I spend the next fifteen minutes bringing down everything she asked for.
When I’m finished, I follow her into the kitchen.
She hands me a bottle of water before we sit down.
“Mom, you know I never mind coming over to help you out with stuff, but do you want to tell me why I’m bringing down Christmas decorations when it’s not even Halloween?”
Her eyes avoid mine while she picks at her fingernails.
“Mom?” I prompt.
“I think I’m going to go through all of it.” She pauses a moment. “Maybe it’s time to get rid of some.”
I’m a little lost for words because this is extremely out of character for my mother.
“Mom, what’s going on? You love Christmas. It’s your favorite time of year, and you always go all out.”
“Honey, itwasmy favorite time of year. Now, it’s just hard without your dad and brother.”
Okay, now we are getting somewhere.
“Mom, I know you miss them. We all do, but I want you to think about what either one of them would say if you told them you were going to give up all of your Christmas festivities?”
A small smile pulls at her lips. “Well, your dad would listen to me talk about it for a while and then talk me down off the ledge like he always did. And Brian probably would’ve waited until I left the house and then decorated the whole thing for me to come home to.”
“And knowing how anal you are about those decorations, you’d redo every last one of them, and by the time you finished, you’d be back in the Christmas spirit.”
She laughs while thinking about it. “Lord, I miss them.”
“Me too. But not that long ago, you told me I couldn’t stop living my life. They wouldn’t want us to.”
“I know.” She nods. “It just hardly seems worth it to go all out for just the two of us.”
I gasp and do my best to act offended. “Oh, it’s totally going to be worth it.”
“How so?”
“Because I don’t care if I have to come over here every single day to celebrate with you. We’ll bake cookies and watch Christmas movies. We’ll do all of it. I’ll make sure you’re in the Christmas spirit.”
She cracks a small smile. “Oh, is that right?”
“Damn straight.”
She still doesn’t look entirely convinced, so I add, “Just think about it, okay? For now, we’ll leave all the boxes down here. Maybe if you start going through them, it’ll make you feel a bit more festive.”
After another pregnant pause, she says, “Okay. We’ll leave them be for now.”
Chapter fifteen
Blowing Smoke
Jo
“How’s it going?” Jack asks as he comes walking into his office.
“Pretty good.” I push a file into the newly-organized metal cabinet.
“Wow, it looks great in here.”
