Page 39 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

Benny slowed down then. And it was his turn to take the lead of this strange, ragtag crew.

He had chores to do. He didn’t know why the hell he was doing this.

Don’t you?

It was weird, the way he saw himself in the kid. They didn’t have anything in common.

But there was something about that age. Something about...

“This way,” he said.

The trail was mossy and rocky, and slightly slippery.

Benny slipped once, and Elizabeth reached out and grabbed hold of the back of his shirt. And a minute later, she went unsteady, and Brody grabbed hold of both of her arms, holding her upright, drawing her back against his chest.

“Careful,” he said softly.

She looked up at him, and her pupils seemed to expand. “Yeah,” she said, moving away from him. But slowly.

“You can never come down to these caves without an adult,” Brody said, feeling suddenly afraid that he was showing the boy something he maybe shouldn’t have. That was probably why Elizabeth had looked at him like that.

Like she was worried about the same thing. But of course she’d thought of all the potential consequences right away, and he hadn’t.

“All right,” Benny said.

But the kid said it so casually, he couldn’t be entirely certain he was listening.

“I’m serious,” Brody said.

“You better listen to Brody,” Elizabeth said. “He’s a pirate and a cowboy.”

“I know he’s not a pirate,” Benny said, as if they were ridiculous.

“I’m hurt,” Brody said. “I’m obviously a pirate.”

“What exactly do you plunder?” Elizabeth asked, smiling at him.

“Well, that is a loaded question,” he returned.

Her cheeks went pink, and she looked ahead quickly, like she knew and she was trying to hide it from him.

When they reached the bottom of the trail, the mud gave way to a rocky riverbank, the water rushing by.

“The cave is this way,” he said, gesturing off to the left.

Benny did run ahead of them then, whooping and hollering as he went.

“This is so good for him,” she said. “I was just feeling... I was feeling good today, but also...” She shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

“Well, I don’t know why I offered to show your kid a cave. But here we are.”

They looked at each other for a moment. He felt like they were acknowledging that they were both acting a little bit out of character, and neither one of them knew quite what to do about it. Or if they even should do something about it.

“That means you can finish what you were going to tell me,” he said.

“I was feeling guilty,” she said. “I didn’t have a very stable childhood. And I didn’t want that for him.” That surprised him. That she could have come from a background that was anything other than pristine. She just seemed...perfect. And he’d assumed that kind of class had to come from, well, the same type of class. She sighed. “Already having the two households... And now I’ve gone and moved him a few hours away from his dad. It’s why he’s so mad at me.”

“How does his dad feel about it?”

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