Saturday, December 23, 2017

A Very Loki Christmas Party Part One

(A/n) Day ten of Faith's twelve days. Welcome to the start of this insane fic I wrote starring a combination of fan fiction characters and my own oc's. Enjoy!)



     The sisters had been the first to arrive, being ready and willing to help with the preparations, making Emily eternally grateful.
She had never hosted a Christmas party as big as this before.
Come to think of it, this was the first time she had ever hosted a Christmas party, period.
To think about all the different personalities she was going to be cramming into this Finnish resort (Armo and Adeline had been kind and gracious enough to offer up their property as a place for her to host the event) was more than a little nerve-wracking.
Not to mention some characters were going to be coming from the forties and some from different places and eras in the galaxy, thanks to Stark’s new time travel “toy”.
“Hey Em, where do ya want these!?” A high pitched, albeit still masculine voice laced with a drawl that came from the deep south called out as he entered.
Emily had to bite back her laughter at the shocked look of Jasmine and Victoria’s faces as Austin entered lugging three trees protected by garbage bags. One may wonder why such a sight would be so hilarious at first glance until they examined just how the trees just so happened to be tied.
Jasmine and Victoria, both homicide detectives in Washington DC for the other 363 days out of the year, looked mildly alarmed, but Emily was quick to reassure them.
“Set the trees right over in the corner, Austin. We still have yet to find the ornament boxes, but when we do,”
“Me n’ my siblings will take care of it,” Austin assured her with a smile.
Upon realizing appearances could be deceiving, Jasmine broke out into a grinned, thoroughly amused by the “prank”. Her sister was still eying the bags somewhat suspiciously, ready to “slap the cuffs” on this new strange young man the moment things started to head south.
“I have no idea what possessed the two of you to tie these trees up so that they looked like bodies, to begin with,” another young woman’s voice could be heard coming through the door complaining loudly.
“Come on, thith,” Sam protested. “You can’t tell me that it wath not funny”.
“We go from the middle of the trenches in Bastone, to this frozen wasteland,” Dixion grumbled, coming in and shaking wet snow from an army issue coat that looked very out of place in the year 2017.
“At least no one is shooting at us now, Dix,” a female voice attempted to console him.
“And trees were not exploding all around us, either,” a slightly younger male voice added.
Around this time, Armo and Adeline had rounded the corner, lugging with them the said boxes of Christmas ornaments Emily had been speaking about just moments earlier. They both halted in their tracks at the sight before them, too taken aback to say much else.
“Hey Chloe, where did ya go darlin’,” a deep voice that both Armo and Adeline recognized as none other than Ben Ross, bassman for the Country vocal group, for King and Country entered, glancing around and finally smiling as he spotted his petite blond wife, going over to give her a peck on the forehead despite the glare she shot at him.
“You are the one who hid my peppermint candle. Just fess up!” His wife demanded.
“I was protecting you from your pyromaniac tendencies,” Ben said, not missing a beat as he captured his wife in one of his trademark hugs from behind, resting his chin on her head, which Chloe secretly adored.
Jasmine and Victoria had, in the meantime, approached the entryway, curious to see what all the clamor was about.
Emily’s smile only grew bigger at the sight before her eyes.  Despite the fact that she was nowhere near ready for the festivities to start, the fact that about three-quarters of her intended company had arrived overjoyed her.
Though, admittedly, there were some complications that she had yet to truly work out. Like, how was she supposed to tell her World War Two paratroopers over there that they were in 2017, and that the war they had been fighting had been over for over 70 years?
She wished Stark would hurry up and bring her guests from the “future” with her. Everything would be made slightly easier for her if only she had a super soldier World War Two veteran whom she had forced to deal with being in the twenty-fourth century with star ships and the like.
Plus, he could possibly explain the whole concept of time travel so that it made more sense.
Then again, could anyone possibly explain time travel to that it could be comprehended?
Tony had told her it was supposed to be something similar to the Wardrobe in the Narnia books. When they left their own times, mostly by being transported while they were in the middle of their “routine” tasks of everyday life,  no second would pass in their world, while an infinite amount of time could pass in this “real” world.

