Page 16 of A Holly Brown Christmas
Oh, good grief.
“You know what? I have to go,” he said, knowing full well that she wasn’t going to believe anything he said right now. “I have a client call that I’m going to be late for. I promise to look at those papers for you over the weekend, okay?”
“Lucas, please. There’s no client call.”
He knew she’d see right through that excuse.
“But I know you’re probably tired of hearing me talk bad about your father. The two of you are like two peas in a pod.” She sighed loudly. “Just promise me that should you ever get married, you won’t take your wife for granted the way your father has with me.”
“Mom…”
“Promise me, Lucas!”
“Okay, okay, I promise!” He rolled his eyes. “But I really need to finish eating. We’ll talk this weekend.”
“I’ll call you Sunday afternoon,” she said. “Love you!”
“Love you too, Mom,” he replied before hanging up.
In the distance, he could hear Holly talking to her dog and mentioning going outside to the doggie area. He felt bad about leaving her alone, but he needed a few extra minutes to just decompress from the phone call.
His entire life, he thought his parents had a pretty great marriage. Obviously, he was mistaken, based on his mother’s comments. It made him wonder if he was this oblivious to other things around him as well.
“Wait, Shmoop,” he heard Holly saying. “Lucas is on the phone. Don’t go in there!”
That was his cue to rejoin them. Letting out a long breath, he did just that. The dog was waiting patiently right outside the door and he had to admit it was kind of impressive how well-trained he was. Giving him a quick scratch behind his ears as he walked past, Lucas smiled when he spotted Holly.
“Sorry about that. It was my mother.”
She gasped. “Did you tell her what we were doing?”
“No. That is the last thing I want to do.”
“Why? Maybe she’d find it endearing and want to come home and help.”
That made him laugh. “That’s definitely not going to happen. The conversation was basically how she wasn’t going to even come home for the holidays. She’s punishing my father.”
“Oh, dear. That doesn’t sound good.”
“Trust me, it’s not. And the worst part is, he’s not even going to notice. So, she’s really only punishing herself.”
“Well, and you and your sisters and everyone in the company.”
Shrugging, he replied, “Maybe.” Raking a hand through his hair, he sighed again. “I don’t even know anymore. I mean, marriages end all the time. Why should theirs be any different? Plus, we’re all adults and should be able to handle it.”
Only…now that he was thinking about it, he realized he wasn’t okay.
He was mad.
Furious, even.
Holly must have realized it because she took him by the hand and led him out to the living room. “Come on. We’ll talk it out.”
Five
It was clearly pretty bold of her to be taking it upon herself to act like some sort of armchair therapist. After all, they barely knew each other, and technically, his personal family business was…well, none of her business.
But that didn’t stop her from moving them into the living room.
