Oh brother, oh brother. What to say? She didn’t want to lie to him, but there was no way she could tell him the truth either. A fib was required here. A good one. Unless she could somehow be truthful and still avoid telling him about the dartboard and whose face it bore.

     “There was nothing wrong with my back,” she confessed.

     “I know,” he responded. “I can always tell when you’re lying, Brenda.”

     He could?! “You can?” How?” she demanded.

     “You tug at your sleeves or tug on your bracelet,” he said. “You just… you tug things.”

     Brenda immediately slipped her hands behind her back and gave him a little frown. And then she chewed on her lip, trying to think of what she could say.

     Jax laughed. “And you do that cute little chewing on your lip thing when you’re devising a plan,” he informed her, brushing his thumb over the softness of her lips.

     She gave him a startled look, rather unnerved by how well he knew her in the short five months they had been married. “No, I’m not devising…” she began to protest in earnest.

     He laughed and cut her off with a kiss. “So, why were you against the wall?” he asked her.

     “Well… there was something that I didn’t want you to see.”

     “I suspected as much. What was it?”

     “A Christmas present.” Wow - not a single lie so far! She was feeling so much better about her cunning in telling the truth and yet also not quite telling the truth that she smiled up at him.

     A dazzling smile.

     Damn, but her smiles were like ambrosia to his heart and a siren’s call to his body, he thought, trying to ward off her enchanting effect on him so that he could get to the bottom of this.

     “A Christmas present?” he repeated. “For whom?” he queried, since they had all - the entire family - exchanged gifts far earlier in the day.

     Oh shoot, she thought dejectedly with an internal groan of misery. She would have to tell an honest to goodness lie now. Shoot, shoot, shoot!

     “For… you?” she responded with a hesitant smile.

     Gorgeous blue eyes touched hers curiously. “I could have sworn you and I already exchanged gifts along with my entire family earlier,” he said, arching a brow.

     “Ummm… yes. Well, of course we did. But it just so happens I have something else for you that I wanted to give you in private,” she babbled.

     “That sounds intriguing,” he murmured. “Well, I believe we are quite private at the moment, Mrs. Jacks, so what are you waiting for?” he teased her. “Give it to me now.”

     To that she ducked from under his arms in a panic and opened the door, taking his hand. “Not now, Jax. Not when your whole entire family is waiting on us to start dinner,” she reminded him, all but dragging him out of the observatory, which was quite a feat considering he had at least ten times her strength.

     “All right, all right,” he acquiesced with a laugh, allowing her to pull him along downstairs to the dining hall.

     They entered and took their seats, Brenda avoiding the stare of Aunt Violet, which she could feel upon her. She was in no mood now to see the woman’s gloating smirk, for Aunt Violet surely knew her presence tonight had ruined much of Brenda’s holiday cheer and was pleased with that fact. And Brenda truly wanted to refrain from punching Jax’s aunt in the eye.

     Brenda wasn’t the only one feeling the damper on the evening’s festivities. The dinner table was noticeably lacking in the usual Jacks family wildness and boisterous cheer. In fact, Aunt Violet was the one doing most of the talking, and mostly to Jax and Jane. She went on and on about how much she had enjoyed ‘the children’s’ visit and how lonely she had felt once their company was gone and so had made up her mind to brave the heat and wickedness of New Orleans and hop on a plane to spend the holidays with her family.

     Brenda picked at her food, not really hungry and wondering what Aunt Violet’s visit really was all about. She was highly suspicious of the woman.

     Justin, who sat to her right, leaned close to whisper in her ear. “Your secret is safe with me.”

     She froze and shifted her eyes over to him slowly. “Ummm… secret?” she asked innocently, speaking in a low whisper, like he was.

     He smiled at her. “Dartboard?” he reminded her, moving his hand back and forth as if readying to toss a dart.

     She chewed on her lip. “Oh… that.”

     He laughed and knocked her arm with his. “Hey, don’t drive yourself bloody mad wondering what she’s up to. It’s what she wants you to do. You’ve barely touched your food. Vince is going to be crushed.”

     “I’ll make up for it at dessert,” she promised. Then her delicate, finely shaped brows furrowed. “How long is she staying?” she queried softly.

     “I shudder to think it,” he responded. “Jerry said her traveling trunks were of an alarming size. She is, at this very moment, staring at you, you know.”

     Justin was only half-right. Violet was staring at the both of them, not just Brenda.

     “And what do you two have your heads together whispering about, Justin and Brenda?” she asked loudly, with a slow smile.

     Hearing their names, Justin and Brenda both raised their heads at the same time, smacking their foreheads into each other.

