Christmas in Kailua - Signed Paperback

Chapter One: Logan

“Oh, yeah,” Mac said, putting his PlayStation controller on the coffee table in front of him. “Good ole Corporal Grant, I forgot I have something for you.”

I frowned, instantly nervous as he stood and crossed his living room. “What’s that?”

Mac ducked into the bedroom he shared with his wife in the luxurious Lanikai Beach house she’d bought when she first moved to Oahu. Whatever he had for me, the glint in his eye when he’d brought it up told me I wasn’t going to like it.

I turned to PJ and nodded toward Mac’s room. “Do you know?”

“Yep.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

PJ shook his head. “Nope.”

I glared at him. At twenty-one, I was a handful of years younger than all of my closest friends. In the Marine Corps, that could mean light-years, especially when different ranks mingled in ways that borderline on fraternization. But I’d gone through some stuff with my family a couple of years ago, and Mac had really taken me under his wing. He was basically an older brother to me now, and I hung out with him and the guys all the time, despite my lower rank.

But that meant they ragged on me like they’d rag on a younger brother, so my head was always on a swivel. And referring to me by my rank in a joking fashion clued me in that I was about to get hazed.

Mac came back into the room holding a black trash bag, grinning like a fool. He dropped the bag at my feet. “Merry Christmas.”

“Christmas is nearly two months away,” I replied, staring at the bulging bag like it was full of snakes.

“Fine. Halloween was just the other day and probably more fitting for what’s in the bag,” he said.

PJ snickered next to me, and I shot him a glare before turning my eyes back to the bag. “I’m afraid to open it.”

“Do it so I can get back to whooping your butt in Call of Duty. Maggie and Bree are going to be home soon,” PJ said.

I blew out a breath. What had started as an ordinary guys’ night playing video games at Mac’s while all of their wives hung out had taken a turn towards terrifying. Slowly, I put my controller on the table and reached for the loose knot at the top of the bag. Pulling it open, I peered in, my brow furrowing when I saw mounds of red, velvety fabric inside. Okay, so no snakes or spiders were visible … yet. I reached in and pulled out the plush material, holding it up in front of me.

“Red velvet pants?” I asked, cocking my head to the side as I studied the monstrosity in front of me.

“Keep going,” Mac replied, retaking his seat.

I put the pants aside and reached into the bag again, pulling out a Hawaiian shirt with reindeer all over it. Now I understood the Christmas reference, but still. What was all of this for? “Mac, what in the—?”

“Keep going,” he said again.

The remaining items in the bag were a long white beard and wig and a red-and-white Santa hat. I turned to him, blinking with bafflement. “Why are you giving me a Hawaiian Santa suit?”

“Because somebody has to play Santa at our squadron Christmas party this year, and you drew the short straw,” Mac explained way too gleefully if you asked me.

“I don’t remember drawing straws,” I deadpanned.

“You weren’t there,” Mac replied.

I shook my head. “Do I really have to?”

Mac dipped his chin, heaving out a sigh. “Yes. The CO said Santa has to come from our shop this year, and since you’re the low man on the totem pole, Corporal, that falls on you. I’d take one for the team, but my wife expects me to be standing next to her and Ethan in our family Christmas photos—not behind them, dressed as Santa.”

PJ chuckled again, and I turned to him with a glare. “You’re lucky you’re a college student now and not in our shop. Then maybe you’d be the Santa.”

At this, both PJ and Mac laughed, then PJ patted me on the shoulder. “No, I wouldn’t.”

He was right, though. PJ had been a Marine in our shop until a few months ago when he got out of the military to pursue a career in education. But even if he had been there, he definitely wouldn’t have gone down without a fight on this Santa thing. 

My shoulders drooping in defeat, I folded the pants and shirt so there would be no creases and set them on the table, neatly placing the wig, beard, and hat on top. Then I opened the bag and put the costume inside, tying it once again.

I hadn’t always been such a neat freak. But when I was younger, as my issues at home got harder to deal with, I sought to control what little I could by arranging things in specific ways. I guess you could say a bit of a compulsion was born out of it.

