Page 65 of The Christmas Keepsake
Hollis didn’t want to be the guy who was too afraid to have dreams and chase the happy ending. Some of the boys he’d been in foster care with had ended up in jail over the years. Some of them were divorced several times over.
And a few actually got it through their thick skulls that they were never at fault. They had never done anything wrong. They weren’t bad boys. Just boys who had desperately needed love.
There was thatL-word again. Hollis was one of the lucky ones, who’d found a family with Matt and Sandy. And Pop.
“I don’t care about what you’ve done,” Matt had said when Hollis was seventeen and fresh out of juvenile lockup for the fifth time. “I really don’t. All I care about,” Matt had told Hollis, “is what you’re going to do now. You have a choice.”
Matt waited for a long beat as Hollis wordlessly debated what Matt meant. What choice did he have? Did he have a choice about staying with Matt and Sandy or going to live somewhere else? Did he have a choice about doing something else and getting tossed back in juvenile detention? He was nearly eighteen. Getting locked up again probably meant prison.
Matt nodded to himself, as if Hollis had asked the questions out loud. “You have a choice about what kind of man you’re going to be. In four months, you’ll be a legal adult. The boy that you were and have been will be gone. You’ll be a man, and as a man, there are different paths you can take. Actually,” Matt corrected himself, “there are only two paths. You can go down the straight and narrow path or you can choose the path that leads to trouble. Misery. You can choose to hang out with the wrong crowd, the kind that gets you in trouble. The kind that pulls you down. Or you can choose to be a real man, something your birth father wasn’t.”
Those were fighting words. Hollis remembered this ball of fury gathering inside his chest like a small hurricane. Every muscle in his body tensed. The muscles in his jaw bunched and his teeth gritted as he held back all kinds of things that he wanted to spew at his new foster parent. He held back though, because he was scared and had nowhere else to go.
“I didn’t know your dad personally, of course,” Matt told Hollis. “But a man doesn’t leave his child. A man makes mistakes but not by choice. There’s a difference, you see,” Matt said. “Everyone makes mistakes, but when you know better, you do better. And if you don’t,that’s a choice. Hollis, I’m not just offering you a chance to live with me and Sandy until you’re eighteen. I’m offering you a seat at our dinner table. A job with the crew. A second chance.” Matt shook his head. “I don’t give free rides though. A man works for the roof over his head. He works for the food on his plate. A man works, and he works hard.”
Hollis was still quiet. His anger had fizzled out, and he was just confused. Lost.
“Take your time,” Matt told him that day. “The offer isn’t going anywhere tonight. Just know you have a choice. Life isn’t about what was done to you; it’s about what you make of it.”
The truth and wisdom in those words seeped in over the following week, and he realized the gift that he was being handed. Since that time, all those years ago, Hollis had been working on Matt’s construction crew. He worked hard, like Matt said, and earned his own place. He supported himself and worked on himself.
Once again, Hollis was at a fork in the road, facing two paths. How had the right one when he was almost eighteen suddenly become the wrong one at almost thirty?
“Deep thoughts there, buddy?” Evan asked, making his presence known as he approached.
Hollis glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah.”
“Usually you’re the guy that no one can sneak up on.” Evan stepped up right beside him. “Mr. Hypervigilance.”
Hollis shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “Matt’s retiring, and he wants me to run the construction company, starting early next year.”
Evan didn’t pat Hollis’s back. That’s because Evan understood the dilemma. “Okay.”
“There’s more.” Hollis blew out a heavy breath. “And Pop offered to hand over the tree farm to me.”
This time, there was a response from Evan. His eyes widened and his jaw went slack. “Whoa! What do you mean by that?”
Hollis faced his friend. “Pop offered me the farm. Not just to run it during the holidays or to stay in his house. He offered to sign over the land to run the tree farm and use the land as I see fit. I could take in more rescue dogs. I could train them and run events through the barn.”
“That’s amazing!” Evan looked around, admiring the landscape. “I don’t get it, bud. Why aren’t you jumping up and down right now? Why the long face?”
“As much as I’d love to, this land isn’t mine. After all Matt has done for me, I can’t just take his birthright.”
The joy slowly faded from Evan’s expression.
There.There was the too-good-to-be-true moment being realized.
“I see,” Evan finally said, turning his attention to the trees as the cool air blew around them, rustling leaves and branches. “Matt doesn’t want to run this farm though.”
“Right. Matt wants to level the land and, in his retirement, he wants me to expand the construction company.” Hollis blew out a breath. “I can’t choose one family business over the other. It’s not even my family.”
“Wrong. You’re their family. And Pop offered the farm to you because he knows you’ll value what’s he built. You’ll protect it. Pop trusts you.”
“Matt trusts me too.” The stress of the situation made Hollis want to pull his hair out. “You’re my best friend. That’s why I called you. I need you to talk some sense into me.”
“Here I thought we were going to discuss your love life,” Evan said.
Hollis chuckled, even though there was nothing funny about any of this. “What would you do?”
