***
They have just enough time for Josh to take a quick shower and Garrison to wrangle Henry into proper clothes before the dog alarms go off, Muttlee and Munchkin barking outside and rapidly getting louder. They must be chasing a vehicle up the driveway.
Josh heads outside, followed closely by Gabriella, as a Lincoln Towncar pulls up next to Garrison's Mercedes SUV. Sherry's Ford Explorer parks behind Josh's truck, and then there's a deluge of car doors slamming and kids yelling.
He gets to the Towncar in time to open the door for Garrison's mother, Grace, while his father, Hugh, levers himself up out of the driver's side to stretch with a long grunt.
"Merry Christmas!" Grace sings out, a flurry of motion in an expensive coat and designer perfume, her high heels making the top of her perfectly curled hair reach Josh's shoulder. She's stopped dying her hair, so there's a distinguished streak of gray from her temple now. "And here's Ms. Gabriella!"
Gabriella gives Josh a deer-in-the-headlights look as she's embraced, obviously still uncertain about this grandparent thing. She and Henry hadn't known their biological grandparents at all, and she'd spent Thanksgiving nervously circling Grace and Hugh like they were social workers, whereas Henry had dived right in.
"Sir," Josh greets Hugh with a genuine smile as the man comes around the car, shaking hands. "Hope the trip wasn't too bad."
"Only the usual delays getting out of Boston," Hugh says as he claps Josh on the shoulder. "You finally get your cable fixed?"
"Yes, sir. They replaced the lines last week."
"NHL channel?"
"Coming in crisp and clear."
"Good, good."
No one else in Garrison's family will watch sports with the man, and if Boston wasn't so far away, Josh would probably be over for every hockey game of the season. One of the things Josh loves about Hugh is that he's a man of few words and a gentleman in the old school sense of the term. Josh can usually see echoes of Garrison's manners in his father and has picked up a few himself.
Josh comes from a blue-collar family of printers in rural Ohio, where he spent a lot of time in the paper mill as a kid and was never expected to go to college, let alone the Marines or police force. Just enlisting had gotten him disowned.
Garrison's childhood can’t have been more different, coming from an affluent family where Hugh made a name for himself by working his way up the ranks of a prestigious Boston law firm back when being a black lawyer was almost a novelty. Garrison followed in his father's footsteps at Northwestern Law through joining the Marines, but after he met Josh, well... at least one of them has a high-paying job now. Garrison's sister is an attorney, too, but their little brother is a tour guide in Alaska after a string of other random jobs. He's at some spiritual retreat, so he won't be meeting the kids until the next holiday he wanders into town for.
"And you, Joshua!" Grace exclaims as she pulls him into a fierce hug. "Look at you, I swear the bags under your eyes have bags, honey."
"I worked doubles all week to get Christmas off, Mom," he says dryly.
"Well, don't you worry. We have enough of Ms. Anne Marie's home cooking to feed an army, so all you boys have to do is provide the turkey."
Ms. Anne Marie is the Williams' cook-housekeeper-former nanny who puts many a drill sergeant to shame. Since Josh can't cook to save his life, and Garrison handles basic recipes, her contribution is a godsend.
"Now, where's my Henry?" Grace dismisses Josh with an absent pat to his broad chest.
He moves aside and finds himself with an armful of four-year-old, Lily blinking up at him with tear-stained eyes from under her pink pom-pom hat.
"Merry Christmas," Sherry says with the harried look of a mother who's been trapped in a van with a pre-teen and a toddler for hours. Pierre, her husband, doesn't look much better. "Careful, she just got over an ear infection."
Lily looks ready to start wailing, so Josh rocks her gently and heads for the house. Gabriella is close behind, determinedly tugging in Grace's suitcase. They're only staying overnight, but apparently that warrants checked luggage.
Grace is holding court on the couch, Garrison settling her in with a cup of coffee and cookies from his favorite bakery in Burlington. Henry's already curled up in Grace's lap, draped around her shoulder like he's touch-starved. Maybe he is, because he's the most physically affectionate kid Josh has ever encountered.
Josh quickly tucks Lily in on Grace's other side, and the girl hides her face from Henry before shyly glancing at him.
"Hi!" Henry chirps, and Josh supposes that's enough in kid-speak to cement a lifelong friendship, because they're chatting a mile a minute at each other after that. He catches Garrison's eye, quirks his lips, and grins when Garrison laughs.
