Page 33 of Playing for Keeps
“Um hmmm,” she nodded and gazed at him.
“Um hmmm, what?”
“You’ve watched this series more than once, haven’t you?” she asked narrowing her eyes at him.
“I lived with Camy,” he replied.
Rylan chuckled. “Enough said.”
They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes, until Kevin’s parents realized they overslept and the entire house full of people begin to get ready to leave for the airport.
“How come Kevin didn’t hear all that hoopla?” Del asked before forking another scoop of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
“He’s a heavy sleeper,” she replied and listened to Del laugh. “It’s not funny. I’ve always been a heavy sleeper, which is why Naomi always got downstairs to open her gifts on Christmas morning before me.”
Del shook his head. “My mom made us all wait to go down at the same time. Lance used to take forever in the bathroom washing his face and brushing his teeth. Camy would whine and lay on her stomach at the top of the stairs to see if she could see anything down in the living room.”
Rylan smiled at the thought. Things had always been different at the Greer house. That was one of the reasons she’d always wanted to stay there.
“Camy’s still like that, you know. Two years ago, we went to a ski resort for the holidays. You and Lance weren’t able to come home and she was feeling really sad that she’d be alone. Because my family’s a little more dysfunctional, I had no problem scheduling a trip for us. We partied on Christmas Eve and drank so much I thought I was on another planet.” Rylan laughed at the memory. “But early the next morning, even before the sun rose, Camy was in my room, jumping on the bed telling me to get up so we could exchange our gifts. I was like, girl you are outta your mind. But she was dead serious.”
Del continued to laugh. “Yeah, that sounds just like her. Camy’s always loved Christmas. So did my mom.”
“And that’s why you and Lance can take it or leave it,” she said and watched Del put down his fork and sit back on the couch.
“I’m sorry if that’s too personal,” she told him. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
He waited a beat before shrugging. “Not talking about it doesn’t make it better.”
Rylan chewed the food she’d just put into her mouth slowly.
“My mom loved Christmas. She loved all of us being happy together. After my dad died, a big chunk of that happiness went with him. Lance and I didn’t handle that very well,” Del said somberly.
“You got into some sort of trouble each time you left the house,” Rylan said then clapped her mouth shut.
He nodded. “That’s accurate.”
“But that last time, when the principal wanted to press charges against us and Mal’s dad was all for the idea of sending fifteen-year olds to jail, it was just too much for my mom. At first, Lance and I were pretty pissed off that she sent us to The House, but then we realized we probably deserved it. We were hellions and it wasn’t fair when my mom was trying to do everything by herself. Then I broke Mal’s nose a few months before I was supposed to come back home and they decided to add more time to my stay at the House instead of sending me to juvie.” He shook his head, a mixture of shame and sorrow marring his face. “I hated that I kept disappointing my mother so much.”
“She was proud that you graduated from high school and then went off to college,” Rylan told him because she’d been there to see his mother smiling gleefully when she found out her son was going to be a college graduate.
“More like relieved,” Del said.
Rylan shook her head. “No, Del. She was definitely proud. I remember hearing her tell Mr. Penning one Sunday after church that her boys were going to do great things. That they were independent and smart and confident. Of course, she was taking jabs at Mal who still hadn’t decided if he was going to college or staying here to work in the office with his dad.”
“Which he did.”
“He did. Because he was too chickenshit to try anything else,” she replied.
Del laughed. “You never were one to mince words.”
Rylan shook her head. “No, I wasn’t. Which is why I’m going to tell you that we need to get you a Christmas tree, put it right in front of that window and then get out there and decorate that great front yard you have.”
For a minute he looked as if he were going to say no, but then he smiled. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
He leaned across the couch and took her hand. “You were a good idea,” he said softly.
“I was a mistake, remember,” she replied when an unexpected pang registered in her chest.
