Sugar Plum Poisoned by Jenn McKinlay

Author:Jenn McKinlay [McKinlay, Jenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

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Mel took the afternoon off to work on the house. She needed to get on top of this whole Christmas thing otherwise her mother was going to show up and deck her halls for her. It’s not that Mel would have minded that so much, it’s just that it made her feel as if she was failing at this whole holiday thing, and her pride was not up for the hit.

Captain Jack in mid-nap ignored her but Peanut was ecstatic to have Mel home. She raced around in a few circles that made Mel dizzy and then darted outside to patrol the yard. Mel set to work unboxing a few of the cartons her mother had sent over. One was as promised Joyce’s Christmas china. Mel closed the box. Had the woman never heard of paper plates? For the number of people Mel was hosting, she feared it was the only viable option, but she’d get the fancy ones. She took out a piece of paper and a pen and started a list.

She then moved on to the next box. This was the Christmas tree decorations. Excellent. She and Joe didn’t own enough of those to cover a tree. She glanced at the living room. First, she needed a tree. She added that to her list. She pondered the third box. This one was full of Christmas tchotchkes. She glanced around her serenely uncluttered living room. Because she and Joe had demanding careers, their home decor had never been a priority. She didn’t have pictures on the walls, there were absolutely no knickknacks, and their aesthetic could best be described as “no one lives here.” Of course, this meant Mel had plenty of places for the animatronic reindeer with the red light-up nose, the snowman who hugged his belly and giggled, and the Mr. and Mrs. Claus who ho-ho-hoed and then kissed each other.

Her mother had been collecting these animatronic stuffies since Mel was a kid. She checked each one before she set them on a table here and a shelf there to make certain that they were switched off. No one wanted to be ho-ho-hoed at two in the morning when they were going for a glass of water.

Feeling as if she’d made a solid start in the decorating, Mel played fetch with Peanut and attack the feather wand with Captain Jack before heading back to work. Before she departed, Mel left Joe a note on the counter, explaining the new additions to their decorating so he didn’t freak out.

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