The morning of the day before they were to leave Colorado and head back to New Orleans, Brenda got up to find Jax gone. Knowing that he was probably out jogging, she slid out from under the blankets, pulled on a pair of panties and one of Jax’s shirts and made her way downstairs to the kitchen where she found his brother Justin rummaging through the open refrigerator.

      “Hello, Mozart,” she said cheerily.

     Justin turned his head and smiled at her. “Hello, Venus,” he replied just as cheerily.

     “What are you doing in here?” she asked, turning on the kettle and then sliding into a chair and watching him.

     “Trying to make myself an edible breakfast before my Aunt awakens and fixes one of her godawful potato omelets with cream sauce.”

     Brenda giggled. “Where’s Julie?”

     “Still asleep. Why are you whispering?” he inquired.

     Brenda shrugged. “I feel like I should.”

     Justin laughed. “Why?”

     Brenda pointed to his watch, “Because it’s only 7:15. Have you seen Jax?”

     Justin nodded. “The madman went for a run in this frozen tundra.”

     “He was… ummm… alone, right?” she queried.

     Justin gave her a glance. “Yessss,” he drawled slowly. Then he leaned against the counter. “Brenda, you’re not seriously worried about Jax and Amanda, are you?” he chastised her. “Good god, woman, my brother is so in love with you to the point where I quite frankly find it a tad mind-boggling. He is not interested in anyone but you. How can you not know that?”

     Brenda bit her lip and nodded slowly. “I… I do know that. I do. But she might be interested in him, though. I mean, what woman wouldn’t be?”

      “Well, my girlfriend for one, Jerry’s wife for another. Jax is not quite as irresistible as you think,” Justin teased her. “Seriously, Brenda, I know you’ve had to deal with a lot of Jax’s ex-girlfriends popping up all over the place and making your life difficult, but Mandy isn’t like that. She’s our friend. Truly. Almost like a part of the family. Yes, she dated Jax, but that was in high school, for godsakes - ages ago. They were teenagers. Jax dated a lot of girls in high school - not just her.”

     Brenda rolled her eyes, “What a surprise,” she murmured.

     Justin gazed at her. “You’re upset that he’s had so many women in his life?”

     Brenda just shrugged, trying to act as if that didn’t matter to her.

     “He can’t help that you know. It’s not his fault,” Justin insisted. “He is a magnet for the opposite sex.”

     His beautiful sister-in-law did not look like she really appreciated hearing that truth.

     “But he’s been in love only once, from what I know. And he married that girl,” Justin said, taking the bacon and eggs out of the fridge and closing it.

     Brenda smiled. “I know that Jax loves me. I wish I didn’t have the jealousy thing,” she sighed, annoyed with herself. “But when it comes to your brother, I just can’t help it. Jax is the most important thing in the world to me.”

     “I know that. So does he.”

     “And in my life I have lost all the people that I loved, you know? My mother, my father… I won’t lose Jax. I can’t. I won’t.” She shook her head back and forth. “I will hold onto him until they have to kill me to make me let go.”

     Justin sent her a slight grin. “Yes, I get your point.”

     “My point,” she grinned back, “ is that I love him with everything I have in me, which, quite frankly, scares me to death sometimes. And the thing is, with Jax… it’s just that I know that if I were some other woman and if I met Jax, I would want him, and I’d be thinking of all sorts of schemes to make him mine. So I guess I naturally assume all other women feel that way, too.”

     “Well, wanting him and getting him are worlds apart, Brenda,” Justin told her. “I don’t doubt women want him and always will. It’s the curse of being born a Jacks male, I’m afraid,” he explained with a devilish smile. “But the only one he will ever want is you. I would stake my life on that. That’s all you have to remember to get a handle on the jealousy thing,” Justin advised. “Hey, you want me to make you some of this? I’m a fairly decent egg scrambler. Or are you going to brave Aunt Violet’s cooking this morning?”

