Yeah. That pretty much summed up the disaster.
Mom burst into the room and hurried to his side of the desk. “Do you have the winners yet? Mayor Owens is breathing down my neck, even though they don’t want to announce him or her until tonight. The man is so nervous about his first Christmas in office that he’s making me crazy.” She glanced around to make sure they were alone. “If he keeps this up, I’m not voting for him to have a second term.”
Jacob managed to keep a straight face as he replied, “Tell him to keep his breath off your neck, or he’ll have to deal with me.”
Mom smacked his arm. “Stop being vulgar.” He laughed, and she fought a grin. “We need to get these ballots counted–STAT.” She sorted through one of the piles, a determined line between her brows.
Jacob’s phone rang, and he tapped the video chat invite. This should take her mind off the mayor and his reelection.
His nieces and nephew filled the screen. They were on a beach, the aqua waves sparkling behind their toothless smiles and suntanned cheeks. “Merry Christmas, Uncle Jacob!” they chorused.
Mom dropped everything and came to stand next to him. “Grandma!” they cheered.
Mom held his phone as if it were a Fabergé Christmas egg. “Hello, my darlings. Did Santa find you?”
They talked over one another for several minutes. The hunger in his Mom’s eyes was unmistakable, and Jacob wondered why she’d stayed home instead of being with her darlings for Christmas.
“I have to show you this gingerbread house,” she said as she left the room–his phone in hand.
Jacob shook his head. It looked like it was up to him to appease the mayor.
He hoped Nick was having better luck trying to un-engage Lauren than he was at settling the mystery of the gingerbread house contest.
CHAPTER11
“Aunt Lauren!” Collin threw himself at Lauren the moment she walked through the door after running away from Jacob and the closure he was after. The farther she got from the civic center, the less happy she was with herself for leaving in the first place. She wasn’t a coward and could have faced her past if she hadn’t let her emotions get the better of her.
A lesson to learn from for sure.
She landed against the wall and grabbed onto him to hug him back.
“Come play with us,” he invited.
“Minute to Win It–Candy Canes!” Ethan called from the front room.
Lauren looked into her nephew’s hopeful face and knew she’d been caught. “Let me get my coat off.”
“Yay!” He released her and raced in his socks back to the front room, where he told his dad, “Told ya she’d play.”
Smiling, Lauren shucked her outerwear. “Where’s Mom and Dad?” she called. They weren’t outside the civic center when she left, so she’d followed the wagon’s marks in the snow.
“I’m in the kitchen, and your Mom’s napping. Stop yelling!” Dad hollered.
Lauren snickered because his voice was the loudest of them all.
“I’m up now!” Mom appeared in the doorway. “Who can nap with all this Christmas cheer?” She knelt next to the coffee table where the first game was set up. “Besides, I’m a professional and will beat all of you at candy cane fishing.”
“Nu-uh!” Collin had his father’s competitive streak.
Lauren laughed at his stubborn face. He’d do everything in his power to destroy them. She sat on the couch next to Ethan and let out a sigh.
Dad brought a bowl of white chocolate popcorn and set it next to Mom. She gave him a grateful smile before the timer started, and she had to fish for tree ornaments. Mom’s favorite holiday treat was white chocolate popcorn, and Dad ensured they had at least one bowl every Christmas.
“You want to go get Foster?” Ethan bumped her. “I can work him into the rotation.” He motioned toward the whiteboard with their names were written on one side.
“Can I go get Jacob?” Collin asked.
“Jacob?” Lauren squinted at her nephew. “Jacob Morris?”
