Page 13 of Hot Mess Christmas Express

Chapter Eight

There wasa warbled voice wafting into the living room from the kitchen of the converted carriage house, along with the smell of freshly baked cookies. No matter how much he wanted to, Caleb couldn’t hide his smile. Sure, it sounded as if Scuttle from The Little Mermaid was putting on a Christmas concert in there—complete with incorrect lyrics and mispronounced words to “Feliz Navidad”—but not a single member of the Sloan family seemed fazed. It was seemingly all part of their traditional Christmas Eve.

“You get used to it,” Ian, Sienna’s older brother, had whispered to him as he handed him a beer.

Clark Sloan had been rambling on for the better part of thirty minutes at this point about the history of Somerset House and the island itself, all while his wife, Laura, trilled away in the kitchen. Which of his parents Ian had been referring to Caleb wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. The fact that neither had balked when Sienna had led him down the covered path to the family home and announced he was spending Christmas with them was enough for him. Hell, forget hesitation, these two had jumped on him, welcoming him with hugs, as if he’d been a long-lost friend. Shit, it had made him feel really good.

“Did Sienna tell you where the name for the Seven Swans came from?” Clark asked.

“She mentioned that up until recently there were seven actual swans, but that you recently lost two.”

“Yes, Friedrich and Marta. Mind you, they weren’t the originals. Swans only live about twenty years. So they were the third iteration. But when my parents arrived at Somerset House after purchasing it so they could turn it into a B&B, they found seven swans wandering around the place. Naming the swans didn’t come until later, though, when my little sister became obsessed with The Sound of Music and named each swan after one of the Von Trapp children.”

Kurt…Marta…Friedrich…

Caleb let out a laugh. How had he not realized that?

“The way my aunt tells the story, she didn’t actually pay attention to the swan's gender when she named them, so there was a male Brigitta wandering around for years,” Sienna added.

“That’s hysterical,” Caleb said.

“Just one more thing that makes our little island so special,” Clark continued. “Bullfinch Somerset had a number of weird requirements when he turned the island over to the state, but the original families who took over made it work, passing it on down to us. Now I and my counterparts are working on turning it over to the Boys of Somerset, who will continue to make this place even better.”

“Boys of Somerset?”

“Ugh, Dad, don’t start this,” Sienna moaned, throwing her head back on the couch. Caleb looked over at her, trying to read her reaction. She looked so cute in the jeans and ugly Christmas sweater she’d changed into, her copper hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun. He desperately wanted to haul her into his lap and kiss that scowl right off her but knew that this was not the place.

“It’s how Dad and his buddies refer to the next generation. Based off some stupid nickname they gave us in high school. Which was ten years ago…” Ian said, also giving his father a look, telling him to drop it.

“They were state champs in football four years in a row,” Clark pointed out. “That last season they even went undefeated! Ian was on the team. Asher wasn't, since he ran cross-country.”

“We’re not talking about this again, are we?” Asher said, walking into the living room.

“Asher will be Somerset’s new postmaster when his father retires in a few years. Ian is taking over the inn. Kellie is the event coordinator here. Bran—”

“Yes, Dad, because I was on the football team,” Kellie said, rolling her eyes as she placed a plate of cookies on the coffee table.

Caleb pressed his lips together, trying to hide another laugh. He hadn’t realized just how much he had missed family time like this. The dynamics were different with the Sloans—a lot more players than his small immediate family of him and his father—but there was the same comforting feeling of love and acceptance. The warm glow off the lights from the Christmas tree by the fireplace and the odd amount of snowman décor for a southern home only helped drive it home. Looking to his left, he could see the tension radiating off of Sienna, though, and he wondered exactly what she was feeling. It wasn’t lost on him that her father had mentioned both of her siblings but not her.

“Somerset is quite the point of pride in this house, if you couldn’t tell,” Sienna said, giving him an apologetic smile.

“That’s okay. My father used to love telling the story about how he performed Jesse Tanner’s ear pinning surgery. ‘The first ear is science, the second is art,’ he would say over and over. He was quite proud of himself.”

“Jesse Tanner? As in the child actor with the big ears?” Sienna asked, sitting straight up on the couch. “He didn’t just grow into them?”

“Nope. His manager and family would like you to believe that, but after about the age of ten, the ears are “fully grown” so to speak. We can usually tell by the time a kid is five or six what the structure of the ear will be and determine if the procedure is something that the parents want to move forward with.”

Sienna stared at him quizzically, almost as if she was trying to determine if he was making it up.

“You had no idea pediatric reconstruction was so interesting, huh?” he teased, nudging her. “You want to hear about man boobs next?”

“You do not deal with man boobs,” Ian said.

“Sure do. I did a procedure about six months ago on a seventeen-year-old kid, who due to a hormone imbalance was dealing with gynecomastia, which is the fancy name for overdevelopment of breasts in men. Kid walked into my office for his consultation sporting a solid C cup. When he had recovered from his surgery, he looked like every other guy in the locker room.”

Caleb hadn’t intended to tell this story, since it wasn’t exactly one that he told many people, especially people he’d just met. But the smile it was earning him from Sienna warmed his insides, and he knew he’d made the right call steering the conversation away from where her father had taken it. Right about now he would do anything to keep that smile on her face. Even if it meant more talk about man boobs.

He was saved from such a conversation, though, when Laura shouted it was time for dinner a moment later. The whole family popped up from where they were sitting, making their way into the dining room. Everyone except Sienna, that is, who let out a long sigh before standing up and turning to follow. Caleb grabbed her elbow, drawing her into him. He did a quick glance around the room to make sure no one was watching, then lowered his lips to hers, kissing her softly. Sienna’s body relaxed against his as he kissed her, her arms slipping around his neck.