     “I’m so glad we’re leaving here tonight that I would even be willing to eat her breakfast, BUT I’ll take what you’re having - thanks,” she flashed him a beautiful smile. “And don’t take this the wrong way, but if I never see your Aunt Violet again, it’ll be too soon.”

     Justin just chuckled, in complete agreement.

     “She doesn’t like Halle, does she?” Brenda mentioned.

     Justin shook his head. “No.”

     “Why not?”

     Justin shrugged. “Pick a reason.”

     “Does she like Joanna?”

     “Not particularly.”

     Brenda shook her head. “Okay, this woman is ridiculous. She doesn’t like your girlfriend; she doesn’t like Jerry’s wife; I think it’s safe to say she doesn’t like me. Is she on a deliberate mission to alienate her entire family? Or does she somehow want to dictate who all of you guys are involved with?”

     Justin shrugged. “I couldn’t begin to tell you what motivates her. But we find her fairly easy to ignore. We only see her but once a year, if that. She never, ever comes to see us. And she never will. She absolutely hates New Orleans. She thinks its too damned hot and full of sinners,” he said with a wicked smile.

     “Why does Jax like her so much,” Brenda asked, “when the rest of the world seems barely able to tolerate her? I mean, I’ve never been a wife before, you know? And I want to be a good wife to Jax. The best. And it really bothers me, Justin, that I can dislike someone he loves so much. So… can you maybe help me understand all this? Why can he overlook what everyone else seems to see so clearly about her?”

     “I think it’s because she adored Jax ever since he was born. She helped bring him into the world - literally - and ever since that day she’s doted on him, fawned all over him, favored him. I think he’s probably the only bloody one in her will. Seriously, the way she treated him, he could do nothing but love her back, Brenda. I can’t fault him for that. Her treatment of him has never wavered. He knows that she gets on the nerves of all the rest of us, but he thinks we just misunderstand her motives half the time. He has a soft spot for her and a tolerance for her that none of the rest of us have. Well, except maybe my mother. Sometimes. Truthfully I think it gets on Mum’s bloody nerves how Aunt Violet tries to mother Jax all the time. She spoiled him rotten as a child with gifts and things. Used to drive Mum and Dad berserk. They finally had to tell her to stop it.”

     “It sounds a little bit like she wishes Jax were her child,” Brenda mentioned, which would explain why she wanted to ‘approve’ of his choice of bride and even go so far as to have a say in it.

     Justin shrugged. “Maybe. She can’t have any kids of her own. And she does seem to think the sun rises and sets at Jax’s command. She may get on my last nerves with her interfering, meddlesome ways, but she does adore Jax. She would never do anything to cause herself to fall out of favor with him.”

     “So, maybe Niles is right,” Brenda murmured thoughtfully. “She’s all sweetness and light whenever Jax is around because she has no intention of falling out of favor with him. So, maybe Jax just really needs to see that interfering, overbearing side of his Aunt Violet that the rest of us see and he never does.”

     Justin waved a hand in the air. “Oh, don’t even bother about her. She’s seen Jax with you now and she knows that any thoughts she had of Jax and Amanda are all down the toilet now. She won’t persist in that angle.”

     “She’d better not,” Brenda said. “She has no clue who she’s messing with if she tries to take me on. She thinks Jax’s fondness for her will tie my hands and make me some weakling she can manipulate and laugh at, but I’ll just find other ways to get to her if she interferes in my marriage.”

     Justin laughed. “Oh, yeah, she has no idea what she’d be taking on in you. I’d bet on you every time.”

     “Well, that would be a first,” Brenda pointed out with a teasing grin. “You never used to. You always bet against me in paint war, for example.”

     “I have learned my lesson there,” Justin said, taking out a frying pan.

     From behind the doorway where she’d been eavesdropping, Aunt Violet’s eyes burned along with her ire at Jax’s young wife’s unflattering comments and boastful attitude. Not to mention Justin’s agreement and his own unflattering commentary. “Don’t bet on her this time, Justin,” Violet whispered.

