“It is,” I said.
Nico’s phone lit up then, tucked in the pocket of his red jacket. He pulled it out, read the screen, and went quiet. His thumb paused on the edge of the phone.
“What?” I asked.
He turned the phone so I could see the photo.
A little shark ornament sat on red tissue paper, painted with a tiny red hat and a crooked grin. Under it, a card read: Merry Christmas. You picked right. The Torretti side that still gets invited to dinner.
Sal wasn’t in the message. No one mentioned threats or debt. Someone in his family had chosen a side.
I pressed one hand to my apron and picked up the shaker with the other.
“That ornament is hideous,” I said.
Nico’s voice came low. “It’s going on the tree.”
“It can go near the back.”
“It’s a shark.”
“It’s tacky.”
“It’s family.”
That shut me up.
My mother watched us through the phone, and her expression gentled. “Good. Both families. That’s how Christmas should be.”
I swallowed once. “Ma, I’ve got to close out the rush.”
“Fine. Kiss the shark for me.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then kiss him for yourself.”
She hung up before I could win.
By ten, Bite Me was sticky, loud, and triumphant. By eleven, Shay capped the peppermint syrup and slid it behind the grenadine. “The next man who says he can taste colors gets water.”
Taryn pointed two fingers toward the patio. “Closed to blinking antlers with intent.”
Mari packed the last cookie tray with the exhausted satisfaction of a woman who had defeated the holiday by force. Dusty taped a paper star to the reindeer’s chest.
“This reindeer needed growth,” he said.
After the staff left, the bar settled around us in glowing red and green. Outside, the boardwalk kept humming, but softer now. Nico locked the register while I wiped down the service mat.
“Upstairs,” he said.
I lifted one brow. “That sounded suspiciously like an instruction.”
“It was a request wrapped in hope.”
“Better.”
He carried the cashout tablet, the ugly ornament, and one box of cookies Mari had labeled FOR NELLA ONLY, which made Nico read the lid twice and wisely say nothing.
