Chapter 19
Nineteen
It was a little after ten, and the last of the guests had just left. All around the house, Melissa’s staff was cleaning and packing things up. Holly, Lucas, Anna, and Kat all stood in the entryway dreading going down to let Spencer and Camille out.
“Look, your parents are already mad at me,” Holly said. “I can go down and let them out.”
“No, no, no…you already had to be the bad guy when it should have been one of us,” Anna told her. “I think we should all go down and just…yank the bandage off. Or…you know…unlock the door.”
Slowly, they made their way down the stairs and over to the storage room door.
“Should we do rock, paper, scissors to decide who unlocks it?” Kat asked.
“We’re not children, Kat,” Lucas said wearily before looking at Holly.
“I really want to do it,” she told him. “And besides, it’s quiet now. Maybe they’ve both calmed down and will come out here and apologize for causing such a scene.”
“Are you sure, Holly?” Anna asked. “They really aren’t your problem. You should be running for freedom right about now.”
She knew Anna was teasing. “I like to finish what I start,” she assured her. “So…why don’t you three stand back and I’ll throw myself on the grenade?”
“Holly…”
She wasn’t listening and simply waved off their concerns. Quietly, she took the key from the hook and listened at the door for a moment. When she didn’t hear anything, she carefully unlocked the door and stepped inside.
“Ohmygoodness!” she cried. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Then ran out of the room, tossing the key at Lucas.”
“What in the world…?” he asked, taking her in his arms. Kat ran to the door and screeched before running back out with her hands over her eyes.
“For God’s sake, you two!” Kat yelled.
“What?” Anna demanded. “What’s going on?”
“They’re doing it!” Kat snapped. “Ugh! I feel like I need to wash my eyes with bleach or go vomit or something!”
Lucas continued to hold her, but they both started to chuckle. It wasn’t funny—not really—but considering the situation just a couple of hours ago, this was quite the turn of events.
“For crying out loud! Can’t a husband and his wife have a little privacy without their kids walking in on them? And Holly?” Spencer asked with bashful amusement.
While also adjusting his pants.
Good grief…
“Your mother’s not going to come out if you all can’t control yourselves. Now…I’m sorry that you…you know…saw what you saw,” he said, looking directly at Holly and then at Kat. “But we’re not going to discuss it because what we were doing is none of your business.”
“Tell that to my brain,” Kat murmured.
“Kat…” Anna whined. “Please.”
Sighing dramatically, Kat sat down with a huff. “Fine.”
“Good,” Spencer said, turning and going back into the storage room. He was speaking softly and probably trying to convince Camille to come out and face her children.
“Maybe I should go,” Holly whispered to Lucas, but he held her tight.
Okay, then…
Camille appeared with her hand in Spencer’s. She shot Holly a hard glare, but quickly put an awkward smile on her face.
And then you could have heard a pin drop.
Holly knew she had dozens of questions racing through her mind, but this certainly wasn’t the time for her to take the lead. Fortunately, Lucas was the one to break the silence.
“Uh…okay. So…did you guys talk?” he nervously asked.
“And no one better say dirty talk,” Kat warned, and everyone groaned.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Spencer said quietly. “While this entire situation tonight was a bit unorthodox, it forced your mother and I to have a conversation. And…”
“I’m sorry, but…I feel like this is a family matter and…” Pausing, Camille looked pointedly at Holly.
Lucas’s arm banded tightly around Holly’s waist. “She’s not leaving, Mom.
She knows everything that’s going on, and it was Holly’s idea from the beginning to use the party to get you and Dad back together.
None of this would be possible without her.
Plus…I love her. She’s family, and she’s not going anywhere. ”
Holly gasped with surprise as she turned and looked at him. “You…you love me?”
He nodded. “I do,” he softly whispered, caressing her cheek. “So much.”
“Oh my goodness…” she sighed happily.
“I know I should have waited until we were alone, but I wanted you and everyone to know it. I’m in love with you, Holly Brown. Utterly and completely in love with you.”
Tears stung her eyes and she reached up and pressed her lips to his, sinking into a kiss so tender, so perfect that it didn’t matter that they weren’t alone.
Until multiple people cleared their throats.