     Yes, Jax and Amanda may be a lost cause, but that should be Jax’s choice - and he deserved the best of everything, and that wife of his was hardly that. Why, a little gold-digging nobody from New York, who tricked him into marriage? Unacceptable! The rest of the family might sit idly by and be swayed by her lovely smiles and musical laugh and blind themselves to the fact that Jax deserved better. But Violet would not. Why, Jax was practically like a son to her - she’d brought that darling boy into the world, slapped his little rump and heard him cry as the breath of life filled his little lungs. He had been the apple of her eye ever since.

     She would not be like the others and simply accept this unexpected marriage. Interfering was her nature. And Jax was the only one who ever understood that her motives were good.

     Now, perhaps, if his dear wife was shed in a different light in his eyes, he may not be so desirous to keep her, as both Justin and Brenda seemed to think. And Violet would be more than happy to show dear Jax the error of his ways by revealing the more unflattering traits of little Miss Brenda. Ah, yes… she sensed the fiery nature in Jax’s breathtaking, young wife… temperamental, possessive, perhaps rash and impetuous, and clearly prone to a bit of jealousy. “All I need to do is push the right buttons to free Jax from the hold she has on him…” Violet whispered, as she turned to quietly go back upstairs to book a flight and pack for her impending trip. A trip she would keep under wraps for now, she decided. Best not to let her young adversary know any of her moves in advance.

     “You’d better like your eggs scrambled, Brenda, because I can’t make them any other way,” Justin warned her, just as the front door opened and a blast of frigid air swirled through the house and into the kitchen and then quickly disappeared as the door was shut.

     A few moments later Jax came walking into the kitchen, which caused Brenda to pop up out of her chair and greet her husband with an enthusiastic kiss.

     “Oooh, your lips are cold,” she said, but then kissed him again.

     “Mmm, not anymore,” he assured her, kissing her yet again. “You’re in a good mood,” he observed, stroking her face with a gloved hand.

     “Just happy to be going home later,” she said. “I miss everybody.”

     Jax just gave her an enigmatic smile. He knew the real reason she was so happy to be going home was that they would be leaving Amanda behind. His darling wife had a bit of a possessiveness of him… not that he minded that at all. Although he’d give anything to make her secure enough in his love where she would never again feel even the slightest jealousy or threat over any other woman who’d ever been in his life.

     “What is that heavenly aroma?” Justin demanded of Jax.

     “That would be these,” Jax said, setting down two paper bags on the table as he removed his gloves and jacket. “And these would be breakfast from the diner, which I drove down to after I finished my run.” He turned back to Brenda. “And I suggest we eat it fast before Aunt Violet makes her way downstairs - I don’t want to hurt her feelings,” he explained, sitting down and hauling Brenda onto his lap as she eagerly opened up the bags.

     “I’m starving!” she confessed.

     Justin pulled up a chair. “Hey, you’d better bloody well share,” he said, to which Brenda pretended to poke at his hand with a plastic fork

      A yawning Juliet wandered into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her lovely blue eyes, and was immediately perked up by the smell of good food and rushed to the table to dive in.

     “Oh, bless you whomever went for the breakfast run!” she said.

     “That would be your brother Jax you’re blessing,” Brenda said.

     “Bless you, Jax,” Juliet said, inhaling the delicious aromas of the morning meal with dramatic flair.

     “You’re welcome, Pest,” Jax said, smiling over at his sleepy little sister.

      Brenda savored a bite of warm croissant with butter and then suddenly popped up off of her husband’s slap.

     “Hey, hey, hey. Where are you going?” Jax said, pulling her back down to him and reveling once more in the warmth of her soft, sexy body against his.

     “I’ll be right back,” she promised, giving him a kiss. “ I just want to go wake up Niles so he can get some of this edible food,” she explained, popping up again and zipping off.

     “Ah, never would she forget her partner in crime,” Justin murmured, as he took a heavenly bite of seasoned eggs and crispy bacon.