     “Ouch, now that had to hurt,” Jerry said with a sympathetic shake of his head.

     Justin glowered at his brother, for yes, it sure as hell did hurt.

     “You okay?” Jax asked Brenda, cradling her face in his hands to examine the point of impact and sending a brief glare over at Justin, who rolled his eyes heavenward.

     “For the love of God, Jax, I did not injure your beloved little goddess on purpose,” he muttered.

     Their father laughed, and Justin was consoled over his own ‘injury’ by Halle.

     “The problem is,” Aunt Violet chimed in, “you two should not have had your noggins quite so close together there. What were you whispering about?”

     Brenda finally looked at the woman, trying desperately to keep the hostility out of her eyes. But just then Jax took her hand, pulling her to her feet.

     “Excuse us. Bren, come with me,” he said, leading her away from the table and towards the kitchen.

     “What’s wrong, my dear?” Aunt Violet called after him. But Jax and Brenda had already disappeared into the kitchen.

     “Oh, nothing is wrong. He’s just off to tend to his wife,” Jane explained, knowing her son well. “Brenda cannot get so much as a splinter in this house without Jax reacting. The boy is desperately in love, and that girl is wholly precious to him.”

     Violet smiled at that, although what she really wanted to do was frown fiercely. What spell did that beautiful little vixen have Jax under that made him fall at her feet at the slightest injury like that?

     “How long will you be staying, Aunt Violet?” Justin asked, still rubbing his own head.

     “Quite a while, my dear. Perhaps until the winter has passed,” she said. She ought to be able to accomplish her goals in that time, she thought.

     “I hope you’ll be able to endure the heat that long,” Juliet said, after taking a sip of the Christmas punch.

     “And the humidity,” Joanna mentioned.

     “And the mosquitoes,” Jerry added. “Big, big Louisiana mosquitoes.”

     “And the rainstorms,” Justin chimed in.

     “And the insanity of Mardi Gras,” John said with glee.

     Violet looked distinctly uncomfortable and, even now, fanned herself in the air-conditioned dining room. But no, she would not be run off by her disgust and distaste for this town in which they lived. She had a mission to see to, and she meant to see it through. Saving Jax from this dreadful marriage he’d gotten himself into was worth it.

     In the kitchen, Vince was handing Jax a small bag of ice, which Jax thanked him for and then placed upon his wife’s forehead where it had connected with his brother’s.

     “Jax, do I really need this?” Brenda groaned. “It doesn’t really even hurt anymore,” she insisted, feeling ridiculous with the bag of ice on her head and continuously pushing it away each time Jax placed it on her.

     “Yes, you really need it,” Jax told her, moving the ice pack to brush his thumb across the small bump forming on her head from the impact.

     She smiled up at him suddenly. “Ummm… hey, I really don’t think it’s a mortal wound,” she teased him.

     Vince smiled over at them and left the kitchen to allow them some privacy in there.

     Jax sent her a heart-stopping smile and brushed his fingertips against her cheek. “I’ll be the judge of that,” he said, kissing the spot on her head that was slightly swelling. He picked her up and set her atop one of the vast counter tops, making her eye level with him. Then he placed his hands flat against the counter on either side of her thighs, moving very close to her. “I noticed that you weren’t really eating anything at dinner and that you were extremely quiet, which is not like you at all,” he mentioned - everyone knew his wife was a veritable chatterbox. “Are you feeling all right?”

     She wanted to point out to him that the entire family was rather subdued at dinner, thanks to his Aunt Violet’s presence, but she refrained from doing that and instead sought to reassure him that she was fine.

     “Oh, I’m fine,” she said, placing the annoying icepack down and leaning forward to place a soft kiss against his lips. “I just wasn’t that hungry, I guess. Too many pre-dinner candy canes.” She smiled brightly then, placing her hands upon his arms, feeling the sleek muscles beneath his shirt move when he shifted slightly. “I actually can’t believe this is our first Christmas together,” she confided in him, “because I already feel like I’ve been a part of this family forever.”

     His eyes held hers spellbound. “Yes, this family has that effect on our victims,” he said with a sigh.

     She laughed. So did he.

     “I feel like you’ve been a part of me forever,” he told her.

     She cradled his face, stroking her fingertips along his jaw. “Me, too,” she whispered.

     They both heard the sound of the door chimes.

     “Hmmm,” Brenda said. “Gee, I wonder which female neighbor is coming to give you - I mean the family - holiday greetings now?”

