“JoJo got a cat?” asked Denny Hughes now standing in the doorway. “Hey, pumpkin. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Dad.” Johanna smiled as her dad enveloped her in a bear-sized embrace.
“So you did get a cat,” he said, giving Esmerelda’s fur a little tousle.
“She named it Esmerelda,” Melissa chided.
“What kind of name is Esmerelda?” asked Denny.
“I didn’t get a cat,” said Johanna. “I’m just cat sitting her for a little while, and I didn’t name her. She came with the name.”
“Ah. What’s old Rocky think of the two of you cat sitting?” asked Denny, thumbing the air.
“He likes her. She’s like a new toy to him.”
“Well, we all know what he does with his toys,” said Melissa. “She’s such a pretty cat. You’re going to have to keep the two of them separated so he doesn’t chew off all of her fur.”
Johanna grimaced. “Esmerelda’s pretty good about keeping Rocky in line. They’ve had a few scuffles, but I think they have an understanding now. He understands that she has a strict no-licking policy.”
Denny smiled and then took a step back into the house. “Well, what are we doing standing out here? I’m not paying to heat all of Jersey. Come in, come in.”
Her childhood home smelled like pine needles and turkey, and Johanna’s heart warmed to see her mother’s Christmas decorations scattered about. The tree in the living room to her left caught her attention. “You sprang for a real tree this year, Dad?”
Denny rubbed a hand against his thinning hair and shifted on his feet. “Oh. Yeah, I, uh, I thought it might be nice. Whaddaya think?”
From behind Johanna, Whitley sucked in her breath. “Oh, Hanna! This is where you grew up? It’s so warm and cozy! And the tree is beautiful! Is it okay if Essy and I go exploring?”
Johanna nodded as she unwound the cat from her neck and sat her down on the well-worn carpet. Trying not to call attention to the nod she’d given the two of them, she turned her back to them and they took off towards the living room.
“Yeah, Dad. The tree’s beautiful.” While she was being honest, the tree was beautiful, but it was a bit of a shocker to her that her father, who was a bit of a cheapskate, had splurged on a live Christmas tree. Johanna couldn’t remember a single live tree she’d ever had growing up. “You rearranged the decorations this year, too. Usually we put the good garland in the doorway, not on the balusters. Did you do the decorating this year, Mook?”
Melissa held up two hands and then took the gift bags from Johanna’s arms. “Don’t look at me.”
“Huh. I guess it’s okay,” said Johanna slowly, her eyes taking everything in. It wasn’t how her mom used to decorate, but she would just have to get over it. Johanna craned her neck to look past the entryway where they stood and towards the kitchen. “Where are Kevin and the kids?”
“Henry and Lex are upstairs watching cartoons in my old room, and I sent Kev to the market. Dad didn’t get everything on the list I sent him.”
“I did too get everything on the list,” said Denny gruffly. “Your sister wasn’t specific with some of the things she wanted, and now she’s blaming me.”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Dad. How am I supposed to make Mom’s famous cinnamon roll apple pie with red delicious apples? Those are like the worst baking apples there are.”
Denny looked at his oldest daughter and lifted his brows, sending a sharp crease running across his forehead. “She said apples. I bought apples. If she wanted a certain kind of apples, don’tcha think she shoulda told me?”
Johanna couldn’t help but smile as she shed the good hat and coat she’d worn. Her family’s big, boisterous personalities warmed her heart. Even though the noise and the chaos would get old before the sun went down, and she knew she’d crave the silence of her Manhattan apartment, for now, this was exactly what she needed.
“Oh, you’re wearing the shirt I gave you last year for Christmas,” said Melissa with a broad smile. “See, what did I tell ya? Green’s your color.”
“Thanks, sis.” Johanna turned around to hang her coat and hat on the wooden coatrack in the entryway.
When she did, her sister grabbed the back of her blouse. “What is this?”
Johanna froze and glanced over her shoulder. “What?”
“The tag’s still on it!”
Johanna felt her face flush. Shit. “Is it?”
