Twas The Knight Before Christmas (Something Great #3.5)

by M. Clarke

  I snorted: You’re counting?

  Matthew: No.

  Me: Yes, you are. Stop being a big baby. I promise to take care of you when the kids are in bed.

  Matthew: Did you go shopping at Victoria’s Secret?

  Me: I was on my way there, but I can come home now.

  Matthew: Have fun. Max said he’ll order dinner. Sound good?

  Me: Sounds awesome.

  I finally looked up and saw Jenna staring at me. “Max texted me to let me know he was going to order dinner for us. I assume you already know.”

  I pointed at my cell. “Just found out.”

  “Good. Then we can shop some more.” Jenna took my phone to text Matthew. As she texted, she showed me the words that her fingers were typing away.

  Matthew, this is Jenna. I’ve just kidnapped Becky’s phone. If you want to talk to her, please text me instead. And by the way, if you kidnap Max and my children, hell knows no fury like a mother and wife scorned. Just a friendly warning, brother-in-law. You think you know Jenna? You haven’t seen anything yet.

  I busted out laughing. Never did I imagine Jenna would playfully give it to Matthew. “When did you become so evil?”

  Jenna placed our phones inside her purse. She wasn’t kidding. “When I became a mother.” She paused and then added, “And when I started working with my brother-in-law.” She laughed. “I’m just joking. He’s wonderful, but he’s a big fat baby when he’s home with you. I have to admit Max can be that way as well. I think men are in general, don’t you?”

  I hooked my arm in hers and led her to the scarf and glove department. “Oh, there’s no doubt about that, Jenna, but they are definitely not babies when we need them.”

  After we picked out some scarves and gloves for gifts, we headed upstairs to the women’s clothing section. This coming Saturday was the Knight Fashion annual Christmas party. Though I had a closet filled with a plethora of dresses, it never hurt to have one more.

  “Do you have a dress picked out for the ball?” I asked, rummaging through racks of designer gowns.

  Jenna placed her shopping bags down and picked out a dress to show me. “I had one months ago. I saw it online. Well, Max helped me pick it out. It’s red with spaghetti straps, form fitted down to the waist, and flares out like a princess gown.”

  “No.” I shook my head to let her know I didn’t like the one she was holding. “Your dress sounds beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” she said, moving on to the next dress.

  “Not bad.” I took the dress from her. It was a lavender and white strapless that flared out like any other ball dress. I looked at the tag for the size. “It’s my size. Perfect. I’ll buy it.”

  “You don’t want to try it on?” Jenna asked, almost frowning. “What if you don’t like the way it fits?”

  I fanned my hand at her. “It will be fine. I’m too lazy to try it. We’re here to shop for Christmas, not for my dress. If it doesn’t fit, I’ll come back and return it. Besides, I have plenty of dresses at home.” With that, I headed to the cashier.

  “Oh, wait, before I forget”—Jenna gripped my arm after a few steps— “did you get the text from Nicole? She wants to have a Christmas lunch exchange next Monday. You didn’t respond to her text. I told her that I couldn’t make it.”

  “Oh crap. I forgot. I meant to. I think we’ll have to wait till after Christmas. Okay. I will text her. Let me do it now.” I held out my hand.

  Jenna shook her head with a mischievous grin. “No way. I’ve kidnapped your cell. You can text when we get in the car.”

  My eyes widened in surprise and my jaw dropped. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” I let out a snort.

  “Yes, I am. And you know what else? You know how Max and Matt love Star Wars? Well, I have the perfect Christmas gift for them. Want to see?”

  My lips curled slowly, humored by Jenna and wondering what she had in mind. “Sure.”

  She opened her phone and showed it to me. “What do you think?”

  “Oh my, Jenna. I think they’re going to love it. Let’s order it right now.”

  Jenna’s smile was contagious. She pushed some buttons on the phone and looked at me. “Done. You’ll receive it at your doorstep just before Christmas.”

  “Perfect. Thanks.” I smiled, enjoying the humor between us and this little devil that Jenna was becoming. After we had shopped some more, it was time to go home. Our legs were tired and our credit cards had been used a lot.

