The Christmas Grinch - Rebel Hart Page 0,39

a family dinner. I want to see you all.”

“You just saw us at the gala, Chris.”

“No, I mean really see you,” I argued. “I want us to sit down and have a meal together and just...talk, you know? I want to know about what’s going on in your lives beyond what I can read on Forbes.com.”

“Chris, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately,” she shot back in an irritated tone. “But Joey and I are busy, as I’ve told you many times. And it sounds like Mom and Dad are too. With everything going on in the company, this is really no time for you to be cracking up and worrying over some frivolous holiday.”

She ranted on for a moment more before I finally realized she wasn’t going to budge. I hung up the phone and stood in silence for a moment, trying to force myself to accept that I just didn’t have that kind of family.

No. I decided I wasn’t going to let that be the end of it. I left the present wrapping mess in the middle of the floor and called my driver around to take me to my parents’ house. I barged in past all of the staff and showed myself up to their bedroom, littered with suitcases and stacks of clothes.

“Mom? Dad?” I called out, circling the room.

“Chris?” my mom appeared around the corner, looking shocked. “What on earth are you doing here? I thought I told you…”

“I’m here because I am practically begging my family to get together for Christmas, but everyone is apparently too busy! How do you not see the problem with this?”

“It’s just one day out of one year, darling. There will be other Christmases…”

“But it’s not just one year,” I told her, shaking my head. “It’s every year. Every single year. We never make the time for each other, and I’m beginning to think that’s why this holiday feels so empty to all of us. We’re missing the most important part in the equation...This family.”

“You’re being dramatic,” she waved. “It’s that Hazel girl that has you all riled up, isn’t it? I knew from the looks of her that she was too sentimental. I just didn’t think she’d manage to get you all worked up along with her. You’re smarter than that, son.”

I could feel my blood boiling inside as I clenched my fists, trying to hold it together. “You actually don’t know much about me at all, Mom. You wouldn’t know because you haven’t asked. Because we haven’t been able to have a conversation longer than five minutes when we weren’t at some fundraiser or networking event. If wanting to change that makes me too sentimental...Well, then yeah. I guess I’m guilty. But I don’t see the problem with that.”

Her face dropped as my Dad came in behind her, looking back and forth between us. “What’s going on here?”

“Your son was just explaining to me, his own mother, that I apparently know nothing about him.”

“I don’t say that to hurt you,” I insisted. “Please...I’d like for it to change. I want everything in our family to change. I want us to be closer...to really get to know each other. And now is as good a time as any to start.” I stopped for a moment, letting my pleas sink in. “Could you guys just do me this one favor and...stay. Don’t go on this cruise. Stay and have this dinner with your kids. Your grandkids. I’m not asking much. There will be plenty of other cruises after Christmas.”

I waited, full of hope that they’d change their minds. But the longer I stood there in silence while they avoided looking me in the eye, I knew it was all in vain. Nothing I could say would stop them.

Just before walking out, I stopped and faced them one last time. “Did you ever consider that maybe the reason our family business is failing...is because we don’t have much of a family left? Or...maybe we never did.” I pulled the folded illustration from my pocket and smirked at it. The thing that sparked my whole idea in the first place. It hurt to look at now, so I walked over and placed it on their bed. “I wonder what Grandpa would say about us if he could see us now.”

17

Hazel

It was starting to get dark out and I still hadn’t heard anything from Chris. Our original plans for dinner were supposed to start in an hour, but he wasn’t answering my