Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Was it the right call?
Colin asked himself that question over and over as he waited for Holly to get ready. Luckily, Tater Tot was there to keep him company.
He honestly didn’t want to go to lunch with Billie Jean and Roger. In fact, he could think of a lot of other things he’d rather do, like clean his bathroom or watch paint dry on his dining room wall.
And then he looked at Holly. He saw the flash of hope in her eyes when Billie Jean apologized for their other meal. He wanted this to work out for Holly, but he couldn’t shake this bad feeling he had.
He couldn’t help but think Billie Jean and Roger had shown Holly who they truly are.
But either Holly was blind when it came to them or she believed in second and third chances, even at her own expense.
He was worried about how she’d react when they once more showed their true colors.
Whatever happened, he’d be there for Holly.
The bedroom door opened, and Holly stepped into the living room in a pair of jeans and a red knit sweater with a white silhouette of Christmas trees and reindeer. He couldn’t help but smile.
“What?” She looked down at her outfit. “I wanted to look festive.”
“And you do.” He got to his feet and stepped over to her. “When I stopped by, I had two questions for you.”
“What were they?”
“Well, the first is do you want to go to lunch?”
“And my answer is yes. I’m sorry we won’t be alone. I just feel like if I don’t get this right with Billie Jean and Roger that I’ll never see them again.”
He nodded. “I understand. And it’s not a problem.”
“Thank you for being so understanding. Did you hear her apologize?” A smile lifted the corners of her rosy lips. When he nodded, Holly said, “It meant a lot. So, what’s your second question?”
“Would you like to go caroling with me—well, with some of my family—this evening?”
She smiled and nodded. “Yes. I would.”
His gaze searched hers. “You don’t have to say yes because I’m going to lunch with you.”
“I’m not. I truly want to go. I haven’t been caroling since I was a little girl.
I used to go with my grandmother. But then as Gran’s arthritis got worse, she couldn’t walk all that way in the cold.
She would tell me to go without her, but it just didn’t feel right.
So, I’d stay home with her, and we’d bake cookies and watch holiday movies. ”
“Gran was a special lady.”
“I agree. We better go.” After they were in his pickup on the way to the café, she said, “I have an idea. We can invite my parents to go caroling with us.” When he didn’t say anything, she asked, “What do you think?”
“That you should see how things go before you ask them.”
She nodded. “Yes. That’s good advice.”
He found a parking spot close to the café. They arrived first, so they got a table in the corner. He resisted the urge to pull out his phone and start scrolling like he would normally do. Today, Holly needed him to be fully present.
He glanced over to find her rearranging the flatware on the paper placemat. “Relax. Everything is going to be okay.”
“I know. It’s just that nothing has gone well so far.”
He reached out and put his hand over hers. He gave her a squeeze. “Stop worrying. If it doesn’t work out, it isn’t going to be your fault.”
“But I keep jumping to the wrong conclusions about them. Maybe it’s echoes of my grandmother, who didn’t trust them.”
This conversation wasn’t helping her to relax. He needed to change the subject. “What are you going to get for lunch?”
“Uh…I don’t know.”
He reached for two of the laminated menus in the holder behind the napkin dispenser. He handed her one, and he took the other. For a couple of minutes, they quietly perused the menu. It wasn’t like they didn’t know it by heart after eating there throughout their entire lives.
“I’m going to get the club sandwich and fries.” He returned his menu to the holder.
“That sounds good. Maybe I’ll have it too.” She handed him her menu.
The door opened, and in walked her parents.
He had no idea how this meal was going to go, so he once more reached over to Holly.
He took her hand in his own and laced his fingers with hers.
Colin wanted her to know he was there for her.
He would be her rock if she needed it. And if things worked out, he would cheer with her.
She glanced at him with widened eyes, but she didn’t say a word. She didn’t remove her hand from his clasp. In fact, she ended up squeezing his hand.
“Hello, you two.” Billie Jean sat down across from Colin. “Sorry, we’re late. We had an important business call just as we were going out the door.”
“Billie Jean,” Roger said, “we don’t want to talk about that now.”
She nodded. “You’re right.” She reached for the menus. “Did you two pick out what you’re eating?”
“We did,” Holly said.
Was it just him or did Holly’s voice sound a little off? A little higher pitch than normal?
“Okay.” Billie Jean scanned the front and back of the small menu. A couple minutes later, she said, “I know what I’m having.”
Just then the server walked up to their table. Roger insisted they go ahead and order. By the time they got to him, he’d picked out a double-decker burger with onion rings.
And though the conversation was awkward at first, eventually the conversation turned to a trip down memory lane.
Billie Jean told them what she remembered about Kringle Falls, since it was her childhood home.
She’d run off with Roger at the age of seventeen.
According to her, the place looked different—more built up—but at the heart of it, Kringle Falls was still a small town.
Colin only spoke when addressed. Other than that, he observed this strange and sometimes painfully awkward family dynamic.
If he didn’t know that Holly was their daughter, he wouldn’t have guessed it.
Holly smiled and laughed a couple of times.
She was blatantly attempting to make inroads with them.
“Would you like to go caroling this evening?” Holly asked her parents.
His mother’s mouth opened before she wordlessly closed it. She looked over at Roger, who cleared his throat. “I’m afraid we can’t. We have important things to do.”
