Page 1 of Puck the Halls
CHAPTER 1
Nathan
“Fine,I’ll do it. But I need to hear one thing from you first.”
“What?”
“That this is all your fault. Five little words. ‘This is all my fault.’”
“I’m not saying that.”
“Thenyouhave to call Dani.”
I feel my heart rate speed up. I can’t tell Danielle what I did. She’s going to be so upset. At me. I hate when she’s upset in general, but when it’s because ofme? You might as well stab me in the heart.
“I’ll give you ten thousand dollars to call her,” I say.
Crew hoots out a laugh. “No way, Boss. You can’t pay me off. Say the words and I’ll make the call.”
I blow out a breath. I can almost always pay people off. But Crew makes millions of dollars—on a paycheck signed byme, incidentally. And, even more, he fucking loves when I’ve screwed up. Crew makes me crazy on a regular basis, but never more so than when he is gloating. He is definitely not above sayingI told you so.
And he did tell me so. He absolutely said that this was a bad idea. He even pleaded with me, a little,notto do this.
But I did. And here we are. And now we have to tell our wife.
“Crew,pleasecall Danielle.” There. I almost never say please to him.
Crew tucks his hands into the front pocket of his jeans. “I just need to hear the five words.”
I blow out a breath. I really need him to make the call. Danielle is not going to be just disappointed, but quite possibly angry. At me.
Danielle never gets angry.
Well, almost never.
Truly how that woman manages to live with the three of us men and our two children and not lose her shit daily is a miracle. Because many days it’s like she has five children.
Okay, four. Michael is usually easy to live with.
I wish he was here right now.
“This is all my fault,” I finally say through gritted teeth.
Crew chuckles. “For your Christmas present, I’m not going to make you repeat that more clearly,” he says.
“McNeill,” I say my voice low with warning.
He holds up a hand grinning. “Fine, fine. And you’re right that I should be the one to tell Dani. She’s gonna be upset.”
He didn’t need to add that. I know she’s going to be upset.Of course,she is.
“Be sure you tell her why we’re in Decatur,” I say.
“Jesus, Nate, she’s gonna know why the fuck we’re in Decatur,” Crew says pulling his phone out.
It’s true. There are probably only three reasons that Crew and I would be in Michael’s hometown without Michael or Danielle. One of them is if something happened to Michael while he was here.
But no, he’s safe and sound, warm and, no doubt, cuddled up with our wife in front of a roaring fire, in the luxury cabin in Aspen, Colorado that Crew rented for us for the next three days.
