“Yes,” Isaac said, pumping his fist.
“No,” Greg retorted, shooing away his remaining younger brothers then abruptly ending a phone call.
“You're in an aggressive mood for Christmas,” Owen remarked.
“That was my brother Crawford,” he spat, “who is not invited to this party.”
“Hi, Holly,” Dana said, hugging me.
“I thought you said no Holbrooks at the party,” Jack said, smiling. Dana kissed him on each cheek, and Gunnar shook Jack’s hand.
“We missed you at the bake-off this year,” Gunnar said to Jack.
“Did we though?” Owen asked wryly.
Jack elbowed him. “It's Christmas, Owen, be pleasant.” He slapped a Santa hat on Owen's head.
“Very sexy!” I told him, giving him a thumbs-up.
“You didn't tell me there would be children,” Morticia said with horror. She was in all black but had on a red scarf in a grudging recognition of the Christmas holiday. Her identical twin, Lilith, had come too. She hugged me.
“The Great Christmas Bake-Offwas good to you!” Lilith said, jerking her head in Owen's direction.
“You're a lot more chipper than Morticia,” I remarked, giving Lilith a hug.
“I've been around all this Christmas for the last month,” Morticia complained as more Svenssons spilled in.
“Are these all of your brothers?” I asked Walker, trying and failing to count all of the blond men.
“Not even close,” he replied.
Owen handed me a drink. I'd made cranberry old-fashioneds and white-chocolate peppermint martinis.
“Ready to party?”
The heavy-metal strains of Korn's rendition of “Kidnap the Sandy Claws” fromThe Nightmare Before Christmasblared over the sound system. I downed the rest of my drink and sprinted over to where Morticia and Lilith were rocking out.
“Oh my god,” I said, switching the music back to Paul McCartney singing “Wonderful Christmas Time.” “We're having a nice Christmas party.”
“You mean you aren't going to set up your candy-cane stripping pole?” Morticia asked loudly.
“Shhh!”
“You have a candy-cane stripper pole?” a woman with crazy brown hair asked.
“This is Josie,” Owen said, introducing us. “Mace's girlfriend.”
“I love candy!” she said excitedly. “I didn't even know you could buy a candy-cane stripper pole!”
“We were all pregaming on the ride over,” Hazel said, coming by with a drink in each hand. Archer, her fiancé, reached for one. She clutched them both to her chest. “These are mine.”
“Seriously? I had to ride in a bus all the way over here,” Archer complained.
“You rode in a school bus?”
“It is the Christmas bus because the whole thing was repainted for Christmas, because, Christmas,” Penny said with a shrug.
Owen came by with a tray of drinks. The dogs and kids were chasing each other around the penthouse.
