Page 106 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

Lachlan had come to her place this morning and told her what happened last night, then he’d driven her back to Smokey’s to get Brody’s truck.

“I was a little bit of a dick to him last night,” Lachlan said.

She wanted to ask him why the hell he had been mean to Brody.

But she hadn’t done that. Instead, she had just listened.

“And he drank a lot, so I have a feeling he has a really terrible hangover,” he continued.

“Well.”

“I don’t know what his deal is. He’s impossible to talk to,” Lachlan said. “Not that I’m any better... But he’s always been...”

“Yeah. I know.” She didn’t have a very hard time talking to Brody at all. But one thing she had been certain of from the beginning was that their talking wasn’t something normal for him.

She drove his truck straight back to his place, and let herself in, waking him up. And now it was time for her to hatch part of her plan.

She was driving to Mapleton to get a big haul of groceries and a few presents.

She would go to the sports-and-outdoor store and look for something there. Granted, she didn’t know what he had, but when she had talked to Lachlan about presents, he had informed her that a man could never have too many knives. And that bullets always made a great gift.

She had found it best not to argue. She was just grateful to have ideas.

She went to the grocery store and got all the fixings for Christmas dinner. Since she was in town, she stopped and bought some more clothes. She was systematically replacing all of the things that she had brought with her from her marriage to Carter. All of the things that she had brought from her old life. It seemed like the best thing to do.

Then she went to the outdoor store, where she wandered endlessly down the aisles until a woman wearing camouflage took pity on her and directed her to a few things.

She left with a knife that had blades you could swap in and out of the handle, and several boxes of ammunition for a few different kinds of guns, which the woman assured her would work for the sort of guns a rancher was most likely to have. Maybe Elizabeth had been bamboozled. But, she felt accomplished. And right now that was what mattered.

SHE DROVE BACK to Four Corners, and set about making a batch of cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. And yes, she knew that he already had a favorite one. That his brother’s friend Charity made them, but she wanted to make him cookies. Because she still thought it was outrageous that he had never had a fresh-baked cookie until he was twenty-five years old, and she felt like the man could use several different favorite cookie recipes, all things considered.

When they were just about done, she texted him.

She had cider brewing on the stove, homemade this time, and Christmas music playing. There were presents under the tree.

And this wasn’t just for her. Some replacement because Benny was gone. It was for Brody.

Of course, maybe he did something with his family. But she had a feeling he didn’t. Not based on what he had told her.

She waited for a response to her text. And waited. And then suddenly, there was a knock at the door. She let out a sigh of relief, and smiled. That seemed like him.

She got up, and went and opened the door. “You could’ve texted,” she said.

“Yeah. I could have. But I started a few and didn’t really know what to say. Since you saw me hungover this morning. Undoubtedly, not my finest moment.”

“That’s okay. I feel like you’ve seen a couple moments of mine that weren’t exactly my finest.”

“Do you mean sad, because your son went to spend Christmas with your ex-husband? Because that isn’t nearly as ignoble as being hungover because you went out drinking with your brother and got into a fight with him.”

“Maybe not. But there’s not much point in comparing battle scars, is there?”

“I guess not.”

“The point is we just all have them.”

“I guess we do.”

“Brody... Merry Christmas.”

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