  By the time we were headed back home, it was almost six. We texted our husbands to let them know we were on our way and to ask them to feed the kids if they were hungry. The traffic was horrendous, and we didn’t know what time we would arrive. Hopefully, Jenna’s house was in one piece. Why wouldn’t it be? I brushed away the thought, telling myself that I was being ridiculous.

  “We’re home,” we exclaimed, entering from the garage into the house.

  “Yay!” I heard the children screaming. Around the corner they came and hugged Jenna and me, almost knocking us down in the process. Thank goodness for the wall behind us. Jenna’s boys went back to whatever they had been doing and Mason ran after them.

  “Did you go anywhere?” I asked Addy. She was helping me with my bags, not that I needed help, but she was sweet that way.

  “No, we stayed home,” she answered.

  Looking at all the toys on the hardwood floor, there was no sign of a clean house or of Max and Matthew having looked after the kids. I followed the path of toys on the floor to the family room. Jenna’s house was Christmas ready, as I knew it would be. During Thanksgiving at our in-laws’ place, we’d talked about how we would decorate our houses this year.

  Jenna’s tree was just as tall as mine, stockings were hung on the fireplace mantel, and poinsettias were aligned along the bottom. The house smelled and looked like Christmas. Even the front of the house was decorated with lights, reindeers were on the roof, and fake snow was on the grass; it looked like Santa’s workshop. Max had outdone himself, but so had Matthew. Though Matthew denied it, I had a feeling those two boys were in a competition to outdo each other, just like they’d done with the locks and keys in Paris. When the City of Paris announced they were tearing down parts of the Pont des Art, also known as the lock and key bridge, Max and Matthew flew there to retrieve the locks they’d left for us. Now ours was displayed in our bedroom, as was Jenna and Max’s in theirs.

  “Hey, you’re back,” Matthew said without looking at me.

  “Hey, babe,” Max said to Jenna, without looking at her either.

  Both of our husbands were engrossed in playing Star Wars video games. Star Wars toys were everywhere, scattered about the floor. I was afraid to even check out the other rooms. It was as if all the Star Wars toys Jenna and I had seen at Toys “R” Us had suddenly appeared in her living room, without the packaging. Jenna’s boys and Mason were sitting on the floor, way too close to the TV, while Cassie was fussing in Max’s lap. When she saw Jenna, she lost it. She started bawling. Poor Cassie, she was still in her PJs. Not that it mattered, but she had endured all the loud noises.

  Jenna dropped her bags and immediately picked up Cassie. “Max. Did you feed Cassie?”

  “Of course I did, babe,” he replied, without looking at her again.

  “Did the kids have dinner?” I asked.

  “We had dinner. We left you some,” Matthew answered, his eyes still glued to the screen.

  When Jenna took Cassie to the kitchen, I followed, seeing the mess continue to this part of the house. The unfinished plates were on the table, along with open boxes of pizza. And next to them was a closed box of cold pizza, I assumed. I opened it. “Combo. At least it’s what we like.” I shrugged.

  Jenna rolled her eyes, took out several slices, and placed them on a plate she had grabbed from the cabinet. She warmed them up in the microwave while she was holding Cassie. I knew she wasn’t crazy mad at all the mess, but as a mother, I understood her frustration. After the microwave beeped to
let us know it was ready, Jenna took it out and placed the plate between us. Then she handed me clean paper plates and I set them on the table for us. After she placed a slice on my plate and hers, she sat down to take a bite.

  “Dig in.” She smiled. “I was hoping to feed our guests better food, but I guess boys will be boys.”

  “It’s okay, Jenna. We’ve been to your house plenty of times and had the best gourmet food. I’ll help you clean up after we eat.” I never knew how hungry I was until I took the first bite and swallowed.

  Jenna poured apple cider in cups and handed one to me. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not as bad as it looks. Besides, we can have everyone pick up a few toys and we’ll be done. That’s plenty of hands. They were having fun, so that’s all that matters. And we got to have our special time together. Our husbands are just used to having the nanny pick up after them. They’re so spoiled. And Cassie is just fine.” She gave Cassie a kiss on the cheek, and she started to fuss again. She handed her a rattling toy from next to the pizza box.

