Home For The Holidays - Jordan Silver Page 0,53
gotten away from me.
I bit into my lip, feeling just a little bit hesitant for the first time since I came home. I have a playbook in my head of how I want things to go, but there’s no guarantee that everyone and everything is going to fall into line. I’d left certain things until the last minute for the element of surprise and also because I’m in complete bitch mode.
I went in search of dad first before going to mom. He was in his study pretending to be Lord Byron again, with his pipe, a cashmere sweater over wool slacks, and a collector’s book of Shakespearean sonnets while sitting in front of the fireplace. Perfect, that’s his mellow mood. I can talk him into anything when he’s like this. Not that it takes much, my dad lets me have my way with pretty much anything, something I’m training Jared to do.
“Dad, I need a favor.” He looked over his nonprescription reading glasses at me, and I tried not to laugh. He has no idea that I know he does this because it’s one of mom’s favorite things. I don’t know how these two ended up together since mom was into the bookish type in college and dad is more the outdoorsy woodsman type, but somehow as the story goes, he’d swept her off her feet and just in the nick of time too.
“What is it, sweetheart? What do you need?”
“Well, it’s not so much something I need as something I need you to do for me.” I’m making a mess of this. It sounded way easier in my head. He put the book down on his lap and gave me his full attention. “Let me have it. Did you break something of your mother’s again?”
“No, nothing like that. Sheesh, you break one Tiffany lamp by mistake when you’re like ten, and they never let you forget it. “It’s like this. I need you to back my plays no matter what for the next few days.” I held my breath and awaited his answer while he studied me. Hopefully, he was remembering all of my bright and resourceful exploits and not the more near-criminal crap I got up to as a teen.
“This have anything to do with what we talked about earlier?”
“If you mean about Tom, then yes.”
“Thank fu…I mean, thank goodness. Your mother and I are at the end of our rope with him, and I can’t wait to see the tail end of that Tessa person. She annoys the hell out of my wife, and you know that’s not allowed in my book.
You could’ve blown me over with a feather. Mom had never said, never let on that she still hadn’t accepted Tom’s new relationship. I knew she was going along with things for Tom’s sake, but she’s been so tight-lipped and accepting I’d have never guessed.
I hugged dad appreciatively and headed out of the study to finally go see mom in the great room. The smell of fresh pine from the twelve-foot tree that was waiting to be decorated hit me as soon as I reached the door bringing back memories that warmed my heart. “Oh Sam, good you’re here; where are your father and brother? It’s time to trim the tree.”
“Dad’s in his study, and Tom is upstairs somewhere. I’ll call dad, but then I have to run out for a few minutes.”
“Oh Sam, not now; we always trim the tree together. It’s a family tradition.”
“I know that, mom, trust me, I won’t be long. By the time you finish dragging out the boxes upon boxes of decorations, I’ll be back.”
I left before she could question me further and called out to dad on my way out the front door. Outside, the snow was starting to come down the way it has every Xmas season going back as far as I can remember. If things go as they always do, it’ll snow today, tomorrow, and the next day, which is Xmas eve, leaving a nice covering of snow on the lawns and sidewalks up and down the street.
I blew into my hands since I’d forgotten my gloves and walked the few doors down to Deidre’s home. She had the girls already dressed and waiting when I rang the doorbell, and my heart twisted when I saw their little faces, so like mine. I was back to wanting to kick Tom’s ass when I look at them.
“I thought you forgot about us; listen, are you sure you