     “Never,” Jax agreed with a laugh. “Hey, somebody should probably wake up Mandy, too, and see if she wants to share this with us before Aunt Violet is any the wiser,” Jax mentioned, as he took a sip of hot coffee.

     “Speaking of Mandy, Jax,” Justin said, after taking a swallow of fresh squeezed orange juice, “I’d like to share with you my suspicions that our dear Auntie Violet had quite the elaborate matchmaking plan in mind for you two when we arrived.”

     “I’d like to share that I share Mozart’s suspicions,” Julie piped up. “As far as Aunt Violet knew, you were coming here to Colorado alone, Jax. She expected you alone and single and that’s why she invited Amanda here. And then I’m assuming she was hoping there would be fireworks between the two of you or some such thing.”

     “Yes, I know,” Jax said.

     “You know and you didn’t wring her interfering, old neck?” Julie demanded.

     Jax gave his baby sister a look of mild admonishment. “Pest, there is surely no need to speak in such a manner about your own aunt.”

     “Regardless, Jax. The pest has a point,” Justin said.

     “Why should I wring her neck?” Jax wanted to know. “Because she thought I was single? Because she thought to try her hand at matchmaking for me? Should I wring Mum’s neck, too, then? She’s certainly tried it enough times. As has our beloved little sister over here. It was merely a misunderstanding,” Jax explained. “Aunt Violet thought I was single; she thought I was coming here alone. She has since discovered that I am a happily married man, madly in love with my wife and that I am not in need of any matchmaking services from anyone, including her. That’s the end of that. It’s hardly anything to go on a mad rant about, you guys,” Jax muttered.

     “You really think she’ll just stop then?” Julie asked with a snort of skepticism.

     “Yes,” Jax said, “because I have already told her to.”

     “Wait, you talked to her about this?” Justin asked, surprised. “When?”

     “This morning. She was letting the dog out when I first came downstairs and I had a chat with her about Amanda being here and my knowing that Aunt Violet had expected me to arrive by myself and had no knowledge of my having a wife. I told her I’d figured out what she’d had in mind. She admitted to it and was chock full of embarrassed apologies. It was just a mistake. Nothing bloody sinister, okay?”

     “She admitted it?” Justin asked, baffled.

     “Yes.”

     “And you told her she’d better just watch her step, right?’ Julie said.

     Jax shook his head and grinned at her. “Something like that. Not quite so rudely as you would have had me say it. What I said was that now that she knew I was happily married, I would expect her to honor my marriage and rid herself of any matchmaking notions for me in the future.”

     Julie smiled at this turn of events. “Well, I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that. Aunt Violet stopped cold in her meddling, old tracks, by her beloved Jax, of all people. Fabulous!”

     “Hush, Pest,” Jax murmured, flipping open the newspaper.

     Justin gazed at his siblings thoughtfully. Clearly both Jax and Julie now thought that Aunt Violet’s unwelcome interference in Jax’s love life was water under the bridge. But Justin was not so sure about that. Aunt Violet’s adoration of Jax was such that she would want to adore his wife as well. Clearly Brenda did not inspire any such adoration in the older woman, but, in fact, seemed to inspire a kind of odd competitiveness. Where such competitiveness could lead, Justin didn’t know, but didn’t think it would be anything pleasant. He blinked as he pictured Brenda leaping on his Aunt and trying to pull all of her hair out. He shook his head, suppressing the urge to howl with laughter at the image in his mind. Thankfully, after they left tonight they would not see Aunt Violet for at least another year. And he was even more thankful for the fact that this particular aunt of his would never darken their doorstep.

     She was home.

     Chad Stanton’s hungry eyes followed Brenda Jacks, as he stood on his front porch watching her, Jax, and Juliet return from wherever it was they had gone off to a few days ago.

     She was back now and as luscious to his covetous eyes and aching loins as ever. A glorious Christmas gift, indeed, to see her beauteous face again, hear that beautiful burst of laughter ring through the night as her husband grabbed her and hoisted her over his shoulder as they dashed up the front porch steps. But, alas, his glance was all too brief, as she disappeared inside with her husband and family.

