he believed me, but she narrowed her eyes.
I laughed, and that ended my attempt to appear serious.
"I highly doubt you were a saint when you were growing up. You have bedroom eyes, so I bet you got a lot of girls into your bed with them."
"Bedroom eyes?" I said, innocently. "What could you mean, Ms. Carlson? What would your father think of you talking like that?"
She leaned up on her tip-toes and kissed me quickly. "He'd threaten to wash my mouth out with soap, that's what he'd do."
"Really?"
"I'd be grounded and forced to do the grunt work for the week."
"Grunt work? Your father was in the military, right?"
"Briefly," she replied.
"What grunt work would you do?"
"Take out the garbage, rake leaves, vacuum. That kind of thing. Once, I called him a sonofabitch when we had a fight and he said that if I was going to swear like a trooper, I'd have to work like one."
I laughed at that, imagining Governor Carlson frowning at a younger Ella after she swore at him. "You called the Governor a sonofabitch?"
"I did," she replied and smiled. "He wouldn't let me go out to a party on a Saturday night because I was late getting home the night before. I felt he was being unreasonable and too strict."
I nodded, understanding that Ella had been a bit rebellious as a girl.
"You had to do all his chores for the week?"
She nodded. "I used to come home from school and read what I had to do on the chalkboard in the kitchen. Every day for a week, he'd have a grunt-work chore for me to complete. You can be sure I didn’t call him a swear word again. But I did learn how to rake and mow a lawn, how to take out the trash and do other things around the house that he usually did."
"So, he did you a favor," I replied.
"That's the way he saw it," Ella said. "He taught me the value of holding my tongue when faced with an authority who could punish me. I tend to keep my mouth shut in those cases."
"Good lesson," I said. "Shall we go downstairs and join the brothers?"
"Yes," she said and squeezed me. "We can continue this later."
"We most definitely will," I replied giving her butt a soft smack as she led the way.
* * *
We had a nice time sitting on the patio with the brothers, and by the time midnight came around, Ella yawned and gave me a look that suggested she'd had enough for one night.
"I'm afraid I have to take my bride-to-be and go to bed," I said and stood, holding out my hand to her. "We've had a busy couple of days, traveling and visiting the parental units, so we need the sleep."
"Okay, bro," David said and stood, coming over and giving me a hug. "Thanks for coming. Both of you. I'm so happy to have everyone here this year. Our first year as complete orphans."
"Aww," Ella said, and pouted. "I'm sorry. This isn't a happy time for you, I guess."
"No, I'm fine," David said and gave Ella a hug and kiss on her cheek. "It's just the first time we've all been here for the holidays instead of in Manhattan and it feels different. It wasn't a traditional Christmas without Dad."
"We have to make our own traditions now," Josh said and nodded. "Maybe we'll alternate Christmas in Manhattan and in LA. How does that sound?"
"Sounds perfect," David said.
We all hugged and kissed again and then I took Ella back up to our bedroom.