Page 51 of All The Things: The Last Thing He Needs Omnibus

“If I called first, you’d have time to make an excuse,” Judy told him.

“Isn’t that the point of calling first? To let someone out of it if they don’t want to deal with someone?”

Judy tilted her head as if she were considering Tommy’s words. “I suppose that’s true. But just between you and me, how often would you say you were free and I could stop by?”

He didn’t answer because they both knew what he would say if he had the balls to admit it. “Then why do you keep doing it if ya already know I don’t like it?”

She laughed in response. “First, I think you’re less bothered by it than you would admit.”

That much was true, but no way was Tommy going to say it out loud. Judy would try to move in next.

“And second, I think you do a fantastic job with these kids. Your life is a little rough around the edges, but there is a lot of love and an odd kind of respect at the core of this family.”

She paused, and Tommy could sense a but….

“However, I don’t think it’s a bad thing for your kids to know they have other reliable adults in their lives that they can turn to if the need should arise.”

Tommy took a breath and was about to protest when Judy stopped him. “Things happen. People get sick or hurt, and who is there for them if that happens?”

“Colleen and Mike would run the show until I was back on my feet,” Tommy told her firmly. He hated this conversation, at least partly because Judy was right.

“And if you didn’t bounce back? If something serious happened to you? If you were hit by a car or… fell down an elevator shaft, what would they do then?”

Tommy could feel the muscles in his jaws twitch and grind. “Colleen would take over and Mikey is right behind her. We’ve been doing this for as long as we’ve been alive, lady.”

He knew he sounded irritated, but things were getting out of control.

Rather than back down or start a fight as Bobby would have done, Judy nodded her head and said, “And now you’ve all got another resource you can depend on.”

Obviously things were as simple as that in Judy’s world. She didn’t acknowledge that she could change her mind at any time and leave people who started to trust her high and dry. She hadn’t even met Cal and Cheryl and didn’t know the world of complications and headaches she was offering to open herself up to. She thought she could step in and offer a hand to seven “adorable” children. She didn’t know how bad it could get, and Tommy quit trying to change her mind. Sometimes it was better to give someone enough rope so they could hang themselves.

He never said the words “you win,” but he and Judy both knew she had.

Her victory was clear to everyone when Christmas rolled around. It was never a big deal in their house. Even when his mother was alive and his father was still a happy, chatty drunk, they didn’t do much for the holidays. Halloween costumes were whatever the kids could rustle up on their own. Thanksgiving was a dry turkey and green bean casserole that no one liked, but they always ate anyway. Christmas was a fake tree his father had found in someone’s trash at some point, with plastic ornaments and a few knock-off dollar-store toys wrapped up in colored butcher paper.

For the last few years, it had been a little better. Mike and Davey always managed to get a real tree, and Tommy and Colleen went out of their way, knocked themselves out, to make sure the younger kids had at least one new thing to open Christmas morning. Colleen and Mike were better cooks than their own mother had been, so dinner was ham if they could afford it or a nice turkey Colleen usually got as part of a Christmas bonus from her boss. There were yams and mashed potatoes, honey-glazed carrots, and real dinner rolls—not just white bread with butter on it. It was something they did once a year, something Tommy felt proud of. The tree still had the old plastic ornaments, and there wasn’t much to get excited about under it, but it was hard work, and Tommy hoped they would remember as they got older, something nice and special—even if it wasn’t much of anything.

Judy, on the other hand, made it known early in the season that Christmas was going to be A Big Deal. She insisted on everyone going to the mall together right after Thanksgiving and getting a picture taken with Santa. Her treat. Of course.

Tommy generally avoided the mall at all costs, especially at the holidays. Not only did they not have enough money to buy anything, but he didn’t trust Davey’s sticky fingers there. The kid was like a magpie, and Tommy wasn’t sure Davey could resist all the shiny objects. The last thing Tommy needed was for him to get hauled off by mall security right before Christmas. Just thinking about the crowds and the noise was enough to give Tommy a headache. Mostly, he didn’t like taking them places filled with things they’d want but couldn’t have.

Max and Zoe were the only ones young enough to believe in a giant elf who dropped down a chimney they didn’t have to leave toys and candy for them, and they were too little to care. The rest had learned at a young age that Santa skipped over their house, and then they realized—younger than most of their classmates—Santa wasn’t real at all. Despite all that, Carrie and Collin stood in line with a short list prepared, their eyes alight with what Tommy thought of as bitter, dangerous hope.

The picture was just supposed to be the kids. But when Max and Zoe saw some strange man in a red suit and the rather disgruntled-looking elves, they both started to scream like banshees. That’s how Tommy ended up on one side of the photo and Bobby on the other. It took four attempts to get a decent shot. Max was picking his nose in the first, and Zoe had jerked Santa’s beard off in the second. Mike was rolling his eyes in the third shot, but the fourth, Tommy hated to admit, was heartwarming. The kids were all dressed in their best clothes—just sweaters and jeans—but they looked nice and clean. They were all smiling at the camera and Bobby was grinning, his face in profile because he was looking right at Tommy.

Looking at that photo, no one could have guessed they were a band of thieves and swindlers, and two children of a whore.

Tommy liked it and even paid a couple of dollars for a cheap frame so he could stick it on a shelf in the living room, but that picture was a lie, and he knew it.

The following week, Mike and Davey came home with a small Christmas tree. Tommy never asked where they “found” their trees. They usually just appeared in the early-morning hours, but this year the boys were bounding through the door with one in the middle of the afternoon.

“Tommy!” Mike shouted as he and Davey struggled to drag it through the door. “Guess what!”

“You got a tree,” Tommy answered before taking a sip from his coffee cup. He had to work later and was already wishing he could take a nap.

Mike rolled his eyes. “Obviously. But we got a job too.”

“Both of you?” Tommy asked, falling down on the sofa. “You got school.”

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