Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

“We’re more of a ‘hang ‘em up wherever,’” Banks rumbled as he hung up a purple ball. A purple ball Ace and I hadn’t even purchased today.

Frowning, I turned to see him digging in a box that looked like it’d been dug out of an attic where it’d been sitting for twenty years. There was so much dust on it that I could see little particles floating around the lid.

Then I saw Ace walk over to it with a small smile on his face.

“Shit,” he said. “Where’d you find these?”

“In the barn,” Banks said as he backed away to admire the one ball he’d hung. “I made that one in second grade. It says so on the ball.”

I grinned and walked over to the box, finding a lot of homemade ornaments in there from the span of all the Valentine kids’ childhoods.

“Oh, look!” I pulled out a picture of a young boy with no front teeth. “I bet they teased you about wanting two front teeth for Christmas.”

Ace grinned and held it up, then flipped it over so that he could read the back.

“Not me. Callum. But still a cute little booger. I’m fairly sure all of us had no front teeth at some point during Christmas,” he muttered, walking over to the tree.

So that was how we spent the next hour, and when Callum finally walked in with Desi in tow, the entire tree was decorated, including every single ornament that was in that dusty box.

“Oh, shit,” Callum said as his eyes widened. “That’s mom’s stuff.” He swallowed hard. “Glad that Georgia took the other ornaments.”

I felt my heart skip a beat. The ‘other’ ornaments were the ones that Ace’s youngest siblings had made.

“She’d started hanging them up on her tree the same year that she’d married Nico.” Ace murmured quietly.

“Yeah,” Banks said. “All her expensive ornaments were in there, too, but I didn’t want to hang those. I’m afraid she’d come back from the grave and kill us if we broke one hanging it up.”

Ace started to snicker. “You remember that one time that Darby broke that pink one that she loved so much? I think he cried for days.”

“No joke,” Banks muttered. “I remember that vividly because it was the one time that Dad wasn’t responsible for it.”

Everyone went quiet after that.

“Did you get dinner started?” Ace asked, breaking the silence.

I pulled out a tub of popcorn that we’d also bought at the store and popped the top, grabbing a handful of the caramel corn instead of the cheese. Both were my favorite, but caramel was the bomb.

“Shit,” Callum smacked his head. “I totally forgot… we’ll have to order pizza, or the kids will go wild.”

My brows rose.

“What kids?” I asked, popping another mouthful of popcorn into my mouth.

“Georgia’s kids,” Ace answered.

I started to get up.

“I guess that’s my cue to head out,” I said as I carefully put the tin back to rights. “I’ll just—”

“You’re staying,” Desi said, interrupting my words. “I’m staying. Then we’re going to go home and decorate your tree.”

Desi’s pleading look had me pausing.

Shit.

She looked like she was ready to beg.

I had a feeling that I’d be staying whether I wanted to or not.Chapter 7Home is where the herd is.

-T-shirt

Codie

The Valentine sister came in like a whirlwind of fury and screams.

Well, not the sister per se, but the sister’s kids.

Her husband, the rather large SWAT officer that I’d seen around town a couple of times since I’d been back, looked amused.

Georgia looked unaffected. As if she dealt with this kind of controlled chaos on a daily basis and wasn’t affected by a few screams or throat punches in the least.

I looked over at Ace to gauge his reaction to see him grimacing and covering one ear.

“You don’t like kids?” I asked teasingly.

Ace grimaced. “I like kids just fine… it’s just that my sister’s kids are a little more awful than most.”

I snickered. “I think you’re exaggerating.”

He wasn’t.

I found that out two minutes later when they nearly knocked the tree over because they couldn’t make it all the way to the couch before they started fighting over who was going to get to serve themselves food first.

They went from standing to rolling around throwing punches in about two seconds flat.

“Honestly,” Ace said with amusement lacing his voice. “I really don’t see how I’ll ever want kids after witnessing how yours act. They’re juvenile delinquents.”

“They’re not as bad as I was,” another of the Valentines came in, this one Darby. “I was way worse.”

“Give them time,” Banks suggested as he entered the conversation. “They’re only fifteen. Give them five more years, and I’m sure they’ll be there.”

“They won’t,” Nico said, sounding so sure that I had no doubt he spoke the truth. “I let them fight here, and when we’re at home, but when we’re in public, they’re perfect little angels.”