     Damn it, she looked happy. Too happy. If she remained this damned happy, she would never depart this crazy Jacks family and he’d never have a chance with her. Waiting for Jax to mess up and drive her away was trying Chad’s patience. He’d have to send a few more of Jax’s ex-loves her way to hopefully incite some marital discord, he decided. The one thing most of the families on the hill had noted was that the new Mrs. Jacks was fiercely possessive of her husband’s heart, soul and body. She did not react well to the past women in his life popping out of the woodwork. And so Chad would have to make sure they kept right on popping out.

     Christmas at the Jacks mansion on the hill was a day full of fun and frivolity. At Jane’s insistence, everyone wore a drooping, red Santa’s cap, a tradition that Jax had forewarned Brenda about, as they had been making their way downstairs earlier.

     Lady Jane’s fondness of parties and costumes clearly did not end with her renowned social gatherings in the ballroom, but was also reserved for intimate gatherings with her family.

     John was passing out hot apple cider as Niles was busy spiking the eggnog while muttering curses at Aunt Violet, since poor Niles had come down with a wicked cold from his two days in the frigid wintry blast of the Colorado wind and snow.

     But the levity at the Jacks homestead was contagious, even for the sniffling, sneezing butler.

     Vince had outdone himself with Christmas dinner, and the table was set and John was ringing the bell and “ho ho ho”ing for everyone to come to the dinner table.

     All soon were gathered there, except for Brenda and Halle.

     “Where’s Brenda?” Jax asked his sister.

     “She went upstairs with Halle,” Juliet said.

     “My wing?” Jax asked.

     “Or mine?” Justin said, both brothers looking expectantly at their sister.

     “Yours, I think, Jax,” Juliet responded, trying to get a taste of the sweet potatoes Vince had just set on the table and getting her fingers slapped away by her mother. “They were going up to the attic room, I think. Your observatory.”

     “I’ll go get them,” Jax said, leaving the table.

     “I’ll go with you,” Justin said, following just as the doorbell chimes rang and Niles sneezed twice and went to answer the door.

     He put a smile upon his face to greet the holiday well wishers. Friends of the Jacks family from the neighborhood had been stopping by all day, and Niles was proud that, despite his dreadful cold, he’d managed to greet them all with a smile and a stuffy-nosed: “Habby Holidays.”

     He quickly blew his nose into his hanky and then opened the door.

     “Dear God!” he exclaimed, frowning in horror to find Violet Kenton, of all people, standing there on the other side, two trunks of luggage being deposited by the taxi driver at the doorstep. “Dear God!” Niles repeated, his eyes bulging at the amount of luggage.

     Violet cast him a disdainful look. “As rude as ever I see, Niles,” she sighed. “Good lord, but this weather is dreadful! How do you people ever get used to this atrocious heat and humidity,” she complained, wiping her brow and her ample bosom with her silk handkerchief. “Do move aside, Niles,” she said, elbowing the gaping butler out of her way. “And do make yourself useful and get my bags.”

     “Bags!” Niles croaked in horror, as he once again gazed down at the large trunks at the doorstep.

     Violet marched into the dining room, where she heard the sounds of laughter and chatter. “Hello, dear family. Look who has come to surprise you this Christmas night!” she announced herself, putting a smile on her face and trying not to cringe over being in this sinful, hot city.

     Juliet, who was nibbling on a piece of spicy calamari Devon had popped into her mouth, nearly choked. She quickly swallowed and then blinked her eyes. “Aunt Violet?” she said, astounded to find the aunt, who had vowed these many years past that she would never set foot in New Orleans, here… in New Orleans!

     “Violet!” Jane echoed, just as astounded.

     “Violet,” John and Jerry muttered in unison.

     “Would anyone else care to say my name?” Violet asked. “You, perhaps, Joanna, dear? Or you, young man… What is your name, by the way?”

