A Crazy Christmas Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Beth Cranford

  No part of this work may be used, stored, reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations for review purposes as permitted by law.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover Design and Formatting by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction

  Copy Editing by Missy Borucki

  Manufactured in the United States

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For those who’ve battled Holiday Blues, Baby Blues or any other kind of Blues—

  You are loved. You are strong.

  You got this.

  And for Santa, who gets all the credit at this time of year anyway . . . *rolls eyes*

  Six Weeks Before Christmas

  “I think Declan is going to break up with me,” Jade began, as she slid into the seat beside her best friend, Brighton, “or maybe propose. It could go either way.”

  Brighton laughed gently, rolling her eyes. “If I were a gambling woman . . .” She trailed off, seemingly aware of her slip of the tongue. Shrugging her shoulders, she plowed on. “What I mean is, it has to be that second one.”

  Jade leaned in to press a kiss to the warm, downy head of Stella Figures, Brighton’s baby girl. “Hiya, baby girl.” She looked up at her friend, a soft smile on Brighton’s face telling her that the affection Jade showed her daughter was appreciated. “You have a baby . . . in a bar.”

  “Did you just quote that Reese Witherspoon movie at me?” Brighton cocked an eyebrow. “I love that movie. It’s been forever since I’ve seen it.”

  “Yes. And me too. We should kick the boys out one night and have a movie marathon. We can watch it, and then all the Christmas classics.”

  “Like It’s a Wonderful Life?”

  “Ah, no. I mean, like, Love Actually and The Holiday.”

  “Ah, Mr. Napkin Head.” Brighton picked up her napkin and waved it over her head.

  A soft coo from the baby stopped the flow of conversation, giving Brighton a chance to re-direct. Which Jade knew she would, given how she’d said hello. “Why do you think he’s breaking up with you?”

  Jade shrugged, trying to play it all off as a joke, but still warring with those stupid voices in her head.

  The ones that told her he was pulling away.

  The ones she thought she’d damn near conquered.

  “I don’t know, he’s been . . . distant. Secretive. Wily.” She offered Brighton a half-smile and a half-hearted joke. “Like the Coyote.”

  “Jay—”Brighton started talking in a gentle voice, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Ashton, the bartender at their favorite haunt.

  “Ladies, and little lady. Hi.” Ashton directed the last greeting directly at Stella, her tone dropping to baby-level softness. “Brighton, she’s just the cutest thing. But not old enough for Girls’ Night, so . . .”

  Brighton laughed, nodding in agreement. “Seb was running late, so he said he’d meet me here.”

  Jade cocked her head. Sebastian’s running late? She knew he’d left the office on time to make it home to Brighton, do the baby-handoff and hell, maybe even do Brighton. Where is he?

  Gambling? Another woman? Running off to join the circus as a lion-tamer?

  Okay, definitely not that last one, but she couldn’t help but wonder. Sebastian Figures was her boss, her best friend’s husband and a recovering gambling-addict, which is why Brighton skirted around the expression “If I were a gambling woman.” The demons that haunted Jade apparently didn’t care who they were second-guessing, as long as they were second-guessing someone.

  And right now, they were second-guessing Seb.

  “He left the office on time.” The words escaped her before she had the chance to rein them in and immediately, she felt like the jackass she lovingly referred to Declan as. Mostly.

  Brighton turned away from where she and Ashton had been engaged in conversation and nodded at Jade. “I know. He told me.” She had a look on her face that Jade couldn’t decipher, but her words offered a little relief, at least. “Something came up on the way home, so he took a detour. It’s all good, Jay. I promise.”

  Though she still had her doubts—or, her demons did—Jade felt a wave of relief. Brighton knew Sebastian’s past, better than anyone, and if she had faith in him, then who was Jade to judge?

  “Drinks, girls?” Ashton brought the conversation back to safer ground with her typical no-nonsense bartender act. And that’s all it was, an act. She’d become a good friend of Jade and Brighton’s in the months since she’d bought the place and began working regularly behind the bar, so they both knew that Ashton was almost as soft and caring as Brighton, but capable of sass that even Jade bowed down to. “The usual?”

  Jade nodded at the same time as Brighton and watched as Ashton set to work grabbing their drinks—club soda for Brighton, who was still breastfeeding Stella, and a margarita for Jade. The woman was beautiful, her blonde curls cascading down her back in an effortless way.

  “So, Declan?” Brighton interrupted her perusal of Ashton, trying to bring the topic back to Jade’s opening salvo once again.

  “Right, yeah. Wily. Coyote. Death of the best relationship I’ve ever had.”

  “Ahem, I’m right here, you know,” Brighton joked.

  “Aside from the long-lasting, never-ending, perfect love I share with you, darling.”

  “That’s better. And please, enough with the dramatics. Declan is not breaking up with you. I know it. You know it.” Brighton leaned in and tapped a finger to Jade’s forehead, her way of making a point. “And they know it, too.”

