“What?”
Her son stood across the patio, leaning on the wooden house so casually that he appeared to be on a makeshift movie set. Taking it all in—the alone time she thought she had and the sadness in his eyes—she worried.
“Emma and her family. They create so much noise and chaos that I can’t believe they don’t notice it, like you or I.”
“I’m not out here for that. I actually like it. I think they do, but after years of being that way, they probably don’t notice.”
She smiled, admiring his ability to see through what most ignored. “You’re probably right. Good call, Steven.”
A pang of sorrow struck her deep in her chest, feeling she might have wronged him by not having a big family and a house full of chaos. “You seem sad. Do you need to talk?”
His eye roll, a classic Steven trait, didn't make her flinch at all. “No. Mom, I don’t need to have an in-depth conversation like when I was little with you when I have something on my mind. I love you, but you're suffocating me.”
She hated that word because everything about it seemed to screamhelicopter mom. Choked up by how it made her feel, she turned her head away to admire nature and think.
“Well, I’m not trying to do that. I was just seeing how you look, and at a time like this, I thought maybe you could use someone to talk to. If not me, then Brandon or Emma or whoever.”
“I get it, and I don’t really think I need you to tell me that. I know I can go to them or whoever—you know I do have friends, too.”
Inside, Angela bristled at the thought of her son going to someone else to reveal things she believed she should know. Still, in her heart, she knew that didn’t matter, even if it hurt her.
A buildup of difficult emotions was ready to burst forth from somewhere she couldn’t identify. The struggle was real, and tapping her hands on the side of the chair did nothing to alleviate it.
Work was her outlet for perfectionism. Now that she had nowhere to go with it, and her phone was missing, Angela didn’t know what to do. “Well, that’s good, Steven. I’m happy for you. I love you, you know that.”
She felt the footsteps more than heard them as he approached. When she turned, Steven was right beside her. “Seems to me you might need someone to talk to.”
“Actually, I just need to get back to work and bury all this. It's the only way I can ever get anything done. The relationship I had with your grandfather wasn’t easy, and it hurt me just as much as it hurt you. Maybe it hurt him, too, even though he didn’t admit it.”
She saw the sympathy in his eyes just before he masked it and looked away. “Yeah, well, I can’t help with that. This whole place is a mystery to me, and I’m kind of just along for the ride since you made me come. So it’s more like a vacation thanmourning for my family. Can’t say I would have picked this place, but it has its charm, I guess.”
Angela struggled to keep her composure, the emotions inside clashing with the coldness outside, not just in the air and atmosphere. She gripped the chair. “Well, I’m glad it's a vacation for you. Are you planning on getting a real job when we get back home?”
He moved away, walking carelessly to the edge of the patio. The jacket he wore, fluttering in the cold breeze, reminded her of their strained relationship.
“I know you’ve built your career working yourself to death, Mom. You’ve hardly taken a vacation during all my childhood, but that’s not how I want to live. I want a life, not one driven by work.”
She regarded his profile, thankful he was finally talking to her. “I understand.”
“I’m not sure what I want to do, and you hounding me isn’t going to make me figure it out. I need time, and I’m not as lazy as you think I am.”
“I don’t think?—”
“Yes, you do, and you know it. Heck, I do, too, but that’s not the point. I have things on my mind that you wouldn’t understand, and that’s just one of them. If you could stop hounding me about this, I will eventually figure it out. I’m not looking to freeload off you forever. You act like I’m thirty-five or something.”
She swallowed the retort, ready to let it slip off her tongue—a knee-jerk response from dealing with his struggles alone all these years. “Sorry, but being here should give you time. I know you and Grandpa weren’t really anything to each other but blood, but Mistletoe Harbor is a beautiful place. And Emma is determined to have a Christmas like we used to, when our mom was alive.”
“Why can’t we just go home now? I don’t really want to be here; I don’t really want to celebrate Christmas with them, as much as I love Aunt Emma and her family.”
“Because then we wouldn’t all be together, and I have a lot of other things to do. I have to help Emma get this place cleaned up and figure out what’s happening. Grandpa didn’t have a will, and all of this is left to us. We’re going to be here for a while, though I might take a break here and then go home quickly and come back. Not sure yet. It's a lot, and it depends on how my staff handles things.”
“Maybe I should go.”
“You know how I feel about that. And while I don’t control you, Steven, you're a grown man. I am here to support you, and I really need your help around here. There is too much for us all to do and not enough strong arms to do it.”
Speaking the truth from her heart and from a family-oriented mindset helped Angela, who wasn’t going to let Steven off the hook on this one.
“Fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going for a walk.”