     “Devon, ma’am,” Devon responded, his lips curling with a hint of a smile as he came face to face with the dreaded aunt that Juliet had often told him such funny stories about.

     “Devon,” Violet repeated. “Isn’t that a burb in England?”

     Devon shrugged “I’m a Louisiana boy, born and bred, Ma’am. Ain’t never been to England,” he answered her.

     Juliet nearly choked again, as she tried to squelch her laughter. She smiled brilliantly at her aunt. “Devon runs a riverboat,” she said, delighting in Aunt Violet’s scandalized look.

     Jane took pity on her cousin. “Not a gambling riverboat, Violet. A riverboat restaurant,” Jane explained. “Devon and Jax are partners in that venture. Do have a seat, dear… What a nice… er… surprise this is,” Jane stammered. “Isn’t it, John?”

     John took a hefty swig of the spiked eggnog.

     “Hat?” Jerry offered, holding out a bright red Santa’s cap in front of the now seated Violet.

     Violet looked at the cap as if appalled. “I think I shall pass, Jerry dear, thank you,” she said, her eyes roving over all of them and noting each and every one of them had on one of those ridiculous caps. Including the butler, who was just now coming in with her trunks and muttering quite maniacally to himself in between sneezes. Then she gazed at the impressive assortment of food on the table. “How fortuitous that I arrived in time for dinner,” she said with a smile. “We can all enjoy Christmas dinner together. Tell me, Jane, have you cooked a goose?”

     Juliet made another choking sound. Devon covered for her by patting her back so that it would appear she was coughing and not laughing.

     “We have never had goose in this house, you daft old windbag,” John muttered.

     Jane gave him the eye and whispered: “Oh, John, do be nice!”

     “I’ll be nice as soon as she be gone,” John returned in a hushed grunt.

     Overhearing them, Jerry let out a hoot of laughter.

     Everyone looked in his direction.

     “Is something amusing, dear?” Aunt Violet inquired, fixing Jerry with look.

     “Just so… so happy to see you here, Aunt Violet,” Jerry said. And suddenly Joanna was making the same choking noise Juliet had made.

     “You all seem to be coming down with something,” Aunt Violet observed. “Perhaps it’s catching from that butler of yours. He should invest in a can of Lysol.”

     From the fireplace, Niles stared daggers at the woman, cursing her to perdition. Why was she here? Dear heaven, it was going to be the Christmas from hell!

     “Tell me, Jane, where is my dearest Jax?” she asked, her first genuine smile finding her face.

     “I believe he and Justin went up to the attic to fetch their lovely ladies. Why don’t you come along with me to go and get them, Violet?” Jane invited, wanting to get Violet away from her family for a moment so they could all recover from the shock of having Aunt Violet here in the house.

     Her family gave her looks of gratitude as she took Violet by the arm and they headed up the center staircase to Jax’s wing.

     Once she was out of earshot, they all began babbling at once.

     “Did you see how big her trunks are? For Pete’s sake, how long is she planning to stay here?” Jerry groaned.

     “I’m moving out!” John griped.

     “I’ve never been so thankful to live in the guesthouse,” Joanna said.

     Juliet gasped in horror, pointing to an object that sat in a colorful tin container atop Aunt Violet’s trunks “She bought her Figgie pudding!” Juliet said, her voice coming out like a strangled croak.

     “God in heaven! Throw it out, throw it out!” John said.

     “Dad, we can’t do that,” Jerry said.

     “Why the devil not. Are you going to eat it?” John demanded.

     “Hell, no!”

     “Then out it goes!” John insisted.

     “Amen to that, Daddy!” Juliet agreed, racing for the cake while Niles opened the door and Juliet swung back her arm as she would hold a bowling ball and sent the Figgie pudding hurtling outside, where the dogs pounced upon it.

     “Well done, Miss Juliet,” Niles said, applauding as Vince, who had just come out of the kitchen, was guffawing.

