Page 39 of A Holly Brown Christmas
“Yeah, that’s what I told Holly, too.”
“Holly? Who’s Holly?” she asked playfully. “Are you dating someone?”
“Again, my love life is not what we need to be focusing on. And Holly works for us. She’s the head of our payroll department.”
“The head of…oh! Oh! I’ve met her! Cute girl, super friendly, big fan of the party, right?”
“Um…yes. How did you know that?”
“We’ve met a few times at the party over the years, and every time I spoke to her, she gushed over how amazing Mom made everything. And she had a crazy, accurate memory. She remembered stuff about the house and the decorations and what I wore that I never remembered. Is she the one helping you?”
“She is. I wasn’t going to do it, but Lennon thought it would be good for me.”
“Why?”
“Because of everything going on and I was getting a crappy attitude about the holidays. The next thing I knew, Holly was in my office telling me she was going to help me put it all together.”
“And you didn’t get all of Mom’s contacts…why?”
“Apparently she books them months in advance, so by the time Holly started making calls…”
“Everyone’s calendars were full.”
“Exactly.” Pausing, he shook his head. “None of this is helping the situation with Mom and Dad. At least not yet. We need to get Kat in on it and then maybe we can all come up with an idea to get Mom and Dad in the same room together to talk.”
“I think the party is a great idea, Lucas. It’s just getting them there that I’m not really on board with.”
“I get it. Maybe Kat will have an idea.”
“Maybe. I hope so.” She sighed. “Damn, in a million years I never thought we’d be talking about Mom and Dad splitting up. It doesn’t seem real.”
“I know. And if even one of them were home, it would make things so much easier. Right now, they’re acting like a couple of greedy brats.”
“Why greedy?”
Lucas explained about their parents’ quests to win cash and prizes over the holidays.
“It’s not like they can’t afford these things on their own,” he reasoned. “Why they’re suddenly obsessed with winning is beyond me.”
“Because they’re losing everything else, dummy! Why are men so clueless?”
“Hey! No need to be insulting.”
“You’re right. Sorry. It was just obvious to me, that’s all.”
“Yeah, well…it wasn’t to me because I’ve been too busy trying to stop them from making the biggest mistakes of their lives.”
“Okay, but…is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…people get divorced all the time. If they’re both unhappy, then don’t they deserve to find people who make them happy?”
“Anna, you’re oversimplifying it. Yes, they both deserve to be happy. But shouldn’t they try to work out their issues first and maybe learn to go back to being happy with each other?”
“Depends on why they’re unhappy in the first place. There could be things going on that neither of us knows about, and maybe shouldn’t know about.”
“Like what?”