     OK, Emily, focus. Time to welcome whose here. She took a deep, somewhat nervous and shaky breath in while stepping forward.
“Welcome one and all, to Emily’s character Christmas party of 2017!”
“Wait….” Jasmine spun around, narrowing her eyes at Emily suspiciously.
“Character Christmas party?” Daniel Summars, the younger of the three decked in World War Two garb, questioned.
“Yes,” Emily’s cheeks reddened, somewhat embarrassed by the trap she had stepped in to.
“Let’s just say, that my, ern, pen and my imagination brought you into being?”
“Wait…..” Chloe said, trailing off in confusion.
“Did not the good Lord himself do that?” Victoria finished what was on the younger woman’s mind.
“Well, yes in a matter of speaking. The good Lord game me the idea to make all of you”.
“Makes sense, to a point,” Adeline, who along with Armo, had been quiet up until now, said from the corner.
Ben was nodding along in agreement. “He gives us the minds to create other things. So we really are an indirect creation of Him, in a sense”.
Chloe rolled her eyes, both amused and slightly irritated that Ben would be so easily accepting of this. She looked at Armo and Adeline. “So, have you all gotten our rooms sorted out?” Out of everyone here, it was helpful to have at least a couple of familiar faces to look to with all the weird things happening.
“We do,” Armo stepped forward, his arms still loaded with boxes. “If you all will just line up at the desk, we will get all of this sorted out”.
Everyone assembled glanced around at each other and shrugged. They had all been invited to a Christmas party, after all. There was really no point in leaving before the festivities even had a chance to start.
Once everyone had gotten as settled as they could, they all met back in the common room of the lodge.
“So, looks like you were just in the middle of setting up,” Susan, the young female paratrooper, commented, glancing around at the trees propped in the corner and the boxes of decorations scattered every which way.
“Yeah,” Emily remarked ruefully, hiding a smirk as Ben was now playfully dangling a piece of fake mistletoe he had snatched up over Chole’s head, eyebrow quirked. Chloe made a huge show of pretending to be annoyed, before stretching up to give him a peck on the lips.
“Jaz and Tory here came early to help set up, but now that you all are here…”
“We can make it a communal effort,” Adeline, or Del, said with a smile, grabbing a box of outdoor Christmas lights as she nudged Armo.
“Come on, Hun. It’s gonna be dark soon. We had better light this place up so the remaining guests will know where to come”.
Armo took the box from his wife’s arms, being ever the gentleman, smiling from ear to ear. No one ever had to tell him twice to go spend some time outside.
“Wait, MORE people?” Jaz asked, holding the ladder for Austin -whom she had found to be attractive upon introductions earlier- as he was hanging the evergreen around the perimeter of the communal room.
“Yeah...only a few….” which, amounted to about six or seven, if Emily was doing the math right with the total number of people she invited. She kicked herself internally, not for the first time that day, for hosting this party to begin with. How she was going to manage to keep everyone straight was going to be a miracle.
Victoria sighed. She knew when someone was hiding something; after all, it came with her line of work. However, she was slowly starting to feel the Christmas spirit, despite her pessimistic outlook. So, she took Susan’s hand, being curious about the uniform, drawing her into the kitchen to help with the misappropriations.
“Never fear, people, the life of the party has arrived!” Emily was relived at the sound of the voice coming from the entryway of the lodge. The one person who had made a promise to her to help her co-host the party, had finally arrived. By the sound of the clamor in the passageway, Mr. Tony Stark was not alone, either.
“Tony! It’s about time you showed up!” Emily greeted the older man with a hug.
“Well, it took some time dragging these two from their Galaxy-class space liner in the 24th century,” Tony gestured to a familiar blond and brunette just behind him. “To be honest, put a man like me with tech like that, an you have a match made in heaven. I almost stayed, but, after all, I am a man of my word”.
The one and only Captain Steve Rodgers, clad in a red star fleet command uniform instead of his “typical” red, white, and blue garb that he had commonly worn in this era ; along with having been frozen one too many times to really be fazed the the concept of time travel, scoffed and shook his head incredulously at Tony’s last remark. Once the same Stark, always the same Stark. His gaze shifted until another familiar, yet older, uniform caught his eye worn by two gentleman -who had previously been “meticulusly” arranging the creche they found in a box on top of the piano- were now staring open-mouthed at him. Steve sighed, hanging his head and rubbing the tension from his neck. This was going to take a heck of a lot of explaining to two world war two “brothers”.
“Can you blame us?” Daisy asked, crossing her gauntlet-clad arms in front of her chest. She also was wearing the four pips on her collar recognizing her rank in star fleet as captain. Yet, instead of the blood red uniform that her husband wore, hers was jet black, accented by command red piping along the torso and down the legs.
When this Tony, which she had been under previous assumption that he was long dead, based on Steve's stories, had showed up on their ship saying that they had been invited to a Christmas party, Daisy Rodgers had been curious, yet reluctant to travel into the past. There was so much negative history surrounding this time period, yet the long-lost tradition of an ancient earth Christmas had always intrigued her.
“Quite frankly, if anyone could actually invent time-travel Tony, it would be you,” Steve remarked, though Daisy could hear regret in his voice as he looked to the two men dressed in World War Two uniforms.
Oh…. Daisy made the connection, glancing at Steve sympathetically. If his old buddy Tony now had the means of time travel, that meant….
She fought back a twinge of jealousy. Peggy had been so long ago for Steve now, practically two lifetimes ago if one went about ti with a “literal” perspective. He really would not revisit the past, would he?

