Christmas With You by Tracey Alvarez Page B

possessiveness in her belly swelled at the sight of him squashed between Holly and Tarryn.
    Vee arrived moments later with his beer, placing it in front of him and ruffling his hair. The look he shot his sister could’ve given her a free chemical peel.
    Erin craned forward in her seat. “You’re a Christmas Eve baby?”
    “A long time ago,” he said.
    Holly nudged him. “Bet you were a cutie.”
    Tara, Lizzie, and Vee burst into gales of laughter.
    “God, no,” said Tara. “Three months undercooked and weighing only two pounds?”
    “I was nine when Kip was born.” Lizzie wiped a tear off her flushed cheek. “I looked into the incubator and thought he was one of those hairless cats.”
    “Sphynx,” supplied Tara. “Or maybe that little critter that Grace used to watch on some cartoon—a naked mole rat?”
    “He doesn’t look like a naked mole rat now,” Shaye said.
    “Yeah.” Piper tipped her beer bottle at Kip across the table. “If I weren’t married, I’d do ya.”
    “You missed your chance when you threw me over for that moron behind the bar.” Kip toasted her in return and sipped his beer.
    “Looking at my little bro now, no one would believe he was a skinny runt most of the way through high school.” Lizzie stirred the straw through her Bloody Mary, the ice cubes rattling in the moment of silence before she continued. “One time, even a girl beat him up. Poor little guy.”
    The women surrounding her started giggling.
    Tarryn shoulder checked him. “You got smacked down by a girl? Oh, my, gawd .”
    The angle of Carly’s chair allowed her to see Kip’s profile. His jaw bunched, and an icy fist squeezed around her gut, her fingers tightening on her glass. He was the first guy to poke fun at himself, taking a verbal roasting in his good-natured stride. But his older sister’s teasing hurt him, of that she was sure.
    She glanced at Vee’s tight-lipped expression—and even Tara stared down at her drink.
    Vee laid a hand on Lizzie’s arm. “Just to clarify here, since you’re all having a laugh at Kip’s expense. The girl who attacked my brother was a nasty bitch who’d been bullying me the whole of my last year at high school. She was seventeen to his thirteen and weighed at least the same as one of my dad’s dairy cows. He stumbled onto us behind the school building, where I was groveling at her feet, blood pouring from my nose after she’d slapped me.”
    The table went dead silent. During Vee’s speech, Kip had put down his bottle and folded his arms, staring over the women’s heads to the mistletoe kissing corner. Carly wanted the world to disappear, so she could drag him over to it and make the grim expression on his face go away.
    Vee angled her chin. “Kip may’ve been a skinny runt, but he didn’t hesitate. My brother went for that vicious bitch and fought for me like a demon.”
    “He got a black eye and a split lip for his trouble, too,” said Lizzie in a contrite tone. “Mum nearly stroked out when he and Vee came home.”
    “If Dad hadn’t been the voice of reason, I would’ve ended up in Bounty Bay hospital, getting a full check-up plus a CT scan and MRI,” Kip said. “It wasn’t the first or last time I got the shit kicked out of me.” He picked up his beer and downed half.
    Holly patted his arm. “Capricorns are very protective of those they love.”
    Kip belched, loud and proud—breaking the tension and setting the slightly tipsy women off giggling again. “We’re also hard workers, or so you’ve told me.” He stood, his chair scraping the floor. “I’m getting back to it. Have a good night, ladies.”
    Kip kept his face turned away from Carly as he pushed the chair back underneath a nearby table. He walked to the bar, his broad shoulders stiff, his spine rigid. Her heart ached. It was almost as if the boy still trapped inside him needed to prove he was all grown up, and nobody, but nobody , would get to see him vulnerable again.

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