I want you to know that Christmas was turmoil at my house! I was unprepared. Basically because I was writing I’ll Remember You until the last minute. I wrote Aron’s story in about 25 days and finished on the 22nd – it went up for sale on the 23rd. It was a labor of love, I knew the story by heart, but I had to get it out and on paper. It had so much detail and so many characters; I really had to use a chart to keep it all straight. But in my immersion in McCoy world, I neglected my holiday festivities.
We have a small family, there are only four of us, and we don’t live together all the time. We have several houses in different places and we trade out and move around and meet hither and yon. From New Orleans, to East Texas to Houston to Austin – depending on weather, need for solitude or who isn’t speaking to whom. Jess and I are together more than the others, but even we have to have our time apart. But…the holidays are different. We endeavor to all be together and try to strictly adhere to tradition and a schedule.
I am the cook and the organizer. My aunt is a professor and she travels a lot, so I have stepped up as hostess of our little group. This year, I did some cooking, but nothing like normal. I mostly did meat – because my crew inhales it like air. I did a pork rib roast stuffed with a fruit dressing which had been macerated in apricot brandy, a Virginia ham with fruit chutney, a prime rib with horseradish sauce and a goose with a pomegranate glaze. Still to come is an orange/rosemary glazed turkey. Sounds like a lot, but Jess can eat his weight in a couple of days – so feeding them all is a chore. What I neglected this year was desserts, they had to make do with a Junior’s cheesecake and chocolate chips cookies for the most part.
The other area I failed in was my present calculations. We start opening presents early, several days ahead of time – one a day – then four or five on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas Day. It is my duty to ensure that everyone has the same number. And I didn’t. I was more concerned with Libby and Aron and Jacob, etc and I allowed Uncle Michael to come up short. Now, he had some really good gifts. Jess and I bought him a Henry 30/30 Golden Boy, a fancy-dancy putting green to be installed, a Bose sound thingy and other stuff. But Jess was beyond upset, he’s a little bit like Noah – everything has to add up and make sense or he’s miserable. And when he found out on Christmas Eve that Uncle had less presents than he or the aunt or I – he just panicked.
Nothing would do but we make up the deficit. So, he and the aunt and uncle decided to go shopping about dusk on Christmas Eve. Where we live, you have to drive an hour to get to a decent size Mall. It would take at least three or four hours for them to get back. Well, I hated to be a scrooge – but I was tired and needed to get things in order for the evening meal. So, I stayed home. Plus, I was expecting some gentlemanly company later on in the evening and wanted some time to get all prettied up.
I had a nice evening planned. We were going to have a nice meal, open a few gifts – drink some eggnog and cuddle in front of the fire by the tree and watch some Hallmark Christmas movies. Now, I’m not the best hostess. Even when I have a guy over, I tend to keep working. And this Christmas I’d promised Ryan I would edit his new book, so I was gonna try to do both – if possible.
Hurrying and scurrying, I finished dinner preparations, counted the presents myself to see if Jess was right – he was – and ran to take a shower so I would be tempting when my date arrived. Well….. to get you to the good part. I was in the shower when I heard the apocalypse arrive. I mean it was KERWHAM! KERBLAST! KERPLUNK! I just knew we were under attack. So, I slung open the shower door and grabbed my little shorty robe and threw it on without drying off or anything. I ran to the front door and it was standing open about six inches – which was unusual – but I power blasted outside pulling the door shut behind me because it was dang cold and Mama taught me I didn’t live in a barn.
Well, when I got outside several things hit me at once- – first and foremost there were goats on my porch. This shouldn’t have surprised me; the neighbor’s goats come see periodically, I think they like me. But tonight, they had done something new. They had come up on my wrap-around porch and were pulling the twinkling lights off the bannisters, walking on the couch, tromping on the coffee table and one was proceeding to eat my matching outdoor trees by the front door! I like to have died – I stomped and yelled and threatened with the BBQ pit! There were little goats and mama goats and one big boy goat who eyed me with interest – I think it was the way I was dressed.
