Chapter 18
Eighteen
Everything was perfect!
The house looked amazing. The staff was impeccable. And the food was delicious. Everyone was having a wonderful time so far. Mrs. Brooks hadn’t shown up yet, but Mr. Brooks arrived a couple of hours ago and had been positively delightful.
“Holly! You’ve worked wonders here! Camille always made it sound like it was a terrible chore to put this party together, but I’m looking around and seeing that you accomplished it in just a handful of weeks, I am thoroughly impressed!”
“Thank you,” she said shyly, just as Lucas moved in close beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Lucas, everything looks great! When you sent me that email and text, I was a little annoyed that you went behind my back to do this, but I have to admit, I’m glad you did. I always loved this party. It’s nice to socialize with our team outside of the office.”
“Thanks, Dad. I couldn’t have done it without Holly.”
“The two of you make a great team, and I hope I’m not reading this wrong, but…a lovely couple. Good for you!”
They both smiled.
“So, how did the big boat parade go?” Lucas asked his father.
“Well…funny story,” he began, raking a hand through his silver hair. “I ended up not buying the boat.”
“Really? How come?”
He shrugged. “It just didn’t feel right.
I got a little caught up in the moment with my friends.
So I helped a buddy of mine decorate his boat.
He won, but he gave me credit, so…” Another shrug.
“It was fun. I missed being here with you kids and the grandkids.” He glanced around.
“Where are they? They’re usually sitting on the couch like they’re afraid to make a move. ”
“Oh, I set them up with their own party down in the media room,” Holly explained. “They’re having a movie marathon with pizzas, popcorn, and drinks. We set up some games too. I doubt we’ll see them until the party’s over.”
“That’s brilliant! My goodness, Holly! You really have it all under control! I am thoroughly impressed!”
“My, isn’t this cozy?”
Uh-oh…
Camille Brooks had arrived, and just like yesterday, she did not look pleased.
“It looks like the new hostess is getting all the praise,” she said in a snide tone.
“Camille, relax. The girl worked hard and it shows. Look around! It’s exactly the way you always did it! You set a great example and she followed it.”
For a moment, Camille looked a little stunned by her husband’s words.
And she had to hand it to him, Spencer Brooks seemed genuinely sincere. Which was probably why his wife looked stunned.
“We’re all thrilled that you’re both here,” Lucas said. “And I hope that you can put your differences aside for the night and enjoy yourselves.”
His father smiled before clapping him on the shoulder. “I fully intend to. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to mingle.” He glanced at his wife, holding out his arm to her. “Care to join me?”
“Oh, um…”
“Go on, Mom. It’ll be alright,” Lucas quietly urged. “I promise.”
Then they stood back and watched as his parents regally walked down to the lower level.
“I’m almost afraid to move or say anything and ruin the moment,” Holly murmured.
“I know the feeling. Fingers crossed that everyone behaves.”
And they did.
For a little while.
The two of them had gone downstairs to enjoy the fruits of their labor, but an hour later, Holly went up to the kitchen to check on her cousin, and to make sure everything was going smoothly.
“Hey, Mel! Everything okay up here?”
Her cousin smiled. “Like clockwork! We’ve got another hour with the appetizers and entrees, and then the staff will clear them away and set out coffee and dessert. Everything look okay downstairs? Do I need to refresh any of the trays?”
“No, your staff has been right on top of it, and it’s all been delicious. Thank you so much for all your hard work.”
“Are you kidding? This has been amazing! And I had so much fun cooking with you to get all the dishes just right!”
“People are raving about all of it. You outdid yourself. Seriously. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you stepping in on such short notice.”
“It worked out great because I originally didn’t want to take on a catering job this close to Christmas, but all my other parties were much smaller and…well…this job will go a long way to keeping me in business, so I should really thank you!”
Holly walked over and hugged her.
“We have a code red, Holly! A code red!” someone called out and she turned to see Kat waving to her from the stairs.
“Oh my goodness!” She ran over. “What’s going on?”
“I thought everyone was getting along and okay, but Mom started making snarky remarks about the food. Lucas overheard and went over to say something and then him and Dad sort of ganged up on her.”
“Uh-oh…”
“Yeah, so then that turned into a loud exchange, and Anna tried to get everyone to calm down and then her and my mom got into it.”