Come back tomorrow for part two!

Friday, December 22, 2017

White Christmas with a Home Free Twist



Welcome to day nine of the Twelve Days of Christmas blog tour hosted by Faith! Today, we have anothe Home Free song for you to enjoy!




Thursday, December 21, 2017

Belive



If those of you stopping by from the Twelve Days of Christmas blog party have seen the Polar Express, then you have undoubtedly have heard of this song. Enjoy!


Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Mary Did You Know?




I have said before that I normally cannot stand Penatonix, but I love their Version of Mary Did you Know? Enjoy this as part of the Twelve Days of Christmas Tour hosted by Faith!


Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Grown Up Christmas List

Welcome to day six of the Twelve Days of Christmas blog tour! I love seeing Peter Hollens and his wife sing together, so enjoy their version of Grown Up Christmas List!


Monday, December 18, 2017

Silent Night



Welcome to day five of the Twelve Days of Christmas Party hosted by Faith! Today, we have an all-acapella version of Silent Night by, well, um....if you have not already guessed by this point then you should not be reading this blog ;) Enjoy! *goes off to fangirl quietly in the corner*


Sunday, December 17, 2017

Carol of the Bells



Day four of Twleve days of Christmas hosted by Faith! Take a listen to Carol of the Bells, as done by Peter Hollens!


Saturday, December 16, 2017

Women to Women Christmas Saturday

Welcome, friends, to day three of a Twelve Days of Christmas blog party, hosted by Faith! Today, please join me over at this ministry blog I write at every Saturday as I discuss the significance of Bethlehem in the Christmas story as it relates to our lives today, over HERE!


Friday, December 15, 2017

Secret Sister Gift Exchange Invite

Welcome to day two of twelve days of Christmas, hosted by Faith!



Today I would like to simply invite you to take part in a secret sister gift exchange! All who are taking part so far are awsome christian young ladies in the writing community, including some fellow bloggers participating in this party. I will post the instructions below! If you happen to decide you would like to take part, please leave me a comment and I will send you a direct message via goggle hangouts!


Instructions🎄🎄🎄

1st, post a photo or invite and get others to join in on the fun!

THEN send this by message to those interested...

Welcome to our secret sister gift exchange!! Here's how it works:

1) Send one gift, valued at least $10, to the secret sister that is in place NUMBER ONE BELOW. (Scroll down to see)

2) Remove secret sister's name from #1; then move secret sister #2 to that spot.

3) Add your name to #2 with your info.

4) Then send this info to AT LEAST 6 other ladies, with the updated name info.
You can order directly from a web-based service (Amazon, Etsy, or any other online shop) which saves a trip to the post office...OR make your own gift!
Soon you should receive 6-36 gifts!

Be sure to include some information about yourself...some of your favorites.

If you did this, I’d send you who’s on my #1 (for you to send a gift to), and I’d be in #2 (for you to send to your friends.

Hope this makes sense to all of you reading this. Now, you are under no obligation to participate. Yet, if you would like to, please leave a comment below!

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Christmas Tag Questions!


Welcome to day one of the Twelve Day of Christmas blog party, hosted very kindly by Faith, who you can visit by clicking the link HERE!


1 // Christmas is the season of hope, joy, and light. What’s your favorite thing to make this season bright?

I like to sit by the tree sipping a hot cup of coffee while I journal in my bible!

2 // Reading of the Christmas story, lighting the tree – Which tradition is most special to you?

Both. It's important to remember to keep Christ at the center of Christmas, so that is why reading of the Christmas story is special to me. Yet, I love Christmas decorations oh-so-much, so that is why lighting the tree is special to me too!

