Making Merry (A Firsts and Forever/Castaways Series Holiday Collection)

by Alexa Land

  I raised my head and peered out between my spread, hairy legs, and then I murmured, “Bloody hell.” I was facing the entrance to the living room, and standing in the doorway with matching expressions of shock were Gianni and his three brothers.

  Zan: Chapter Five

  Dante was the first to totally lose it. He began howling with laughter and doubled over, while Mike and Vincent started laughing so hard that they had to lean on each other for support.

  Meanwhile, I struggled to get my feet out of the stirrups. I also tried to shove the front of my apron down between my legs, even though everyone had already been treated to an eyeful. Finally, I managed to hurl myself out of the sling and got my arse back onto the office chair.

  There was really only one thing I could do when faced with a situation that utterly embarrassing, which was to laugh it off. I chuckled as I draped the apron demurely over my thighs and said, “Hello, boys. You’re welcome on the holiday display. Gianni my love, I have no explanation for any of this. Now if all of you will excuse me for just a moment, I need to go pack up my meat and two veg, if you get my meaning.”

  As I rolled past them and out the doorway, Dante was still chuckling. He gestured at the slogan on my apron and said, “Not so little, actually.”

  I grinned at that as Gianni joined me. He took hold of the back of my chair and pushed me down the hallway as he called, “Make yourselves at home, guys. We’ll be right back.”

  “What, in your love grotto? It’s probably all sticky,” Mike said.

  “And it has crabs,” Vincent called. I glanced over my shoulder and saw him smiling and indicating the tree.

  As soon as we were out of earshot, Gianni blurted, “Shit, I fucked up.”

  “You fucked up? I just treated three members of your immediate family to a view normally reserved for you and my proctologist.”

  “I guess you didn’t get my text that said we decided to come home and help you with dinner.”

  I shook my head as he steered me past the kitchen. “I’m not entirely sure where my phone is right now. I hope it wasn’t in my pocket when I doused myself with the contents of the stock pot.” I was still holding my empty wine glass, and I gestured toward my wet clothes with it, which were strewn across the floor.

  He blurted, “Shit, are you alright?”

  “What? Oh, it wasn’t hot at the time. I was trying to lift it out of the sink.”

  Gianni helped me up when we reached the back staircase and said, “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

  “Eh, I’m fine,” I said, as I began the slow, stooped process of hobbling up the stairs. Since my bare arse was totally on display in that position, I got why he’d taken me to this staircase and not the one off the living room. “Dinner however is kaput, since the tablet died a horrible death and took all my recipes with it. As for the living room furniture, I have absolutely no idea what happened there. I wasn’t paying attention to what they were delivering, but I saw your name at the top of the paperwork, so I assumed it was the stuff you’d ordered.”

  “Um…it is.” We’d reached our bedroom, and as I dropped onto the mattress, Gianni took his phone from his pocket and looked through some emails. Then he gestured at the screen and said, “I got the orders mixed up. I thought the living room furniture was arriving today and the things for the playroom were coming next week, but it’s the exact opposite.”

  “So, you actually bought us that stuff?”

  He grinned embarrassedly as he sat beside me on the bed. “I was trying to think of something big, fun, and unexpected to get you for Christmas. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but you’re really hard to shop for.”

  I beamed at him and said, “Thank you, that’s a great present.”

  “You really like it?”

  “Hell yes!”

  “Well, that’s good,” he said. “I was going to have the deliverymen set it up in one of the spare bedrooms. We’ve got plenty of them. But I’m not entirely sure how we’re supposed to move that stuff upstairs now, because it weighs a ton.”

  “We’ll figure it out, and in the meantime it’s a hell of a conversation piece. Christian is going to think it’s hilarious. I suppose we can’t really have the rest of your family over now though, what with all the little kids. We wouldn’t want to corrupt young minds.”

