Page 3 of Flown in for Christmas

I stare at the busy, bright lights of Dallas. The world feels…distracted with a mere five days until Christmas. Miss Bell isn’t the only one traveling this year for the holidays.

I’ve got a 6:00 AM flight tomorrow to my hometown—North Tree, Wisconsin. Holidays have always been a big deal in the Davis family. Hell,familyhas been the most important concept drilled into me my entire life.

I missed Thanksgiving this year and I made the mistake of using ‘work’ as an excuse.

And now I’ll never hear the end of it from my stickler of a mother.

I can’t blame her for being so hard on me. I was the only one who didn’t make it. Even Rich, my cousin and CFO, made it home. But not me. I’ve been putting this off as long as I can. Hoping and wishing the truth wasn’t reality, but it is.

This very well might be my father’s last Christmas.

He was diagnosed six months ago with stage four pancreatic cancer. At the time, his doctors gave him eight to twelve months to live, maybe more if he responded well to treatment. Thankfully, he has. But that’ll only add time to his plate, the long-term survival rates for his stage are low.

And the cure rates…even lower.

I’ve been CEO of Davis Sporting Goods for the last ten years and ‘acting president’ for the last five. Ever since my sister, Natalie, started her family back in Wisconsin with her wife, Martina, five years ago, my father spends more time at home with the grandkids than working. I understand, he’s always been a family man through and through.

Something I’m grateful for now. Being able to look back at how he was there for…well, everything. Every life event, big or small, he was there. My mother, too.

Football games, fundraisers, scouting events, bailing me out of jail when I got arrested for being a rowdy teenager climbing the local water tower to smoke weed with my friends. The list isendless. And it tortures me to think about his life coming to an end.

He’s my father. The man I’ve looked up to my entire life.

The thought of losing him has been a hard pill to swallow and, I admit, I haven’t been handling the situation the way I should be. I’m on edge and I haven’t been sleeping well these last few months.

My phone rings, bringing me back. It’s my sister,again. I ignore the call, whatever she has to say will just have to wait until I get there tomorrow.

“There you are,” Rich calls out, strolling into my office. “I figured I’d find you hiding out in here.” Rich is family on my mother’s side, my Aunt Sara’s son. Only a few people here know we’re first cousins—considering the differing last names and the fact we don’t look much alike.

He’s a good man. I’m glad to have him as a trusted family member working with me.

“I had my assistant send you those reports we discussed.”

He moves to gaze at downtown alongside me. Pushing his hands in his grey slacks, he nods. “Eric is bringing Darcy to, uh, Christmas this year.”

I snarl under my breath, but steel my features.

Fucking Eric.

My late Uncle’s bastard son who justmagicallyshowed up out of nowhere two years ago. He didn’t wait get to know his long-lost relatives before asking about his ‘rightful cut’ of thefamily business. The snake slithered his way into the family by the good grace of my parents.

My father started Davis Sporting Goods as a family-owned and operated business with his brother, my Uncle Steve. Originating in Wisconsin, their beloved company grew to unforeseeable heights over the last four decades. Unfortunately, Uncle Steve passed away suddenly four years ago in a car accident, shocking my father and the rest of the family. Dad and Uncle Steve always ran the company together and made a promise early on that no matter what, DSG would be run byfamily.

He’s kept that promise by handing everything over to me.

“Who told you that?” I ask him.

“Natalie,” he says. “She’s been trying to call you and give you a heads up before you’re met with your ex-girlfriend on the arm of your biggest rival.”

I grit my teeth at that statement. “Eric isnotmy biggest rival. He’s a fucking sleazeball who wants everything without working for it.”

It’s true, he and my ex-girlfriend, Darcy, have been together for the last year and a half. She’s just like him. Nothing was ever good enough, and she always wantedmore. More money, more clothes, fancier dinners. They’re made for each other as far as I’m concerned.

I’m getting ready to have the hardest Christmas in my life. Darcy and Eric are the last things I need to be wasting my time thinking about.

Rich nods slowly, looking me over. “You think he’s just trying to get in good with Uncle Bruce? You know how your dad feels about family.”

I inhale deeply. “Wouldn’t surprise me.” Eric hasn’t made it a point to attend many family gatherings. He’s just…there, sitting on the sidelines. Waiting for the right time to strike. And with my father’s diagnosis, the snake has been moving in for the kill. “Dad’s been on my ass the last few years about settling down. If that’s the image Eric is trying to portray to get in his good graces, maybe that’s why he’s showing up this year.”

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