     “Why, thank you Niles,” Juliet curtsied. “We’ll tell her it was so scrumptious we just ate it all up,” she said, slapping her hands together.

     “Kill the dogs, why don’t you, Pest!” Jerry accused.

     “If it didn’t kill her dog, it won’t kill ours,” Juliet shot back, hands on hips.

     Devon was on his side on the floor, laughing. There was no other family on earth like the Jacks family. No other.

     Up in the attic, Halle was giggling as she gave Brenda her present. “Okay, once you open it, you’ll understand why I needed to give it to you in private,” Halle said, a mischievous look alighting her dark brown eyes.

     Brenda opened up the gift and began to laugh hysterically when she saw what it was. A dartboard fashioned with an unflattering caricature of Aunt Violet’s frowning visage, complete with devil horns. “Oh, my god!” Brenda was laughing so hard she collapsed onto the floor, tears spilling from her eyes; Halle joining her there, laughing as well.

     “Justin told me about your having met dear Aunt Vi, and I just knew that after meeting her you’d appreciate this,” Halle laughed. “I had one of the artists over at The Riverwalk do this yesterday. He painted it right onto the dartboard, see?”

     Brenda was still laughing her head off. “I guess you are no fan either, huh?” she said, wiping the tears of mirth from her eyes.

     “No way,” Halle said. “I only met her once and she made me feel like the plague and like I was the worst thing that ever happened to Justin! I think she has a very low opinion of actresses.”

     “And aspiring singers,” Brenda added, pointing to herself as the two of them dissolved into laughter again. “Oh, my god, I have got to try this,” Brenda said, catching her breath as they got to their feet and attached the dartboard to the wall.

     “After you,” Halle said, offering Brenda three darts. “Aim for the horns!”

     Brenda burst out laughing again, as she let the dart fly and got the frowning face of Aunt Violet right between the eyes.

     Jax and Justin heard the gales of laughter coming from the observatory, and, grinning at each other, walked inside, only to find their lady loves hurling darts at a dartboard that seemed to have a picture on it, laughing hysterically and collapsing onto the floor, laughing like loons.

     “Oh -” Justin sputtered, ready to erupt into laughter, as he had gotten a glimpse of the distorted caricature on the dartboard and now understood why Halle had made the bizarre request of asking him for a picture of his Aunt Violet last night.

     Halle and Brenda, both mortified at being caught at this guilty pleasure, scrambled to their feet and ran to stand in front of the dartboard, praying neither brother, especially Jax, had seen the face on the dartboard.

     Jax gazed at the two panting young women, who suddenly looked like they wanted to flee to another country. He raised a golden brow in his wife’s direction. “Care to tell me what it is exactly that you are doing up here, sweetheart?” he asked, crossing his arms and awaiting her explanation for this rather suspicious looking scene he and Justin had come upon.

     “Umm… ahhh… well, we were just…”

     Brenda’s attempt at thinking up some sort of phony explanation was halted by the two figures she saw now entering the observatory.

     NO! IT COULDN’T BE!

     She and Halle gasped softly in unison and backed up even more in front of the incriminating dartboard.

     “Well, hello, my dears! Surprise!” Aunt Violet called out in greeting. “And just what is going on here that has you all delaying Christmas dinner?” she inquired, smiling at them all and flicking a brow of triumph in Brenda’s direction. The gorgeous little minx was as shocked to see her as Violet had anticipated. Perhaps even more shocked, she thought with a pleased smile.

     Brenda swallowed. This couldn’t be happening! She swore they would have to pry her away from this wall with a crowbar because she wasn’t moving and letting Jax and his whole family see that she’d been tossing darts at a caricature of his aunt!

     Jax was staring at her. “Brenda,” he said softly, “come here.”

     Brenda chewed on her lip, trying to think fast. “I… I can’t,” she said with a little shrug.

     His eyes never left hers. “Why not?” he inquired.

     “I… uh… I pulled a muscle… I think, and…”

     Justin began to have a coughing fit.

