Page 3 of Blame It On the Secret Santa

Just as I expected, waiting eagerly for me on the other side was Max, my incredibly needy and overly attached Doberman Pinscher.

“Hey, Max. I told you I would be back,” I said, scratching his head as he jumped up and put two paws on my chest. I looked around and chuckled when I saw all of the throw pillows from the couch had been tossed to the floor, and a box of tissue had been shredded to pieces.

“We really gotta work on your anxiety.” I continued to rub his head for a few seconds before gently pushing him away so I could go set my stuff down.

He followed my every step, as was our daily routine since the day I adopted him a few years ago. His owner claimed he was defective because he had zero protective instincts and was too much of a wimp to be a guard dog. I immediately fell in love with him and could relate to not living up to society’s opinions of what they expected you to be.

I grabbed the stuff from the fridge to make fajitas and fixed dinner while Max lay on the rug beside me. My phone rang, so I pulled it out of my pocket and smiled when I saw my mother’s name on the screen.

“Hey, Mom,” I said as I flipped the chicken in the skillet and turned down the heat.

“Hi, sweetie. How was work today?”

“Busy, but fine.”

“I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you around town. Everyone is so happy to have you back.”

“Not everyone,” I mumbled under my breath as I piled the chicken in a tortilla.

“What was that dear? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Nothing,” I lied, stepping over Max to get some salsa from the fridge. “What’s up?”

“Well, I was calling to let you know that I talked to your brother, and he’s going to come in for Christmas. I thought we could all sit down and have lunch together before...”

Her voice trailed off, and I knew what it was she wasn’t saying. I hadn’t talked to Declan, my twin brother, in over twelve years. Not since he’d been caught cheating on his girlfriend, but to get out of it, he lied and said it was me. This was the rumor that had immediately ended my relationship with Cassidy, and nothing I said or did could get her to hear me out. In her mind, I had been the one who was caught cheating, and she had never forgiven me.

I shoved a hand through my hair and sighed heavily.

“Yeah. That sounds great, Mom. Just let me know when, and I’ll make sure to request the time off from work if I can.”

“I don’t want to make things harder for you, especially with all you’re doing for us. If you want to send me the days that you have off, I could plan around those.”

“Sure. I’ll do that when we hang up.”

“Thank you, son. I know things between you and your brother haven’t been good for a while, but I’m hoping that with everything going on, you can both push those differences aside. I’d love at least one last wonderful Christmas with your dad while we still can.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat and nodded, even though she couldn’t see me.

“I agree, Mom. We’ll make this the best Christmas for him. For all of us.”

We hung up after saying we loved each other, but I couldn’t shake the overwhelming emotion that had been sitting on my shoulders since I’d first gotten the call about my dad.

After noticing several changes in him over a few months, my mother took him to the doctor to get checked out. They found that he had early-onset dementia, and unfortunately, he seemed to be progressing quickly. My mom was concerned about their finances due to him forgetting to pay several bills and falling behind. I agreed to come home and help them get caught up while she focused on his health and what the next steps would look like for them. But for now, our main focus was to make sure that we kept as much of our Christmas traditions as possible—even if that meant I had to suck it up and pretend to like my brother again.

---