  Gianni considered that for a few moments before saying, “You know, the kids wouldn’t actually have any idea what that stuff is for. If we take the stirrups off the sling, then isn’t it basically just a small hammock?”

  “The teenagers would figure it out, though.”

  “That’s true.”

  I said, “Since my recipes are gone and I’ve destroyed any chance of making a nice meal, we should just join your family at the ranch.”

  Gianni’s phone buzzed, and he read the screen and sent back a text. Then he told me, “That was Vincent, letting me know they’re raiding our wine fridge. He also wanted to know what was happening with all that food on the counters, and I told him we weren’t sure, since your recipes drowned.”

  “Where are their husbands and kids? And Nana and her husband, for that matter? Thank Christ they weren’t here for my PDA. That’s ‘public display of arse’, in case you’re wondering.”

  “Almost everyone went horseback riding,” he said, “but my brothers insisted on coming back here with me when I told them I wanted to help you cook.”

  “But I told you to go have fun with your family.”

  “You’re my family too, Zan, and this is where I belong. I know you were determined to do all of this by yourself, but it was already too much for one person, even before you threw your back out.”

  “Most people could have managed it. Not me, though.” I took his hand and said, “I’m such an utter disaster. Why do you put up with me?”

  “You mean besides the fact that I’m madly in love with you?”

  I kissed his hand before saying, “It has to get old though, living with a middle-aged man-child who can’t even figure out how to turn on the stereo. And who still calls it a stereo, for that matter.”

  “Thank God you don’t have your shit together. Seriously. You’re already the one with all the money, fame, and success. All those gold records downstairs covering an entire wall of your studio are a lot to come to terms with, especially considering I’m in my thirties and still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. This relationship maintains a sense of balance because there are a few things only I can bring to the table. If you were great at absolutely everything, I’d feel like a total loser by comparison.”

  I told him, “That perspective would never have occurred to me.”

  Gianni grinned a little. “It’s funny. We’ve been together over three years, but it kind of feels like we’re newlyweds who are trying to learn how to live together.”

  “It does feel like that. It’s as though we got together, then almost immediately took a three-year honeymoon. Now it’s finally time to learn how to navigate the real world as a couple.”

  “That part’s key,” he said, “as a couple. All this holiday prep should have been handled by both of us. I know you kept saying you wanted to do it for me, but maybe you should have actually been doing it with me. That goes for Christian, too. He’d probably have a blast decorating and cooking with you. That stuff makes memories, not the perfect tree and the flashy decorations.”

  I said, “You’re right about all of that. Also, our tree has crabs.”

  Gianni’s smile lit up his gorgeous face. “I saw. What happened there?”

  “I just requested red ornaments, but I didn’t think to ask what that would involve.”

  “I love it. We have to give our tree crabs every year. By that, I mean we’ll have to keep adding to our collection.”

  “I like that idea.” I sat up with an unflattering grunt and kissed him, and then I said, “Could you help me find some trousers? We should get back to your brothers and the huge amount of food that’s
about to spoil in our kitchen.”

  After I got dressed with an assist from Gianni, we made our way back downstairs. I returned to the office chair, and we found his brothers in the kitchen, holding a bunch of canvas grocery sacks and drinking wine from sports bottles. “Come on, you two,” Mike said. “We’re commandeering these groceries and taking them and you back to the ranch.”

  “Our first thought was to start cooking, but we have no idea what most of this shit is,” Vincent said, as he adjusted his silver, wire-framed glasses, then pulled an alien-looking citrus fruit from a bag and gestured with it to make his point. “We figure Nana will know what to do with it, though.” I glanced from one brother to the other as he was talking. Gianni was by far the smallest of the bunch, and he was six-two. The other three were behemoths.

  Dante handed us both sports bottles full of wine and said, “We made you sippy cups to go. Do we need to carry you, Tillane? We borrowed one of the trolleys from the ranch and it’s parked right outside, so we just need to get your totally unmanscaped ass out the front door.”