3 // Festive old hymns or glorious new tunes – What are you listening to on repeat?

Oh goodness...well...

1. HOME FREE!!!!!!!!
2. A Hollens Family Christmas
3.  Point of Grace's Sing Noel CD *it's on every day at work, and I am addicted ;)*
4. A Walton's Family Christmas
5. A Country Christmas

4 // Fiction and nonfiction, classics and contemporary – Which Christmas books do you love so much that you just have to re-read every year?

Reading this question just reminded me of my resolution to "borrow" A Christmas Carol from my brother *scurries off*

5 // Trees and nativities, bells and bows – Do you have a favorite Christmas decoration?

The tree, hands down. I am always sad when we put it away for the year after the season.

6 // From the prophets to the gospels, the timeless story is woven. Which Bible passage that speaks of our Savior birth holds a special place in your heart?

Luke 1:26-38 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Gabriel Predicts Jesus’ Birth

26 In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel came to her and said, “Rejoice, favored woman! The Lord is with you.”[a] 29 But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. 30 Then the angel told her:

Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
31 Now listen:
You will conceive and give birth to a son,
and you will call His name Jesus.
32 He will be great
and will be called the Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give Him
the throne of His father David.
33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and His kingdom will have no end.
34 Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?”[b]

35 The angel replied to her:

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore, the holy One to be born
will be called the Son of God.
36 And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant," said Mary. “May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.



7 // Glittery snowflakes and shimmering balls to angels and one-of-a-kind creations. Do you have a favorite tree ornament?

Favorite tree ornament??? Is there such a thing??? Pics are listed below of my favorites :D


This ornament is representation of an old historic theater I have in my town. Plus, it is the same theater I just happened to see my first Home Free concert at. Therefore, this ornament kind of has double meaning for me both for my love of history and my love of Home Free!


My "Pablo" ornament. My parents bought this for me a few years ago as it looked like the horse I love and ride, whose name is of course, Pablo. :D



I was gifted this one last year by a friend! I love this because it represents my favorite Home Free singer, bassman Tim Foust. It is in fact, signed. Plus it has a lyric to one of my favorite Home Free songs on the back, Everything Will be Okay!


My all time favorite movie villain. Enough said :D



I love this ornament first and foremost for my love of studying the American Civil War, then for what it stands for in this day and age.


8 // Red and green, silver and gold, even purple and blue! What's your favorite color scheme this time of year?

Good ol' fashioned red and green for me.

9 // Between the old and the new, the classics and the cartoons, which Christmas movie do you come back to year after year?

Oh goodness... so in no particular order ;)

1. Both Home Alone's 1&2
2. Christmas Vacation
3. Christmas with the Kranks
4. Holiday in Handcuffs
5. White Christmas
6. Holiday Inn
7. A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart
8. All three Narnia movies (there is just something about those movies around Christmas in particular that makes them really special :D )
9.  A Charlie Brown Christmas
10. The Santa Claus
11. Christmas Eve
12. The Polar Express

10 // Pies and cakes, cookies and sweets. What's your favorite Christmas treats?

A good peppermint mocha on a cold winter day is my favorite Christmas treat!

Monday, December 11, 2017

Way Back Home

I love, love LOVE this song. As usual, all rights go to the respective artists!


Monday, December 4, 2017

Music Monday

To continue with my Monday music fest, I am sharing what I think has to be one of the most beautiful contemporary love songs! Enjoy! All credit goes to the artist. I am merely sharing their fantastic music!


Monday, November 27, 2017

Miranda Lambert

To continue with the "theme" I kinda of sharing some of my favorite music with you, here is a tune from Miranda Lambert. I first heard this song when she sang it on the stage at the CMA awards. I love it so much as it sounds very "old school country". It also speaks about traditional values that I wish millennials would get through their heads and adopt today. Hope you enjoy!




Saturday, November 25, 2017

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving

This is a bit late, but here is a Thanksgiving-themed story for the holiday! It is fairly plotless, and probably not very good. Yet, I wrote it to be humorous, so settle in and enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving to all my followers!



He had taken the plunge and strode into the family room, where his siblings and sister-in-law were all gathered together absorbed in various activities and hobbies, grateful for the brief lull of downtime that they had actually had between their fall tour and rehearsals for the Christmas tour.

