My Life as a Holiday Album (My Life as an Album #5) - L.J. Evans Page 0,32
hell if your aunt realizes you took it. That was some pretty private shit, and I only read a couple of pages.”
He grinned. “Yep. Hell and fire. Aunt Cam really isn’t someone you want to mess with. I’ll be lucky if I have a hand left if she finds out.”
His bedroom door burst open, and I yelped, trying and failing to pull the sheet that was under his body over me.
“Oh, holy hell,” his sister Ginny said. “You could have warned me you had company, Ty.”
“It’s your fault for coming in without knocking, twerp.”
I looked over my shoulder to see that Ginny had turned her face toward the open door.
“Mama just wanted to make sure you were alive. Eliza and Brett just got here, and we’re going to start taking down the tree.”
“Okay. We’ll be out soon.” Ty was laughing. I wasn’t sure if it was at Ginny or me or both of us.
She slammed the door to his laughter.
“See. Asshole.”
“But you love me,” he said and kissed me.
God help me, but I did.
Ty
CHRISTMAS TIME
“In a world where we are free
Let it shine for you and me.”
Performed by Bryan Adams
Written by Adams / Vallance
Having Maleena tell me that she was here for me, that she was staying because of me, knowing she loved me, eased something in my chest. Something I hadn’t known I was carrying all my life. It was like reading Aunt Cam’s notebook and then hearing I love you from Maleena had sealed up some dark hole to another planet in my soul.
After Ginny had burst in and we cleaned up in the shower in my bathroom, I tossed Maleena a UTK T-shirt because her sweater was irreparable.
“You showed up on hell day,” I told her.
“What?”
“We all get guilted, bribed, screwed—you choose the right verb—into going to everyone’s house and helping them tear down their fucking Christmas trees.”
She laughed. “Who’s everyone?”
“God, aunts, grandmas, the works.”
“Why would you do this?” She looked up at me with a crooked smile, like she was amazed I’d do anything my family wanted.
“Food. Drink. Family.”
“Aw. I see now.” She was grinning at me.
“You keep looking at me like that, and I’m locking the door, tying you to the bed, and telling everyone to go to hell.”
“Promises, promises,” she said as she drifted by me, opening the door and sauntering out before I could stop her.
I caught up in time to smack her on the ass and whispered in her ear, “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
She had the audacity to wink at me. Fire and ice. She and I.
In the living room, all the cousins were scooping food from the buffet of appetizers Mom had laid out on the counter. Mom had all the storage boxes lined up, ready to go. The work would be over in minutes before we moved on to the next house and the next. We’d end the night at Aunt Cam’s, and I’d try to sneak the notebook back into Blake’s office if I could.
My little sister, Eliza, was finally there with her hulk of a boyfriend at her side. His brown skin was more muscled than the last time I’d seen him, and his shaved black hair declared his soon-to-be-military status. Mom had tried to hide the hurt and sorrow at not having Eliza home for Christmas. She’d tried to reason with herself, and anyone who mentioned it, that it was hard on Eliza with him shipping out for pilot school with the Air Force right after the holidays. Especially after he’d just returned from pilot screening in Colorado. It was going to be pretty much impossible for him to come to see Eliza during the next few years. We were all counting the days on their long-distance relationship, knowing we’d be there to pick up the pieces for her when they fell.
“Twerp-ette,” I said, grabbing her and hugging her to me.
“Darth!” she said, hugging me back. She’d been calling me Darth Vader as long as I could remember, and she wasn’t wrong. I probably would have been drawn to the dark side if I’d lived in a Star Wars movie.
“We missed you,” I told her, assessing her gray eyes, black hair, and pale skin to see if she was okay or about to run for the hills as Eliza could sometimes do.
She slugged my shoulder with a smile that relieved me. “Wow, getting all mushy on me now? Who are you, and what have you done with my real brother?”