     Her light sarcasm - although she tried to hide it in humor - was not lost on him. “It’s probably just old Mrs. Williston, from the end of the street,” Jax murmured, hoping to god it wasn’t yet another female come to wish him a happy holiday and rain kisses upon him in the guise of holiday cheer. Brenda had taken the influx of the women this Christmas day very well, but he could see that it had been grating on her and annoying the bloody hell out of her, and he’d been thrilled at the half hour of respite from the ringing door.

     It was indeed Mrs. Williston… and with her, her two granddaughters, Carolyn and Jessa. Carolyn was Jax’s age and elegantly lovely, with rich auburn hair and soft gray eyes. Her sister Jessa was only two years younger than Carolyn but had the mental capacity of a 10-year-old, due to a childhood riding accident that had resulted in brain damage. And she thought the sun rose and set at Jax’s feet. She, in fact, fancied herself in love with him, but she was a harmless as a true ten-year-old. With Jessa, Brenda found the adoration of Jax endearing, probably because it was so non-threatening. Jessa was older than Brenda, but was very much like a sweet, starry-eyed innocent. She was not a calculating, clever, sex kitten of a woman out to snag a man.

     So, while Brenda watched warily as the Williston sisters entered the kitchen to say hello to Jax - and with prickly annoyance as Carolyn greeted him with a peck to the cheek (far too close to his lips) and a beaming I-want-you smile, which made Brenda itch to grab Jax and pull him away from her - it was with genuine warmth that Brenda looked on as Jessa handed Jax a gift she had made for him in the art class at her special school. It was a crudely made horse painted a shiny black to resemble Jax’s black stallion, Mercury. Jax sweetly made every effort to gush over it, to Jessa’s delight, and kissed her cheek, which had the woman giggling and blushing like a little girl, her eyes filled with stars. Her sister seemed embarrassed by the entire scene, but Brenda found it so sweet and thought that Jax had the most beautiful heart she had ever seen in a man.

     When Carolyn and Jessa left the kitchen, Jax set the gift he’d just received down on the table and turned back to Brenda, who still sat upon the counter.

     “That was so sweet of you,” she said sincerely with a flash of dimples. Then the dimples vanished, and she began tapping her fingernails on the counter. “And see, I told you it would be some woman here to see you. I knew it would be. It always is.”

     He was staring at her now, trying to gauge her frame of mind after the female visitors. Damn, but she was beautiful, he thought. No, more than beautiful. She was adorable and funny and exciting and had the sweetest heart, and… she was just bloody exquisite and mouthwatering and… And, hell, if he weren’t already married to her he’d ask her to marry him right now. He adored this woman beyond all reason. It was a thing - a feeling - he was never going to get used to. If she had any true concept of how he felt about her she would surely never get herself all upset about these meaningless women from his past ever again (though he was still sorry there were so many of them). But he did not know how to make her see into his heart that way - beyond the simple ‘I love yous’ to the true depth of what he felt for her, which seemed to deepen with each passing day. They were still too newly married perhaps - both too new at this thing called love - both still learning how to deal with the mammoth emotions it evoked, which could swing your moods like crazy in all sorts of directions. Perhaps the way to make her see this wondrous thing he felt within him would come to him in time. It was beyond any mere love, he was bloody well convinced of that - and he wished with all his heart that she could know that and believe that and trust it above all things.

     His mother was the only one he had spoken to about Brenda’s insecurities and how those insecurities stemmed from her past and how she had lost everything and everyone she had ever loved - how people all her life had been trying to take things from her. And these insecurities led to her overreacting to other women. But Jane had simply told him to love her. To just love her and cherish her and that eventually her confidence in the stability of his feelings would build up to a level that would wash away all of her insecurities. But Jax was already doing that. Loving her. Cherishing her. They may have had a very unusual ‘courtship’ and an equally unusual wedding day, but none of that mattered now. He loved her with all of his heart, and she was his world. End of story.

     “You really are too damned pretty, you know,” he grumbled. “I always get distracted when I look at you.”

     She gave him a look of deepest sympathy. “I am so sorry.”

     He grinned at her. “The hell you are.”

     “The hell I am,” she agreed with a wink. “Do you want to know something?” she was saying to him then, looking suddenly very contemplative. “Everyday I wake up and see you there next to me, and I think to myself ‘I am so happy.’ And then the next day comes and I feel exactly the same way or maybe even happier, which is just… I don’t know… incredible or something. And then I just wonder how can this be? How can a person wake up every single day and be this happy? It’s not normal, you know.”

     He laughed.