As a matter a fact, this was the first Thanksgiving that they would actually have at home or the first Thanksgiving that some may say they would have since they had won that reality singing show almost three years ago to date.

Austin, being the best chief and the one who actually enjoyed cooking out of the whole family, was set to make a traditional dinner with absolutely all the fixings.

Yet, since he rather foolishly waited until the last minute to shop for the groceries, he did not want to go brave the madness of the store alone.

Which is why, as he had entered the living room, he had offered a crisp Benjamin to any one of his siblings who were willing to brave the pre-thanksgiving rush at Adam’s  Apple supercenter that was nearby their duplex.

He was kinda surprised when Sadie had taken the bait, fully knowing her hatred of a crowded store with people taking their own sweet time without any care for holding other people behind them up; also fully knowing that Austin, her oh so beloved big brother, liked to take his own sweet time in the store when it came to picking out the food elements that he was going to (hopefully) put together for a delicious meal for his siblings.

“Why not? I was bored out of my mind anyway. It’s no fun when we all go do our own individual things,” she had later admitted to him as they had climbed into his truck.

This had earned her a sidelong, somewhat skeptical glance from Austin. The “own things” that they all had were a way to kinda veg out “away” from each other for the most part. It was not healthy, in some aspects, the amount of time they generally spent together with the work that they did, so any chance to “get away” from each other, or at least go do something in smaller pairs, was usually jumped on.

Once inside the store, though, Austin could already tell that his little sister was already regretting her decision. The normally happy, bubbly Sadie who was not upset by much, had a MAJOR issue with busy stores around the holidays.

“Why do all these people have to be as idiotic as us?” she muttered under her breath, glancing at the crowd as she was trying to pull a cart free from the large row of carts, only to grumble under her breath when they were, of course, stubbornly stuck together, as if a little kid had thought it would be the most amusing thing to experiment with large-scale arts and crafts by gluing two carts together while mommy was not looking.

“Dang bag boys,” she muttered under her breath as she tried to pry the carts loose. “Don’t they know that ya ain’t supposed to push these carts so close together so we can actually get them apart to use them to shop. What are they trying to do? Run an experiment to see how the customers can juggle so many groceries single-handedly?”

Austin, meanwhile, had been standing back, watching the battle Sadie was engrossed in with a smirk. In some ways, goin’  to the store with her just to experience her “store road rage” was enough to make last-minute Thanksgiving shopping all worth it. The $100 he was losing out of this whole deal be danged.

“Is it really the bag boys fault, or the fault of the blonde?” Austin ribbed her as he effortlessly pulled two carts apart, earning an eye roll from Sadie as she begrudgingly took a cart.  yes, Austin silently admitted, that jab was kinda mean, but the more he ribbed her today, the more amusing this was all going to get. After all, was he only playing his role as the annoying big brother to a t?

He smirked, he could be so much like his twin brother, Ben, when he really wanted to be. This was despite the fact that most of the time, he wanted to be nothing but the nice, caring, loyal, and supportive big brother.

He poked her in the back with his coffee straw for maybe the billionth time that day as they were standing in line at least ten people deep. As a matter, a fact, all likes, including the express lanes, were 8-10 people deep, our so Austin guesstimated.

And now, he was pulling every single page out of Ben’s book of how to annoy people in really long lines, because he was having a blast.

Sure, he was gonna have to sleep with his eyes open for the next few nights, but that was only a minor detail in the grand scheme of things.

Sadie screwed her neck around to make eye contact with him, eyes narrowed down into slits. “Ya know, if I had not gone with you, I would have sworn that Ben was right behind me, not you”.

Austin grinned, taking Sadie’s comment as a genuine compliment. He and Ben were fraternal twins, so they never really had the opportunity to pull all of the what could be considered to be “classic twin pranks” by going to each other’s classes and such when they were little.

Yet, as Sadie sighed, shaking her head as she focused her attention back to the sea of people in front of her, rocking her cart back and forth every so slightly. She knew that this thing of sometimes “abducting” each other’s quirks was their version of a “twin prank”. Though, in retrospect, each of them was prone to kidding around and pulling pranks. In high school, they more often were called to the principal's office for the pranks they pulled rather than their academics, and both of them had been brilliant students.

Another customer run up, another customer out of here, Sadie sighed, moving her cart back just enough to let yet another customer pass. Why people were so insistent on getting to in from one end of the store to another by cutting through lines was beyond her. It was just stupid and a waste of time, except…..

