Page 18 of The Amazing Alpha Tau Fratmas Experience
The next parcel was bulky and awkwardly wrapped, with strips of tape hanging off it and a hole in the paper. Marty handed it over saying, “This one’s from me!”
Well, obviously.
Scout’s raised brow said the same thing. He had a dubious expression as he unwrapped the gift, which was fair because it was giving off a very strong meaty smell.
It was a package of pig’s ears.
“Uh,” Scout said, holding one up gingerly.
“It’s so you can get some Squirrel love,” Marty said. “My present to you is Squirrel love! The pig’s ear is just the delivery method. There are fifteen of them.”
“Thank you, Marty.”
There were more presents to come, all of them cheap and cheerful, two things that Scout wasn’t at all familiar with but he received gracefully. There were socks, notebooks, a Christmas tie, a photo frame, and a whole lot of stuff that the guys must have grabbed when they were getting the decorations at Dollar Tree. Absolutely none of it said “Scout Talbot-Smith,” but all of it said “from your brothers” and he got it.
His eyes were suspiciously shiny by the time he’d finished unwrapping them all. He petted Squirrel, who had appeared about the same time as the first pig’s ear, and cleared his throat.
“Wow,” he said at last and cleared his throat again. “Just… wow.” He looked around the room at the decorations and the piles of wrapping paper, and everyone who’d moved their holiday plans just to be here for this, and cleared his throat for a third time. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“We wanted to,” Archer said, and the rest of the guys nodded.
Marty, in one of those moments where he proved he was a lot smarter than everyone thought, said, “Scout, I can’t believe I have to tell you this, but peoplelikeyou.”
Squirrel chose that moment to try and climb onto Scout’s lap and lick his face, and Scout made a big show of scrambling out from under the dog and stalking off to the bathroom to wash his face and hands, but I wasn’t fooled. I’d never seen someone more glad to be drooled on. Given a choice between dog breathand emotional vulnerability, Scout would take the dog every time.
I stood up to follow him.
“Better get him back here,” Casey said. “We’re gonna startDie Hardin ten minutes.”
“It might take fifteen,” I said, and Casey gave me a thumbs-up.
Scout was in the downstairs bathroom washing his hands. He gave me a slightly shaky look as I opened the door and joined him. I stood behind him, my hands on his hips and my chin on his shoulder, and studied his face in the mirror. He was as pale as always, with a few slashes of pink on his cheeks that were a dead giveaway to how worked up he was on the inside.
“We’re putting a movie on,” I said. “You gonna come watch it, or are you gonna wash your hands for the next hour?”
He let out a slow, shaky breath.
“It’s a lot, I know,” I said softly. “And it’s everything you pretend to hate. But you get why they did it, right?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t need them to do anything.”
“I know,” I said. “We all know. But they wanted to, because they’re your brothers and they love you.”
His gaze met mine in the mirror, and the corners of his mouth turned down.
“Because even though you pretend you’re not, everyone knows you’re a good person. You’re kind and you’re generous, and yes, I’m going to hold onto you and force you to hear that.”
“Ugh.” He reached out to turn the water off. But for once he didn’t argue that he was none of those things, so I took it as a win and rewarded him by changing the subject.
“Come on,” I said. “We’re watchingDie Hard, because Christmas isn’t complete without a hail of bullets.”
That earned me a trace of a smile, and when we went back out, everyone had arranged themselves on the couch and thefloor around the television. Dalton had found a cocktail shaker from somewhere and was making martinis, and he handed one to Scout. “I thought this might be more your speed.”
Scout raised an eyebrow. “This glass is plastic.”
I nudged him. “Say thank you, Scout.”
“Thank you,” Scout said. There was an empty seat in the middle of the couch, and he nudged me toward it. “I’ll sit on the floor.”