     “And it doesn’t really seem possible,” she continued. “And then I find that I’m bracing myself for the day that’s it stops. For the day that I wake up and the happiness just isn’t there anymore… because you’re gone - because there’s no way I can hold onto something like this - like you - forever, Jax. Is there? I mean, I’m not really asking, you understand. These are just things that float about in my head sometimes. It can’t just last and last and last, can it? I mean, I wouldn’t really know because nothing ever has in my life…”

     “I’m not going anywhere,” he told her, cutting off this train of thought she was having, which he did not like. “Not without you. You will never lose me, Brenda, because I love you - and you, of all people, should know what a huge deal that emotion is for me to feel, let alone admit to as often as I admit it to you. You are my life, my little goddess. And I don’t have any intention of letting you walk out of mine. Nothing would ever make me allow that to happen to us. You know that, don’t you?”

     She hesitated but a moment and then nodded. But that moment of hesitation was all it took for him to know that she did not believe it with the certainty that he so desired of her.

     “You would have to be the one to let me go,” he said quietly.

     Her fingers curled into his shirt. “Umm, I would have to be dead to do that,” she told him seriously.

     “All right then. Don’t make yourself crazy thinking about things like this, sweetheart,” he advised her gently, guessing that thoughts like these were the cause of her quietness and lack of appetite at the dinner table tonight. He would give anything to make her as secure in his love as he was in hers. “Don’t think,” he said, “that just because you’re deliriously happy everyday it means that gloom and doom and heartache must be on the horizon waiting with glee to crush you, because it isn’t. I know that’s pretty much all that life has shown you in the past, but the past is just that: the past. It’s not going to happen this time, Brenda. Not with me.” He paused briefly. “Hell, you know that I have never in my life felt for another person what I feel for you. That should tell you all you ever need to know.”

     In response she just wrapped her arms tightly around him, holding him close to her, reveling in his strength and his warmth and his heart beating powerfully against her own. And his love… which she could feel like a warm blanket enfolding her.

     “It does,” she promised him.

     She was aware of a warm radiance within her and a sensation of desperately wanting to believe with all her might, as Jax had told her, that the happiness she felt was not in jeopardy of one day just vanishing on her. Just because it had happened before over and over again in her past didn’t mean it was going to happen now, just like Jax said. That this time would be different. Jax would make it different.

     He felt her smile against his ear. “I love you. And excuse me, but shouldn’t you be kissing me about now?” she asked him.

     He pulled out of their embrace so that he could look at her smiling face. “Why, is something wrong with your lips?” he asked her. “I’m the one pouring out my heart here - you should be kissing me about now.”

     She laughed and picked up her bag of ice and sat it upon his head. “I love it when you pour out your heart to me, since you do it so infrequently,” she teased him.

     “Hey, now that’s not true. Well, not anymore. Exactly. Is it? I mean, I do try…”

     She laughed, her hazel eyes sparkling. “I only meant that I know talking about the dreaded ‘feelings’ is not a favorite thing to do as far as you Jacks men are concerned. We Jacks women talk about this flaw in all of you men all the time, I’ll have you know. You tell your women you love them once and expect them to be satisfied with that one hard-fought admission forever after.”

     He gave her an incredulous roll of heavenly blue eyes. “Brenda…” Once? True, he and his brothers and father were not exactly comfortable talking about their feelings, and it was not a thing they indulged in often. But with Brenda he indulged in it more often than he could have ever imagined he could tolerate. He had told her he loved her… well, it seemed like at least - to quote one of Brenda’s favorite phrases - a ‘bazillion’ times to him. Including not more than a few bloody seconds ago.

     Her teasing laughter warmed his heart. “So, why don’t you just be quiet and seal it with a kiss and stop arguing with me about who should kiss who?” she finished.

     This particular smile he now gave her made her breath catch. “Whom,” he corrected in a sexy murmur. And he kissed the injured area on her forehead, then the bridge of her nose, and then he cradled her face and took tender possession of her lips.

     It never failed that each and every time he kissed Brenda he slowly but surely became swept away by what existed between them. The swirl of an indescribable magic. The thundering pulse of being madly in love. The shimmering awe of knowing you had and held your soulmate in your arms. The snapping electricity of a physical attraction so intense and thrilling that it always took his breath away without fail.

     His kiss was a slow, deep caress, heady like a sensuous wine; his mouth, his lips, his tongue, so tantalizing she was quickly drifting into heaven. She thrilled to the soft, deep moan he issued as the kiss deepened and grew in potency.

     “So, this is where all the Christmas love is,” Jerry said, stepping into the kitchen and interrupting the long, hot kiss. “’Cause, god knows, it’s not out there in the dining room.”

     Jax lifted his mouth from Brenda’s, ending the kiss, his eyes deep and blue as a tempestuous sea searing into hers. He licked his lips slowly, as if he’d just sampled the most extraordinary meal, and mouthed to Brenda with a wicked grin: ‘to be continued’, and then he gave his attention to Jerry. “Okay, I’ll play. What’s going on in the dining room?” Jax asked, already amused, even though he had no idea what his brother would tell him.