“Is this seriously the first time you’re wearing it?”
“Umm, nah. It can’t be. I’m sure I’ve worn it before.” Johanna crossed her fingers inside her pants pockets and prayed her sister would just drop it.
“I got you this blouse so you’d have something nice to wear out on a date, since all you seem to own are sweatpants, old t-shirts, and crewneck sweatshirts.”
“Well, yeah,” agreed Johanna, making her duh face. “It’s a great date shirt.”
“And yet you haven’t worn it on a date.”
“I’m pretty sure I have.”
“It still has the tag on it.”
“I just probably wore a jacket over it.”
“You didn’t wash it?”
“Well, if I only wore it for an hour or two or whatever, then I probably just hung it up after.”
Melissa stared at her, her brown eyes like lasers on Johanna’s face. “Liar.”
“Quit!”
“Dad, JoJo’s lying,” shouted Melissa, even though her dad was standing only a few feet away.
“Dad, make Mook stop harassing me.”
Denny ran a hand over his head. “You two aren’t seriously going to do this all day, are you? It’s our Christmas party.”
“Maybe,” said Melissa with a frown and a one-shoulder shrug. “If JoJo keeps lyin’ to me.”
“I’m not lying!”
“When’s the last time you went on a date, then?”
Johanna groaned internally. She couldn’t believe the interrogation was starting already. She thought she’d have at least a few hours before anyone would ask her about her social life. This was way too early in the day. She wanted to turn around and leave. “I don’t know. Thursday?”
“Of what year?”
“Mook! Can we not do this? I literally just walked in the door.”
“I can’t help it. I worry about you. It’s not healthy to be alone so much.”
“I’m not alone. I have Rocky.”
Melissa’s hands gestured wildly in the air. She’d always been a hand talker. “Rocky is great and all, but he doesn’t count.”
“Dad, tell Mook that Rocky totally counts.”
Denny glanced back at Rocky, who was quietly gnawing on the dog bone he’d laid out for him. “Rocky doesn’t count, JoJo. I’m sorry. He’s a great dog and companion and all, but your sister’s right. You need human interaction in your life.”
“I get human interaction! You guys are overreacting!”
Melissa narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Really? When’s the last time you talked to a real live man? Like not someone on the internet.”
“This morning!”
“A man besides the bagel guy, JoJo.”
Johanna’s mind flipped backwards to the man Rocky had ran over in the park. “Thursday night, I told you.”
“Really?” Melissa said the word like she didn’t believe her.
“Really.”
“You had a date on Thursday night?”
Johanna swallowed hard before spitting out an anxious “Yeah.”
“With a man.”
“Yes, with a man!”
Melissa glanced over at Johanna’s dog. “What’d you do with Rocky?”
“Took him with.”
“How long have you been seeing this guy?”
“What is this? An interrogation? Daaaad. Make her stop!” Johanna whined.
“Mook. Ease up,” their father said quietly.
“I will ease up when she tells me what I want to know!” M
elissa turned to Johanna. “How long have you been seein’ him?”
Johanna shrugged. “I’ve been seeing him on and off for the last five years.” It wasn’t a lie. It was the truth. A bit of an intentional misdirection, but the truth.
“You’ve been seeing a guy on and off for the last five years and you’ve never told us?!” Now Melissa was interested. Even her father looked at her with shock in his eyes. “What’s his name?”
Shit. “Um,” she swallowed hard. “Mitchell.” The name of Felicia Marshall’s fiancé was the first name that popped into her head.
“What does he do for a living?”
“He’s an engineer.”
“JoJo, you’ve been dating an engineer for five years and you haven’t told us. I’m shocked,” said Denny.
Johanna’s arms suddenly felt chilled as all the heat in her body went to her face. “Dad, it’s not serious. We literally lead our own lives and just bump into each other on occasion.” Still not a lie.
Melissa’s hands exploded in the air next to her temples. “My mind is literally blown right now. Like literally.”
