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Finally, Freda pulled Mary Paige into a tight hug. “Oh, my sweet girl, you don’t know what this means to me. To the school. I gotta call Marjorie and tell her. She’s going to flip. This means we can start in the spring. Oh, my Lord!”
Freda gave her a final squeeze and ran into the kitchen.
Mary Paige winked at her brother and then turned toward the couch. What she saw nearly brought her to her knees.
Brennan was crying.
Actually crying.
His gray eyes had filled with huge tears that splashed onto those beautifully hewn cheeks.
“Brennan,” she said, walking to him. “Are you okay? Is it your grandfather?”
He shook his head and swiped a hand across his face. “No, he’s better. In fact, he’ll be home tomorrow. It’s just I—I— Shit.”
She sat next to him, feeling her brother’s eyes watching their every move. “Brennan?”
He turned a gaze so raw, so powerful, on her. “I’m a total asshole.”
Caleb laughed.
“Okay, let’s go into my bedroom. I’m not having this conversation in front of my brother—” she glared at Caleb, who pushed a button on his chair to make a honking sound “—who’s being a total butthead considering I just gave his charter school a lot of money.”
Caleb honked again.
“Watch the dogs, Caleb,” she said, tugging on the arm of a too-emotional Brennan. “Come on, Bren.”
Brennan leaned forward and gave his head a shake as if he might clear it before rising, not even bothering to wipe his face. Mary Paige led him to her room, which was a total disaster since she’d been living out of the suitcase for a few days, had left wrapping paper and scissors on the floor and her bed was unmade.
She closed the door and turned to him. “Now what’s going on? Why are you here?”
Brennan looked as if he wanted to pull her into his arms but instead, curled his hands and jabbed them into his pockets. “I’m an asshole.”
“So you’ve said.”
He frowned slightly but nodded. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“Nope, you shouldn’t have. Did you think that…that…miserable man would interest me?”
“Why not? I’m a sad man, but you were interested in me.”
Mary Paige sank onto her unmade bed and ran her hands over the bedspread that had seen better days. This was the room she’d grown up in, still holding the remnants of her childhood along with a couple of sewing projects her mother had started and left in various stages of progress. It was as jumbled as her heart. “You’re different, Brennan. Unfortunately, you can’t see that.”
He looked as if he might cry again. He really was a sad, sad man. Mary Paige sighed. “I can’t fix you, you know.”
“I know,” he said, lowering himself beside her. “But maybe I’m ready to fix myself.”
“I could be a lot more serious about this conversation if you’d take that elf hat off.”
He touched the hat again and smiled slightly. “I don’t want to take it off because I want to be changed.”
“Changed?”
“Like Ebenezer Scrooge,” he said, lifting one of his pant legs. “I even wore your socks. Stole them from Grandfather’s drawer.”
“Those are hideous socks.” What did he mean by being like Ebenezer Scrooge? He couldn’t merely wake up on Christmas morning and think putting on an elf hat and holiday socks made everything right.
“I had this epiphany—”