“How did all this happen without me noticing? I’ve only been up here for five minutes!” she wondered with a nervous laugh. “What do you need me to do?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. Anna stormed off and is in the media room with the kids and most of the guests sort of moved outside. I know there are heat lamps out there, but I’m sure they’d rather be inside where all the food and drinks are.”
“Good point.”
For a moment, she was at a total loss. She knew Mrs. Brooks would not hesitate for a moment to say something nasty to her if Holly went down to help, but she was going to have to deal with it.
“Okay, see if you can stall them—or at least get them to stop yelling—for five minutes.”
“Five minutes?” Kat asked with wide eyes. “They could kill each other by then!”
“But they won’t. I hope. Just…go. I’ll be down as fast as I can.”
“Um…”
“I promise, Kat. I’m on it.”
“Alright.”
Holly watched as she slowly made her way down the stairs before she ran back to the kitchen.
“Is everything okay?” Melissa asked, but Holly ran around gathering supplies and luckily her cousin didn’t stop or even ask questions after that.
“Wish me luck!”
Carefully, she made her way down the stairs just in time to hear:
“I have worked my Brazilian-lifted butt off for you for almost forty years, Spencer! And our son let some little nobody in payroll come and play house in my home! I’m upset! I’m offended! And I’m not going to pretend for one damn minute that it’s okay!”
Okay, that’s a bit harsher than I was expecting…
Doing her best to blend into the background, she put all her supplies in place, took a fortifying breath, and prepared herself for battle.
With her head held high, she stormed over to where Lucas and Kat were standing with his parents, and Mrs. Brooks glared at her hard.
Bring it…
“Excuse me, but I think we should maybe move this conversation to someplace a little more private,” she said softly. “No need to scare all the guests away or force them to stay outside.”
“Ms. Brown,” Camille began, “I’m sure my son appreciates all your hard work, but he had a goal in mind and that was saving his family and he used every means possible to make that happen.
It was very kind of you to help and keep him on task and make all of this happen, but…
this is a family matter and you’re not family. ”
“Mom!” Lucas said with exasperation.
“It’s fine, Lucas,” Holly assured him. “If your mother wants to keep airing her dirty laundry for your entire staff see and hear it, that’s her prerogative, I suppose.”
No one said a word for a moment, but then Mrs. Brooks nodded. “Fine. We’ll go up to our room, and…”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Holly said with a stiff smile. “Follow me.”
The downstairs of their home had a ton of smaller rooms off of the main one—the media room, two storage rooms, a gym, and then the stairs down to the wine cellar. She knew she’d never get them down to the cellar, so she went another way.
At the storage room where she and Lucas had found all the decorations, she opened the door and motioned for them to go in.
She followed the four of them in, carefully swiping the key from the spot next to the door.
She then silently motioned for Kat to leave and to take Lucas with her.
While they were on their way out and Spencer and Camille were looking around in confusion, Holly raced for the door and slammed it shut, grasping the doorknob with every ounce of strength she possessed, as she quickly locked it.
“Holy crap! What are you doing?” Lucas asked in shock.
“Locking them in!”
“But you said we couldn’t do that!”
“No, I said you couldn’t do it. No one said I couldn’t.” She smoothed a hand over her hair.
There was a ton of banging on the door, but no one wanted to respond to it. Everything had gone according to plan and she sighed with relief, feeling pretty proud of herself.
Only…Lucas didn’t look even remotely amused.
“Are you insane! You locked my parents in a closet!”
“Lucas, that room is enormous and it has furniture so they can sit, and I brought down a tray of refreshments. Believe me, they’re fine.”
The banging on the door said otherwise.
“Holly…”
“Look, your sister came up and didn’t know what to do, people are afraid to come inside because of the scene your parents were creating, so what was I supposed to do?”
Honestly, he had no idea. After they had talked about locking them in the wine cellar, he realized how ridiculous it was and had made his peace with it. Then she comes along and locks them in a storage room! The entire situation had gotten out of control, and he had no idea how to reel it back in.
“Personally, I think it’s awesome,” Kat said with a smile. “Thanks, Holly. You were a total badass.”
“Thanks!”
