the last step. Then the pounding of boots followed her down, and she jumped when she felt a hand land on her ass. Jack’s gravelly voice spoke in her ear as his arm looped around her front. “I told you to wait for me, woman.”
Forty-plus years later, and he still affected her like no one else. Jenna’s breath caught, and her body instantly lit aflame at his touch.
She leaned back against him. “And I didn’t listen. What are you going to do about it?”
