My Life as a Holiday Album (My Life as an Album #5) - L.J. Evans Page 0,1

for the holidays, but our parents were going to have to understand that not all of us were going to stay close to home. That some of us might wander away to find our dreams. It was one of the reasons I’d wanted to do the surprise party this year. Who knew when we would all be together again?

This thought made me think of Garrett…far away in Scotland. His grandmother had summoned him, and he’d gone. Right at this moment, she was probably shoving down his throat the importance of his being there to take over the reins of their company and carry on their family legacy.

“You’re far away today,” Mom said, probably because I hadn’t joined her in the kitchen and taken the icing bag away from her before she did more damage than good to the poor cake.

“Just got a lot on my brain with the baby due soon,” I answered. The baby kicked me again, as if telling me that it didn’t like me using it to lie.

“I’m glad you came home so we can spoil you a little. You’ll be on your feet nonstop and run ragged once the little critter enters the world. You need to relax before that happens.”

I may be run more ragged if I have to do it on my own without Garrett, I thought.

The words he’d uttered the day he left while I’d begged him to stay still twisted like a knife in my heart. “You don’t really need me standing next to you. That place is already taken by all the people you call family.”

I finally joined Mom at the counter, hugging her awkwardly with the baby belly I wasn’t used to. Our strawberry-blonde hair tangled together and reminded me of how much we were alike, even when we weren’t related by blood at all. In truth, Mom would understand exactly what I was going through if I told her. After all, she’d had a marriage that had ended well before she’d met Dad. I just wasn’t ready to say any of the words for fear they’d come true.

I swiped a finger in the frosting bowl and then said, “I’m off to see Grandma Marina.”

“What? She’s not baking with Mia this year?”

Aunt Mia and Grandma Marina were, hands down, the best bakers of the entire family, and they always made more treats than even our big family could consume. Half of it ended up at the family’s dealership, causing a mad rush that had nothing to do with the cars being sold and everything to do with the delectable treats.

“I think they’re starting later.” Which again was true, but we had surprise party details to discuss before that. The party was for Mom, Dad, Aunt Cam, and Uncle Derek. One giant birthday party because they were all turning fifty.

“Well, give her a hug for me,” Mom said.

“Will do,” I replied, stuffing my phone into my purse, hoping it wouldn’t buzz again. Then, I headed out the door with my baby rocking and rolling fiercely inside my belly as he or she continued to object to all of my omissions.

Garrett

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

“Christmas night, another fight

Tears, we cried a flood.”

Performed by Coldplay

Written by Berryman / Buckland / Champion / Martin

I looked down at the phone before tossing it, disgustedly, onto the desk, which sent a stack of papers soaring.

“This is a fucking disaster,” I cursed under my breath, as I bent to pick up the papers at the same time my grandmother entered the room.

“Language, Garrett, language,” she said. She sat down across from me in a wingback chair covered in the family’s tartan. You’d never guess she was seventy-five by looking at her. She looked closer to fifty than anything else. Like she could have been part of the group of people Edie was going to be celebrating on New Year’s Eve. Without me.

“It is a disaster, though,” Margery continued in her calm, unruffled voice, brushing at her perfectly tailored gray slacks and peach button-down in the latest fashion.

While I’d been talking about Edie and the fact that we’d left things in such a godawful state that she wouldn’t even pick up my calls, my grandmother was talking about the mess of invoices and undelivered shipments of whiskey. She patted her hair, which was expertly dyed the same toasty caramel as my own, and turned her knowing blue eyes toward my matching pair.

“What are you going to do about it?” she asked. It was a test. Like every other test she’d given