Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Avery
The morning after Jim came home, I should’ve been dead tired, but I wasn’t. I was feeling alive and excited for the day ahead. We’d planned to enjoy family time, just us and the kids, the tree here at our home in the Hills before heading to the beach house in Malibu to start decorating there.
I know it might’ve been a bit over the top to have both houses decorated for the holidays, especially with this goofy planning war that Jim and I had gotten into, but this was one of the more exciting holiday seasons I’d had with my family in quite some time, so I wanted to live it up.
Everything just felt a bit warmer, magical, and cheerful, even if we Mitchells had a family war going on in the background. The best part was that the entire company would benefit from it, and my only hope was to make everyone’s holidays this year just as merry and bright as I felt ours had become.
I trotted down the steps after coming out of a long, soaking bath. It had been a while since Jim and I went at it so intensely that I felt sore, in a good way, the next morning. Before reaching the last step, I heard laughter from the girls just as the scent of baked pumpkin spice filled my senses.
“What do I smell?” I asked, smiling and walking into the kitchen.
“Dad’s special pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin cream rolls with cinnamon and maple syrup,” Addy said, almost too proud of her dad.
Goddamn, I loved everything about my husband.
“And he taught us how to bake them,” Izzy snickered, mischievous eyes meeting her dad’s before they both offered me a smug expression.
“What are these faces?” I asked, hands on both hips.
“These are the faces of your enemy,” Izzy taunted, looking at her dad for approval.
“Enemy?” I looked at Jim. “We were far from enemies last night, Mr. Mitchell,” I said, arching an eyebrow at him.
Izzy groaned and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, gross,” she offered the usual response.
Jim winked at me before turning to his daughter. “Taste the cream cheese filling, Izzy Bear,” he said, taking a scoop out of the mixing bowl that she’d been stirring.
“Yum,” her eyes widened, all three pointedly ignoring me.
“Addy,” Jim scooped her a bit on a spoon and handed it to her, “we need the final call.”
“Dang,” Addy answered. “That totally beats Velvet Crumb,” she eyed me, then smiled at Jim.
“What’s all this really about?” I asked, sitting at the counter where I wasn’t invited.
“It’s about the fact that you cheated, Mom,” Izzy confirmed again.
“Why suddenly am I a cheater?” I looked directly at Jim. “You know that word magically came up the night you flew off to Madrid to close your deal.”
“You copied us,” he said. “That’s cheating.”
“Copied what?” I asked, confused.
“Velvet Crumb,” Addy answered while Jim smiled.
“Oh, no,” I said, pointing my finger at all my treacherous family members. “I was in Velvet Crumb when I decided to use them for the baked goods at my event. I didn’t know your dad had already booked them, too.”
“Interesting,” Jim said, pouring syrup over three plates of pancakes for him and the girls.
“Because when I called Marquee back to request a few more items on our menu, she told me only three could be added—since she’s now booked for two parties that same week.
Naturally, I asked why. Turns out, my wife booked her for Mitchell and Associates’ second party. ”
“And?”
“And when the invoices hit my desk, I realized the poor woman’s going to be overworked the week before Christmas—baking thousands of treats for both of my company’s parties.”
“That’s not cheating,” I eyed each of them. “Cheating is—”
“Ensuring Spencer urges me to close the Madrid deal and leave the country for four days while you, the wives, and Cat start planning ahead of me. Is that what you were about to say?” Jim arched an eyebrow as the girls followed him, taking their plates to the breakfast nook.
“Um…” I said, following them.
“Not to worry, beautiful,” he said, kissing my cheek before joining our girls around the table. “No jet lag here. I had plenty of time to come up with recipes with our daughters—recipes we’ll have chefs recreate for our event.”
“Well, I…” I didn’t know what to say. I should’ve known Jim would catch on, and in my lapse of judgment, here I was, mouth hanging open, already dreading whatever retaliation was coming my way.
Jim and the girls’ smiles were far too mischievous for me to think that none of them had something planned to get me back. Baking goodies and sharing the recipes with chefs to recreate them was definitely not where this ended.
“So, now I don’t get breakfast?” I questioned.
“Of course you do. Addy wanted to make you green eggs and ham,” Jim shrugged.
“That has nothing to do with Christmas,” I said.
“Neither does cheating,” Izzy giggled at their inside joke.
“This isn’t fair,” I answered, sitting at the table. “It’s turning us all against each other.”
“You’re the one doing things to Dad that aren’t cool, Mom,” Addy said.
“Fine. I guess that wasn’t cool.” I smiled at Jim, “I am sorry. Perhaps I went a bit too far.”
Jim licked his lips and offered me a bite of his pumpkin pancake. “All is forgiven, love,” he winked. “But rest assured, I will come out on top now that you have turned this into a war where trust is no longer present.”
“I really didn’t mean to,” I cringed, not knowing what Jim and the girls were planning behind my back.
“Right,” Addy rolled her eyes.
“Can we at least call a truce today so we can decorate our tree and the Malibu house like we’d planned?”
“We’re going to a Christmas tree lot,” Izzy said with excitement.
“For your party?” I looked at Jim. “Cat has already planned to bring in—”
“Fly in,” he interrupted me. “And, yes, I know, thousands of evergreens from Aspen. That’s not why we’re going.”
“We want our own real tree this year,” Addy said, still devouring her pumpkin pancakes that looked and smelled so damn delicious my stomach was growling.
Jim pushed over his plate to me, drizzled hot syrup over the top, and kissed my forehead before standing up. “Eat those while I get your coffee, love,” he said, walking toward the espresso machine.
At least the fight hadn’t lasted long, but the guilt trip that was hanging over the air of our table was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“That actually sounds lovely,” I smiled. “For the beach house?”
“For here,” Izzy said. “Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
“Of course, Izzy,” I answered, taking my coffee from Jim. “So, what are we doing with that tree?”
“Just take it down and put it in storage,” Jim answered casually. “I think it would be a fun, new tradition to do a real tree. The girls brought it to my attention, and I couldn’t turn them down. It’s sort of what our holiday party theme is anyway. A traditional family Christmas.”
“That sounds lovely,” I smiled as I looked down at my coffee.
Okay, something was up. Jim didn’t go so soft this easily, especially when he knew my ass pulled one over on him.
He was definitely planning a retaliation, and the girls were in on it.
Thank God, I had more fun pranks ahead to get him back—and especially since Jake and Collin were on my side in all of this, not his.
So, fine. I’d let him plan to replace our tree with a real one. Have his traditional Christmas party event. Truth was, none of this would even be taking place if my adorable husband didn’t try to pull a Scrooge on his entire company for Christmas this year.
So, let the reindeer games begin, I guess.
Because two can play at this game…in fact, I was already ahead of the game with the Dickens lot half built and everything more than ahead of schedule.
I had all the time in the world to go pick out real trees to replace the fake ones.
So, if that was Jim’s play to get me back for stalling him, then he was still lost in this little Christmas game of love and war.