“This isn’t a good thing!” Lucas hissed. “Now everyone’s going to know that we locked our parents in a closet!”
“Okay, but they also now know that our mother is a crazy lunatic who is mean to people,” Kat reasoned. “I’ll bet if we asked for a show of hands, no one would be offended that we locked the two of them up.”
“So we need to do some damage control,” Holly said. “I’ll go outside and talk to everyone and convince them it’s fine to come back in and get them all excited about dessert, and you can try to talk to your parents and make them behave.”
And with that, she walked away.
“I really like her, Lucas,” Kat said as she hugged him. “That was freaking awesome!”
“Would you stop being happy about this? I can’t believe they made a scene!”
“Mom made a scene and was completely out of line. Everything here today was top-notch. For her to keep making nasty comments about everything was beyond rude, and if you ask me, locking her in the closet with Dad is almost too good for her.”
They were still banging on the door, and he sighed. “So what am I supposed to do? What can I possibly say to guarantee that they won’t come out here and ruin what’s left of the party? We know Dad would be fine, but we can’t bring him out and leave her in there. No matter how much we may want to.”
“Truthfully? Dad needs to be in there with her because they need to talk. And that’s what you need to say to them. Then we’ll crank up the Christmas music and maybe see about moving dessert upstairs.”
“Maybe…”
“You talk to Mom and Dad; I’ll deal with the caterer.” She kissed his cheek. “Good luck!”
It took a solid minute before he forced himself to go over to the door.
“Lucas! Kat! Open this door right now! This is unacceptable!” his mother raged. “And I want that woman fired! Fired, do you hear me? I’ll have her arrested for assault!”
And that’s when he realized he’d had enough.
“You’re in there because of your awful behavior! Now deal with it!” he snapped. “The two of you have been behaving horribly and you need to talk like rational adults, and I’m not letting you out until you do!”
“I’ve done no such thing!” his father chimed in.
“You and Mom need to talk this through. You allowed your personal business to spill over into this party and showed a side of yourselves to our employees that you should be ashamed of! And as for Holly? No one’s firing her and she most certainly didn’t assault anyone!”
“She shoved me in a closet!”
“She never laid a hand on you, Mom! And she even made sure there was food and drinks there for you! That’s hardly assault!”
“Oh, hey! Look at that!” his father said jovially. “Cami, look! She brought those cranberry and brie bites that you love so much and the smoked salmon crostini!”
His mother mumbled something, but Lucas couldn’t make it out.
All he knew was that they were suddenly quiet and no longer banging on the door, so he felt like it was safe to walk away.
When he turned, he noticed that everyone was heading up the stairs and he hoped that meant that Kat had moved the party up there and that everyone wasn’t leaving.
He wanted to follow but felt like maybe he should wait a few more minutes. So he sat down on the nearest chair and stared at the door.
That’s where Holly found him.
“Hey,” she said softly, hesitantly. “Are you still mad at me?”
Lucas held out his hand to her and when she took it, he gently guided her to sit beside him. “I wasn’t mad; I was a little in shock. I wasn’t expecting you to do something like that.”
“They deserved it.”
“They?”
“Well, your mom certainly did. I don’t mind her picking on me because—let’s face it—she’s probably feeling a little threatened because I took over the party. But when she started talking so negatively about the party and the food? That’s where I drew the line.”
Looking at her, Lucas slowly wrapped his arm around her.
“My family tends to be non-confrontational. These last few weeks have been exhausting because no matter how much my parents were throwing at me with their personal stuff, I never felt good about pushing back. I mean, I did. A little. But what you just did? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before in my life. ”
She giggled. “Believe me, I never did anything like that before in my life. All I knew was that I had worked my butt off for this party and they were ruining it. Well, your mom was.” She grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Hey, you’re not lying. I’m actually embarrassed by their behavior and I can’t even imagine what everyone is upstairs thinking.”
“Oh, yeah. Kat moved the party upstairs. Melissa and her staff are setting everything up. It won’t be as organized as it was down here, but I think it’s for the best until things calm down.”
He nodded.
“Do you want me to stay down here with you, or…”
“Why don’t we both go upstairs and enjoy the rest of the party? Maybe by the time everyone leaves, we’ll be able to let these two out.”
“Sounds like a plan.”