  Jade nodded, shrugged, then blinked a handful of times. She was trying to play it cool but, deep down, until she knew for sure what Declan was up to, her mind would keep questioning.

  Which was clearly something Brighton appreciated, because her next words were weighted with meaning, a hint that Bright knew what was going on, but wasn’t going to share . . . yet.

  “I know it, Jay. He loves you. He looks at you like he can’t believe his luck and he, like, I don’t know, moves with you. Like magnets. Or Velcro.”

  “Velcro doesn’t move like a magnet.”

  “No, but it sticks. And Declan? You’re definitely stuck with him.”

  “I like being stuck with him.” Even to her own ears, the words were small, laced with something a lot like doubt.

  “I like being stuck with you too, Freckles.” The deep voice of her boyfriend came from behind her at the same time a masculine forearm wrapped around her waist, drawing her back against a chest she knew better than anyone.
“What’s going on, sweetheart?”

  Declan moved to stand beside the barstool Jade was occupying. “Hey, Bright.” He smiled at his friend—their friend—taking a moment to study her tired face, and the weariness that showed in her green eyes, before moving his focus back to his woman. The one who seemed to be talking to Brighton about losing him.

  Which wasn’t happening.

  Not now. Not ever.

  “I was just . . . I mean, we were just talking. It’s nothing.” Jade flustered was one of his favorite versions of the spitfire who’d become his world. But not when that meant she was also questioning him. Them.

  “It’s not nothing, if you’re talking about me leaving you.” He reached up and ran a hand down her blonde-and-blue ponytail. It sat high on her head and when his hand reached the end, he gave it a slight tug. Leaning in closer, his lips poised at her ear, he darted his tongue out to swipe at the shell, eliciting a soft moan. Then, in a whisper, he added, “Do I need to spank you for doubting me, Freckles?”

  A flush of need raced up Jade’s neck, a second moan escaping her even as her hazel eyes—eyes that had told him so many things about her that she’d tried to hide—darkened in desire. “Mayyyyyyy. Be.” Her breathy response was drawn out into two distinct words.

  “Hey, I’m right here, you two. Jeez.” Brighton interrupted their moment before Declan could take it any further, and that was fine. Jade needed time with her best friend, but when he got her alone, he’d make sure to fuck the doubt right out of her.

  Twice.

  At least.

  And if she still needed convincing after that, well then, he was just the man for the job.

  “Sorry, Bright.” An apology that was anything but and well-meant at the same time. Stepping back from Jade just enough to be able to turn her head toward him with a touch of his fingers to her chin, he placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’m going to be over there, Jay”—he paused to point to a corner booth, before continuing—“so when you’re ready, let me know and I’ll drive you home.”

  “O–Okay.” The slight stammer in her words told Declan that he’d succeeded in distracting her from her poisonous thoughts, at least for the time being.

  He watched as she turned her head back toward Brighton, then he headed over to the booth he told her he’d be occupying. He hadn’t planned on staying at the bar while Girls’ Night was in effect, but with Jade’s doubting words running around his mind like they were trying to win gold in the 100 meter dash, he knew he couldn’t leave her alone.

  Sebastian looked around the bustling bar, not because he was looking for his wife—his eyes had found her the second he walked in—but because he knew that with Jade seated at the bar beside Brighton, his buddy, Declan, couldn’t be too far away.

  He was right. Sitting in a booth, alternating intense looks at his phone, most likely for work, and Jade, Declan looked like he’d been sitting there for a while. His beer glass was half-empty and sweating, his tie was loose and a waitress was approaching the table with what appeared to be a burger and fries.

  Typical bar food, except that Seb knew it had to be a veggie burger.

  Typical Declan food.

  Knowing that, if his friend was here, he wasn’t going to be leaving anytime soon, Sebastian headed to his girl—his girls, actually. Brighton and Stella, the best things in his life.

  “Bright Star.” He went straight for a kiss, because he didn’t know any other way to be around her. He was hers, and she’d once told him that she expected a kiss first, before anything else.

  It had been the morning of their small wedding. They’d stood hand in hand waiting to walk down the aisle together and she’d turned to him.

  “You didn’t kiss me yet.” Brighton’s mouth turned down in an adorable pout. With one hand resting on her rounded belly, she tugged gently with the one that was joined with his. “Not okay, Sebastian.”

  He laughed, softly. Fuck, she was cute. And in mere minutes, she’d be Mrs. Figures. “I thought I was supposed to wait until I was given permission by the celebrant. You know, ‘you may now kiss the bride’ and all that.”

  She was shaking her head before he even finished speaking, before explaining how things were going to be. “We’re forgoing tradition after tradition, and you think it’s okay to wait to kiss me? It’s not. It’s never okay.” She squinted her eyes in an approximation of a death-stare that wouldn’t hurt a fly and used her free hand to poke him in the chest. “The first thing you do is kiss me. Always. Got it?”

