Page 39 of Make You Mine This Christmas
Chapter 18
Brody
Why does walking into dinner with Austin’s best friend feel so much harder than staring down 250 kids on a Sunday two weeks before Christmas? Maybe because I know firsthand how easy it is to care about this man and want to hurt anyone who would dare upset him. Myself included.
“You’ve argued cases in front of judges and juries. This should be easy,” Austin says as we walk to Cole and Blaire’s front door.
“The stakes weren’t as high then,” I say, adjusting the bottle of wine, bouquet of flowers, and toys for the girls in my arms. After the camera disaster of last night, I thought it best not to come empty-handed and made Austin take a trip to Doose’s on our way back to his place last night.
“Didn’t you win several multi-million-dollar settlements?” He reaches his hand out to knock on the door.
“Yeah, I did. Still not as high stakes,” I say, distracted by hoping I haven’t sweat through the dress shirt under my heavy coat. I’m trying to figure out how to unbutton it to start airing out with my hands full when I realize his hand is still in the air. A glance to my left shows Austin staring at me in surprise. “It’s true,” I say with a shrug. Austin changes the course of his hand and wraps it behind my head instead, pulling me in for a kiss. I hold the flowers out to the side of our bodies so they don’t get smooshed.
“Ahem.” A voice comes from the forgotten doorway of the house we’re supposed to be entering. I pull back, and wonder what color on the emergency alert scale my cheeks are right now.
“Hi, Cole,” Austin says cheerfully. “Waiting by the door so you can practice your disappointed dad date routine about fifteen years too early?”
The look on our host’s face isn’t impressed. “Thought I heard a car, so came out to investigate. Glad to see you’re still necking in public.” He steps back to let us in. “Brody,” he says to me, nodding as I walk past. What happens if my face bursts into flames? It’ll definitely put a damper on this beard I’ve worked so hard on.
“Necking, Cole? Seriously?” Blaire stands in the entrance to the living room, her hands on her hips. A peek behind her shows she’s supervising a tummy time session for the twins. “Hi, Austin. Hi, Brody. Welcome to our home.” Her smile is reassuring, and I relax the tiniest bit knowing I have one ally. Austin steps up next to me and puts his hand on the small of my back. I look up at him and smile. Make that two.
“Thanks so much for having me.” I look in both of their directions, but Cole seems determined not to meet my eye, so I decide to focus on the Thomas who doesn’t want to murder me. “I brought a little something for you.”
“Oh, thank you. You didn’t have to bring us anything,” Blaire says, taking the wine and flowers I offer. Cole makes a noise, clearly intended to say, “Didn’t he?”, which Blaire ignores. “Austin’s here for dinner at least once a week when it’s not festival season, and it’s no trouble to set one more place.”
She looks down as one of the twins makes a cooing noise. “And this is Cassidy and Melody.” I sit myself on the ground next to their blanket, returning the toothless grin Melody gives me. Babies this young are hit or miss whether they scream bloody murder or look up at me in wonder when they come to see me as Santa. It’s nice to spend some time in a context with less pressure.
“I have something for you ladies too.” I pull out the Santa and Elf teething toys I found at the store last night. “We boiled them in water last night. Is it okay if I hand them over?”
“Oh, Brody, that’s so thoughtful. I know they’ll love them. The theme choice is very approved in this household.” She gives me a wink. A quick glance at Cole shows an impressed look on his face until he realizes I’ve caught him, and he replaces it with a scowl. I put the toys between the girls. Melody immediately goes for the elf, while Cassidy is more content to show off how she can roll to her back, and reach for the rings above her head. We all sit in silence for a few minutes, watching them being adorable.
Cole clears his throat. “Can I get anyone a drink? We could open the wine you brought?”
“I could have a beer,” Austin says.
“Soda water for me,” Blaire chimes in.
“I’m good with beer or wine, if you’d like to open it,” I say. “In fact, why don’t I come help you?” Figure it’ll be good to get this out of the way. Then maybe we can all enjoy dinner.
A glimmer of respect flickers in his eyes. “Yeah, why don’t you.”
Austin plops next to me on the floor before I stand up and squeezes my hand. Blaire gives me a reassuring smile. I take a deep breath and head after Cole into the kitchen.
“Glasses are over there.” Cole points with the electric corkscrew he grabbed off the counter. I grab two stemless wine glasses and a highball glass for Blaire. Glasses in hand, I walk to where Cole is peeling off the wine wrapper.
“So,” he says.
“So,” I repeat, deciding I’ll wait and let him say his piece.
“You know I know what happened ten years ago and what’s happened since you’ve been back,” he says, his focus fixed on uncorking the wine. I don’t think Austin has told him the details of our conversation from Friday night, but I’m not ashamed of it if he has. “You know, why you left the way you did and all. Seems a little selfish to me.”
I nod. “At the time, I thought it was selfless, but reflection and therapy have shown me you’re right. It only stood to benefit me and what I wanted.”
He lifts his head, surprise in his eyes. “Oh.”
“Look, I get where you’re coming from. Austin means a lot to you. But if you’re expecting me to have some ego where I can’t admit I was wrong, so you can stay mad, you’re not going to find it. I took this job and came here hoping to have a chance to give us both closure. Thinking he’d let me back in, give me more? It was the stuff of dreams. I won’t waste it.”
He pours us each a glass of wine, the dark red color a contrast to the light countertop. “So what happens after Christmas?” Cole takes several sips of his drink before topping his glass off. I lift my wine to my lips for a single sip, considering my words.