Johanna felt a sudden pang of guilt. How had she gone from being single to having an on-and-off boyfriend in a matter of seconds after arriving at her Dad’s house? She swallowed hard.
“Can we start cooking now?” She walked towards the kitchen.
“I guess…,” said Melissa slowly, still in a state of shock. Following Johanna into the kitchen, she quickly recovered. “But I want to hear everything about this guy!”
11
“Auntie JoJo!” shouted Lexi Hughes-Donovan as she flew down the wooden stairs at breakneck speed and launched herself into Johanna’s waiting arms.
“Lex Luthor! I’ve missed you so much!” Johanna wrapped her arms around the ten-year-old and stroked her blond hair. Hearing the wood floor creak, she glanced up towards the top of the stairs to see a dawdling eight-year-old carrying a small electronic device. “Henry the Eighth, where’s Auntie JoJo’s hug?” she hollered up at him.
He pulled his big brown eyes off his game and a slow smile spread across his face. “Hi, Auntie,” he said shyly, continuing down the stairs. Henry had always been the most like his aunt Johanna. The two of them were by far the most introverted of the Hughes clan. When he landed on the last step, he hugged her around the waist.
Johanna’s heart melted to have her two favorite munchkins hugging her at the same time. She wished she could screenshot the moment in time and hold on to it forever. “I brought you guys presents,” she managed to choke out over the lump in her throat.
Immediately they both let go of her and raced each other to the living room. “Presents?” they cheered in unison.
“Can we open them now?” begged Lexi.
“No, you can’t open them now. You have to wait until after dinner, when we all open presents together,” shouted Melissa from the kitchen.
“Oh, but Mom!” whined Lexi.
“Yeah, but Mom!” agreed Johanna. She’d been so excited to see their faces that she was just as disappointed as they were.
“No but Moms. Why don’t the two of you help me finish setting the table?”
When their little faces crumpled, Johanna chucked them both under the chin. “The faster you set the table, the sooner we eat. The sooner we eat, the sooner we get to open presents!”
“I’m doing the silverware,” shouted Lexi, taking off towards the dining room. “You’re pouring the water.”
“You’re both pouring the water,” Melissa answered.
“Hey, don’t forget to go say hi to Rocky!” said Johanna, pointing back towards the kitchen.
Henry’s brown eyes lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. “You brought Rocky? Yay!”
Johanna nodded. “I brought a new friend, too. Her name is Esmerelda. I think you’re going to like her a lot. They’re both in the kitchen.”
“Yay!” they cheered as they raced off towards the kitchen.
Johanna giggled as she continued on her path towards the living room, where she snuggled up on the sofa next to her dad.
He put his arm around her. “How’s dinner coming?”
“Almost ready. We’re just waiting for the gravy to thicken,” she said, laying her head on his shoulder. “Are you two hungry yet?”
Melissa’s husband, Kevin, tossed his head backwards. “Starving. We’ve been up since five. All I’ve had to eat are the scraps you two have been throwing my way.”
“And the chips and that homemade dip Mook pulled out around one o’clock,” Johanna reminded him.
“Oh yeah, I had a few chips. I forgot about that.”
“And the Christmas cookies you’ve sent the kids in to sneak out for you.”
He smiled. “Oh yeah. And those.”
“And the beers,” she added, pointing at the drink he held. She was pretty sure it was his third.
“Right. And the beers.” He grinned at her. “You don’t let anything slip past you, do you?”
“Nope!” she agreed proudly.
He groaned. “You’ll make some man an excellent game warden someday, JoJo.”
Denny chuckled.
“Thank you!” Johanna answered brightly.
“So tell me, how’s the book business going these days,” asked Kevin, crossing one gangly leg over the other.
“Great! My new book is due out in two months. I’m so close to completing it that I can taste the finish line.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that taste like? Chocolate?”
Johanna grinned as she leaned forward and swatted at his legs playfully. “Something like that.” She looked up at her father, whose belly shook as he laughed too. “So, what’s new in the IT business?”