  “I think I’ll manage, but thanks, mate.” I grinned at him and pushed a strand of hair out of my eyes. That was when I realized I still had that scrunchie on top of my head.

  I pulled it out and set it on the counter, and Dante exclaimed, “You colored your hair!”

  Vincent gave him a push toward the front door and said, “Like you don’t.”

  Dante tried to play it off. “What? Me? Come on.”

  “Oh, you definitely color your hair,” Mike said. “Actually, I bet all of you do, because I’ve started to find a few gray hairs and I’m the youngest one here.”

  Gianni admitted embarrassedly, “I’ve been using this shampoo-in stuff once a month for the last five years.” That was news to me. “Admittedly, I’m a bit vain, but then so are all of you.”

  “Fess up Dante,” Mike said. “What’s your product of choice? Do you go for the hide-the-gray stuff for dudes, or are you Miss Clairol Ravishing Raven all the way?”

  Dante muttered, “I admit nothing,” as he rushed outside.

  “My money’s on Ravishing Raven,” Mike called after him, and we chuckled as we followed the oldest of the Dombruso brothers out the door.

  Zan: Chapter Six

  It looked like every winter holiday had exploded all at once in the courtyard of Seahorse Ranch. Five eclectically decorated Christmas trees of various shapes and sizes shared space with one huge Menorah and at least a dozen smaller ones. There were also banners, long, colorful strings of paper flowers, and lanterns for Diwali, which technically had happened over a month ago. Then there were the endless strands of garlands, lush clusters of blooming poinsettias, and a truly staggering number of colored lights, which totally enveloped the Spanish-style buildings. It was still light out, but I could only imagine what the effect would be once darkness fell and someone flipped a switch on all of that.

  Gianni helped me get situated on a lounge chair while his brothers transferred the groceries to the refrigerators in the commercial kitchen. After a few minutes, Elijah and his boyfriend Cassidy joined us, along with Chance, Finn, and Colt, who were Elijah’s family members.

  Chance was also one of my son’s closest friends. In fact, they were more like family. And actually, that was true for everyone gathered here. It really was one great, big family, both by choice and by blood.

  Beck and his friend Vee played host, and the Dombrusos made themselves at home while wine, laughter and conversation flowed freely. At one point, I told Gianni, who was snuggling beside me on the lounge chair, “I’m so glad I didn’t miss this.”

  My boyfriend kissed me tenderly and murmured, “So am I.”

  His phone beeped just then, and he pulled it from his pocket and read a text. When he grinned, I said, “That must be good news.”

  He sent a text in return and told me, “It is. That was Janice, one of the women from my writers’ group. She said after I left, everyone got in a huge argument. The upshot is that she and four other people are leaving that group and forming a new one that’s going to welcome all members of the LGBTQ community. She asked me if I wanted to lead it.”

  “I hope you said yes.”

  Gianni flashed me his gorgeous smile. “As a matter of fact, I did.”

  *****

  As the afternoon turned to evening, I gave Christian a call on Gianni’s phone, since I still didn’t know where mine was. “We’re all at the ranch,” I told my son. “I’ll see about sending one of the trolleys when you arrive, and it’ll bring you back here.” He was just fine with that.

  I leaned against my boyfriend after I disconnected the call, and after a while I said, “How could I live with someone on a boat for three years and not know they color their hair?”

  “I was wondering when you’d bring that up.” He rested his head on my shoulder and told me, “I kept it in that box under the kitchen sink, the one labeled ‘industrial strength cleanser’.”

  “Which I never touched, because I’m shite when it comes to housekeeping. But why’d you hide it from me?”

  He thought about that before saying, “I guess I hid it because I had a hard time accepting the fact that I was getting older, even though I was only twenty-eight when I started going gray. Before you came along, I was nothing more than a pretty face to the people I dated. I guess I learned to define my self-worth by my appearance, and even now, I fight hard to try to hang on to my youth. Hence the countless hours I spend working out, all the expensive creams and lotions, and my secret stash of hair dye.”

