Chapter Nine
“Where?”Jeanasked.
I took another drink of the Tom and Jerry Myra had made from scratch from the family recipe. It had just a splash of bourbon in it to cut the thick, sweet warm milk and nutmeg, and it warmed me all the waydown.
The music was playing softly in the background, Ryder’s arm was draped over my shoulder, the house was decorated in that cozy but classy way that only Myra seemed to be able to pulloff.
If I decorated like her, it would end up looking like I was living in a garagesale.
“Aaron’s patio at the back of his nursery,” Isaid.
Aaron was the owner of the garden shop. He was also the god of war, Ares, who up until a few months ago, was vacationinghere.
Since he was gone, we kept an eye on his property forhim.
“Doesn’t seem like much of a hiding place,” Hogan, Jean’s boyfriend,said.
The baker had had a drink or two, and he and Jean were cuddled up on the loveseat, both wearing hideous holiday sweaters. Hogan had accessorized with a pair of felt reindeer horns that flashed red andgreen.
Jean wore a hat shaped like a Christmas tree, lights and all. Apparently, it alsosang.
Apparently, Myra had yanked the batteries out of the “obnoxious thing” after hearingOh, Christmas Treeon repeat for an hourstraight.
Apparently, Myra was “no fun” but since she “made a boss Tom and Jerry” the Christmas tree hat had remainedsilent.
“They weren’t trying to hide it, not really.” I shifted and Ryder tucked me in a little closer to hischest.
He was quiet, relaxed, and looked right at home with his stockinged feet propped up on Myra’s coffeetable.
His bruises were just bruises, and the knock on the head was not aconcussion.
As accidents went, he had been very, verylucky.
“They wanted the pictures on the blog for Christmas?” Myraasked.
“I think that’s what they were going for. This had to have taken some time and more than one person. They set up a whole holiday scene, using a bunch of the other statues on his lot complete with Christmas tree, a menorah, and a kinara and corn.Here.”
I leaned forward and Ryder sighed at the loss of contact, his fingers drifting down my back as I pulled my phone off thetable.
I hadn’t gone home to change, since the penguin hunt had taken so long. They’d waited on me for dinner, which was nice ofthem.
Dinner was delicious and perfect because Myra had inherited almost all the cooking genes in ourfamily.
I leaned back into Ryder. He grunted softly incontentment.
I scrolled through my photos to the pictures I’d taken of the concrete gathering, held it up for Ryder. Hechuckled.
“They went all out,” heagreed.
“Lemme see.” Jean made grabby hands, and I relinquished myphone.
She made big fake wide eyes in big fake surprise. “Look at that Hogan. All those statues doing all those holiday things. How cute is that? They even rememberedKwanza.”
“Mmm-hmmm.” He planted a kiss somewhere below the boughs of her hat and then grinned at her over her shoulder. “Kwanza doesn’t get nearly enough representation here inOrdinary.”
Okay, they were being totallysuspicious.
“Here, Myra. Look at what those awful vandals did.” Jean waggled my phone toward Myra who was giving Jean and Hogan a narrow-eyedglare.