  “Cassie looks just like you. Similar facial structure—the shape of your ears, nose, and even your lips.” I looked at her lovingly, recalling when Addy was her age.

  Jenna swallowed and picked up her cup to take a sip. “That’s what everyone says.”

  I sighed as I took my last bite of pizza.

  Jenna eased her shoulders and released a long breath. “Are you tired? ‘Cause I’m beat.”

  “Yeah. Shopping is not fun during Christmas time. It feels like busy work,” I added.

  Jenna grabbed the container on the counter and filled both our cups with more apple cider. I would have offered to help, but knowing Jenna, she wanted to be the good hostess, which was not necessary. We were family after all.

  “I think I’ll do online shopping from now on, at least during the holidays,” I said, enjoying my drink.

  “Yeah, me too,” she agreed.

  After we ate, I helped her clean up, and we went our separate ways.

  Chapter 5

  Jenna

  It had been a crazy start to the week so far. Meeting our deadlines seemed harder with so many employees taking vacation time. And since Matthew and I were planning to take a week off after Christmas, we were in a time crunch.

  “Which model’s shot are we going to use? Have we decided yet?” I asked my team, holding up the photos of the models named Josh and Nathan. We had used both before; however, this was a cover for the new year.

  Matthew rubbed the back of his neck. “I can’t decide.”

  “Nathan,” one of my coworkers said.

  “Josh,” someone else muttered.

  “Nathan. I like the blue sweater on him,” another one said.

  “This one is better, with Josh in the black sweater. It looks edgier. It’s from M. Knights men’s line, right?” another coworker asked.

  “Both sweaters are,” I replied. “Matthew, it’s up to you. We can’t decide between the two.”

  Matthew sighed, looking distracted, but then seemed to focus back to our conversation, “Use Nathan for January and Josh for February,” he ordered quickly and went back to his desk.

  I narrowed my eyes at him and wondered if he’d had a fight with Becky. All couples had their ugly moments. It was inevitable. Either it was Becky or the job. “Let’s do what Matthew suggested,” I said and then adjourned the meeting. Being the good sister-in-law, I decided to be nosy and pretend to be busy on the computer, when actually I was eavesdropping on his phone conversation.

  “Okay. I understand,” Matthew replied almost in a whisper, looking at the computer screen. It looked as though he was reading a document. Then it wasn’t Becky on the phone. I relaxed a little. Becky would have told me if they’d had a big fight.

  He paused to listen.

  “That’s fine. Just take care of it, Thomas. We don’t need this over the holidays.” He furrowed his brows, looking irate. “Okay,” he said a few seconds later. “I will. Keep me informed.” Then he hung up.

  Whatever it was, Max was aware of it too, I was sure of it. We always told each other everything. Maybe it was something that had just come up recently. And what was it about? If it was about Knight Fashion, wouldn’t Matthew have talked to me about it? If it was personal, Becky would have told me. But since Matthew was speaking to Thomas, I knew it was a legal matter.

  The first time I’d met Thomas was when Crystal wanted to sue Max. He had to get me involved when she wanted to accuse him of forceful play and was going to announce it to the world. Some people were desperate and would do crazy things. I was all too glad to have that settled quickly. I was just hopeful that whatever was going on now would be resolved quickly. Matthew looked too distraught and I hated to see him like this, not only because he was my brother-in-law, but for Becky as well. And whatever happened to them affected us. They were our family.

  “Hey, Matthew.” I leaned slightly over his desk to give us some privacy. “Is everything okay?”

  Matthew peered up, looking dazed. He must have been deep in thought. “Huh? Hey, Jenna. Are you trying to sneak up on your boss?” His tone was a bit more playful than ten minutes ago, but his shoulders seemed tense.

  “Actually, I’m the boss, so yes, I’m sneaking up on my second in command,” I smirked. “But seriously, is everything all right?”

  He scrubbed his hand down his face with a sigh. I could feel so much stress and tension in that sigh. “One of the models is suing us,” he finally whispered.

