Free Hating Christmas (Holiday Series) by Carol Rose Page B

longer….”
    “Longer doesn’t mean better. We knew each other when
we were kids,” her mother said placidly.
    Holly clenched her jaws to keep from pointing out
that shorter was almost guaranteed to mean the opposite. She’d
tried to dissuade her mother from taking this step when she’d
gotten the original phone call in Zambia before the ceremony.
    Her mother sighed as she placed a frosted giant glass
acorn ornament near the top of the tree. “I just wish Levi wasn’t
so worried about his father. I’d never do him like Rebecca
did.”
    Straightening from the ornament box, Holly frowned at
her mother. “Who?”
    Audrey sighed again. “Rebecca. She was the woman
Michael married not long after Levi’s mother took off. She was a
little younger than he was and poor Levi just bonded with her.”
    Shaking her head at the jarring image of the dark
sexy guy upstairs as “poor Levi”, she handed her mother the last
ornament. “What do you mean?”
    Her mother carefully hung the twig ornament—made by
Holly when she was in grade school—before she turned back to her
daughter. “Levi connected to this woman after his mom abandoned
them and then when Michael and she had been married only two years,
it came out that she was stealing money from his checking account
and she’d run up a huge debt on his credit card. He’d given her
jewelry, too. Expensive stuff, which was all she liked.”
    Bracing the step stool for her mom, Holly said, “What
happened?”
    “She just left. Took the jewelry and left, without a
word to Michael or Levi. It was in November, I think, and Michael
had to pick up the pieces as best he could. I think it took him
several years to pay off the debt.”
    “No wonder,” Holly said, half to herself. “And did
Michael and she marry quickly?”
    Audrey cast her daughter a comprehending, admonishing
glance before admitting, “I think they did.”
    “Okay.” Holly just wondered if Levi could be
convinced of the difference.
    ***
    “Well”, Michael said a little awkwardly to Holly,
“guess it’s just you and me…”
    He placed his palms on his knees, sitting on the
couch opposite her as if he wished he could be anywhere else.
    Guilt did that to some people. She hadn’t seen him
since the big blow up earlier and a constraint now settled between
them.
    “Yes, just us.” Holly tried not to sound forbidding,
settling for cool. She and her mother were close, having faced the
world together after her father’s death. Her mom might have
forgiven the guy, but Holly hadn’t forgotten the nasty things she’d
overheard him yell at her mother.
    “Your mom made us a nice Sunday dinner for this
evening. Rump roast. Peas. Mashed potatoes….” His voice trailed
off. “Can’t imagine what’s keeping her and Levi. He said he had
some phone calls to make back to the coast. Boy’s always making
phone calls.”
    As a teen, she’d both dreaded her mother remarrying
and saw the value in it, not wanting her mother to go on being
lonely. That was when she was a kid. Now, she had no question about
it. She was out of the house and her mother’s marriage wouldn’t
affect her directly, but she didn’t like her mom being upset the
way she’d been with Michael earlier.
    “Your mom said she was just going to change out of
her slacks,” he said, sounding a little desperate.
    Holly didn’t respond to this remark.
    “Listen,” Levi’s dad said suddenly. “I know you heard
your mother and I having our disagreement this morning—“
    “Is that what you call it?” Holly lifted her
eyebrows.
    Michael had the grace to look ashamed and regretful.
“Okay, we were fighting. I don’t know what your mom told you, but I
took exception to—“
    She waved a hand. “No need to explain. It’s between
you and mom.”
    “But I want you to understand,” he insisted. “I love
your mother and I felt rejected by your her response to my
Christmas gift.”
    “The cruise?”
    “Yes, yes,” he said eagerly, as if