Epilogue
O n Christmas day, Delilah and Anthony were visiting Anthony’s brother Bradley and his family at their Airbnb. Delilah and Audrey were in the kitchen cooking while Bradley and Anthony were busy installing batteries into various toys and appliances. Delilah looked beautiful in a green off-the-shoulder sweater and Anthony couldn’t stop staring at her, thankful that she was his.
Bradley raised a glass to Delilah. “To Delilah. May my little brother be good to you and I hope that joining my company will be a place you can call home.”
Delilah had applied for the copywriting position and Anthony knew she was excited that the salaried position would give her more time to write.
Bradley’s phone rang, and he looked at the caller ID, holding it up for Anthony’s inspection. “It’s Dad.”
“Are you going to answer it?” Anthony asked.
Bradley pressed the answer button and set up with the phone to his ear. “Hey, Dad, yeah, I have. Merry Christmas to you. Just sitting in my living room talking to Anthony. Yeah, he’s here, too. That’s good, yeah, we’re here in Mistletoe renting an Airbnb and spending time with him and his girlfriend. Well, I like it here. Cam and Paul and Grant are there, right? What about Evelyn? Divorced? Wow, I’m really sorry, Dad. No, I am. I think that’s really sad. You guys were together a really long time. Maybe you can talk to her and work it out after the holidays. Do you want to talk to Anthony?” Bradley frowned, shooting Anthony an apologetic look, but he was okay. He’d never had a dad before, and sometimes people weren’t supposed to be a part of your life.
Even if they were blood.
“Merry Christmas.”
Bradley ended the call and Anthony laughed bitterly. “He didn’t want to talk to me, huh?”
“I don’t think he knows what to say to you. He doesn’t even know what to say to his wife.”
“Yeah, well, it is what it is, right? He wasn’t there for me most of my life, so why would I expect to have a relationship with him now?”
“Honestly, man,” Bradley said, putting his arm around Anthony’s shoulder, “out of all of our siblings, we are the only two who have functional relationships with other people and aren’t completely miserable human beings. That’s because of Mom.”
Anthony raised his whiskey glass in the air and smiled. “To Mom!”
Bradley clinked his glass with his brother’s and smiled back at him. “You remember how every Christmas she would fill up the stockings and put them in front of the fireplace and tell us that if we came out before six she’d throw them in the fire?”
Anthony chuckled. “Yeah, I don’t think she wanted a repeat of the year Grant and I woke her up at four o’clock in the morning when she’d just gotten in the bed at three.”
“It’s funny, I saw a meme the other day that the magic of Christmas is really just the love of a good mom.”
Anthony looked around the Airbnb, which wasn’t even technically their home, and yet there was a tree in the corner decorated with gorgeous bulbs and homemade ornaments with a light-up angel on the top of the tree. There were twinkling lights and garland on tabletops along with some other fun holiday trinkets that Delilah and Audrey had picked up while shopping in town. There was a sign on the counter that said Hot Cocoa Bar and little containers of marshmallows, sprinkles, and chocolate chips that Lillianne had been excited to drop on top of her hot cocoa. Audrey had done all these things to turn a rental house into a holiday wonderland for her family to enjoy.
“Is that how you feel about Audrey?” Anthony asked.
“Well, she’s not my mom,” Bradley teased.
“No, I mean do you think that the holidays have been more magical since you got together with her?”
“Yeah, I think so. Before I was just a lonely kid trying to get a degree and that made me a bitter old man like Dad. She brought something alive in me,” Bradley said, smiling at his wife.
“I know what you mean,” Anthony said. As he stared at Delilah, he couldn’t help thinking how much he wanted this with her.
Delilah looked up from the potatoes she was mashing and sent him a sunny smile that he returned by blowing her a kiss.
Bradley laughed and told him that they were nauseating.
The sound of singing came from outside, and Anthony stood up and went to the door. A group of Christmas carolers were out in the front yard singing “Jingle Bells.” Delilah, Audrey, and Bradley joined him as they watched the carolers.
Delilah gave Anthony a hug. “They’re no Anthony and the Drunken Carolers but they’re alright.”
“That wasn’t our group’s name,” he said, smiling down at her. “We also had a better song selection.”
“Hopefully this group doesn’t puke on me.”
“You are never gonna let me live that down, are you?” Anthony asked her, holding the door for her to head back inside.
“Maybe in fifteen years or so, unless I do something equally embarrassing before then.”
Anthony rubbed his hands together. “I’m sure eventually I’m going to catch you doing something wacky.”
“It’s not nice to hope for someone’s downfall.”
“I am not hoping for your downfall per se. I just want us to be on equal grounds.”
“Well, you can just keep waiting, sweetheart, because I know how to hold my liquor, unlike all the men in Mistletoe.”
Anthony’s phone blared to life and he checked the caller ID. “It’s Pike.”
Delilah laughed. “Answer it, goofy.”
“We already said Merry Christmas though!”
Delilah and Audrey were already heading back to the kitchen and Bradley was still watching out the window. When Pike called again, Anthony picked up the call.
“Shouldn’t you be celebrating with your parents?”
“Listen, I need your help. I know you’re with your brother, and normally I wouldn’t ask, but I’m in fucking love and she’s about to leave the country.”
“I’ll be out the door in twenty.”