Colters' Promise (Colters' Legacy, #4)(39)

Adam turned to fix each of his children with a menacing glare. “You’ll not say a word to your mother no matter how bad it is. I want her happy, and if making us a meal makes her happy, then by God, we’ll sit down and enjoy it even if it kills us.”

Ryan coughed and Adam turned his glare on his brother. “That goes for you and Ethan too.”

Ethan chuckled.

“There’s always leftovers from last night if things go really bad,” Callie said.

“Just everyone sit like your mother said and wait for her to come get us,” Adam said.

It was hard to sit in the living room when the kitchen might indeed be in peril. Every once in a while, someone could be seen sniffing delicately at the air as if trying to discern whether anything was burning. But after an hour, delicious smells floated through the living room.

At the end of two hours, the smells were so wonderful that the rest of the family began to grow restless and check the time as if they were impatient for dinner to be served.

And then Holly appeared in the doorway of the living room, her smile triumphant even if she looked decidedly harried and bedraggled.

“Dinner is served,” she declared, her smile bright enough to rival the meadow the night before.

Everyone scrambled up and jockeyed for position going into the dining room. It was as if they all wanted to be the first to see the results of Holly’s cooking.

When they all crowded into the doorway, exclamations and sounds of surprise rose. The table was set with a red tablecloth and a beautiful poinsettia centerpiece. Each place was set with sterling silver utensils and Holly had dragged out her rarely used fine china for the occasion.

But what everyone focused in on was the mouthwateringly fragrant food.

“Sit, sit,” she urged. “I don’t want it to get cold.”

Neither did anyone else.

They scrambled into their seats and discovered steaming bowls of lobster bisque accompanied by an appetizer of crawfish-stuffed shrimp. Homemade rolls were passed around and then silence descended as everyone glanced around to see who would be the first to try it.

Max didn’t hold back, but then he’d never been a victim of Holly’s attempts at cooking. He spooned a mouthful of the bisque into his mouth and then took a bite of the hot roll.

He looked up when he realized everyone was staring at him. He laughed. “I suppose I could pretend to keel over and die an agonizing death, but that would probably get me banned from any future family meals.”

“Damn right it would,” Holly muttered.

“It’s excellent, Mrs. C.,” Max said. “You outdid yourself.”

The others looked surprised and then suddenly they were all dipping into their bowls and the reactions were comical.

“Oh my God, this is heaven,” Ethan groaned. “My wife made this?”

Holly huffed at him and shot him a quick glare.

No one spoke for a long moment as they all savored the wonderful-tasting bisque. When they all finished, Holly began dishing up the grilled fish fillets. When she opened the covered bowl containing the étouffée, there were looks of amazement all around.

She carefully ladled the étouffée onto the plates, covering the fillets.

“What the hell did you do to our mother?” Dillon demanded as he forked another bite into his mouth.

The entire table cracked up at his irreverence. Even Holly grinned. “You like?”

“Like? I damn well love,” Dillon said around another mouthful. “Did my wife teach you how to make all this?”

Holly shot a proud glance in Lily’s direction. “She sure did.”

Adam, Ethan, and Ryan all looked over at Lily, and Ethan said in mock reverence, “How can we ever thank you? You’ve performed a miracle. We never thought we’d see the day she didn’t burn the house down after two hours in the kitchen.”

“Oh, shut up,” Holly said in exasperation. “I’m not that bad!”

When silence greeted her defensive statement, she burst into laughter. “Okay, so maybe I was.”

“Everything is wonderful, baby,” Adam said with a smile. “You did an amazing job. This will be a Christmas we’ll never forget for many reasons.”

Holly smiled back at him, her cheeks flushed with pleasure.

“It’s awesome, Mom,” Seth assured her.

One by one, her children and her husbands, Max, and Lauren all chimed in with their compliments until Holly beamed from ear to ear, and really, even if it had been horrible, who would have wanted to wipe away that kind of smile?

It had been a year of many milestones and events, changes and renewals, scares and rejoicings. The next year promised to be even sweeter.

But no matter what else would be recounted from this point forward, this would always be remembered as the year Holly Colter finally managed to conquer the kitchen.





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GRACE Peterson drew the blanket tighter around her and huddled in the dark. She stared blankly at the star-filled sky. The mountain air was cold. Not just chilly, as it had been as dusk had descended, wiping away the comfortable remnants of a sunny afternoon. It was frigid.