Page 10 of A Holly Brown Christmas
Nodding, he went on. “I played a lot in middle school but lost interest in it in high school. My mother was relieved because even though it was her idea to put in an indoor court, she really wanted the space for a gym for her and my father.”
“That’s still kind of cool. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to have so much space. You could probably hide out and no one would be able to find you for days!”
He grinned again. “It came in handy whenever I got in trouble. After a while, my father just stopped looking.” He winked. “Of course, when I finally made my presence known, I’d still get punished, but he’d be calm by then.”
She had a million questions she wanted to ask about his family and try to find a way to convince him to help his parents get back together. Unfortunately, there was already so much to do that she felt like focusing on the party had to come first. Playing matchmaker would come later.
She hoped.
“What was your favorite hiding spot?”
“There’s a room behind the theater room. It’s mainly just storage, but I had set up an entire space of my own back there with video games, snacks, and random pieces of furniture that had been in storage that I knew no one would miss. It was a great place to go where it was quiet. We used to host a lot of parties and sometimes I just didn’t want to take part.”
That made her a little sad, but she supposed it made sense, especially knowing him the way she did now.
The pizza was delicious and she was enjoying it, but now she had even more to look forward to while they snooped.
“You’re smiling,” he said, interrupting her thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”
That was easy. “I’m just excited to get started!”
She never stopped talking.
Correction, the conversation never stopped.
But she did most of the talking. And most of it was in the form of questions.
All through dinner, Holly managed to flow from one topic to another and even though he typically enjoyed eating his dinner in silence, this was kind of nice.
Once they were done, they decided to start their search up in the attic and then work their way down to the basement. He knew where the door to the attic stairs were, but he was embarrassed to admit that he’d never been up there.
Not that it mattered, because Holly was leading the way like this was some kind of hunting expedition. And who knows, maybe it was to her. He still wasn’t feeling like this was going to lead to everything she hoped it would, but at least he could say that they tried. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything else to do tonight.
“Oh, wow! Look at this space!” she said with awe as he came up the stairs behind her.
The attic was completely finished and it ran the entire length of the house with a ten-foot ceiling. If it wasn’t used for storage, it could easily be converted to living space.
“And it’s so organized!” she gushed. “Look! Everything’s labeled!” She slowly walked around reading everything. “Anna’s baby stuff, Katherine’s baby stuff, Lucas’s baby stuff…school stuff…hmm…pool house decor…wedding gowns…” Glancing over at him, she smiled. “Tons of personal stuff.”
He nodded. “I never realized she kept so much of that sort of thing.”
“From the looks of it, it’s like a time capsule up here. Anything you could ever want to find from your childhood is here and clearly marked.” She kept strolling and reading. “My mom’s not this organized, and I don’t think she saved nearly this much stuff.” Pausing, she laughed softly. “Probably because our entire house could fit up in this attic.”
Lucas knew most people didn’t live like this, but sometimes it felt incredibly awkward when it was casually brought up like Holly just did. There wasn’t anything he could say to that, so he walked over to the opposite end of the attic and began reading the labels on everything. It didn’t seem possible for there to be this many boxes and none of them be Christmas decorations, but right now, he wasn’t finding any.
They were at it for almost thirty minutes when Holly called out, “I think I found something!”
“Thank God,” he mumbled as he made his way over to her. There was an alcove that had a bunch of tall boxes, and the closer he got, he could see that they all had the word “Christmas” written on them.
“I think we should open them up here and see what we’re dealing with. It certainly doesn’t seem like enough for the entire house, but at least it’s a start, right?” she asked excitedly before her expression fell when all he did was shrug.
Still, he moved several of the boxes out and when he opened them, he found strands of pine garland, an obscene amount of red and gold bows, half of their indoor holiday village, and the train set.
This was merely the tip of the iceberg.
Plus, it was getting late.
Wiping his hands on his jeans, Lucas stood up and stretched. “I think this is a great start, but maybe we should call it a night. We both worked all day and now it’s almost nine, so…”