  I took his hand and murmured, “I completely understand.”

  *****

  Sometime after sunset, Beck and the trolley arrived with Christian and Shea, their friends Skye and Dare, a dog, a cat, and a rocket-shaped cage full of god knows what. Right after that, Beck’s uncle, Ren Medina, showed up with over two dozen large pizzas, more than enough to feed everyone.

  My son’s face lit up when he saw me, which warmed my heart. He hurried over and hugged Gianni and me, and he asked, “How’s your back?”

  “Eh, I’ll live, but Christmas Eve turned out much differently than I’d planned. It looks like we’ll be having pizza for dinner. I hope you don’t mind.”

  He said, “Remember how I used to beg you for pizza when I was a teenager? I never actually outgrew wanting it for every meal.”

  Skye and Dare joined us, and as Skye (who was dressed in pajamas) handed us a huge gift basket, he said, “Merry Christmas, you two. I hope you guys like pea soup. Like, a lot.”

  I replied, “Have I ever told you I love the fact that you’re a true original?” He seemed quite pleased with that.

  *****

  After dinner, as Christian was catching up with Gianni and me, something caught my eye. I touched my son’s necklace and said, “You’re still wearing the Tibetan pendant I gave you.”

  “I never take it off. It makes me feel like I always have you with me, since you wore it every day throughout your career.” I was so touched by that. He grinned and added, “I’ll only remove it when it’s time to hand it down to my son or daughter.”

  That caught me by surprise, and I asked, “Are you and Shea thinking about starting a family?”

  Christian nodded. “There are a lot of details to work out, but yeah. I think we both really want that. So, what do you think about becoming a grandpa?”

  Gianni squeezed my hand, and I answered, “I think it’s the greatest gift I can imagine.”

  Just then, Beck leapt to his feet across the courtyard and exclaimed, “Oh shit, I forgot to turn on the Christmas lights! Hang on.” He rushed into one of the buildings, and moments later the entire ranch came to life in a riot of light and color.

  The delighted expression on my son’s face was priceless. He looked like a little kid as the lights reflected in eyes so like my own. I gathered him and Gianni into an embrace as I said, “Merry Christmas to us all.”

  Book Four: Cassidy

  Featuring Ca
ssidy and Elijah from Kindred Spirits

  (The Castaways Series, Book One)

  Cassidy: Chapter One

  Time was running out. It was December twenty-fourth, for god’s sake. I needed to finish my Christmas shopping in the next few hours, and I was on the verge of panic.

  It wasn’t that I’d blown it off. In fact, I’d started shopping weeks ago. Well, I’d tried to, anyway. What I actually did was wander in and out of nearly every shop in town. Three times. But I kept getting overwhelmed and left empty-handed.

  My situation was pretty dire, but I felt certain that the solution to my problems was sitting in a corner of Seahorse Ranch’s courtyard, working on his laptop and sipping a huge cup of coffee. Beck Medina knew the town like the back of his hand, and he was great at getting things done. All I had to do was ask for help.

  That was tough for me, though. I was used to being self-reliant and liked to make people think I had everything under control. Even though Beck and I had worked together for nearly four years, I could count the number of times I’d asked for his help on one hand.

  Besides my need for self-reliance, I sometimes had a hard time with Beck because he could be…well, a lot. If he had a personal mantra, it was probably ‘more is more’. The courtyard was a perfect example. Instead of just putting up a tree for Christmas, he’d put up five. Then he’d festooned the buildings with garlands, wreaths and thousands of lights and filled every corner with a sea of poinsettias. To represent Hanukkah, he added more than a dozen Menorahs, including an electric one that was six feet high. He’d layered decorations for Diwali on top of that, in honor of his friend Vee. He’d even decorated himself for the holidays and was wearing a Santa hat, an ugly Christmas sweater, and red shorts. In other words, he was pretty much my exact opposite in every way.