This Time Around (Sequel to All Over Again)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

By the time they were finished, the palace looked as if Disney’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol threw up all over the place. McKenna smiled at the yards of green garlands, decorated with red velvet bows edged in gold thread and silver bells, red and green candles set in smaller wreaths of Christmas greens, their bayberry scents filling the corridors with the perfume of McKenna's childhood Christmases. Snowmen and reindeer, angels and carolers were set up along various tables and shelves and windowsills, and mistletoe hung in practically every doorway.

Mistletoe was something foreign to Asgardians, and she remembered the puzzled look on Loki's face the first time he saw it, in her apartment back in Brunswick. Selig was only a little over a year old and it was the first Christmas she’d looked forward to in a long time. The previous one was quiet, as Selig was only an infant but this one… this one was one she went all out for. She’d had a wonderful time decorating their apartment, baking cookies, even wrapping gifts, which was something she hated and put off until the last possible moment.

“What is this?” Loki asked, pointing at the bundle, tied with red and green plaid ribbon and hanging in the doorway to the kitchen.

“It’s mistletoe,” she said, coming out of the kitchen and wiping her hands on a slightly damp dishtowel. The sweet warmth of baking candy cane cookies filled the small apartment and she smiled as he cast a puzzled look back at the small bundle. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen mistletoe before.”

“No. We have nothing like this in Asgard.” He turned back to her. “What is the point of it?”

“This.” She pushed up onto her toes and brushed his lips with a kiss.

He caught her around the waist with one arm, pulling her into him. “What was that for?”

“That’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re under the mistletoe.” She smiled as Selig let out a cry. “And it sounds like your son is up from his nap. Why don’t you get him while I get the cookies out of the oven?”

Loki smiled down at her. “You’ve flour on your chin.”

“I had a little trouble with the dough. These cookies are enough to make me stabby.”

“I heard.” He ducked as she swatted him and his laughter remained as he went to get Selig from his crib in the teeny bedroom that could only barely be called such.

That was their last Christmas in Brunswick. The following year, just after Thanksgiving, Loki asked Shay to watch Selig, while he whisked her out to Hunterdon County and the surprise of her life.

Loki eased her Honda to a stop, but she had no idea where they were, as he’d blindfolded her before they left Brunswick. “I hate when you do this, Loki. Why can’t you just tell me?”

“Because it’s a surprise and I like to surprise you.”

He climbed out of the car and her door opened. “Give me your hand, love.”

“Loki.”

“The sooner you do it, the sooner I take that off.”

She gritted her teeth but eased her hand into his and let him help her out of the car. “What’s going on?”

“You’ll see in a minute. Step up. And up again.”

She did. “Loki.”

With that, the blindfold whisked away and she squinted in the bright November sunshine. “What’s going on?”