Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 22967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
She seems grateful for my apology. “Thank you. Two years was a long time to be without my only child.”
“I know,” I say, lowering my head. “The longer I stayed, the harder it was to come back.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” she says. “Christmas hasn’t been the same without you.”
I smile sadly at her. “I spent last Christmas eating canned Spaghetti in a hostel with a bunch of Japanese people who didn’t even know it was Christmas.”
I get all teary-eyed just thinking about it. Mom rushes down the stairs in her slippers and hugs me. I sink into her thick sweater, breathing in the familiar scent of her perfume, and the tears start coming.
She cries too. We’ve always been criers. I can still remember my dad chuckling whenever we’d both start balling over a sappy movie. I wonder if Brandon is a crier. If soulmates exist do they cry at the same things?
We talk it out some more and then we both decide to move on. I made mistakes, and so did she. There’s no point in dwelling on them and poisoning what we have left. We decide to put our big girl pants on and move past it.
“I bet they didn’t have my world-famous gingerbread cookies in that hostel in Australia,” Mom says as she grips my arms and smiles at me.
I wipe the tears from my cheeks. “No, they definitely did not.”
“I have some in the kitchen waiting to be decorated,” she says with a grin.
I hug her again.
I’ve missed her so much. I didn’t realize how much until now.
Christmas was always such a big event in our house. We had a gazillion traditions from decorating cookies to decorating the tree to singing Christmas carols and wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. I’ve missed them all. So so much.
“Let’s get inside where it’s nice and warm,” she says, grabbing one of my suitcases. “I want to hear all about Australia.”
“And I want to meet my new family.”
She turns and smiles gratefully at me. “Brandon is inside. He’s excited to meet you.”
I doubt that. He’s probably dreading having to meet his bratty stepdaughter who skipped his wedding and fled to the other side of the planet, causing his new wife a ton of stress.
“But you’ll have to meet August in a bit,” she says. “He’s out getting the Christmas tree.”
I’ve been so nervous to reconnect with my mother that I haven’t given much thought to my new stepbrother. I don’t know anything about him.
Actually, I do know that he’s twenty-five, so four years older than me.
I don’t really want an annoying stepbrother getting in the way of our holiday celebrations, but he’s probably thinking the same thing about me.
We’re just going to have to suck it up, plaster smiles on our faces, and try to get along for the sake of our parents.
Hopefully, it won’t be too hard. Hopefully, he’s not too much of a dork.
I grab my suitcase and follow my mother inside.
Chapter Two
Harmony
Brandon is surprisingly handsome. He flashes me a big warm smile as I shake his hand for the first time. A bouncy golden retriever named Lucy is sitting at his feet and looking up at him with these big happy eyes like Brandon is the most amazing thing she’s ever seen.
My mother is looking at him the same way. She can’t not smile whenever she looks at him. I’ve never seen her like this. It’s actually pretty heartwarming to see. She giggles and slaps his arm all flirty like whenever he tells a joke and she can’t seem to take her hands off him. She’s always touching his arm or his back and she sits right beside him when we move to the couches in the living room.
It’s pretty cute.
Although, I can’t help but wonder if her marriage with my dad would have gone better if she was all flirty and fun with him like this. I never once saw her acting like she is now. Maybe if she had put more effort into her first marriage it wouldn’t have fallen apart.
“So, how was Australia?” Brandon asks as he scratches behind Lucy’s ear. That dog is in heaven. “I traveled around there for six months when I was younger.”
“You never told me that,” Mom says, looking up at him in awe.
“I was with an ex-girlfriend,” Brandon says with a sly grin. “I didn’t want to make you jealous.”
She playfully swats his arm as her cheeks go red. “I’m not jealous.”
Yeah, right.
“Where did you go?” I ask.
“Up the coast,” he says. “We lived out of an old Winnebago we bought for five hundred bucks. It was as nice as it sounds.”
My mom giggles as she holds his arm a little tighter.
Watching them is surreal. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. They really are in love. Anyone can see that.