Page 6 of All Foxed Up

Her sigh of relief, then the flush of pleasure, that was what I was looking forward to. Nat had become quite the foodie now she had a sleuth who loved every one of her creations. The blade was made from that wavy steel that comes from layering it over and over during forging. The salesman tried to explain it to me, but my eyes started rolling back in my head seconds into the spiel. “Does it cut properly?” I asked. “Is it easy to sharpen? Will it last?”

“Of course!” the man spluttered. “This has a warranty of…”

Ugh. Bored now.

I spaced out, then came back with a jolt when he was finally finished talking, instead standing there looking expectantly at me.

“I’ll take it,” I said, then waved my credit card in front of his face to ward off yet more mansplaining about an extended warranty.

“Oh my god…” Nat sighed.

“OK, that’s a beautiful knife.” Koda picked it up, looked down the length of it with one eye closed and then consulted the blade. “Damascene steel, Holly? That shit is expensive.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t—”

Nat did that all the damn time. Someone did something nice for her? She’d start protesting, like she didn’t deserve it.

“Yes, I should. In fact, I did,” I said. Because more than my blood relations, she was my family. We might’ve pashed some of the same guys in the school, and checked each other’s butts for bleed through when we first got our periods, and sat up late at night talking about what our future would be like, only to talk so many times afterwards as both our dreams and our fears failed to come true. But one thing remained. Nat was my best friend, my real sister, and I’d never buy her anything other than the best, because that’s what she was to me.

Of course, being an Australian, I couldn’t actually say any of that. The stiff upper lip shit we imported from the UK, along with rabbits and foxes, meant you kept your emotions to yourself.

“And you can use it later to make me a sandwich,” I added with a cheeky grin.

I was trying to make light of… well, everything. There was so much family and love in the room, the grandparents talking to Sven about his fire truck oh so intently, and Nat’s guys surrounding her, wrapping their arms around her shoulders and shit, I needed to lighten the damn mood, but she left the knife with Koda and launched herself at me, wrapping me up in a tight embrace.

My hands went up, not sure what to do and my eyes went wide. I felt like everyone had to be looking at us, even though I knew they weren’t. They were all having their own little Christmas moments, because that was what the day was for, so I gave Nat an awkward hug back.

“So glad it wasn’t a double ended dildo,” she whispered.

“Pretty sure your guys would say the same, unless you use tons of lube and take it super slow,” I rasped back.

She punched me in the arm then. Ahh, right back to the level of intimacy I was comfortable with. I belted her back, which of course, had the kids turning around, because the little fuckers could smell the blood in the water. We kind of tussled around on the floor for a bit, and Thorn made some comment about it being hot, and then Sven asked why, right before the kids jumped on us, using skills normally seen inside a WWE ring.

So this was Christmas.

Not the way they usually showed it on the TV screen, but fuck, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Chapter4

“Nope!”

Nat and I barked that the minute the cars pulled up at the beach, the kids’ hands going to the door handles, then wrenching on them to get them open. We all heard the plastic handles groan, right before Lars spoke up.

“You break those door handles again and I’ll reverse Santa all of those presents of yours.”

“What’s a reverse Santa?” the kids and I asked.

“It’s where I ring the North Pole and speak to Santa about coming and picking his presents back up and taking them away.”

“That’s a thing?” I whispered at Nat and she gave me the look. It was the ‘just go with it’ look that the five of them often had to use. Parenting bear cubs was the Wild West and the sheriff and her deputies had to back each other one hundred percent, or risk being taken down one by one by the little devils. I nodded solemnly, then looked over at the kids.

“But that’s not going to happen, is it, boys?” They looked to me because one, I was female and therefore more likely to be a soft touch. I mean diamonds were softer than Lars, but anyway. And two, because I was not one of their parental units, constrained by the mysterious laws of being a family authority figure. I could be appealed to, cajoled, convinced, damn, even manipulated. “We’re going to get out of the cars andhold hands.” I emphasised the action bit because the boys tended to just nod their heads furiously to get free of the car, then ignore all previous requests. “With each otherandAunty Hols.” That got me a wary nod. “I’ll take you straight down to the picnic tables and we’ll have some lunch, before going for a swim.”

“You have to wait for half an hour after food to swim,” Lars warned.

“Apparently that’s not a real thing,” Nat said.

“What? But our parents—”

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