A Christmas to Dismember

Mom takes a page out of Georgie’s ornery book and hitches her thumb my way. “She wants to name the shop the Dreamcatcher’s Hookah Lounge.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Georgie howls.
“We don’t sell hookahs!”
The two of them take off for the ballroom with a start, and I’m not too sorry to see them go.
I spot my best friend, Emmie Crosby, headed this way along with her boyfriend, Leo Granger, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Emmie and I not only share the same black hair and icy blue eyes, but we share the same first name as well, Elizabeth. But to keep things simple, we’ve gone through life with the nicknames our families gave us and we’ve never been happier.
Leo, her official plus one, happens to hold my special supernatural ability—that little detail about reading minds. That’s how we met about a year ago. Since then, he’s fallen in love with my beautiful bestie, and he just let me know about a week ago that he’s about to pop the question on Christmas Eve. Leo has enlisted my help in both finding the perfect ring and helping him pull off the perfect proposal, whatever that might be.
“Bizzy!” Emmie gives me a warm embrace while holding out the platter in her hand brimming with peppermint bark. “Please take one—or take a fistful. You look as if you could use it.”
“Can I ever.” I quickly snap one up and take a bite of the creamy white and dark chocolate combination, sprinkled with just the right amount of candy cane bits. “Mmm, this is to die for.”
Leo winces. “Watch what you say.” Leo has dark hair and dark eyes, and a dark sense of humor to match. He’s a deputy down at the sheriff’s department where Jasper works, and I couldn’t have picked a better man for Emmie. “I’d like to go at least a month without a homicide.”
“You and me both,” I tell him as I indulge in another sweet bite of the magic that Emmie has produced en mass for tonight’s event. Emmie isn’t just in charge of the Country Cottage Café, she pretty much does all the baking. Good thing, because I can’t go within ten feet of a stove without burning something in my wake. It’s safe to say Emmie shines where I go dim.
Emmie just found out about my mind reading abilities a couple months back, and I’m thankful she’s still speaking to me. Only a handful of people know, like Jasper and Georgie, too, and I don’t plan on broadening that number anytime soon.
What do you think of this dress? She wiggles her shoulders my way. Emmie has donned a sparkling silver number, with a little more va-va-voom than I’m used to seeing on her. I just threw on a simple black dress and called it a night, but I can tell Emmie is set to impress. Leo’s mother will be here tonight, and I want to make a good impression.
“Oh shoot.” She stomps a matching silver heel as she turns to Leo. “I keep forgetting you can hear my thoughts, too. So not fair.” She wrinkles her nose at him before going in for a kiss.
“You look stunning,” I tell her as my eyes dip to her plunging cleavage. “Maybe ask my mother if she has a brooch in her purse?” I give a little shrug. “If not, I can loan you a paperclip.”
“You keep your paperclips to yourself.” She gives me a playful swat on the arm. “I’d better get this to the ballroom,” she says, holding up the platter in her hands. “I still have three trips to make at least.” She takes off and Leo steps in my way.
“You ready for tomorrow?” he asks with a twinge of something that looks to be nerves skirting his face.
“Preston Jewelers, eleven-thirty,” I say. “How can I forget?” Actually, I can’t forget because I’m also meeting my brother, Huxley, there at the very same time. He, too, is about to ask his girlfriend for her claw, or hand as it were, in marriage this Christmas Eve, and he’s enlisted me as his consultant as he walks the green mile.
Leo’s chest bucks with a laugh. “You really don’t care for Mackenzie Woods, do you?”
I’m about to let him know exactly how right he is when Mack and Huxley step this way.
Mackenzie Woods and I grew up together, and we were close up until we weren’t. She’s a stunning chestnut brunette who happens to be following in the footsteps of her father and her grandfather before that as the acting mayor of Cider Cove.
Huxley Baker is my warm, funny, serial womanizer turned family attorney of a brother. He’s handsome with his dark hair and dark smile and has a penchant for making poor decisions, but I won’t hold it against him.
Mackenzie bleeds a wicked smile my way. “I heard that comment. Of course she doesn’t care for me, Leo. I’m sure she let a real zinger fly. Funny how I don’t have any negative things to say behind your back, Bizzy. I save them all to share right in front of your face.” She heads my way and leans her lips to my ear. “Any luck getting the class ring?” she whispers through the side of her mouth.
I make a face over at my brother before whispering back, “My mother has it.”
Mackenzie nods as she stalks toward the ballroom in a red glitzy dress that garners the attention of every male in the vicinity.
About a week ago Mackenzie clued me in on the fact she plans on proposing to my brother come Christmas Eve. Little does she know he plans on proposing to her on the very same night. I’m not sure why, but a part of me feels as if things will go explosively wrong. Most things do when Mackenzie is involved.
Hux growls, “Good going, Biz. Whatever you whispered to her really ticked her off. Keep up the good work and she’ll want to divorce me before