As long as there was no more bloodshed, things were good.
While Ben’s eyes moved throughout the room, he caught a glimpse of Mildred’s sweater again.
He didn’t know why at first he’d been surprised with her choice of clothing. He chuckled. Sure, it was a little hard to explain to Jimmy what Mildred was wearing, but even that turned out okay. Jimmy ended up shrugging and saying something along the lines of, “That’s Mildred.”
And Ben honestly couldn’t agree more.
Mildred’s husband was a saint and Ben couldn’t figure out how he did it.
At least she was fun as hell.
A pleasant sigh escaped Ben as he observed everyone sitting around the table. He couldn’t help the ear-to-ear grin on his face as he sat there.
This was his family.
After his dad died, and well, disowning his mother he never imagined he’d be here, surrounded by everyone he loved. “I know we’re all still eating, but I wanted to thank you for coming. It means a lot to spend these moments together as a family.”
As Holly glanced at him, a soft smile formed on her face. Ben never wanted this moment to end. This is what the holidays were about. Being together.
“Thanks for inviting us, even if Holly did cook something.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“Shut your face, Mildred.” Holly snapped her attention from Ben to the old woman, glaring at her. “The potatoes turned out yummy.”
“Only ‘cause Emma helped,” Mildred couldn’t resist retorting with a shit-eating grin on her face. “I honestly don’t know why you even tried, missy? I’m disappointed we didn’t get to call the fire department, though.”
Holly’s nostrils flared as she let out a growl.
Emma dropped her fork on her plate. “Holly did most of the work.” She glanced around the room anxiously. “I only took over while Ben bandaged her up.”
“And that’s why we got to eat them.” John sent a death glare to Ben. “I told you.”
“Shut your face. I put the butter in and mashed them. Ya jerks. At least, as good as I could with this stupid thing on my finger.” She waved the bandaged appendage around before turning her glare on it. “Stupid finger.”
“At least you only cut yourself once, Mom.”
Holly’s jaw hit the floor as the bandaged finger went over her heart. “Jimmy!”
“What? You did good, Mom. I’m proud of you.” His boyish smile lit up the room, causing Holly to toss her napkin at his face.
When he caught it, everyone laughed.
“You did a good job adding the butter and mashing them, Grace.” Ben reached over the table, grabbing her hand in his before squeezing it.
Play it cool, Ben. If you give her this one, she’ll never ask to cook again.
“Thank you.” Holly lifted her chin in defiance. “I really did, didn’t I?”
“No one ended up in the hospital. I say that’s a win,” Mildred announced with another grin on her face. “But we still have to digest the food.”
“All of you can shove it. This has been a great day.” Holly swung her fork at everyone as Helen burped. “See, even Peanut said so.”
“Says the person with the bandaged finger? But sure, we’ll go with that.” Mildred shifted her attention as she pointed back and forth between Holly and Emma. “Although, it would’ve been a hell of a lot better if you had your men dress up in Santa outfits and give me a little show.”
All the blood drained from Emma’s face. “John’s not my man.”
“You keep telling yourself that, young lady.” Mildred turned back to Holly ignoring the frazzled Emma. “I expected more out of you.”
“Mildred…” Holly warned.
“Don’t Mildred me. When I agreed to come here, I was promised a show.” Mildred’s eyes flicked to Ben, expectantly.
Ben shrugged, with a laugh. “John and I do have an elf costume?”
Holly snapped her fingers on her good hand getting Mildred’s attention. “You know damn well you weren’t.”
“You sure?” Mildred’s brows pulled together as she faced her husband. “Didn’t I say she promised me a show?”
“You talk a lot, dear. I normally just agree.” He winked at Holly, as he placed a fork full of food in his mouth.
Mildred leaned into her husband’s side kissing his cheek. “And that’s why we’ve been married for the past forty-eight years.”
“Has it been that long?” He cocked his brow at her.
“If you want to make it forty-nine, I’d just nod your head. I know people.” Mildred gave him the look.
“Yes, dear.” He shook his head.
Turned out, this ended up being the show for Ben and he sure as hell wasn’t complaining. As long as there weren’t any more disasters, he’d consider today an enormous success.
For fuck’s sake, Mildred was going to be the death of Holly one of these days. Although, it was fun to watch Emma still squirm in her seat.
Lord knows Holly had been on the receiving end of Mildred’s match-making skills far too many times to count.
Hell, the old coot still texted Ben whenever Holly was in a bad mood at work to pound some sense into her. Holly wanted to smack herself in the forehead. She still regretted giving Mildred Ben’s number in case of an emergency.
Maybe I should change our cell phone numbers? Ugh, what’s the use? She’d end up calling the clinic or worse…. Holly shuddered. Officer Jones.
As John and Mildred blathered on about the elf costume, Holly caught Ben’s eye. He sent her a quick wink before turning back to the conversation to argue who looked better in the outfit.
God, she loved him. He might be a pain every once in a while, but he really did have her best interest at heart. Even if that meant not letting her in the kitchen.
She definitely lucked out in marrying Ben.
Holly glanced around the room again.
All in all, though, even with Mildred being Mildred, everything turned out really well.
However, as Holly sat back in her seat, she heard a faint rattling noise come from the other room. At first, Holly thought she’d imagined it, but then she heard it again. “Did you guys hear that?”
Everyone stopped talking as they turned to her. “Hear what?” Ben asked.
Then it happened again. “You don’t hear that noise?”
“What noise, Pumpkin?” Henry asked, searching around the room just like everyone else was.
“Benny, are you sure it was only a small cut? I think she’s lost too much blood and is losing it.” Mildred quirked her brow at Ben.
“There it is again!” Holly jumped from her seat and headed toward the noise. The moment she peered over her father’s head at the end of the table, she saw the top of their Christmas tree swaying back and forth in the living room. “What the hell?”
That wasn’t all of it, though. No, not by a long shot. Not only was her tree moving, but all three of the dogs were standing on their hind legs inches from the tree examining it.
Even Bruce was toe-to-toe with Waffles sniffing around. That surprised her, Holly could have sworn at the first sign of anything unusual, Bruce would have taken off running and ended up halfway under the bed or something like that.