Free Blue Christmas (The Moody Blue Trilogy | Book One) by Diane Moody

you, too, Gevin. But I’d be a little
skeptical of advice from a family member. Gene pool and all that.”
    He threw his head back laughing. “Point well taken!” He turned to Jason.
“Sharp girl. Though what she’s doing with you baffles me.”
    Marissa reached out her hand toward Hannah. “Nice to meet you, Hannah.
Looks like you and I are the only sane people in the crowd. I’m glad you’re
here. I was afraid I’d be suffocated by The Family.” Gevin hummed the theme
from The Godfather as Marissa crossed her eyes. “See what I’m talkin’ ’bout,
girl?”
    Gevin grabbed her hand. “If you’ll excuse us for a moment, we need to say
hi to Aunt Laura and Uncle Frank. We’ll be back in a minute.”
    Hannah sat back
down. Jason slowly lowered himself on the armrest again, his arm landing across
the back of her chair. He leaned over, whispering in her ear. “Something’s up.”
    “What do you mean?” She felt his face against her hair, actually heard
him inhaling the scent of it. An unexpected shiver trickled down her back.
    “Gevin and Marissa have always been close. The two of them, I don’t know—it’s
like they rule the roost. Y’know what I mean? They hang out and all that. But
something’s going on. I can tell by the way he’s grinning. Like the cat that
ate the canary.”
    “Aren’t you and Gevin really close? Wouldn’t he tell you if something was
up?”
    He hummed a few bars of something she didn’t recognize, but the look in
his eyes revealed a mind turning over every stone. “Maybe that’s why they’re
here together. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
     

     
    When the rest of the McKenzie/Michaels battalion said good-night and made
their way into the driving snowstorm outside, Jason huddled next to Hannah, both
shivering in the driveway as the last carload inched slowly out of the drive.
    Gevin walked up behind them holding a plastic cup of Coke. “Geez, I
thought they’d never leave.”
    Whomp! A snowball socked Gevin dead center in his chest. His cup
flew into the air, Coke cascading through the flake-filled sky before drawing a
brown dotted line across the snow-covered ground. In a fancy display of
footwork, he fought to keep his balance, but lost. “Hey!” he protested, flat on
his back.
    Jason slipped into the shadows as Hannah leaned over to help Gevin to his
feet.
    “What’s with you McKenzies falling flat on your butts all the time?”
    Jason heard Hannah’s taunt and the sound of their laughter, then watched
as Marissa shuffled along the ice, joining them from the dark bushes on the
other side of the sidewalk.
    “Girl, you see what I got to work with?” She winked mischievously at
Hannah. “These boys can’t stand on their own two feet for nothin’!”
    “Did you throw that? Rissa, you hit me! You knocked me down!”
    Whomp! Jason ducked back behind the trees after lobbing a huge
snowball that plastered the back of Hannah’s shoulder. He watched her from his
hideout.
    “Ouch!” she yelled, turning to see where it came from. “Jason! I know you
threw that! Come out here and fight like a man!”
    He watched her lock eyes with Marissa. Uh oh. In a single fluid
motion they charged for a bank of snow and the war began.
    Their screams and laughter pierced the cold night air as the snow fell
harder. Snowflakes stuck to their eyelashes and covered their hair. Marissa’s tight
curls looked like so many iced Tootsie-Rolls. Hannah’s face glowed pink from
the cold, her ears almost red. Gevin’s beard looked like a frosted chocolate
donut, his red nose easily rivaling Rudolph’s famed snout.
    The four of them poised in a face-off, each daring the other to throw one
more snowball. Jason couldn’t feel his fingers anymore, but he wasn’t about to
give in. He dug his hands back in the snow for one more missile, but they
refused to cooperate. He rubbed them against his legs to get the blood
circulating again.
    Marissa stood up straight across the driveway,