Page 6 of Hero for the Holidays

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go. They’ll all be having dinner. I bet steak.”

“Great. I can’t wait to eat a baby cow.”

“I didn’t say it was veal, Lila.”

She rolled her eyes. That felt like a triumph. Teenagers were supposed to roll their eyes at their dads. Maybe that meant he was doing a good job.

They walked up the front steps, his feet heavy, hers much lighter, even in those clodhopper boots of hers. And he pushed open the front door. “Hey,” he shouted. “I’m back.”

He could smell garlic bread baking, and his stomach growled. Rue must be in residence. His brother Justice’s best friend. Denver was great at grilling, and he could throw together a mean potato or macaroni salad, but he was not a baker. Rue, on the other hand, was organized, neat and an excellent baker. Landry had no idea what she saw in Justice. But they were attached at the hip, now and ever.

“Smells good,” he called.

Rue stuck her head out from the kitchen. “Landry,” she said. “Welcome back.” Her eyes landed on Lila. “Oh. Who’s...”

Just then the back door swung open and slammed shut. And he heard heavy footsteps and men’s voices. And then through the doorway came Denver and Daughtry. Each man was holding a plate of steaks, and they stopped when they saw him in the entry. “Hey,” said Denver.

The footsteps on the stairs meant that Justice was headed in too. He was only going to say this once. Justice stopped on the landing. And then he heard footsteps behind him. The whole gang was just about here. Right on time.

He got out of the doorway and turned just in time for Arizona, Micah and Daniel to come in.

“Great,” said Landry. “I’m only going to say this once. This is Lila,” he said, gesturing to the girl at his side. “She’s my daughter.”

That earned him a rousing round of loud questions and swearing. “Hey,” he said. “There’s a fucking kid here, watch your language.”

Lila, for her part, looked torn between amusement and horror. He could imagine that meeting a whole room full of strangers wasn’t really ideal when you were thirteen. But he also knew that she had met a lot of strangers over the last year.

“Like, she’s youractualdaughter,” said Denver.

“Yes,” he said.

“How long have you known about her?” Denver asked.

“Let’s see,” said Landry, pretending to do math. “Thirteen years.”

“Thirteen years,”Justice exploded from his place on the stairs. “And you’ve never mentioned it. Never once.”

“Nope.”

Now Lila just looked entertained. He could imagine it was kind of enjoyable to be the bomb that got thrown into someone else’s life when you had nothing but bombs thrown at you.

“Why now? Why is she here now?”

“I’m adopting her.”

“If I let you,” said Lila.

He turned to her. “Okay. Yeah. If she lets me.”

“You said she was your daughter. What do you mean you’re adopting her?” Justice asked.

“Well,” said Landry. “I don’t have parental rights. She was adopted when she was born and...and last year her parents died.” He shot her a quick apologetic glance for saying that so bluntly, but he just wanted to get this part out of the way. “And so now it’s me. I’m doing this. For her.”

“But only if I decide I don’t hate it here,” said Lila. She looked around at everybody. “This was fun, though.”

Nobody seemed to have any idea what to say to that. Though he knew they’d have questions later. Questions he wasn’t intending to answer.

“All right, you all look like idiots standing there staring like that,” said Landry. “Let’s eat.”

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