  He knew she was mostly joking, but kissing his Bright Star? No hardship. Plus, she was heavily pregnant and highly hormonal. Better to just agree and go with it.

  Now and forever.

  Leaning in, Sebastian let his lips hover just above hers, nothing more than a whisper of air between them and murmured, “I got it,” before pressing their lips together in a kiss that promised that now and forever he’d just been thinking about.

  “Hey, baby.” Brighton’s bottle green eyes were shining with humor. Whether it was because she’d been remembering that same moment before they said “I do” or because of something that she and Jade had been talking about, he didn’t know. And it didn’t matter, either.

  She looked happy, something that he’d worried she hadn’t been of late. And her happiness was all he wanted.

  Beside them, Jade cleared her throat. “I think I’ll—I’m just going to check in with Dec. Leave you to it for a sec. Hey, I rhymed!” She crossed her eyes at her own silliness, then stood and hurried over to Declan. Sebastian watched in amusement as she immediately grabbed a couple of fries and stuffed them into her mouth, earning a pinch in the side and kiss from Declan.

  “They’re happy.” Brighton shifted Stella in her arms as she spoke. “Even though Jade’s having doubts.” She gave him a pointed look, as if it was his fault her friend was in the dark about Declan’s coming plans for the holiday.

  Christmas was just around the corner. And so was a proposal, given the frankly obscene rock that he’d just helped his best friend purchase. “That sucks.”

  “Yeah, she tried to play it cool, but I could tell. She asked where you were.”

  “I might have hung back at the jewelry store,” he offered, before carefully lifting Stella, taking a moment to just look at her perfect little face. Aside from the small dimple that pressed into one cheek when she smiled, Stella was all Brighton, from her green eyes to her sweet nature. “Daddy’s got you, Stel.” His girl blinked up at him and began a little babble that he was convinced was her saying “Dada” and Brighton thought was just nonsense sounds.

  His girl was definitely saying Dada. She was too smart to engage in nonsense-talk.

  “She’s been fed, she’s been changed, she’s all ready for Daddy-Daughter time, though”—Brighton’s eyes found Jade and Declan sharing the same side of the booth, as well as Declan’s dinner from the looks of it—“I think maybe we’ll be cutting out of here early tonight.”

  “Everything’s okay though?” he asked, nodding over at their friends. “Really?”

  “They’re fine. You know Jay, she’s just having a hard time with Declan being . . . not himself.”

  “I guarantee he’s not going to make her wait long to find out what’s up. He picked the ring and got this look on his face. It said he was too excited to wait. Actually, it’s the same one he got when he decided we should learn to drive in my dad’s new car when we were fifteen.”

  “Oooh, I don’t think I know this story.” Brighton propped her elbow on the bar top and her chin on the palm of her hand, an intensely curious look in her eye.

  Seb laughed, thinking about the five or so minutes of joyriding that ended at the end of his parents’ street, with a stop sign that certainly stopped him. “I’m probably lucky to be here to tell you about it. Long story short, we climbed into the car, got to the end of the street—I was driving, since it was my dad’s car—and veered off the road. Into a stop sign.”

  Brighton lifted a ha
nd over her mouth, trying and failing to stifle a laugh. “Oh my God. What did Peter say?”

  “Nothing. He let Mom handle it.” He widened his eyes comically, because his mother when she was angry was a sight to behold. Not to mention one to avoid. At all costs.

  “Ah, you are lucky to be here to tell me about this.”

  “Dec tried to take all the blame, but Mom refused to believe the golden boy would do such a thing.” He rolled his eyes, before continuing, “I think I was grounded for six months. It was torture.”

  “You know, one day she’s going to be old enough to pull those kinds of shenanigans.” His wife gestured to the sweet baby wiggling a little in his arms, and grinned wickedly. “Turnabout is fair play. . .”

  “Please, this baby is too much like her mommy to ever do something like that.”

  “Maybe. But what if she takes after her Uncle Declan and Aunt Jade?” This time, she was the one to widen her eyes for emphasis, except she added a slightly-evil chuckle to the end of it.

  “We’re all doomed.”

  The way Jade and Declan leaned into one another told Brighton a story that made her feel all kinds of squishy inside.

  She was a sap, so sue her.

  But along with the squishy feeling was a small kernel of worry. Jade had come a long way in the time since they’d met and basically become instant best friends, but she still had her moments. She still battled with her anxiety.

  And Brighton hated it for her. So, she decided to play a little bit and see if she couldn’t get Declan to get a move on. Somehow, it felt like the right move—and one of which Dec would wholeheartedly approve.

  “What’s the look about?” her husband asked, his eyes locked firmly on their daughter, making Brighton wonder how he knew she was up to something.

  “Nothing. I—” She broke off, not wanting to incriminate herself, and reached into her pocketbook for her phone. Before Sebastian could stop her, she’d sent a text.