“Tell me about them, then.”
“Mom, ugh. She did the best she could. Dad passed away when I was a teenager, and I was not an easy child.”
“Who is?”
“My younger brother, according to my family. But he’s also a dick.”
“In general or to you?”
I pulled his feet into my lap and rubbed them, trying to make him more comfortable. Finally, he sighed. “My whole family—all conservatives in a conservative town. I am the antithesis of conservative.” He waited a moment, maybe gathering his thoughts, so I gave him the space he needed. Finally, he sat up and held my hand, while his trembled. “They weren’t nice to me last year. Mostly because of Tony.”
“That’s your brother?”
He nodded. “He’s always been a jerk, even when we were kids. You’d swear he was the older brother, picking on me. But last year. Gah! He basically picked apart my life, threw it in my face and rubbed it in, while the family watched on with complete apathy.”
“That doesn’t sound nice.”
“It wasn’t, but not one of them reached out to me since. Not one. So, yeah. Fuck them.”
“Well, you don’t have to call them. If you do, do it because you want to and not because you think you have to for them. Obviously, they’re not interested in what’s best for you.”
“Good. I’m not going to call.” He crossed his arms over his chest in stubborn defiance. Well, I sure as hell wasn’t going to make him call them.
“You don’t have to have people in your life who are toxic, even if they’re family.”
“Thanks.” He leaned against my shoulder, and I wrapped my arm around him. That conversation left me wanting to make Joey feel special. He deserved it.
My plan started with a nice ham dinner for two. The food was delicious, but the company was better. We talked about our lives and interests, getting to know each other even more. But then, one last Christmas surprise that I’d held off on to make it better. “Come upstairs with me?”
“Sure.” He squeezed my hand when I grabbed his. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll see.”
He huffed a little, which was super cute, as I led him up the stairs and to the door closest to the back of the house. It had an attached bathroom and a large closet, though not as big as the master, and I’d put a daybed in there as well as paint one of the walls a dark, navy blue. There were also plenty of shelves and a big toy box, and most importantly, floor space where he couldplay. It had been a challenge to do it secretly with as much time as we had been spending together, but I thought I’d pulled it off. “Ready?”
“Is this what I think it is?” He hesitated, shifting his weight from left to right and back.
“Go in and see.” I pushed the door open for him to enter.
He gasped as he went in and spun around. “How did you do this?”
“I’ll never tell.”
“Wow.” He ran around, inspecting the empty shelves and opening the also-empty toy box. “There’s nothing here.”
“Nope. It’s all downstairs right now, but I expect you’ll migrate everything up, including what you brought from your place.”
He jumped up and down. “Yes!” Then he jumped at me, and I caught him as he wrapped his legs around my waist. He was skinny but tall, and for half a second, I was afraid we’d fall. But I planted my feet and gripped him tightly.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, yes, yes.” He punctuated his words with kisses on my face. “I love it. I almost forgot I had toys downstairs cuz I was so excited.” He kissed my nose and cheeks. Then I captured his lips.
“Do you want to start moving your things while I fix us some hot cocoa?”
“Oh. That sounds great. Can we drink it in front of the tree?”
“Of course.” We’d had the treat when we put up the decorations earlier in the week, and he’d enjoyed it. “And we still have marshmallows, too.”
