AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, sure. You know Nick and Clark are bailing, right?”
“No, what are you talking about?”
“They’re going to help us get everything ready and then they’re going out for drinks with the boys…” Merry dragged out the last two words with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “Said they worked hard on your display, even took on your angry next-door neighbor, and deserve to blow off some steam. So Mom and Dad are Santa and Mrs. Claus and we are their elves.”
“I expect this kind of behavior from Nick, but Clark?” Holly clucked her tongue. “So disappointed.”
“Yeah, I told him he better not get snookered with Nick and need a ride home ‘cause I’ll be sleeping.”
Holly laughed. “What we should do is crash their boys’ night and get our own drink on. We work hard, too!”
“Hell yeah we do!”
Holly took the left into her neighborhood, smiling when she saw Declan’s truck parked in front of her house, then slowly turned into the drive. “All right, come get me and we’ll make a plan. I just pulled into my house and want to take it in.”
“Have fun! Bye.”
Holly stopped her car at the bottom of the driveway, the wide grin on her face straining the muscles. It was gorgeous. The garage door was wrapped with a large piece of heavy plastic that was made to look like the front of Dr. Seuss’s Whoville homes, with drapes of white lights hanging on either side. A crossroads sign that read Mount Crumpet and Whoville was placed at the corner of her lawn, and she saw the large Mount Crumpet looming over her front porch with the Grinch leaning over, hating the Whos. Various scenes of the story were scattered along the lawn, and on the other side of the driveway the Grinch was stealing a bright strand of Christmas lights.
It was better than she could have imagined.
Holly hit the garage button and pulled inside, closing it behind her. She went through the house and back around to the front porch, where she found Declan grinning in her oversized chair.
“So, what do you think?”
Overcome with happiness, Holly plopped down next to him, snuggling against him. “It’s amazing. Thank you.”
Besides the flare of surprise in his eyes for a split-second, he didn’t hesitate to move his arm around her shoulders and pull her in close. “Like I said, I had a lot of help.” Declan chuckled. “I’ve heard the phrase ‘It takes a village,’ but the minute your name was dropped, thirty people showed up here ready to roll up their sleeves and dive in. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Did you write down their names? I want to send them a thank-you card.”
“People still do that?”
“My family does. My mom had us sit down after every birthday and write thank-you cards to everyone who came.” Holly tilted her head against his chest and looked up at him. “By the way, your mom was looking for you.”
Declan stiffened against her. “When?”
“Before I closed the shop. She came in and bought a few things. Mentioned she’d stopped by next door to see her son, and we got to talking—”
“About me?”
“A little bit, but other things too.” She slid her hand up his chest, pushing up until she could look into his eyes. “Declan, whatever you’re thinking, I wasn’t trying to be sneaky or nose into your business.”
“It’s not you.” He sighed, removing his arm from around her to sit up.
The pain in those three words tugged at her heartstrings, and she slipped her arms around his shoulders from behind. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“That you don’t get along with your mom.”
He didn’t respond for several moments, the silence stretching like a blanket over the porch, until finally he whispered, “It’s my fault.”
“What is?”
“I blamed her for the divorce and alienated her because of it. I should have stayed out of the whole thing, but I thought I knew what happened. Turns out I didn’t know a damn thing and I dug my own ditch with an assumption and I don’t know how to climb out of it.”
“You sure do love your metaphors,” Holly murmured, pressing a kiss to the back of his right shoulder. “I don’t know what’s going on with you and your parents, but from what I can see, whatever you’ve done your mom still wants to have a relationship with you. If it were me, I’d swallow my pride and make amends.”
