How My Brother's Best Friend Stole Christmas - Molly O'Keefe Page 0,17

Kane Co. packaging I was trying so hard to get implemented. Betty gasped as she pulled out the ornament. An angel, of course. Made of beautiful clear blown glass with wings as big as my palm and a glass scroll between the wings with gorgeous gilt lettering: Look after my Sam.

“Oh my,” she gasped, holding the angel up to the light.

“Probably could have used it before his last deployment, huh?” I said, remembering the pain of that phone call from Betty. Those weeks we hadn’t known what was going on, or the month we had and it was all so scary. I still felt it, sitting in this warm, cozy house with the knowledge that Sam was home and okay. My heart beating harder. Adrenaline in the back of my throat.

“No, my boy needs watching over all the time. This…honey, this is so beautiful.”

“We hired a new artist,” I told her as she reverently turned the angel around in her hands, taking in every inch of its artistry. “Joy. She made it.”

“Just for me?”

I smiled at her and was so glad I’d come out here. So glad I had a chance to make her happy like this. To make anyone happy like this. I didn’t need presents. I just needed to give presents.

“My girl,” she whispered, tears in her eyes, and I hugged her, taking in the ginger smell of her. “Come, sit, sit!” she said. “I’ve got a pot on and we can try this gingerbread thing I made.”

“Gingerbread thing sounds great.”

I sat down at the Formica table in a patch of watery sunshine beaming through the snow melting down the window.

“So,” Betty yelled from the kitchen. “Your brother up and did it, huh?”

“He got hitched.”

“You figure he’s just trying to save the company or is he really in love with that girl?”

“I don’t know. He’s pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing.”

“Oh, you don’t have to tell me,” Betty said, coming in with a plate of cake that she set on the table. She went back into the kitchen and I knew from experience there was no point in asking if I could help. She came back out with two cups of coffee. Mine, I knew, would be made just the way I liked. A little milk. Heaps of sugar. “I got one of those tight-lipped men living in this trailer. Swear Sam came back from that party last night slamming doors like they’d offended him.”

I barely flinched when she said his name, and I forced myself not to think what had happened with me was what had made him so upset. The news of the marriage, of course. He was upset about that. We were all upset about that.

“Does he love her?” Betty asked. “Your brother?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think he likes her a lot. I just hope she doesn’t hurt him.” My biggest fear for him was that he’d end up in a marriage like my parents’. As far as I could tell, Penny was nothing like my mother, but living your life without love…man, that could turn anyone hostile.

For a second, the ache of Sam’s hands on my body squeezed my stomach. How stupid I’d been to believe for even a moment that I could have love and sex like that with my brother’s best friend. Who got that, really?

“You all right, honey?” Betty asked, putting her hand over mine.

“Good. Just, you know, thinking about Wes.”

“Well, let’s only think good thoughts,” Betty said, doing what she always did and pushing us into positive territory. Suddenly I remembered coming over here with Wes when I was younger. It had been Sam’s first deployment and I’d been frantic with worry—couldn’t stop crying. Carrying on like the guy was already hurt somewhere instead of just getting yelled at in basic training. Betty had sat me down on her big, saggy floral couch and told Wes to make me some hot chocolate, and she let me cry and say out loud all the things I was scared of.

“Now that you’ve said all that,” she’d whispered. “Let’s say all the good things we want to happen to him.”

And we’d filled our heads and our hearts with good things. Until we were laughing and my tears were dry and Wes came out with hot cocoa he’d barely stirred so it was all chewy.

“I’d like him to love Penny. And for her to love him,” I said. “Real love, you know?”

She nodded, and I realized that between my parents and Betty’s