Ouch. Did he just imply that spending time with his long-lost daughter wasn’t important? Colin hoped that wasn’t the way Holly took it, but one glance at her let him know that was exactly how she took it.
Holly pushed aside her half-eaten meal. “That’s okay.” She glanced over at Colin. “Are you ready to go?”
Even if he wasn’t finished eating, he would have agreed.
“Wait,” Billie Jean said. “We have some business to discuss.”
Holly’s brows scrunched together. “We don’t have any business together.”
Billie Jean narrowed her gaze on Holly. “We need to discuss the sale of the apartment and store.”
For a second, Holly didn’t say anything. It was as though the words had blindsided her. It took a moment for her to get over the sucker punch. But when it passed, her lips pressed into a firm line as she ever so slightly tilted her chin upward. Her eyes glinted with anger.
“There’s nothing to discuss.” Holly’s voice was firm and clear.
“We appreciate you taking care of everything until we could make it back here.” Billie Jean smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “But now we need the money for our next project.”
“Taking care of everything?” Holly looked at Billie Jean like she was losing her marbles. “Do you even know what ‘taking care of everything’ entails?” Emotion made her voice waver.
“Well, you sold the house,” Billie Jean said. “I hope you held out for a good price. We’ll be needing all of the proceeds.”
Colin swallowed hard. He wasn’t one to get into people’s faces. He liked to keep things civil, but there were some cases where that wasn’t possible. This was one of those times.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” He glared at both Billie Jean and Roger.
Holly placed a hand on his thigh, stopping him from saying more. And he had a whole lot more he wanted to say to these two horrible, greedy people. How did these two heartless people get together and give birth to the sweetest, most thoughtful daughter? It boggled his mind.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Her childhood Christmas wish of being reunited with her parents had morphed into a nightmare right before her eyes. Holly felt as though she’d been sucker punched. The food in her stomach sat there like a great big lump.
She felt gullible and too trusting. Why did she think they could start over? Why did she think these people were going to be genuine and caring?
She inwardly groaned in rage and frustration.
She was so angry. Though that fury was mostly directed at herself.
She shouldn’t have let down her defenses.
Her grandmother had warned her time and again not to trust her parents.
Her grandmother had said it was a sad state of affairs when you couldn’t trust your own flesh and blood, but it didn’t make it any less true.
Instead of remembering her grandmother’s sage words, she’d let herself get all caught up in milk and cookie wishes.
Now that Billie Jean had ripped the rose-colored glasses from Holly’s face, she could at last see them clearly. They were self-centered, greedy people. And she would never ever trust them again.
If they thought they were going to take her home and the business that her grandmother had entrusted to her, it wasn’t going to happen. And not because she couldn’t make a life for herself in another town, doing another job.
She would fight them tooth and nail because her grandmother would roll over in her grave if she knew these two worthless people stole the Kringle Soap Co.
, where her grandmother and great-grandmother had invested their hearts and souls.
Holly owed her grandmother this much. So, if it meant spending every last penny, she would fight them to the bitter end.
“None of it belongs to you,” Billie Jean said in an eerily calm voice, as though it were a foregone conclusion.
“I was her daughter. Her daughter. Therefore everything belongs to me. I know this won’t be easy for you, but surely you didn’t think you were going to continue to get a free ride, did you? ”
Really? Holly reeled at the audacity of this lady. How dare she think that she is deserving of anything that belonged to Gran? Billie Jean didn’t do one thing for her mother except cause her heartache.
Holly wanted to yell at their audacity. She wanted to have a total meltdown, but they didn’t deserve that much energy. And so she summoned the persona she used when she had the most contrary customer.
“I don’t think you understand,” Holly said, restraining her anger. “There is a will and Gran left everything to me.”
Roger leaned forward. “And I don’t know how much money from the sale of the house you spent, but we’ll be needing it. All of it. Don’t try to cheat us.”
“How dare you come here, demanding things that don’t belong to either of you,” Holly said. “You’ve been gone for years—for my whole life. You didn’t love her. And you never loved me.”
Anger flared in Billie Jean’s eyes. “You don’t know anything about love. It’s nothing you can count on. My mother didn’t love me after I broke her ridiculous rules. She didn’t understand how much I hated this town and needed to find a place where I belonged.”
A heavy silence fell over their table. Holly felt Colin’s stiff body next to her.
She hated that he’d had a front row seat for the final decimation of her family.
After this moment, she was an orphan by choice, because these two people in front of her were not her parents.
They didn’t want to be her family. And she didn’t want them to be her family. It was time to end this charade.
“I’m not giving you the apartment or the store.” Holly’s voice was low but full of angry vibes. “I’m going to give you exactly what you’ve given me throughout my life. Nothing.”
“We will sue you,” Roger said. “We will take everything you have.”
“Do whatever you need to do.” She got up and walked away.
She didn’t know if Colin followed her. She couldn’t pause to look back, because it was all she could do to hold her head high. Her legs had a mind of their own as she headed for the door. The next thing she knew the cold metal of the handle was in her hand, and she was yanking the door open.
It wasn’t until she was outside in the cold air and snow that she realized she hadn’t bothered to put her coat on. She couldn’t go back. She couldn’t face them again.
She kept walking. The cold air felt good against her heated skin. And at last, she could take a deep breath.
Her childhood Christmas wish was over. It was shattered into a million jagged ugly pieces.