     “Oh, dad and Aunt Violet are going at it. He’s about fed up with her referring to the turkey as a Christmas goose, picking the raisins out of the cornbread stuffing and waving her fan madly in an air-conditioned room. She, meanwhile, is furiously demanding to know what happened to her Figgie pudding.”

     Jax’s aquamarine eyes narrowed, although they were lit with laughter. “What did happen to it?”

     “Our sister went bowling with it,” Jerry responded with a grin of pride, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

     Brenda began to laugh as she slid down from the counter.

     “For God’s sake,” Jax muttered, looking at his brother.

     Jerry shrugged. “It was a humanitarian effort on her part.”

     Jax sat down next to Jerry, and Brenda took a seat on his lap.

     “Luckily for you, she didn’t bring along a spare,” Brenda said, her eyes filled with laughter, glancing at Jerry.

     Jerry grinned at her. “I don’t know about that. The spare might have made an excellent skeet shooting target.”

     Jax shook his head. “Oh, love, why do you encourage the fiend?” he groaned.

     Brenda laughed again, tossing her head back, and Jax took the opportunity to glance at her injury again. “You know what - let me go get your ice pack,” Jax said starting to rise.

     “Jax! Don’t you dare bring that thing over here,” she told him.

     He raised an eyebrow at her. Jerry hooted with laughter.

     “You’ve got yourself a bossy bit o’ goods there, little brother,” Jerry said jovially.

     “Don’t I know it,” Jax said, shooting his young wife a disarming smile that mesmerized her.

     “And how is the walking wounded?” Jerry inquired, addressing his sister-in law.

     “Ummm… fine, I’m fine.” Brenda responded to Jerry, when the mesmerizing effect of Jax’s smile wore off. “How’s Justin?”

     “Oh, he’s recovered,” Jerry said with a wave of his hand. “He’s got Halle and my own wife fussing all over him and his itty bitty boo boo. It’s quite nauseating. What have we here?” he said, lifting trays off of an array of items that lay covered before them on the kitchen table.

     Uncovered, they revealed Vince’s dessert creations in all their sumptuous splendor, forever banishing the frightening imagery of Aunt Violet’s Figgie pudding. There were little chocolate mousse cakes, apple and pear tarts, cherry strudel with icing, a strawberry cheesecake sliced and ready for serving, and a double layer chocolate and vanilla cake covered with chocolate shavings.

     “Wow,” Brenda said, her mouth watering, especially since she had just picked at her dinner.

     “I say we go for the chocolate and vanilla cake,” Jax said, already lifting Brenda from his lap so that he could get up to look for the cake cutter.

     “Excellent choice. And, of course, we’ll need some beverages - milk, I think,” Jerry said, rising to head towards the refrigerator to get some milk.

     “I’ll get the plates and glasses,” Brenda said, popping out of her seat to help and feeling wonderful again because this was the madcap Jacks family interaction she knew and loved. The three of them were having a much better time in here alone than being out there at the dinner table with Aunt Violet’s daunting presence.

     Juliet and Devon entered the kitchen then, and Jax had to laugh. “Why the bloody hell is everyone abandoning the dining hall?”

     “You have to ask?” his sister said with a wicked smile. “Actually, Mum sent us in here to check on Brenda, since Jerry, whom she’d originally sent in to check, never returned. Oh! Jerry, not milk - milkshakes,” she said gleefully, going to the freezer to get the ice cream while Devon went to assist Brenda in getting two more plates and replacing the milk glasses with the larger milkshake glasses.

     “Mum is going to bloody kill us,” Jerry laughed, setting the gallon container of milk on the table and going back to get the blender.

     “Oh, don’t worry, Vince will probably kill y’all first for absconding with his masterpiece cake over there,” Devon pointed out.

     “Oh, he’ll forgive us,” Juliet said with a wave of her hand, as she reached for a bottle of chocolate syrup. Then she turned to her brother Jerry with a laugh, “Jer, do you suppose Mum will send Justin in next to check on Brenda?”

     Jerry barked out a laugh. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised. Then Halle, then Joanna, then Dad. I think Mum’s trying to usher us all to safety one by one and will sacrifice herself to dine with the dragon alone.”

     Jax shook his head, gazing at his siblings. “You know, Aunt Violet is just a lonely old woman, who is seeking the company of her family for the holidays. Would you condemn her for that?”

     “Not at all,” Jerry said. “I just wish she had another family, that’s all.”