Returning to the outside, Josh exchanges backslaps with Pierre and helps unload the back of the SUV. Jeremiah, at eleven, is surgically attached to his iPhone and still sitting in the back seat with ear buds firmly in. It looks like he's playing Angry Birds.
Pierre nods toward his son and rolls his eyes. "An early present from his maman. He has not left it in days."
Even though he's lived in the United States for over fifteen years, Pierre's French accent is still pronounced. An atheist from the mostly-Islamic Senegal, he doesn't really celebrate Christmas, but Josh has had enough conversations with him over the years to know that he loves the secular customs of the holiday. The Williams' tendency to shower their loved ones with expensive gifts is something they've both had to adjust to.
"It's all right," Josh commiserates quietly. "Gabriella has an e-book reader waiting under the tree with a gift card. I'm not sure we'll get two words out of her again until she's off to college."
Pierre laughs and hefts a duffel bag onto his shoulder. Josh seizes a box of Tupperware containers, and it smells heavenly. Gabriella reappears to grab one of the smaller bags and lugs it into the house behind them.
"Jeremiah! Nous allons!" Pierre calls out and waits for his pre-teen.
Gabriella sticks close even as Josh leaves the box of food in the kitchen and heads to the renovated garage, now Garrison's office, where Hugh and Grace will be staying on the pull-out couch. They'd debated having the kids all stay in one room and the adults in the kids' rooms, but Gabriella had overheard the plan and, one screaming fit at Garrison later, they'd decided that it would be best not to change too many things while the kids are still settling in.
Sherry and company are crashing in the basement on a guest bed and air mattresses, so Josh pokes his head down there after affirming that the office is in order. Sherry is already sacked out on the guest bed and Josh sneaks back upstairs, carefully not tripping over Gabriella when she turns out to be right behind him.
They find Pierre and Garrison in the kitchen unpacking the food containers, Jeremiah sitting at the table with his phone plugged into the nearest outlet, now playing a Nintendo DS. Gabriella slides into the seat across from her cousin, giving him wary glances.
Josh comes up behind Garrison, hands going to his husband's shoulders out of habit.
"What's for dinner?" He asks as he kneads Garrison's tense trapezius muscles with sure fingers. Garrison just groans and lowers his head, bracing a hand against the counter.
"Vegetables, vegetables," Pierre mutters as he unloads the containers. "Merde, more vegetables. Ah, prosciutto, some cheese-- Those are for appetizers, yes? Bread. Something that looks like meat..."
Josh laughs and gives Garrison's shoulders one last rub before drawing away, but Garrison catches his hand and pulls Josh back in under his arm.
"You'll have to leave for the airport soon, but could you find out what the rabble wants for lunch?" he asks Josh, pressing plump lips to Josh's temple.
Josh blushes for no good reason. "Sure."
"And how about you, Gabriella?" Garrison turns to where she's perched on a chair at the table, doodling on a paper napkin. "What would you like for lunch?"
"Peanut butter and jelly," she says quietly. Garrison clea
rs his throat and she adds a grudging, "Please."
Josh pops his head into the living room. Hugh is already in a recliner, snoring away, while Lily and Henry are playing with the village under the Christmas tree. They've been keeping the village in a box when unattended ever since Munchkin ran off with a figure skater from the little mirror pond. They still haven't found it.
Grace must have plugged the lights in because the tree is lit up in all its flashing glory, looking like the lopsided angel perched on its top had vomited up tinsel and glittery icicles all over it. But Gabriella had made the paper chains herself, and Henry had dictated the placement of the plastic, kid-friendly ornaments.
The small pile of presents next to the tree has grown exponentially, now a mound of ribbons and tissue paper.
Grace looks like she's starting to doze off, too, but she's watching the kids play with a smile on her face.
"Mom?" He asks softly. "Would you like some lunch?"
"I'm fine, honey. We stopped for fastfood right off the highway. Your father was refusing to eat the snacks Ms. Anne Marie packed." She gives Josh a look and he nods. When Hugh's blood sugar gets too low, he can get more than a little contrary and stubborn.
"You did it wrong!" Gabriella shrieks in the kitchen. "I don't want it!"
Henry drops his part of the locomotive with a clatter, eyes huge. Hugh startles awake with a snort, and Grace's eyebrows climb high. With an apologetic grimace, Josh heads for the commotion. Next, the