Page 172 of The Holiday Fakers
“Jingle bells!” we say, and she takes a few pictures, then checks the screen on the back.
“It’s—”
“Perfect except for me?” Hudson says, and everyone laughs.
Mia grins. “Busted.”
Marv steps forward, his hands outstretched. “Let me take one with you in it.”
“Yes!” Mom says. “Come on, Mia.”
Mia looks between her camera and Marv like she doesn’t trust him with her baby.
“I went to film school,” he tells her. “I know my way around a camera.”
She reluctantly hands it to him, and he moves it in his hands, checking it out. But as Mia edges toward us, he cries out and pretends to drop it.
Mia shrieks, lunging for him, then shakes her head as he winks at her and says, “Gotcha!”
We all crack up, and Mia rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “That’s a Hudson-level prank.”
“And you still fell for it,” Hudson replies with a smirk.
“Come on, honey,” Mom says to her. “Stand here.” She puts Mia next to Hudson. “Now, son, put your arm around her.”
“This isn’t going to end well,” Ethan mutters behind me.
“Why not, Daddy?” Martha asks.
Hudson flinches as if he’s just been poked. “Hey,” he says to Mia. “Cut that out.”
“You need to smile for the camera,” she says to him.
“I know how to—will youstop?”
“Stop what?” she asks, but her hand is behind her back, her finger already poised to poke him again.
Suddenly Hudson grabs her in a headlock and gives her a noogie.
Mia shrieks, then executes a move straight out of the WWE, grabbing his legs and sweeping them out from under him, bringing them both to the floor. We scatter as Mia and Hudson grapple on the rug.
My best friend is really strong, but you’d have to be a bull to get the better of Hudson.
“Submit!” he shouts.
“Never!” she yells back, twisting to free herself like a snake having a seizure.
Both of them are red-faced and out of breath. I don’t think they realize we’re all still here until Ethan hands Martha to Dad and steps forward with Brody to separate them.
“How old are you?” Ethan asks as if Hudson were his son, not his younger brother.
Hudson’s chest heaves. “She started it!” he protests, jabbing a finger at Mia.
“Me? You’re the one who gave me a noogie!”
“Say sorry,” Ethan says to Hudson.
“Why do I?—”