     “Jax, I’m sorry but she’s ruining everyone’s appetite,” Juliet said with a shrug. “Well, except yours and mums, of course. You know you’re the only ones in the family who can tolerate Aunt Violet.”

     Jax looked over at Brenda. “That’s not true, Pest. Brenda doesn’t share your opinion of her. She at least is keeping an open mind.”

     Brenda bit her lip and quickly busied herself searching for cake forks, avoiding Jax’s gaze. A spasm of sadness squeezed her heart at the truth that she did already greatly dislike this relative that Jax was so fond of. She wished with all her heart that things could be different - that she really could find a way to like the woman. She looked up and saw that Jax was still watching her. He smiled at her and her heart melted within her. She would try, she vowed. She would try - God help her - one more time with Aunt Violet. Maybe they had just gotten off to a horrendous start?

     Joanna strolled into the kitchen next. “You traitors,” she said, sliding into a seat at the kitchen table next to her husband. “Hording all the fun in here. What are you all up to?”

     “Dessert party,” Juliet said, shaking a jar of chocolate sprinkles in one hand and a can of whipped cream in the other.

     “Is your head all right, Brenda?” Joanna asked.

     “Yeah, Jax kissed it and made it all better,” Jerry responded before Brenda could say anything. “Are Dad and Aunt Violet still at it?” Jerry queried with a grin.

     “Oh, goodness, yes,” Joanna said. “I fear your father’s about to toss his fork in her direction, prong side first. Your mother is tactfully trying to keep the peace, and Halle is trying to help. Justin is no help whatsoever, as he’s nearly convulsed in laughter out there.” She leaned over and picked up the carved horse that was sitting on a portable cart behind her. “Oh, what’s this interesting… er… thing?”

     “A Christmas present for Jax,” Brenda said. “It’s supposed to be a black stallion - like Mercury.”

     “From you?” Jerry asked, looking a bit perplexed.

     “No, from Jessa,” Jax provided. “Brenda does have a secret gift for me, though. I believe she’s hiding it somewhere in my observatory,” he said, blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

     Brenda’s eyes popped open. Oh, gosh! She had to get Jax something and present it to him before he got it in mind to snoop around the observatory and find it himself. She had told him she’d give him his present later, and she had to have something to give him because she certainly couldn’t present him with the dartboard!

     “Oh, is that why you and Halle were up there, Bren?” Juliet inquired, then looked at Brenda, who was moving her eyes about wildly to alert Juliet that she needed to talk to her alone. “Ummm… oh, Brenda will you help me look for those maraschino cherries?” Juliet improvised, grabbing for Brenda’s arm and yanking her over to the kitchen cabinets away from everyone else who remained at the kitchen table. “What’s wrong?” Juliet demanded.

     “What stores do you think are open today? Right now?” Brenda whispered urgently.

     “Stores?” Juliet asked in confusion. “Brenda, it’s Christmas day.”

     “I know. But something has to be open, right?” she asked, chewing on her lip thoughtfully.

     “Why on earth do you need to go to the store?”

     “I have to get something for Jax,” she responded and then explained exactly why she had to get something for Jax.

     “Oh, yikes, you’re lucky he didn’t see that dartboard,” Juliet said, but her blue eyes were twinkling with laughter.

     Brenda gave her friend a little glare. “It’s not funny, Julie. Well, not anymore anyway,” she amended. “I was nearly hysterical with laughter when Halle gave it to me though,” she confessed with a flash of dimples. “So… what stores do you think would be open right now?”

     “Goodness, Brenda. Hardly anything would be open today. And how do you propose to sneak out and go to the store anyway? Don’t you think Jax will notice you’re missing?” she asked with hand on her hip.

     “I was hoping you could get Devon to keep him busy for a while. Don’t you think something on the Riverwalk has to be open?” Brenda asked, drumming her fingernails against the counter.

     “You could ask Sheree,” Juliet advised. “She may know if some specialty shops her friends own are open today. But what on earth are you going to get him?”

     “I have no idea!” Brenda confessed as she zipped out of the kitchen to look for Vince’s wife, Sheree, and ran into Desdemona instead. “Desdemona! Hi,” Brenda greeted the tall, exotic woman fondly.

     “Happy Holidays to you, darling, and my, don’t you look festive,” Desdemona greeted her in that purring voice of hers that Brenda always got a kick out of. She smiled over Brenda’s Santa cap. “I see Lady Jane is still making her family don those delightful caps at yuletide,” Desdemona laughed.

     “Oh, yes,” Brenda grinned. “You know everything for Lady Jane is an ‘event.’ And we love her too much not to give into all her cute little whims.”

     Then Desdemona noticed the slight bump on Brenda’s head. “Oh, what happened here?”

