Chapter 32
Ash
Thirty minutes after sundown, with no sign of the men returning, I’d decided enough was enough, and I needed to call the tree farm where Jake and the guys had planned to go.
“Okay, thank you so much,” I told Mrs. Gersbach. “We are indebted to you.”
“Nein, Schatz,” she responded in German before continuing in English. “It is Christmas Eve, and we wish you well.”
I smiled at the kindness everyone in this beautiful town had shown us since we arrived, even after the guys made a mockery of the Nativity scene.
“All right,” I said, walking into the sitting room of this grand chalet. “You girls either aren’t going to believe this, or it won’t surprise you at all.”
“They got lost?” Nat laughed and looked at Addy, continuing their card game. “Go fish, cutey pie.”
“Oh, God,” Avery said. “Why didn’t they call us?”
“Because, as I suspected, no one took their cell phones,” I chuckled. “Most importantly, Mrs. Gersbach said the men don’t want us to know their sleigh broke and that they were rescued walking in snowshoes, each of them leading a reindeer.”
“Of course, they don’t,” Laney chuckled. “I can see it now, Jim and Spencer excitedly filling us in on how Jake and Collin finally fucked up their Christmas extravaganza.”
“Knowing them, they won’t want us to know their sorry butts were rescued five miles away from the house. Who knows? There’s a good reason for it?”
“It’s called pride,” Carmen stated with annoyance.
“I figured you’d be more sympathetic because Dad and John are out there at the mercy of Jake and Collin?” I said to my stepmom.
“Oh, no,” Carmen said sassily. “I have no sympathies for a man who chooses to go along with the games to cover up a serious, potentially life-threatening situation.” Then she sighed, “The only one I might feel sorry for is my grandson, but if he goes along with this cover-up, he gets no sympathy from Abuelita.”
“Well, I agree with Carmen,” Nat chimed in. “And we fuck with—” She stopped herself and covered Addy’s hand after she cussed, “Sorry, honey. Aunt Nat didn’t mean to throw out the mother of all curse words.”
“You know who my mom is, right?” Addy said with a laugh since everyone knew the F-word was Avery’s favorite.
“Excellent point,” Nat said. “Now, why don’t we ladies be the ones to end this little war that’s been going on since we left the Maldives?”
“Well, if we’re being technical, it started when we arrived in the Maldives,” Laney said.
“It doesn’t matter. Eventually, all this nonsense caught up with every single one of them,” Nat said. “And I say it’s time we get some straight answers about what happened to the sleigh and find out why no one was smart enough to carry a phone for safety purposes.”
“Agreed,” Carmen stated. “This could’ve been very bad. What if they weren’t found until it was too late? No, I won’t let them get away with acting like nothing happened.”
“You’re right. They think they’re going to waltz up here as if nothing happened?” Avery added. “It’s typical of them.”
“Totally typical,” I chuckled. “I guess I should’ve known this would always end with us putting them in their places.”
“As it should always be,” Nat teased. “Now, what exactly did Mrs. Gersbach say to you?”
“Well, she told the men that we called to ask the Gersbachs if they could go looking for them because we were worried,” I started.
“And after they were rescued, they insisted that she call me back to tell me nothing had happened, and nothing went wrong. So, being the upright woman she is, she immediately told me the truth instead of their tale.”
“Women always looking out for each other, right?” Avery said, shaking her head at the bullshit the guys were attempting to pull. “And the only reason they’re pretending everything is perfectly fine is because they know they screwed up, and it could’ve been much worse.”
“As if we wouldn’t notice they have no tree? That wouldn’t be a dead giveaway that something went wrong?” Laney questioned.
“They paid a pretty high price to get the largest tree on site and for a group of people to come here and decorate it. They probably told them some sad story about how they weren’t going to have Christmas Eve now that they’ve missed everything because of their broken sleigh,” I answered.
Carmen rolled her eyes, “They are smug bastards who want to keep this concealed for fear of embarrassment.”
“I can’t wait until we drag it out of them,” Nat said.
“Maybe it’s petty on our part,” I started, “but I think it’s a perfect way to end it all.”
“Hearing the men try to lie through their teeth and defend themselves in this situation is enough for me,” Nat said with a smile.
“We need to play dumb and drag it out of them that way. We’ll start with how everything was perfect on Christmas Eve until our men weren’t home in time.
They’ll ruin it from there with their lies and excuses, and eventually, they’ll be caught and have to admit they screwed up. ”
“We start with the Christmas tree,” Avery said, “and go from there.”
“I still can’t believe they’ve convinced other people to decorate our tree, which was supposed to be the big, family Christmas crescendo,” I added.
“I was looking forward to that, too,” Carmen winked. “It’s a shame they changed that part of the festive Christmas plans after having it in motion all week.”
“Quite the shame,” Nat added to the mischievous spirit escalating in the room. “I was so looking forward to singing carols around the tree and decorating it while holding hands with Spence.”
As we decided our next move, we saw the men coming up the driveway in a van, pulling a trailer with a massive tree. I covered my mouth and smiled when I saw another van pull in behind them, and a large group of cheerful people stepped out.
“Looks like they’re all here, tree decorators and all,” I said.
“Time to switch up the game,” Nat said. “Now, let’s watch these lying little holiday elves cough up the truth about breaking sleighs and getting stranded in the woods until we sent out help for them.”
I guess this was bound to happen in the end. We saved the men, and they were too damn arrogant to show gratitude for it. Instead, they chose to lie and have others deceive us before daring to admit anything went wrong.
It was petty, but everyone who knew our husbands could understand.
Once we stepped out of the house and heard all the men, not just Jake and Collin, singing Blue Christmas, we knew it was time to settle the score.