Page 70 of A Holly Brown Christmas
They were still banging on the door, and he sighed. “So what am I supposed to do? What can I possibly say to guarantee that they won’t come out here and ruin what’s left of the party? We know Dad would be fine, but we can’t bring him out and leave her in there. No matter how much we may want to.”
“Truthfully? Dad needs to be in there with her because they need to talk. And that’s what you need to say to them. Then we’ll crank up the Christmas music and maybe see about moving dessert upstairs.”
“Maybe…”
“You talk to Mom and Dad; I’ll deal with the caterer.” She kissed his cheek. “Good luck!”
It took a solid minute before he forced himself to go over to the door.
“Lucas! Kat! Open this door right now! This is unacceptable!” his mother raged. “And I want that woman fired! Fired, do you hear me? I’ll have her arrested for assault!”
And that’s when he realized he’d had enough.
“You’re in there because of your awful behavior! Now deal with it!” he snapped. “The two of you have been behaving horribly and you need to talk like rational adults, and I’m not letting you out until you do!”
“I’ve done no such thing!” his father chimed in.
“You and Mom need to talk this through. You allowed your personal business to spill over into this party and showed a side of yourselves to our employees that you should be ashamed of! And as for Holly? No one’s firing her and she most certainly didn’t assault anyone!”
“She shoved me in a closet!”
“She never laid a hand on you, Mom! And she even made sure there was food and drinks there for you! That’s hardly assault!”
“Oh, hey! Look at that!” his father said jovially. “Cami, look! She brought those cranberry and brie bites that you love so much and the smoked salmon crostini!”
His mother mumbled something, but Lucas couldn’t make it out.
All he knew was that they were suddenly quiet and no longer banging on the door, so he felt like it was safe to walk away.
When he turned, he noticed that everyone was heading up the stairs and he hoped that meant that Kat had moved the party up there and that everyone wasn’t leaving.
He wanted to follow but felt like maybe he should wait a few more minutes. So he sat down on the nearest chair and stared at the door.
That’s where Holly found him.
“Hey,” she said softly, hesitantly. “Are you still mad at me?”
Lucas held out his hand to her and when she took it, he gently guided her to sit beside him. “I wasn’t mad; I was a little in shock. I wasn’t expecting you to do something like that.”
“They deserved it.”
“They?”
“Well, your mom certainly did. I don’t mind her picking on me because—let’s face it—she’s probably feeling a little threatened because I took over the party. But when she started talking so negatively about the party and the food? That’s where I drew the line.”
Looking at her, Lucas slowly wrapped his arm around her. “My family tends to be non-confrontational. These last few weeks have been exhausting because no matter how much my parents were throwing at me with their personal stuff, I never felt good about pushing back. I mean, I did. A little. But what you just did? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before in my life.”
She giggled. “Believe me, I never did anything like that before in my life. All I knew was that I had worked my butt off for this party and they were ruining it. Well, your mom was.” She grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Hey, you’re not lying. I’m actually embarrassed by their behavior and I can’t even imagine what everyone is upstairs thinking.”
“Oh, yeah. Kat moved the party upstairs. Melissa and her staff are setting everything up. It won’t be as organized as it was down here, but I think it’s for the best until things calm down.”
He nodded.
“Do you want me to stay down here with you, or…”
“Why don’t we both go upstairs and enjoy the rest of the party? Maybe by the time everyone leaves, we’ll be able to let these two out.”
