Page 41 of Merry Kissmas

“And just so you know, they aren’t always kind.”Brynn laughs along with her brothers.

Their bond is tight, and I wonder what it’s like to grow up with siblings.I had friendships in boarding school, but to have someone you grew up in the same house with who shares your blood is different.

Andrew and I share a look.He has to admit this is unusual even for him, although he appears to be eating it up with a ladle.

“Go!”Gwen shouts, and Brynn pulls me by the sleeve of my sweater toward a corner.

My eyes follow everyone else, seeing each twosome find their own private space.

“Okay, let’s think of a theme.Holiday movies?”Brynn taps the pen to her lips, and I get distracted for a moment.“The Grinch…Christmas Vacation… ugh… why am I drawing a blank?”

She’s got me on holiday movies.I haven’t seen any unless I was forced to.

“Rudolph…Home Alone…White Christmas, but that would be boring.Any ideas, marketing man?”

“I haven’t seen a lot of Christmas movies.”

Her mouth opens, and she stares at me.“What do you watch in December?”There’s a look on her face as if she’s genuinely concerned for me.

“I don’t know.”I shrug.“But we could do a Christmas-type theme instead of a movie.”

“Like…” She waves.

“I just want to put the disclaimer out there that it’s not fair that two marketing gurus are a team!”Carter shouts from somewhere behind me.

Brynn shakes her head and pays him no attention.

“We could do a song?‘Jingle Bells’… or the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’… what about that bloody song, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’?”

She’s nodding, contemplating my ideas.“I love ‘Twelve Days of Christmas,’ but do we have time to make all the ornaments?And they’re intricate.Like, how are we going to cut out a bunch of lords a-leaping?”

“Or maids a-milking?”

She laughs, and I love that I spurred that out of her.“Okay, next idea.”She taps the pen on her lips again.“Oh!Have you ever seen the movie,Elf?”

I shake my head, and she groans.

“Would you be okay if I took the lead?”

“Just direct me what to do.But can you explain the movie to me?”

She nods and scoots closer so our knees touch.“He’s a guy who believed he was an elf and lived in the North Pole.When he was a baby, he snuck into Santa’s sack…” She tells me the whole story, and when she’s midway through, it starts to sound familiar.

“Is this a Will Ferrell movie?”

She nods, smiling.“You’ve seen it?”

“Bits and pieces, but I know the green-and-yellow outfit.”

“Perfect.”She puts pen to paper.“So, we’ll make little elves, and maple syrup was really big in the movie, so we’ll cut some of those.Candy canes and snowballs too.Actually no…”

Watching her mind work and spin the ideas to fruition is something I could do all night.The way she taps her pen, scribbles, and scratches out things.She’s not shy about throwing any idea out there, and I fall for her a little more during this brainstorming session.

“Everyone ready?”Gwen calls.

That half hour went way too fast.

“Go to your villas, and in two hours, you have to be standing outside your villa door.”

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