Page 4 of Kingmakers, Year One

The competition for tallest member of our family has been running hot ever since Henry passed Uncle Seb and then Leo threatened to pass Henry.

Henry grabs Leo by the shoulders, locked in a kind of steely examination that finally ends as our eldest cousin sighs. “Yeah, you definitely caught up.”

“Caught up and passed you!” Leo chortles.

“Let’s not get carried away; we’re eye to eye.”

“Then how come I can see the top of your head?”

“Pinch yourself; you’re dreaming.”

Serena links elbows with me instead.

“Don’t worry,” I tell her. “I already know you’re taller than me.”

“I missed you!” she says in her silvery, soft voice, melodic as a Christmas bell.

I lean my head against her shoulder, already full to the brim with the buoyant warmth of seeing the people you love and liking them even more than you remembered.

“No hugs for me? And no help with the packages, either,” Uncle Dante grumbles, alone and forgotten behind us.

Aunt Simone laughs, kissing her husband on the cheek and squeezing his bicep the size of a ham hock. “If these can’t carry packages, then what are they good for?”

“You know what they’re good for,” he growls in her ear.

“Gross, Dad,” Henry says in a resigned tone.

“If your dad wasn’t irresistible, you wouldn’t exist,” Simone reminds him.

“Yeah, but we’re here now, and we’ve had enough of you two sucking face,” Simone’s youngest pipes up.

“Don’t say ‘sucking face,’” Simone corrects Dario. “It’s crude.”

After a glance at his glowering father, Dario ducks his head and says, “Désolé, Maman,” then races off to join Teddy and Whelan.

“I want to hear Dante say something in French,” a merry voice calls.

Aunt Aida comes up the walkway, her mischievous face flushed and beaming.

“His French has really improved,” Simone says at the same time that Dante grunts, “Not a chance in hell.”

“How does he survive in Paris?” Uncle Nero inquires, always eager to join his sister in teaming up against their eldest sibling.

“I bet he points a lot,” Aida says. “Or pretends like he didn’t really want that thing, anyway.”

Dante rolls his eyes. “Could you two wait until we’re inside before you start bullying me?”

“Bully you!” Aida stands on tiptoe to give her brother the kind of hug that might rival one from Leo. “Not until after dessert.”

The rest of our relatives stream into the house, Leo’s parents the last to arrive, along with my grandparents, whom they picked up along the way.

By the time we’re done with the rounds of kisses and greetings, the entryway is at least ten degrees hotter, and the sofa has disappeared beneath a mound of discarded coats and scarves.

My mother’s running everywhere, stacking gifts, bringing drinks, and separating Whelan and Dario, who have already begun to squabble. My father helps her, trying not to grimace at all the rowdy boys running around his house and all the hugs he’s forced to endure.

“Don’t you just love all this Christmas cheer?” Aida teases him as Dario lets out a particularly ear-splitting shriek.

I think my aunt Aida is the only person on this planet brave enough to rib my dad.

---