The way the Marine Corps conditioned us to make our beds and keep our hair and clothes a certain way fit really well with my need for order. The rules and regulations, too. It all made sense to me. I liked things that made sense. Me playing Santa during the holiday I hated more than any other? That did not make sense, no matter how I arranged it.

In fact, if I let stuff get messy, there was a problem for sure, which was how Mac had found me once when I was at my lowest dealing with family drama. But thankfully, that was a while ago. And things had been looking up lately. My brother—clean and sober for seventeen months and counting—was coming out here next week for the Marine Corps birthday ball, and I couldn’t wait to share such a cool night with him. Of course, he wasn’t thrilled to be going as my plus-one instead of a ticket-carrying Marine himself like he’d always wanted to be, but hey, we’d still find a way to have a good time. The ball was all about family. The found-family I had here in the Marines that is. And even though my brother couldn’t enlist because of his rocky criminal history, he’d wanted to, so I was pumped to share this small piece of our brotherhood with him.

Stone and Wilson came in from the massive lanai at the back of the house. One of Oahu’s most amazing beaches was literally right outside the McCarthy’s home. The water made up the entirety of the view out the floor-to-ceiling windows. The place was insane, and every time I came here, I felt another stab of longing for what it must be like to live like this.

I’d come from nothing, and now I lived in what was basically a dorm room with another Marine who I didn’t even like. To live in a house like this, to come from money and not have issues with it, well, it seemed like being on another planet entirely. So, I didn’t plan to bring my brother here when he came to town.

“What’s with the trash bag?” Wilson asked, eyeing the table.

Stone snapped his fingers. “Ah, you told him? I wanted to be there.”

“Sorry, man,” Mac said with a laugh. “But you’re good, right, Grant?”

I nodded, even though I wasn’t. I hated Christmas almost as much as I hated the idea of wearing that much polyester in the sweltering Hawaiian sun. Christmas or not, it was going to be a sweat-show inside those velvet pants.

“Fill me in,” Wilson said, taking a seat on the huge leather sectional. Wilson was on recruiting duty in Honolulu, so he clearly wasn’t in on this little joke. He used to work in our shop too, so maybe he would have been Santa. Ugh, no, he wouldn’t have been. This was always going to fall on me. I needed to get over it.

“Grant’s going to play Santa at the Christmas party,” Mac told him.

Wilson wrinkled his nose. “Shouldn’t someone a little older and fatter play Santa?”

“If you’re about to call me old and fat, I’ll throw you right outta here, buddy,” Mac joked.

“Nah, I was talking about Stone,” Wilson replied, earning himself a punch in the arm from his new brother-in-law.

Stone had married Wilson’s sister over the summer, and though they’d been close before, they basically were best friends now. Well, I guess they seemed like brothers. I just didn’t recognize it because I hadn’t been that tight with my own brother since we were kids. But that was going to change soon. He’d come out here next week, and we’d try to make things better. One step at a time.

“Seriously, though,” Mac said, “you don’t actually have to wear the pants. They want you to sit in the helicopter and lean out the window to pose for family photos. No one will see your lower half, so you can wear the aloha shirt and shorts with the wig and hat.”

I sighed. “Okay. That’s better, at least.”

“Cool,” Mac replied, giving me a grin. “I’ll save you some spiked eggnog for after your shift.”

“Gee, thanks,” I replied.

“I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas,” Stone said, shaking his head. “This year has flown by.”

“Agreed,” Wilson said, then looked up at Stone. “Hey, have you heard anything else about Friendsgiving? Is that happening or not?”

I looked between them. “What’s Friendsgiving?”

“It’s when you get together with your friends instead of your family for Thanksgiving,” Wilson explained. “A couple of years ago, Stone, Mac, and PJ went to this big Friendsgiving dinner at the Turtle Bay Resort. Last year was a no-go since we were deployed, so this year I wanna go.”

“Oh, wow,” I said. “Sounds fun.”

“It’s happening,” Stone replied, nodding at Mac. “Did Russo tell you who’s coming from the mainland?”

“Paige said she has a full jet, so I assume that means everyone,” Mac replied with a shrug.