  “What? Which one?” My tone went up a pitch and then I tried to calm my pounding heart. I frowned and pulled up a chair. “When did this happen?” I lowered my voice to match his. The last thing we needed was everyone on our team stressed. It really wasn’t their concern anyway.

  “Yesterday. And it’s”—he pulled out a photo— “Victor Cummings. Do you remember him?”

  I nodded, recalling how unprofessional he was. It was too bad we’d had to fire him. He was very good looking. Matthew had a keen eye for models, but Mrs. Ward, the human resources manager, did the actual hiring and firing. “I remember you told me about him.”

  “He told his lawyer that we had no grounds for firing him.” Matthew’s nostrils flared up and down while he tightened his jaw. “Does he think we’re stupid? I have logged all the times he was late and the times he didn’t show up to work at all. I have all the records of complaints by his coworkers. That asshole doesn’t know who he’s messing with. I’m going to bring him down so hard, he won’t know who ass whipped him.” Matthew puffed out air. He looked like he needed to vent.

  “Ass whipped.” I laughed. “Does he know you have all these records against him?”

  Matthew leaned back into his chair with a smug expression on his face. The chair slightly rocked back and forth. “He will tomorrow. Let’s see if he tries to challenge that. If he does, he’s not the only idiot, so is his lawyer.”

  “I have to agree with you, but—”

  “It doesn’t matter. I know we’ll win the case. It’s more time with the lawyer and less time with the family. Victor doesn’t have a family so he doesn’t give a fuck. It’s almost Christmas.” He leaned closer. “I think his lawyer wants us to pay him off. Who wants to deal with this kind of shit right before Christmas, right?” He paused. “I’m not going to give them the satisfaction. Sure, Max and I can afford to pay him off, but it’s a matter of integrity. I don’t want other models we fire to follow his lead. It’s the reason why we don’t give full-term contracts to models. It’s based on projects. Anyway, Jenna, I don’t want to hold you up. Aren’t you having lunch with Max?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Well, if I keep you any longer, he’ll be—”

  “At the door waiting,” a deep, sexy voice said.

  I turned to see Max leaning against the door with his hands tucked into his pants pockets. How he could make just standing there look so hot was beyond me.

  “Excuse me, Matthew, while I drool over my husband,” Matthe
w spoke for me, trying to mimic my voice but in an annoying way.

  Without looking at Matthew and smiling at Max, I said, “You read my mind, and you do an awful impression of me.”

  Max greeted the employees busy at work with a wave and shifted his attention to me. Bending a little lower, he took my hand and kissed the back of it. “I believe I have a lunch date with this beautiful woman whom I happen to be madly in love with.” His eyes never left mine as he pulled me up to standing, with one hand holding mine while the other was gently placed under my elbow. Hypnotized by his actions and his piercing eyes staring into mine in the most heated way, I thought I was going to have an orgasm right then and there. Hot Max! Even after all these years, he still had a way with words and the way he could seduce me with his expression. He was calculated, determined, and all alpha male. But he was my Max.

  “Ready, Mrs. Knight?” Max asked, looping his arms around me.

  “I’m starving, Mr. Knight,” I said.

  Max whispered as he led me toward the door. “Good. I know how to satisfy your stomach and other parts of your body.” Then he said to Matthew, “I’m sure my brother can handle things without you for a bit.”

  “So not fair.” Matthew shook his head with a frown. “Jenna gets all your time.”

  Max stopped and turned slightly. “When’s the last time you spoke to Mom?”

  Matthew shrugged. “Last week, I think. I can’t remember. We’ve been swamped. And you?”

  “I know,” Max sighed. “Mom left several messages. We’ve been playing phone tag. After I have lunch with Jenna, we need to talk about Victor Cummings.”

  “Yeah, yeah. He’s the last person I want to talk about, but I will. We need to close this case before Christmas.”

  “I agree.” With that Max shut the door behind us.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, feeling butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

  “To my office, Mrs. Knight, where I can do anything I please with you.” His hand resting on my waist slid down lower…lower…until it cupped my butt.

  “Max. We’re at work.” I lightly tapped his hand and pushed him away, but secretly I was loving it.