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He stood up and grabbed the end of the lights and reached effortlessly up to the top, resting them on the branches before beginning to wind them around the tree. Another thing that was much easier for him than it was for her. It usually ended with her sweaty. And instead of watching him, and the play of his biceps and his other muscles while he completed the task, she decided to open up the other ornaments in the box.
There was the little box containing everything that Benny had made at school. Handprints, puzzle-piece picture frames, pretzel picture frames. Macaroni picture frames. Preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade. He hadn’t made anything for third yet.
Those ones went on first. And then she filled in with the prettier, sparkly ornaments. Honestly, she was always torn with the desire to do a themed tree that was perfect and matching. Then she immediately felt guilty, because obviously, it was more important to have ornaments up with Benny’s picture on them than it was to have an aesthetically perfect tree. Still, she was only human, and she supposed if that was one of her only real weaknesses, it wasn’t terrible.
Just then, her eyes met Brody’s, and she realized that he was, in fact, one of her other weaknesses. Big time.
Friends. Just friends.
Benny came into the house, his cheeks red. He opened the door too hard, and it hit the wall. She flinched. “Benny, please be careful. We don’t own the house. And even if we did own the house, I don’t want to fix a hole in the wall.”
“I know how to fix a hole in the wall,” Brody said.
“Remember, the thing about how I’m trying to teach him manners?”
“Sorry. Manners really aren’t my strong suit.” Except they were. He wasn’t even half as feral as he pretended to be.
“Can I have some cider?” Benny asked.
“How did you know there was cider?” Elizabeth asked.
“I could smell it.”
“Benny...” She didn’t want to introduce something that would maybe fall through, but she felt anxious, and she wanted to know if Benny was at least okay with leaving for Christmas. As much as all of this was upsetting, it would almost make her feel better if she knew that he wanted to go.
Part of her wondered if she should wait until they were alone, but she didn’t want to wait. Because maybe he’d say no and she could call Carter right now and tell him. Carter wasn’t a monster. He’d let Benny stay if Benny wanted to.
“What?”
She started to go and get some cider from the pan on the stove, but Brody beat her to it, having finished with the Christmas lights.
She turned back to Benny. “Would you be interested in spending Christmas with Dad?”
“Oh. Yeah!” Benny said. “Him and Ashley always go out in the snow.”
There was literally snow outside here.
“Yeah. I know that Christmas in that house is really beautiful.” She tried to sound neutral but upbeat, if that was a thing.
It had been her house once upon a time. She knew how beautiful it was when it was decorated.
“Dad wants you to come for all of Christmas break,” she said quickly.
“Really? He really wants me to come and stay for two weeks?” Benny looked...in awe. And happy. So happy.
It killed her.
He hadn’t stayed away from her that long, ever.
He hadn’t stayed with his dad that long, ever.
He clearly wanted to. Was hungry to.
And it didn’t matter what she wanted. Not when she could see so clearly what Benny wanted.
She wasn’t a monster either.
She knew right then that they didn’t need to have a phone call with the judge. Benny was excited because it was something new. It was something different. And it crushed her a little bit.