     “I knocked heads with my brother-in-law,” Brenda said with a groan. “Literally.”

     “Ouch.”

     “Exactly.”

     Desdemona smiled. “I’m afraid I can’t stay very long, my dear. I have a very hot yuletide date with a very delicious young man at Emeril’s. But I just wanted to stop by, wish this wonderful family of yours a Merry Christmas, and give you this,” she said handing Brenda a large box wrapped in gold with a big silver bow.

     “Oh, Des, you didn’t have to get me anything,” Brenda said, touched as she took the box.

     “Oh, nonsense. I wanted to, my dear, and you know perfectly well that I always do what I want. Besides, I think it will be more of a gift for that luscious husband of yours than for you,” she added with a sly little smile.

     Brenda’s dimples flashed with wicked delight. “Really?” She made haste in opening her gift and found within a most alluring night attire. It was two pieces, with the top made of black silk with delicate gold and white lace trimming. It was a fly-away style, with thin spaghetti straps and just two small, midnight black ribbons that tied in the center of the breasts as the only form of closure, while the rest of the top flew open provocatively, exposing plenty of tummy and covering only just below the tops of the thighs. The bottom piece was an attractive, black silk thong with tiny gold beads along the waistline to match the tiny gold beads running along the décolletage area of the top.

     “Whoa!” Brenda said, raising her eyebrows and laughing. “Okay, this is really… ummm… yeah, a gift for Jax all right.” She laughed again. Then she got a brilliant idea. “Oh, Des, this is perfect! This is exactly what I need! You are a godsend!” She gave the older woman a hug and kissed her cheek exuberantly. “Thank you!”

     Desdemona laughed at Brenda’s enthusiasm. “You are most welcome, although, why do I think you are thanking me for more than just the gift?” She raised one smooth eyebrow and then smiled. “No matter. I think it will bring both you and Jax an evening of unbridled enjoyment, no?”

     “Are you kidding? Jax is going to think he’s died and gone to heaven. You have to understand me, Des, I’m not one of those women who owns a closet full of sexy nightgowns and brushes out her hair one hundred times before she goes to bed and then sprays on some exotic perfume and lays out on the bed in a pose waiting for my husband. Me, I normally go to sleep in comfy oversized cotton PJ’s or one of Jax’s T-shirts, and liquid Ivory soap is my perfume, then I stick my hair in a ponytail and crawl under the covers. Jax is always teasing me about how he has to search through the covers to find me all the time. You know he probably won’t even recognize me wearing something like this.”

     Desdemona laughed that low, throaty laugh of hers. “Somehow, I think that husband of yours would recognize you even if you were to cut off your beautiful tresses and dress yourself as a boy.”

     Brenda shot her a radiant smile. “Thank you again.”

     “You are welcome again, darling. Enjoy,” she said. “And now I’m afraid I really must go. Cannot keep the dear boy waiting,” she purred with a wink.

     “Oh, are you sure you can’t stay for a just a few minutes? We’re having an impromptu dessert party in the kitchen. And you know Vince is the best cook in this whole city,” Brenda said enticingly.

     “Ah, so very tempting, but no I really must run.” Suddenly she paused, an odd look coming over her face. A cold shiver had passed over her. “Brenda, be careful, darling,” she said, not at all sure what it was that Brenda should be careful of; she simply had an odd premonition of menace and Brenda combined together. And it seemed to be coming from more than one direction.

     “Be careful?” Brenda queried, seeking a bit more information than that.

     Unfortunately, Desdemona could provide nothing specific. “Yes. Just be careful, all right? It’s just a feeling I have.”

     And with those cryptic words of parting, Desdemona left the house with a bewildered Brenda gazing after her.

     “Be careful of what?” Brenda murmured to herself. And then, unable to think what Desi could possibly have been referring to except perhaps giving Jax heart failure when she slipped into that nightie ensemble and stood in front of him, Brenda raced up the stairs to hide Desdemona’s gift in the attic, where she had led Jax to believe his gift was.

     Chad Stanton sat on his front porch staring across at the lush Jacks Estate, its long, climbing driveway and walkway lined with mighty oak trees and sprawling gardens, while stroking the hair of Jessa Williston as he would that of a young child or a puppy. “So, did Jax like his horse?” he asked her.

     She nodded exuberantly. “Oh, he did! He did, Dr. Chad! And he even kissed me! Right here,” she said, pointing excitedly to her cheek. “Right in front of everybody - even Brenda!”

     Chad smiled. “Wow, Jessa. You know, that sounds like a man in love to me.”

     “Do you really think so?”

     “Oh, yes.”