I waved my arms and made as much racket as I could and eventually they dispersed and meandered their way back across the yard. I was so mad, for a few minutes I didn’t realize I was covered in goosebumps. I was cold! It was freezing or just near it and I was wet and had pulled on a thin, thin little cotton cover-up which was now wet and sticking to my body like a second skin and was absolutely, utterly see-through. Oh well, I was heading back in, or I thought I was…
After I’d scattered my unwanted visitors, I went to the door and pulled on the handle – and it was locked! So, I pulled again. Still locked. I ran around the side of the house to the garage door, locked! Then the back door – locked! Damn! I considered going to a neighbor’s house, but I was so near naked as to be considered indecent. So, I paced – I didn’t have a phone, or car keys and my dogs are too short-legged to reach the door knob. My only hope was that there was a window unlocked I could crawl through. So, I started checking them. I went to the bedrooms and the living room and the dining room – all low windows. Then I tried higher windows – the kitchen, the wash-room – then the highest window, the bathroom AND wouldn’t you know it? It was unlocked!
So, I had to get creative. And remember, all this time, I’m shivering – it was probably 30 degrees. I finally found a table to stand on and I dragged it over beneath the window and even then I had to jump and pull myself up. But I needed to hurry because my gentleman caller was coming and I really wanted to be dressed and pretty by the time the Cowboy arrived. I sorta used him as my Aron inspiration in I’ll Remember You so I owed him some thank-you kisses.
Well, no time like the present. I lifted the window and took off the screen – that was the easy part – next I had to hoist myself up and over. Well I got the up part done – which had my naked little ass shining like the Solstice Moon. Remember, my robe was short and I was commando underneath. I tugged and I pushed and I grunted. I was almost in! When I heard…
“Need some help, little darlin?” Which scared the poop out of me and I almost fell, but something steadied me on my ample ass.
I knew that voice. Dammit. It was my Aron McCoy stand-in. “Uh, I locked myself out of the house.”
“And you’re trying to slip your little self into that small slot like a letter through a mail drop?”
Jeesh! How humiliating. “That was the idea, but I’m having problems.”
“What can I do?” He asked.
My first inclination was to tell him to back up so I could jump down, run and hide. But he’d already had an up close and personal view of what I most wanted to hide – which was my patootie – so I just said what needed to be said. “Push!” He put his big, hard hands right on my pillowy softness and gave me a shove and like one of those corks being pushed through the tight mouth of a glass bottle – I just went Pop!
I made it! On the other side of the window, I shimmied upright and checked myself out in the mirror and sure enough – I was not a white woman any longer, I was a rosy shade of red and it wasn’t because of the cold, it was because of the embarrassment and sexual tension of having a guy I had the hots for put his hands all over my rosy rear-end.
I didn’t take time to mull it over, I hurried – he was standing outside in the cold, so I grabbed a more substantial robe and raced to the front door. “Chris!” I called, then because it was Christmas and I’m annoying, I added something to his name. “Chris Kringle!”
I heard a chuckle. “You know, I thought Santa Claus was the one who was supposed to try and fit himself into tight places.”
I stepped back from the door and almost choked at what had come out of his mouth. I mean, I am Sable Hunter – writer of erotic romance! Hahaha. I can’t help because I have a dirty mind.
So, I said. “True, but if you haven’t made the naughty list, you might get the chance to fit yourself into something tight later.”
“Miss Sable!” He gave me a sexy grin. “You know you want me on the naughty list, it’s far more fun.” I could only stare into his eyes. And when he tapped me on the nose and said, “But I would give my left nut for the chance to work myself into a tight little spot with you,”
I had a hard time standing up. When he started looking me up and down, I remembered I was about as unwrapped as a present could be – and I all of a sudden had an urge to give myself to him.
But …as my luck usually runs, my family returned and Chris and I had to bank our desire until later. We did the family time, I worked on Ryan’s book (which is good by the way) we opened a few Christmas presents (Uncle Michael was up to speed now). AND when everybody else went to bed, we made out in front of the Christmas tree, piled up on a rug in front of the fireplace and practiced putting large things into small holes. You know what I’m talking about; we were stuffing large presents into small Christmas stockings.
And if you believe that – I have some swamp land to sell you over near Baton Rouge.
Christmas was fun.
*Any reference to contests have been completed.
