“I’ve grown up! I’ve changed!” Owen said.
Kennedy gave him a look. “As long as I have breath in my body, you will not be putting on red and white fur and potentially terrorizing children.”
Paige leaned in. “My God. What did you do?”
Drew blew out a relieved breath. Yes. He needed this story. And maybe a dozen more about these people growing up together down here.
“Seventeen years ago you were a kid too,” Paige said to Owen.
Owen shifted on his chair. “It was just a dumb prank.”
“It was a mean, horrible, gruesome lie,” Kennedy declared.
“Gruesome?” Paige repeated.
“It’s not my fault Kennedy’s always had a crazy imagination,” Owen said.
“That imagination is exactly why you did it!” Kennedy exclaimed.
“But it only took him about three minutes to realize he’d fucked up,” Josh interjected. “He did feel bad when he realized you were actually freaking out and he’d gone too far.”
“What did you do?” It was Maddie that asked now. Her eyes were wide as she looked at her husband. “I don’t know this story.”
Owen shifted uncomfortably again.
“Tell her,” Sawyer said, crossing his arms.
“It doesn’t matter that Sawyer and Josh beat my ass for it?” Owen asked Kennedy.
“Nope.”
Owen looked at Bennett. “Dude. You’d better never cross her. This girl can hold a grudge.”
Bennett nodded. “Good thing her mean side turns me on.”
Kennedy gave him a grin.
Owen just shook his head.
Maddie pinched his side. “What. Did. You. Do?”
Drew barely resisted adding, “Yeah, come on, man.”
“I might have thought it would be funny to…” Owen shifted and cleared his throat. “Change up…the Santa story a little.”
Maddie’s eyebrows rose. “Oh no. What did you tell her?”
Kennedy wasn’t done though. “Oh, it wasn’t just telling of the story, was it Owen?” Kennedy asked. “There was showing too.”
“Fine.” Owen sighed. “You know the story of Papa Noel and how he drives a boat on the bayou pulled by eight alligators instead of a sleigh with reindeer…”
“Of course,” Maddie said.
Owen nodded. “Well, so that year Kennedy made alligator shaped cookies for Santa. Like frosted sugar cookies.”
“They were really cute,” Kennedy said. “Cora and I worked hard on those.”
Owen rolled his eyes. “Well, I told her that the alligators were gonna be pissed. They weren’t gonna eat cookies that looked like them ‘cuz that was just wrong and they were gonna have to go hungry at our house and were probably gonna leave us crappy presents.”
“Uh-huh. And?” Maddie had narrowed her eyes.
Sawyer and Josh were sitting back, clearly enjoying Owen having to relive whatever trouble he’d gotten into. Kennedy looked like she was just as mad seventeen years later.
Drew kept eating. Dinner and a show. Ellie’s place was great, even if he wasn’t going to hook-up with a hot Cajun girl tonight.
“So…she wouldn’t make anymore cookies,” Owen went on, clearly realizing he wasn’t getting out of telling this story.
“And you wanted more cookies?” Maddie asked.
“Well, yeah. She made sugar cookies for Santa. Everyone knows her hazelnut thingies are the best. Even back then.”
“Oh my God, you did all of that because I didn’t make you the cookies you wanted?” Kennedy demanded.
Owen shrugged.
“He dragged me out of bed at three a.m. telling me there’d been a terrible accident,” Kennedy told the table, her cheeks pink, clearly with anger. “He took me down to the old wooden dock off the bayou where we fished and swam and showed me a single black boot that was all covered in mud and a ripped piece of red and white fur, like from Santa’s coat.”
“Owen told her that the alligators hadn’t liked the cookies, so they’d eaten Papa Noel instead,” Sawyer said. “Said it happened every so many years on the bayou and that Papa Noel got replaced so not to worry, but that next year she should make better cookies.”
Everyone at the table sat in silence for three full seconds. Then they all pivoted to look at Owen as one.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Let us just remember for a moment that I was twelve. And a little shit. Until I was like…thirty-five. Just ask Ellie.” He pointed at his grandmother.
“Absolutely true,” Ellie confirmed with a nod.
“You’re not thirty-five even now,” Sawyer pointed out.
“Exactly,” Owen said. “I’m a dumbass. Still. But definitely seventeen years ago.”
“Owen. Landry. You’re. Such. A. Jerk.” Maddie punctuated each word with a punch to his arm.
He rubbed the spot when she was done. “I know. Okay? I know. I’ve apologized a million times.”
“Twice. You’ve apologized twice,” Kennedy said.
“But I have apologized.”
“And you are out of the running for Santa in this case. And if anyone ever lets you do it in the future, I will picket in front of where you’re sitting with the little kids with big signs calling you a Santa murderer with photos of Santa’s boot covered in blood,” Kennedy told him.
“See.” Owen pointed at her. “That is all her imagination. There was no blood!”
“I was ten. It was the middle of the night! I thought Santa had been eaten by alligators practically in my backyard. And I never put sugar cookies out for Santa again after that!”
Owen made the mistake of smiling when he said, “I know.”
Maddie punched him again. “You’re not getting any ‘cookies’ from me tonight. If you know what I mean.”
Owen looked at her. Then sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
Kennedy looked very smug at that.
“Well, okay then. Owen is out of the running,” Zeke said, raising his voice slightly as he rubbed the baby’s back. “But the rest of us have good cases to make.”
“You really have been talking about this?” Kennedy asked. “You all want to do this?”
Zeke looked at his older brother, Fletcher, who was sitting across the table from him. “Well, yeah. Like, Fletcher would be an awesome Santa. He's a teacher and is amazing with little kids. They all love him. He’d probably be the best at it.”
Kennedy nodded. “I actually was thinking about Fletcher.”
Zeke sat up straighter. “Oh, come on. Fletcher’s too obvious.”
Kennedy laughed and shook her head. “You were just telling me he’d be perfect.”
“Well, he’d make a great Santa, but all the kids would guess it was him. They all know him too well. Don’t let Fletcher ruin the magic of Christmas for all the kids in this town.”
“So why were you making the case for him?” Kennedy asked.
“It was an example. We’ve been talking about all of our pros and cons for days. Come on, you have to at least listen to us.”
Kennedy sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. She looked at the people gathered around the tables.