Page 2 of A Crawford Family Christmas

“Where are Harrison and Birdie?”

“Don’t know. Haven’t seen them in a while,” Hayes says.

“She better not go into labor tonight,” Madison says.

“Aurora, baby, what’s with the meeting?” Hayes asks his wife.

“We don’t have too much time before the gates open,” Roe says.

“Right. Okay. Well, Harrison and Birdie will just miss this.” Rory pauses and looks at all of us. “So it has come to my attention that there is a dirty liar in our midst.”

“What are you talking about?” Quinn asks.

“Well, someone—cough-cough-Amber—told me that she saw a picture of a certain sheriff during a recent visit to Austin,” Rory continues.

“Honestly, Rory,” Amber mutters.

“So tell us, Sheriff, did you really wiggle your booty for bucks at Poseidon’s while you were in college?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Quinn mutters.

“No way!” Johnny says.

“They got you now, babe,” Madison says.

My brother, the sheriff, looks over at me. “Sorry, sis.”

“Caleb, if you think for one moment that I didn’t know how you were paying for school, then you must think I’m blind and stupid.”

“You knew?” he asks.

“The entire time,” I say.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” he asks.

“No woman wants to discuss with her baby brother the fact that he takes off his clothes for money.”

“It wasn’t all my clothes,” he says.

“He’s definitely got the moves,” Madison says.

“No one needs to know that,” Quinn says.

“I don’t know,” Johnny says. “I kinda want more details.”

“Later, people. Right now we’re about to open,” Roe says. “Stripper Sheriff, keep your clothes on tonight while the children are here.”

“Callie!” Rory says.

“What?”

“You and I are gonna have words as to why you never told me this fun tidbit about your brother.”

I just laugh while Roe and I walk back to our positions.

“Look alive, people,” Quinn says. “This is what we’ve been working towards.”

An hour later, things are in full swing at the Crawford Christmas Tree Farm.