Kevin leaned forward. “Everything! Everything’s always new in IT. Gotta keep up with the times.”
“Like whatcha working on now?” she asked.
“Cybersecurity mostly. Cybersecurity is hot right now with all the data breaches on the news lately. Everyone wants to make sure their data is secure, so we’ve been doing a lot of work for companies, helping them beef up their firewalls.”
“Sounds like something that’s over my head,” said Johanna with a giggle. “I’m still using the same laptop I got in college. I’m pretty sure I haven’t updated my virus protection since the Bush administration.”
“Didn’t you graduate in ’04?”
Johanna nodded. “Remember the ‘Dude, you’re getting a Dell’ commercials?’ Dad got me a state-of-the-art Dell my freshman year!”
“Cost me a bundle!” Denny agreed.
His brow lifted. “You’re using a seventeen-year-old Dell? And it’s still functional?! So you’re running what? Windows 2000?” he asked incredulously.
She shrugged. “I would assume? Like I know. I do know it was one of the first laptops with Wi-Fi at the time. Besides using it to Google things once in a while, I only use it to run Word. That’s all I need. I’ve got my phone for everything else.”
“Wow. Now I know what I’m getting you for your birthday,” he said with a chuckle.
The doorbell rang and Johanna could hear Rocky’s feet on the linoleum in the kitchen as he made a mad dash for the entryway. She glanced up at her father. “You expecting someone, Dad?”
“I’ll get it!” Melissa hollered from the other side of the house.
With an arm slung over the back of the sofa, Denny scratched his thumb against his eyebrows as Johanna sat forward on the edge of the couch.
“Oh, uh, yeah, I, uh, was gonna tell you.”
Johanna’s brows crumpled together. Who else could he possibly be expecting? she wondered. “Tell me what?”
As Johanna’s eyes swung over to look at Kevin curiously, he lifted his beer to his lips and took a big gulp.
“Dad? Did you invite someone else to Christmas dinner?” Something about the two men’s reactions set Johanna’s heart pounding in her chest.
“Dad!” called Melissa from the entryway. “Maureen’s here
!”
With her brows still bunched up, Johanna turned to her father. “Maureen? Who’s Maureen, Dad?”
“Oh, I, uh, I work with her.”
“You invited work people to Christmas dinner?” Johanna was confused.
“I’m going to go help Mel in the kitchen,” said Kevin, taking off like a shot before Johanna could turn her questions towards him.
“Well, umm, not exactly, pumpkin,” said Denny.
Johanna noticed the sweat beads glistening on her father’s forehead, but before she could say anything, there was a busty big-haired brunette standing in the wide doorway between the entryway and the living room, and Rocky was barking like mad.
“Merry Christmas, Denny. Oh, you must be JoJo,” she cried, throwing her arms out wide and rushing towards Johanna. “Your father has told me all about you! I’m so happy to finally get to meet you!”
Finally get to meet me? Johanna wondered as the woman threw her arms around her shoulders. Finally?! “I’m sorry, I guess I’m out of the loop here. Who are you?”
The woman promptly let go of Johanna and took a step back, gasping. “Denny Hughes! Have you still not told JoJo about us?”
Johanna sucked in a breath. “Us?!” Her head pivoted to stare at her father, who was struggling to get up off the sofa.
“Dinner!” hollered Melissa from the other room.
Rocky leapt around Johanna and barked excitedly. He wanted to play with the new guest.
Johanna suddenly felt sticky under her armpits. She waved a hand in front of her face. “Is it hot in here?”
“Denny!” shouted the woman, her amber eyes blazing.
“Now, Mo, don’t get mad. I hadn’t found the right moment,” he began uncomfortably.
“The right moment?” she asked, lifting her bushy brown eyebrows. “We’ve been together for nearly a year. You haven’t found one single moment that you could tell her about us during that year?”
Johanna’s ears were ringing now. “Year?” she gulped.
Melissa poked her head into the living room. “Kev and the kids are all at the table. I don’t want the turkey to get cold. We should eat.”
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