Page 61 of A Holly Brown Christmas
“Yup. I thought I’d take Shmoop for his afternoon walk today. I think it will be good for both of us.”
“Do you want some company or do you need some time alone?”
She smiled, even as her vision blurred with unshed tears. “I’d really like the company.”
“Okay. Then I’ll see you at your house in a little while. And drive safe. I can hear it in your voice that you’re upset. No crying until you get home,” she teased.
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you soon. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Touching the car screen, she hung up and felt miserable.
Love.
She wanted what her parents had, and she wanted it with Lucas. But with his family dynamic, she wasn’t sure he was capable of it.
And unfortunately, it was something she was going to have to wait to figure out.
At least until after the holidays.
The fireplace crackled in the corner, but the mood was anything but warm. Lucas, Anna, and Katherine sat scattered across the room. Anna had made them all coffee, but the mugs all sat half-full or untouched. A pine-scented candle flickered on the table, its cheerful glow clashing with the tension in the air.
Their mother had been ranting for the better part of an hour. She never stopped long enough for any of them to comment or say anything, and it kind of made him realize that maybe they had all missed the signs and now things were too late.
It also made him regret the whole party plan thing, because now it was going to be awkward as hell. Although, could he really regret it? If it weren’t for the party, he and Holly wouldn’t have ever crossed that line from coworkers to lovers. The last month had been the best of his life and even with all the underlying tension with his parents, he was having a great time and was actually looking forward to Christmas—like the actual holiday and not just as a time of the year where his workload lightened.
He couldn’t wait to spend Christmas Eve with her family and possibly Christmas Day, depending on how things went with his parents this weekend.
“And now he’s down in Miami?” his mother was ranting. “Why? Why Miami? We’ve never gone down there in all our lives! We travel to places like Paris and Milan and Martha’s Vineyard! What is he trying to prove?”
And for some reason, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for him.
“He’s down there because it’s something he wanted to do!” Lucas snapped. “Did you ever once ask Dad what he wanted to do or where he wanted to go? No! You’re always telling him where you’re going, what you’re doing, and where he needs to be. And you know what? You do it to all of us! Even when you weren’t coming home for Christmas, you were dictating where Anna and Kat should go!”
“Lucas!”
He looked at his sisters. “Are you going to back me up on this? Because we’ve all shared over the years how we need to be here or there or wherever, because that’s what Mom wants or what Mom told us to do. So…?”
Anna looked flustered and Kat was smirking, but neither were quick to speak up.
So he kept going.
“Both of you were wrong for how you handled things. Packing up and taking off and then throwing me in the middle was not fair! You didn’t want to talk about these issues before you got to this point, and then you bombard me with them while you’re off on vacation! You ruined all our holiday plans and then you get mad that we made our own?”
“Don’t be dramatic, Lucas. You know you did all this…” She motioned to the house. “To goad me into coming home. I can’t believe you would do such a thing.”
“What is such a thing?” he demanded, feeling beyond annoyed. “I decorated the house. I planned the party to reward our employees for another exceptional year. So what did I do that was so terrible? And yes, I sent you the invitation to give you the opportunity to come home and join us because otherwise, you weren’t going to. You didn’t care that we have our traditions or that your grandchildren look forward to them.”
“The grandkids,” Kat whispered. “Nice!”
He shot her a look before returning his attention to his mother. “I never realized how much work it took to put all this together, and if I never said thank you for it, then I’m sorry. But you know what? It was fun!”
“Fun?” his mother said with disbelief. “You hired my crew and they handled it. What on earth is fun about that?”
But he was already shaking his head. “We didn’t hire your crew. They were all booked because you didn’t do it back in August like you usually do. Which tells me you knew all that time that you were going to leave Dad and you didn’t have the decency to tell anyone. You wanted to drop a bombshell and create drama.”
She had the decency to look mildly ashamed.