Sadie’s breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of a familiar figure working the checkout lane she and Austin were in.

It just could not be….

It was impossible…

Or was it???

She let go of the death grip she had on the cart, spinning on her boot heels to face her big brother.

“We have to use another lane”.

Now, this was weird behavior for her, Austin thought to himself, feeling curious at the anxiety that has crept into her voice, and also mildly annoyed himself.

“Why? Ya do know it’s gonna be another 45 minutes if we move to another lane, right?”

“It can take two hours for all I care! Just, please don’t make me go through this line,” she glanced at the cashier now four persons ahead of their spot in line, then back to Austin, where a look of recognition was finally dawning on him.

“Chad?! The guy you had such a crush on in high school? Dang, he turned out to be a looker”.

His voice rose purposely with each statement, and with it rose Sadie’s alarm that her former - or still current, from a certain point of view- crush.

“Will you shut up?” she snapped, a bit more harshly than she intended, noting her brother’s hurt look.

“Sorry,” she said, more gently this time. “I just, I can’t approach him, not now”.

“Sis, you are 21. It’s been four years since you even have seen this guy. High school was high school. It’s all full of pranks, puberty, acne, and hormones, or at least that is how it was for Ben and I. If you are really still into him, well then, maybe this is God’s way of giving y’all another chance”.

Yeah, a chance to make a fool of myself, Sadie thought inwardly, then sighed. There was really no two ways she could work like this. It was stupid for her and Austin to go into another line when there was now only three other people behind them. Besides, it was very well and likely that she was deemed to have a nervous breakdown that may or may not require bail money if she and Austin had to spend any longer than the next ten minutes in this place.

“Fine,” she relented to Austin’s reasoning with a grin. “We shall do this your way”.

“My way? Oh, no sis. You are using all the southern charm of yours that the Good Lord had seen fit to give you and you are going to do the talking for this yourself. I don’t know why you are so nervous talking to this gu, to begin with, with how upbeat you usually are and all”.

Kill me now, Jesus. Sadie sent up her silent prayer as she had begun to unload the groceries that were in her cart onto the small foot of space that remained available.

As the belt started to inch closer to the said guy who she had not seen, none the less heard from in two years.

She felt as if though the belt was inching toward her doom.

Because, deep down, she had to admit that...

"Sadie, is that you?"

Dangit, soo close, she thought to herself as her green eyes meant his grey ones.

Stunning, drop-dead grey eyes for the matter of fact.

There was a running joke back at their high school that he was a long-lost "love child" of Robert Downey Jr., with how almost eerily similar he appeared to the actor.

He was just as handsome as the actor too.

"Ummmm, hi?" smooth, Sadie, smooth. She wished she could slam her head against the belt, or that the ground beneath her would open up and swallow her whole.

Anything to spare her this humiliation.

She could almost feel Austin laughing at her. She wished it was legal for her to deck him, right here and now. Or, better yet, she could simply hurl the frozen turkey at his head.

Heaven knows that he was already brain damaged enough. There was even an ongoing joke among the siblings that their mother had dropped each one of the twins on the head on separate occasions. What more harm could a turkey to the head do?

"Hey yourself," the young grocer responded, after what seemed like an eternity - which in all reality had been no more than a fleeting moment - had passed for Sadie.

"Have not seen you except on y'all's youtube videos. How have ya been?" the warmth if his smile, the genuine curiosity of the well being of her family - one of whom she wished did not exist at the moment - tugged at her heartstrings.

"Aw, they are all good. The twins are annoying as usual, though one of them did indeed manage to get married".

"Hey, congrats Austin!" Chad responded with heartfelt enthusiasm, turning away only for a moment to ring up the order ahead of him.

Austin finally let out his laughter in response. "It ain't me, bro, but thanks for the thought".

Chad's eyes widened as he handed the customer their receipt. only half-heartedly making eye contact with them as they hurried off on to their next thanksgiving shopping errand, no matter where it may be. "Ya don't mean?"

Austin's blue eyes twinkled. "Ah, yes he did. Ben has been married to Chloe for almost a year now".

"Well, I'll be. I always knew deep down he had what it took to get the right lady".

"Oh, Chloe is a keeper for sure!" Sadie interjected, smiling at the thought of her sister in law turned best friend for the first time since perhaps this whole ordeal had started almost three hours before. For growing up barely managing to doggy paddle through all the testosterone at home, Sadie had been almost elated when Ben had proposed to Chloe. They had been, up to that point (and still were) the only two women in the nutty acapella ness (who cared if that was even a word) that they had somehow managed to find themselves apart of. Her engagement to Ben not only said that Sadie had gained a sister, but that she was in the band for the long haul as well.

