“Fine.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” His grin widened. “I’m in.”
Reilly squealed. “Yay!” She reached for her hot chocolate. “Now let’s drink to the best hot chocolate wishes ever!”
He picked up his cup and clinked it against hers before taking a sip.
“Hwaahh.” His nose scrunched. “Is this straight liqueur? Jesus.”
“Lightweight,” she said before taking a generous gulp. Her nostrils flared. He was right. She’d overdone it just a little.
He set his cup down. “You know if we start drinking, we won’t get the tree decorated.”
She placed her cup on the table and reached for her laptop. “Right. Ornaments. We need new ones.”
“Wait. New? Wha—huh? What’s wrong with the ones we have?”
“Wrong color.”
Tate shook his head as he lifted the lid on the ornament box. “Of course they are.”
“I think red and gold will be the theme for this year.” She pulled up Amazon’s website. “Ooh and look. There’s a sale on a fifteen-foot-tall inflatable snowman.”
Tate flopped back on the couch. “It’s a wonder we ever get anything done.”
Two
Three weeks later, Saturday, December 16th
“What are you doin’?”
Reilly glanced down at her father from her perch on the step ladder she had dragged in from the garage. “Hangin’ decorations. What areyoudoin’?”
“Watchin’ you string up mistletoe. I thought this was a birthday party.”
“It is,” she told him as though it made perfect sense to be strategically placing mistletoe throughout her parents’ house.
In all fairness, she’d already strung it up in the barn, although she and Tate were going out of their way to avoid it whenever they moved around. She seriously doubted Donovan or Brady would ever wander that way, but in the event they did, they were ready for them. Of course, she wasnotkissing her brother if he happened to be standing beneath it, but he was fair game for Tate.
“And mistletoe,why?”
“Because it’s festive, Daddy.” She started down the ladder and accepted his hand when he reached to help her.
“And you get a kick out of seein’ me make out with your mama?”
“Eww. No.” She grinned. “But you’re welcome.”
Owen Jameson shook his head, but he was still smiling. Her father had learned to deal with her craziness. Her family called it an endearing quality, although she knew it mostly annoyed them. Then again, she was the baby, so it was allowed.
Not only was she the youngest of her parents’ five children, but she was also the youngest on her level of the family tree. Of all her cousins on her father’s side, at twenty-three, Reilly was at the very, very bottom. The closest was Rafe, and he was eight years older than her. Worse than that, her sister was ten years older than her.
A happy accident, her father liked to call her.
While she enjoyed the attention that came from being the youngest of twenty-eight cousins and four siblings, there was also a downside. Like the fact that she was usually the one relegated to the little kid’s table at family meals. It also meant she had to work twice as hard to get away with anything in this small town.
It seemed everyone in Coyote Ridge was keeping an eye on her. If she made one misstep, someone was telling either her parents or her oldest brother because Donovan was her only sibling who constantly stuck his nose in her business. Stone didn’t live in Coyote Ridge, so she didn’t have to worry about him. And Chase, whom everyone called CJ, was too busy to worry about her antics, as he kindly referred to anything she did. Her sister, Chelsea, moved to Dallas last year when she got married, but they talked at least once a week. Chelsea knew all about Reilly’s long-running crush on Donovan’s best friend, as well as most of her stunts even before she pulled them.
