A Nashville Spicy Christmas: A funny, heartwarming, found family mm romance holiday adventure by Casey Morales

Author:Casey Morales [Morales, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 3Aussies Press
Published: 2023-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty

Sam (and Miguel)

The first day aboard was relaxing. The ship inched lazily from the Spanish coast to the vaunted French Riviera. There were no port calls that first evening, so our group, scattered throughout the day, gathered for dinner as per Coop’s previously announced reservation at Moderno, the Brazilian steakhouse.

Meat fell from endless skewers. Wine flowed freely. Annie held court and kept everyone in stitches. Poor Steph squirmed. Miguel’s hand spent more time gently stroking my leg than it did above the table.

It was a great night.

“So, Mr. Hawk,” Miguel said, his voice slightly slurred. “What do you have planned for us tomorrow?”

Coop grinned from across the table where Nate’s arm lay draped about his shoulders. “Nothing.”

Even Annie fell silent at that pronouncement.

“Really? Nothing?” Miguel asked.

“Well, the ship docks in Cannes,” Coop explained. “There aren’t really any excursions or activities. It’s basically a shopping stop. In case you haven’t noticed, the tastes in clothing and fashion at this table are about as widely varied as exhibits at a zoo. You and Dad have worn the same jeans since the eighties. André might’ve lived in the States for decades, but he still has European sensibilities, regardless of the poor influence of our dear Nick. And Annie—well—Annie is in a league all her own. It’s as likely she’ll come back with a designer ball gown as a blouse.”

“Screw ball gowns,” Annie said, sloshing her glass over the table wildly enough to make Steph lean away. “The shops on this damn boat didn’t have anything worthy of Mr. Snuffleupagus over here, so the two of us are going banana hammock shopping.”

“That’s mango hammock, thank you very much,” Nate shouted over the raucous table’s roar.

“Honey”—Annie held up a finger—“no mango has ever grown so large. We might need a whole new fruit for this one.”

She wrapped her wiry arm around Steph, only making his blush deepen and everyone else’s laughter grow louder.

“Steph, we’ve been teammates for over a year, and I can’t ever remember being all that impressed in the locker room. You get an adjustment? Or are you stuffing those shorts to fool Annie?”

“Come on, dude. You’re supposed to protect your teammates,” Steph protested. “Besides, it’s freakin’ cold in that locker room.”

Steph’s pleas fanned the flames. I almost felt sorry for him in that moment.

Almost.

Then Miguel threw him a lifeline. “Actually, Annie, I hate to ruin your plans to turn Steph into a bathing suit model, but Sam and I have him reserved for the day.”

Miguel’s hand squeezing my leg was the only urging I needed to roll with him.

“Yeah, we haven’t had a chance to get to know him, and, as the parental units of this highly dysfunctional family, we need to assess our newest applicant.”

Annie stuck out her lower lip. “Fine. I’ll just have to guess your size.”

Her hand vanished below the table, causing Steph to jump up so quickly he nearly upended the table.

“You can feed the animals, but this isn’t a petting zoo,” Nick called out.

Annie shot him a glare.

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