     “Then why does that girl Brenda live with him?” she asked with a frown. “I should live with him if he loves me.”

     “Yes,” Chad said soothingly, letting the thoughts sink into her head.

     “And Brenda should live with you. Because you love her, right?”

     “Yes, I do. As I told you, we were to be married.”

     “And it’s wrong for Jax to keep her prisoner in that house just because she’s so pretty and he likes to keep her there to look at her,” she added, repeating the things Chad had told her.

     “Yes,” he repeated. “It is just as I always tell you. I have to save Brenda from Jax, and then he can be with who he really belongs with… you. And you and I have to make that happen, right? Because the good lord only helps those who help themselves, Jessa. Do you understand what that means? We have to make it happen.”

     “Can we make it happen right now?” she whined.

     “No, Jessa. This is a thing that will take a bit of time. Jax has quite a hold on her, and we just have to help Brenda break it.” He gazed with a moody anger at the dazzling reflective surface of a magnificent fountain the Jackses were having built. It was nearly completed, and once it was, the glare from the sun shining upon it would obstruct his telescopic view in the daytime, while the lights of the fountain would obstruct it in the nighttime and on sunless days. And he had no doubt that it was intentional. They would not even permit him a glance upon her beautiful face. He stiffened with anger. “When I call on you for your help, Jessa, you’ll do as I ask, won’t you? No questions asked? And just our little secret.”

     She nodded fervently. “Oh, yes, Dr. Chad. I’d do anything to have Jax,” she said with benign smile. “And all is fair is love and war, like you told me.”

     “Slow and steady wins the race,” he said.

     “Good things come to those who wait,” she added in a singsong voice, running off the phrases he would often quote to her and reminding him of a mindless parrot.

     Chad nodded, satisfied, and then dismissed the child-like woman, sending her on home to enjoy Christmas dinner with her family and wrap her simple mind up in fantasies of Jax. She was going to come in very handy one of these days, he thought with a smile. Very handy indeed.

     “Brenda what are you doing in there?” Jax said, rattling the doorknob. “Why is the door locked?”

     “Oh. Well, I took your present down from the attic, Jax. And now I’m just getting it ready for you in here, that’s all. Just a few more minutes okay?” came her voice from the other side of the locked bedroom door.

     “Getting it ready?” he asked, bewildered.

     “Mmmm Hmmm.”

     “Brenda, should I be worried about this?”

     Her musical laugh came back at him. “Maybe,” she teased.

     “Brenda, I’m serious. I know you.”

     “Jax, I promise it doesn’t involve Niles or anything chemically explosive. Although some chemicals inside of you may be exploding, actually…”

     “What?!”

     “At least they better, or else I’m doing this all wrong.”

     “Doing what all wrong? There is no electricity involved here, is there?” he asked with concern.

     “There better be,” she said.

     “All right, Brenda, I would really advise you to tell me what you are doing in there before I turn this door into an archway, if you get my meaning.”

     “Jasper Jacks, you’re not going to break that door down,” she warned him. “I’m not in the least bit of danger, honey, I promise you. Okay? And besides, I’m almost done. And you’re going to love this. Think happy thoughts.”

     “I’m thinking of strangling you,” he muttered.

     He heard a soft giggle.

     “Hey,” he said, “do I smell something burning in there?”

     “Yes, but it’s fine, sweetheart, I just lit a match.”

     “You’re assembling a gift for me in there that requires you to set it on fire? Brenda, open this door! Now.”

     He heard the lock unclick and opened the door immediately. It was dark inside of the bedroom, except for the flickering golden lights of about eight fat, pleasingly scented candles. Jax reached over to turn on the light switch but Brenda’ s voice stopped him.

     “Oh, no, Jax, don’t turn them on,” she said quickly.

     He sighed, but a faint smile curled his sensuous lips. “So, I am to believe that this gift requires that I view it in darkness?”

     “Hey, there’s light in here,” she said defensively. “The candles,” she reminded him.

     “Well, where is this gift that set you to such subterfuge and had me thinking you were going to blow yourself to bits? And where, incidentally, are you?” he asked, gazing around the dimly lit room in the direction her voice had come from. Was she actually hiding behind the drapes? He shook his head in bemusement, watching the drapes move about and spying a pair of very pretty bare feet at the foot of them.

     “I’m wearing your gift, Jax,” she told him, in a soft, mesmerizing voice.

     “Wearing it?” he asked, more confused than ever. Also more intrigued than ever, his blood suddenly racing like wildfire throughout his body for no discernable reason.

     “Yes. Are you ready?” she asked.

     “Very,” he murmured, eyes glued to the wiggling curtains. “Let me see you…”