That kind of commitment was sure as heck hard to find these days, from literally any of their so-called "Millenial generation" age group.

"So, by the looks of things I am guessing that you guys are having Thanksgiving at y'all's place?" now, Sadie knew that this guy was now only trying to make casual conversation as he kept methodically scanning and bagging their grocery. He was taking great care, Sadie noted, to make sure that only like items were bagged together. Not many "grocery boys" his age or their age really knew how to that. Most were simply just there for the paycheck and could not give a dang as to if they mixed a customer's cleaning chemicals in with the bread.

Was he really taking great care? Sadie pondered as he carefully studied his movements. Or, was he really trying to impress her?

"Yeah, we are," Sadie finally said, shaking herself out of her daze just in time to answer his question. "Austin is probably the best all-around cook in the family, but we all tend to chip in with our own special  dishes", Austin could not help but noticing how his sister seemed to lean her body ever so slightly into the check writing counter (as if anyone really wrote checks anymore anyways these days).

"And what is your special dish, if I may ask?" Austin's smirk blossomed into almost a full-fledged Chesire grin as he witnessed the almost exclusive attention this guy was lavishing on his sister. Those two both currently seemed to be lost in their own little world, and there was nothing, not a dang thing that Austin intended on doing to interrupt them, other them telling rude customers behind him to suck up and have a lick more of the patience that the good lord gave em.

This Chad was a good guy, after all, for being two years under him and his brother. If, and at this point, Austin admitted to himself that the whole thing may or may not be a big if, he and Sadie did decide to take this chance encounter further, he knew that Chad would be good to her. After all, Sadie did have four brothers, one of them was ever so slightly deluded enough that he may actually stand a shot at getting away with murder.

"Broccoli salad," Sadie responded as if it were an answer to a million dollar trivia question, which, as far as Chad was concerned, it was.

"And what goes into this, broccoli salad?"

The way this guy said it made himself almost seem to be a gourmet chief himself, only he worked as a clerk in a grocery store behind a counter, Austin reminded himself.

"It has to be one of the best salad's in the world," Sadie continued, getting an almost "dreamy" look in her eyes. "It combines broccoli, bacon, red onion, sunflower seeds; and last, but most certainly not least, my world famous, secret dressing".

"Secret" was the right word for it, that's for dang sure, Austin thought, mildly irritated. Try as he might, he just could not seem to manage to replicate the sauce in the same way Sadie made it. One of these days thought, he would discover her secret. Cause as long as he and the rest of the siblings were concerned, the broccoli salad Sadie made had a certain effect on a person that even the pickiest of eaters would eat it.

“Wow, I wish I could be around to try it then," Chad flashed Sadie a sincere smile, though Austin could not help but notice a certain sadness in his eyes.

"Well, where are you going for Thanksgiving?" Sadie asked, also having seen his slightly downtrodden expression.

"Nowhere. I know, I may sound like a helpless loser and all. But, airline tickets just cost more than I can afford these days to go back home. I will probably end up having a microwave turkey tv dinner or something".

"No, you won't be having a tv dinner! You will be having dinner right here at our house!"

"I could not! You probably got enough food for just y'all anyway".

"Bro, we got enough to feed two acapella bands. The leftovers we are probably gonna have are most likely going to waste due to the fact we leave for our Christmas tour in about a week".

"Besides, it would be a nice change of pace to have a new face at the table!" Sadie added.

"Yeah, after all, we kinda tend to get tired looking at each other anyway!" Austin added with a smirk.

It was not that far from the truth. The band of six spent almost too much time with each other, anyway. They just (with maybe the exception of Chloe and Ben) could not seem to really go and go their own thing whenever they had a break from tour, as they always wound up coming back together and hanging out with each other.

Chad burst out laughing, causing the shopper behind him to glare at him somewhat irritably.

"All right! all right! What time is dinner?"

Sadie smiled, almost blushing with a rush of excitement as Austin set a time with the handsome grocer.

After all these years, maybe, just maybe, she would finally get a chance with a guy she liked.

That is if her brothers did not screw this up for her like they were prone to do with every other "relationship" she tried to have.

Truly, though, this was set to be a Thanksgiving to remember.