“What is it?” Jensen urges.
I let out a long sigh. “It’s just something Rylee said last night. We weren’t technically together over Christmas, and she mentioned how empty the holiday seemed as a result. It just hit me really hard because I feel the same way. Christmas is usually my favorite holiday, but this year, I was so heartbroken and sad, I could hardly enjoy it.”
Wilder purses his lips together and runs a hand along his thick beard thoughtfully. “That sucks. My Christmas wasn’t great, either. Grandma slipped and fell and fractured her hip. I took care of her over the holiday.”
“Ah, geez. I’m sorry to hear that.” I know how much Mrs. Clay means to him. “Sounds like a rough Christmas.”
“Dude, I hear you,” Carson suddenly chimes in. He’s doing curls with free weights a few feet away. “Skyler got stuck in NewYork over Christmas. She was there meeting with a big new client, and her flight home got canceled because of a blizzard. It was just me and our parents because Grace and Jensen were sick.”
“Ugh,” Jensen groans from the leg press machine. “Don’t remind me. We got food poisoning and were puking our guts up all Christmas day.”
“Oh, man,” Owen chuckles from where he’s stretching on the floor, his blue eyes twinkling. “I guess I should count myself lucky. Stacey and I didn’t get sick, but Millie had chicken pox. I guess even when you get the shot, kids can still get a way milder ‘breakthrough’ version of it sometimes. I took care of her since I had chicken pox when I was a kid, but tried to keep Stacey away as much as possible so she wouldn’t catch it, too… she couldn’t remember if she’d ever gotten vaccinated for it or not when she was younger. Better safe than sorry, but not very fun.”
Understandable, given how far along Stacey is. I can’t imagine how miserable it would be to have chicken pox — or would it be shingles, at that point? — and be almost eight months pregnant.
“Shit, did we all have terrible holidays?” I ask, looking around the room. The only one missing is Jayce, who’s in California for some family thing.
The guys all exchange glances and shrugs.
“Guess so,” Jensen says, rubbing a hand over his wide chest.
Gazing at my friends, it’s clear they’re all frustrated thinking about our collective failed holidays. I know I hate when Rylee is disappointed, especially when there’s something I can possibly do about it. The other guys most likely feel similar. If only there was some way we could go back in time and fix things…
I frown as an idea starts to percolate in my head. If we all had such terrible Christmases, why can’t we make up for them?
“What if we had a do-over?” I ask, thinking out loud.
Owen arches a brow. “Huh? Do-over?”
I warm up to the idea the more and more I think about it. “Yeah… yeah! We can have a do-over Christmas all together. We’re on break for another week, so we could take the girls somewhere out of town and have, I don’t know … a Friendsmas!”
No one speaks for a few moments but I can tell they’re all considering the idea.
“You know what?” Carson breaks the silence at last. “I like it. It’s a stupid name, but a great idea.”
“It’s not a stupid name,” I snap.
“It is,” Jensen nods. “But I’m in. We should make it a surprise and not tell the girls we’re putting on a second Christmas. We’ll just say we want to go on a trip together while we have downtime, and figure out a way to distract them while we decorate and stuff.”
“We can go all out,” Owen adds. “Christmas tree, stockings, presents, a full holiday feast. A reverse Grinch situation.”
“Well, cool.” Wilder says gruffly, turning back toward the weights. “Hope you guys enjoy your couples retreat.”
“No way, dude,” I assure him. “Of course you and Jayce are coming. We’ll get the girls to invite Sutton along too. This is a Friendsmas, not a Couplesmas.”
“Still a stupid name,” Carson points out.
“Shut up about the name or I’ll shove a piece of coal up your ass,” Wilder growls. “The name is fine.” He turns to me. “And thanks, bro.”
“Don’t threaten me with a jolly good time,” Carson replies in a deadpan tone.
“We could go this weekend,” Jensen says, ignoring the insults. “Hold on. Let me call Jayce and check when he’ll be back.”
We all gather around as Jensen digs his phone out of his basketball shorts and brings up Jayce’s number. He puts the call on speaker and we listen as it rings.
“Hey,” Jayce answers. “What’s going on, Cap?”
“Jayce, you’re on speaker with the other guys,” Jensen tells him. “We’ve been talking and want to put on a do-over Christmas as a surprise for the girls. When will you be back?”