“We’ll get back to that later,” she promised him with a wink. “Clearly there are other issues that need to be dealt with.”
The boyish grin he gave her made her want to lean in and kiss him again, but she refrained.
“As I was saying,” Spencer said with a very pleased look on his face. “Tonight was the first time in a very long time—possibly years—that your mother and I had a conversation about us. Not work, not travel, not upcoming parties, but…us. To say it was long overdue is an understatement.”
“Why don’t we all sit down?” Anna suggested. “Not upstairs because the caterer and her staff are still cleaning up, but down here.”
They all shifted to one of the larger seating areas and sat down, and this time it was Camille who spoke.
“I resented all the time your father spent at the office or traveling for work. And instead of talking to him about it, I turned into someone that I’m ashamed of.
I was hostile and snarky and spiteful. Your father’s worked so hard to give us this wonderful life and we have everything we could ever want, but I kept thinking I had to let everyone know what we had.
” She shook her head. “I created a version of our lives that people would envy, but it was without love. It was soulless.”
“And I never told your mother how much I appreciated all that she did to make our lives so beautiful, so that’s on me. She always made it look so effortless and I took it for granted that it was actually very hard work for her.”
Camille smiled sadly. “And then Holly comes in and does a fabulous job in a quarter of the time,” she said, her voice a bit wobbly. “That’s why I was so upset. I walked in and it was like I was completely replaceable.”
“Mom, no one was trying to replace you,” Lucas said, his voice gentle and reassuring.
“But Holly…”
“Mrs. Brooks, the only reason I could do anything is because you laid the groundwork and did all the hard stuff,” Holly told her. “I didn’t have to come up with anything from scratch or figure out all the minor details because you did that already. I was merely following in your footsteps.”
“Thank you for saying that, dear. And I’m sorry I’ve been so rude to you. The party tonight was truly wonderful, and…” Pausing, she smiled bashfully. “I think your caterer is better than mine!”
Relief washed over her and she immediately jumped up from her spot next to Lucas and went over to hug his mother. “Thank you for saying that. I truly just wanted you to show up and see all the beautiful things that you created.”
When she sat back down, Lucas kissed her before pulling her in close.
“You’re very sweet,” Camille said. “Anyway, I feel like I’ve ruined everything and while it was my intention—because I was being spiteful—I don’t know how to fix everything.”
“Holly?” Melissa called from upstairs.
That was her cue to maybe let the family have some time to themselves. She quietly excused herself—kissing Lucas one more time—and made her way up the stairs.
The house was suddenly quiet, except for the faint sound of carols playing in the background.
Considering the noise level of the last several hours, it almost felt strange.
Everything had turned out the way he had hoped and planned, but there was still more that needed to be said.
And maybe he wasn’t the only one to feel it because tension seemed to hang in the air like smoke.
Standing, he strolled over to the fireplace to collect his thoughts.
“Lucas?” his father queried. “Are you alright?”
And there was his opening. “Yes and no.”
Pausing, he saw his sisters nod in understanding.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the way things turned out, but…I don’t want this to be just a temporary truce, and then we go back to being the stoic Brooks family who looks good on a holiday card.”
His parents both looked at him, stunned. But now that he started, he knew he had to keep going, doing his best even as his voice shook.
“You think Christmas is about having the perfect dinner or getting the seating chart just right? About proving who remembers what gift or who said what five years ago?” He took a step closer to the tree, glancing at the ornaments—generic, impersonal, but beautiful.
“Christmas is about presence, not presents. It’s about peace and kindness and those fragile little moments where people who’ve hurt each other still show up anyway.
It’s about light in the dark and hope when things feel broken. ”
He looks from his mother to his father.
“I didn’t know any of that until this past month.
I spent Thanksgiving with Holly’s family and then we decorated her tree and watched Christmas movies, and…
we sang carols and listened to the story of the baby in the manger who didn’t come to a palace but to a barn.
And that’s when I realized it wasn’t about perfection—it was about love. ”
He paused again, feeling oddly emotional. The only sound is the quiet hum of “O Holy Night” from the other room.
“So maybe… just for tonight…we can remember that. And be here. Really be here. For us. For each other. Not because everything’s okay, but because we’re still here. Together.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He turned and glanced toward the stairs.