     Jax glanced at his brother and then back at his wife. “Pulled a muscle where?”

     “My… I think it’s my back,” she improvised.

     Jax moved towards her. “Okay, well, I’ll…”

     “No!” she said.

     Jax arched a perfect eyebrow, staring at her, waiting.

     “Just… I just need to stay here like this for a few minutes, and I’ll be fine, honey. This happens to me all the time, and… ummm… Halle, she told me of this method of… er…”

     “Massage!” Halle blurted out. “Self-back massage. She just needs to stand here by the wall like this for a little bit.”

     Jax raised a skeptical eyebrow.

     Justin’s coughing fit began in earnest again.

     “And you have to stand there, too?” Jax asked, folding his hands behind his back and slowly pinning his blue-eyed gaze over to Halle.

     “I’m just… you know, I’m showing her… uh… how to do it properly, Jax. If you do it wrong you can… er…”

     “Crack a rib, I think you told me?” Brenda tried to help out.

     “Oh, my dear, this sounds quite serious,” Aunt Violet said. “Do you often get this condition?” she asked, and it was clear - to Brenda, at least - that Aunt Violet only saw a back condition as yet another flaw to add to the ones she was compiling on Jax’s wife.

     “Not to fear, luv,” Jane said. “I’ll go fetch our resident doctor to have a look at you.”

     “No!” Jax said, not about to have Chad Stanton set foot in this house, let alone touch Brenda.

     “No, no. Soooo not necessary,” Brenda agreed hastily. “It’ll go away in a little while.”

     “Nonsense, darling. If this is a persistent problem you should have it taken care of. At least looked at.” Then Jane turned to her son. “And, Jax, you know that I can barely tolerate Chad Stanton any more than you can, but he is a doctor and will only be here in that capacity. If he does anything you don’t like, you can toss him out of the observatory window. Now wouldn’t that be fun?”

     Jax was not amused. “I said no,” he repeated. “I do not want him here. I do not want him so much as looking at my wife, and if he touches her, even in a merely medical capacity, I will likely have to kill him. Do you really want to be bailing me out of jail on Christmas day, Mum?”

     “Here’s an idea,” Justin said, “why don’t we all just, step outside of the room for a minute and give Brenda a few moments. You know, the muscle pull could be stress related or something, and I don’t think it’s helping her stress to be stared at by all of us while she’s trying to… relax and do that back massage thing.”

     Brenda nodded vigorously. “I think Justin is right. Could you guys just wait outside maybe like two minutes?”’ she asked. “Just two minutes.”

     “Very odd,” Violet mumbled, eyeing Brenda with suspicion.

     Jax glanced at his wife curiously, but adhered to her wishes and ushered everyone out of the observatory.

     “Oh, thank god! How close was that!” Halle whispered fiercely, as they snatched the dartboard off the wall and stuffed it back into the gift box and then hid it in the closet behind Jax’s skis.

     “What is that woman doing here?!” Brenda groaned.

     “I know. I can’t believe she set foot in New Orleans! This is unheard of, from what Justin is always telling me.”

     The girls quieted as Jax came back inside the room and gazed at them, now both away from the wall, their dartboard mysteriously disappeared. Or had they been tossing darts at the wall? No, he didn’t think so.

     “All better?” Jax asked quietly, gorgeous blue eyes roving over his wife.

     “All better!” Brenda chirped, going over to him and giving him a kiss. “Let’s go downstairs for dinner. We must be keeping everybody waiting.”

     “Yeah,” Halle agreed quickly, darting out the door.

     Brenda would have followed directly after her, but Jax held onto his wife and slowly shut the door, leaving the two of them in the observatory alone together.

     Brenda chewed on her lip and then slowly gazed up at him. Up into those incredible blue eyes, which were assessing her so enigmatically.

     Jax tilted her chin up with one finger and brushed a hot, stirring kiss against her mouth that made her quiver with pleasure. “Now,” Jax said, entrapping her against the door in between his arms, “why don’t you tell me what was really going on in here?”