Again, I frowned at them. “Who is Paige, and why does she have a jet?”

Mac chuckled. “You know the actress, Paige Walker?”

“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t watch the medical drama TV show that made her famous or any of the movies she’d been in since, but I’d have to be living under a rock to not know who she was.

“Long story short,” he said, “she’s a friend of my family’s, and she’s married to a Marine who we’re friends with. So she’s the one hosting this shindig, and it’s basically a big reunion party for a bunch of us who’ve been stationed together over the years.”

I whistled, then said, “You guys are fancy.” 

The resort he was talking about was ridiculously expensive. And I knew that because I used to drive for Uber on the weekends so I could send money home to my brother, and I’d had a couple of customers who’d told me all about it. So the idea of someone hosting a Thanksgiving dinner there for enough people to fill a jet kind of blew my mind a little bit. Well, that and the fact that she could also afford the jet itself.

Stone shook his head. “We just have fancy friends. And you’re more than welcome to join us if you don’t have any other Thanksgiving plans, Grant.”

Mac pointed at me. “Oh, he’s coming. He doesn’t have a choice. Last year, we had to endure chow hall turkey and green beans on an aircraft carrier. This year, we’re gonna dine in style.”

“Sweet,” I replied, liking the sound of that.

Mac thought last year sucked since this was the home he wanted to spend his holidays in, but I’d actually been grateful to be out at sea during the crappy months of the year. It meant I didn’t have to see the decorations in every store. Or the commercials on every channel. And I didn’t have to be reminded that my family wasn’t a picture-perfect Norman Rockwell scene. But with things looking up between my brother and me, and my found family inviting me to spend the holidays with them, maybe this holiday season wouldn’t be horrible after all.

❤️ Christmas Romance

❤️ Cinnamon Roll Hero

❤️ Single Mom Romance

❤️ Military Hero

❤️ Beach Romance

❤️ Small-Town Vibes

Kailua Marines

📚 Treasured in Turtle Bay - Roman & Molly

📚 Promises at Pyramid Rock - Mac & Ana

📚 Stranded at the Sandbar - Tyler & Kate

📚 Romance on the Reef - PJ & Maggie

📚 Heartbeats in Honolulu - Hunter & Nora

📚 Christmas in Kailua - Logan & Tess

📚 BONUS 📚

Love the Kailua Marines? They follow our San Diego heroes! For a fun detour, you can read "Trusting in You" between "Heartbeats in Honolulu" and "Christmas in Kailua." It's where our San Diego and Kailua worlds collide! But no worries—if you're all about that island vibe, feel free to skip straight to "Christmas in Kailua."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good read

"I loved this book. Having visited Hawaii (Maui, Oahu and Lanai) I could picture the scenery. We drove all around Oahu so was familiar with the places!! It was my 50th state...I saved the best for last 🤗"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Happily Ever After...

"The last book in the Kailua Marines series and one of the best. I have been binge reading this series, loving the ability to follow the characters and see the evolving personalities.Tess and Logan are the youngest of their friend group but carry tons of baggage. Tess is a single mom starting again in a new state but still carrying old scars. Logan was introduced in an earlier book but carries his own family scars and fears. Watching both of these characters mature and make life decisions kept my complete interest.I highly recommend this whole series. Like I mentioned I have been binge reading Jess's books now several weeks now, I think this was my tenth book so far. She keeps my attention with details, a variety of personalities and the importance of family, not only blood but also the chosen family. Looking forward to continuing the next series."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jess does it again!!

"Jess does it again!! I stayed up way past my bedtime to read this one!!I can't wait to go back and read the rest of this series! This is a standalone story but I feel like I would've understood the side characters a lot better if I'd already read their stories.Once again Jess wrote a wonderful love story!! Landon is perfect yet flawed and Tess is strong and a wonderful mom! I loved hearing all the different family relationships they have plus their found family sound wonderful! The writing is spot on and I really loved the Marine Ball scene!I adore Jess's books! I didn't know I would love military romance this much but I can't get enough of her books!!! Now to binge the rest of the series!"