Page 22 of Blame It On the Secret Santa

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her as I climbed down the ladder.

She shrugged as a blush turned her cheeks red with embarrassment.

“You made it very clear that you wanted nothing to do with your brother. Every time I tried to bring him up, you’d shut me out. I gave up. I realized many years ago that until you two settled whatever this fight was between you, I would have to have very different and separate relationships with my boys.”

My jaw clenched tighter as I stood in front of my brother, taking him in.

“Did you cheat on her too?” I asked, loving the way he flinched at my words.

“No.” He lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry for what I did when we were young and stupid, Sean. But I’ve changed a lot since then. I’m not that kind of person anymore. It would be great if we could move past it because I would really love for you to be part of my family again.”

“Youcheated on your girlfriend in high school, then lied and said it wasme,” I growled, poking him in the chest with my finger as my mom let out a gasp. “To this day, Cassidy still hates me because of whatyoudid. How am I supposed to just forgive you when you ruined the greatest thing that ever happened to me?”

“Look, I’ve said I’m sorry. I don’t know what more you want from me, Sean. It’s not like I can go back to the past and fix things now.”

“You’re right. You should have fixed them then. Instead, you acted like a coward. You let me take the fall for your betrayal. Cassidy has looked at me like I’m a monster ever since, and it’s all because of you, you selfish piece of—”

“Okay!” my mother snapped, putting her hands up and stepping between us. “That is enough out of both of you. I don’t care about what happened in the past. I care about right now and giving your father the Christmas he deserves. He spent his life bending over backward to take care of this family, and I’ll be damned if we don’t do the same. So figure out how to put your differences aside and be the men I raised you to be.”

She looked at each of us, silently putting us in our place.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, refusing to meet my brother’s eye as he studied me. “I’ll work on finding the rest of the lights if you want to go check on Dad.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it. Declan can stay out here and help you.”

“Mo—”

“I willnothear any excuses about why you two cannot pull your heads out of your asses and figure this out,” she warned, pointing her finger at us as she headed back inside the house.

The door closed, leaving a deafening silence as my brother and I stared at each other.

“I don’t care what Mom says,” I told him firmly. “Stay out of my way.”

I went back up the ladder and tried my hardest to forget he was still standing there.

A few minutes later, I heard him rummaging through boxes on the other side of the garage and was thankful that he wasn’t going to force any interaction between us. We were both here for our parents and to focus on giving my dad a Christmas he would hopefully remember. Everything else could wait.

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