Page 40 of Them Bones

Shane eyed her warily. “Yeah, they can…”

“Come to the house tomorrow.”

Shane rubbed the back of his head again. “I don’t know, Laney. It’s… hard. For me. To be around Cary.”

“It’s no picnic for me, either,” she snapped and he winced again. “But you can’t just keep sneaking in groceries and watching from the window. You said you want to be around more. You want to spend time together. AndI need to get out of the house, too, Shane.”

Shane frowned, feeling uneasy. Cary wouldn’t so much as leave them unsupervised in the living room. He couldn’t see him being comfortable with them going out together.

“What will you tell Cary?”

“The truth,” she said. “You’re taking me Christmas tree shopping.”

“Christmas tree shopping?”

“Christmas tree shopping,” she repeated. “And I want you to come in after. I want you to help us decorate it. And I want you to stay for dinner.”

“And what makes you think Cary won’t just remove my skin with a carrot peeler?”

“Because tomorrow is my birthday, and he won’t make a scene on my birthday.”

Shane raised his eyebrows. “You were born on Christmas eve?”

“All the cool kids were doing it,” she said with a shrug, hopping out of the car. “Pick me up at 9:00. Don’t be late.” And with a smoldering look that made his cock twitch, shesaid “Fifteen and seventeen, Shane. We’re only two years apart, now.”

She slammed the door and disappeared into the darkness, that look she’d given him radiating through his bones.

Good thing you’ve still got one good hand…

LANEY

Laney waited anxiously by the front window, watching for Shane’s truck. She ran her fingers over the cheap, dollar store window clings of snowmen and reindeer. They were so old that they had to be stuck on with scotch tape, but Laney loved Christmas and Dustin had been trying to make her smile.

A lot of other families seemed to fight at the holidays. Laney had lost count of the number of times her neighbour’s arguments could be awkwardly heard through windows left open to vent Christmas cooking. Mara, the woman with the Home Depot siding, had yelled herself hoarse at her kids that morning as they ran around the front yard with new toys that had clearly been meant to be their gifts the next day, onactualChristmas. She was in tears when she finally screamed “THERE IS NO FUCKING SANTA!” at them and slammed the front door, locking them out. They cried on the porch for half an hour before she let them in.

Christmas had always been a quiet affair for the Hawtons. It was the one time of year that Cary’s entourage actually made an effort to spend time with their various illegitimate children or their wives. Sarita had been gone all week, her entire extended family visiting from India. And Cary had always been strangelydistant on her birthday. She’d never asked him why – it was a welcome reprieve.

Some years he was home for it, others not. But he’d never, ever caused a problem at Christmas. Even Ma didn’t cause problems – she usually showed up some time between Boxing Day and New Year with a birthday card with the wrong age on it, but actual Christmas had always just been Dustin and Laney.

It was her favourite time of the year.

“Happy birthday!” Cary said, dropping a kiss on the top of her head and ruffling her hair. “What’s on the docket for the day?”

“I want to get a Christmas tree,” she said.

“I’m sorry, baby girl – I’ve got a lot of deliveries today. Holidays and all. Can’t drive you anywhere.”

She took a deep breath and tried to sound nonchalant. “Shane is going to drive me and Dusty.”

She didn’t look at Cary, but she could feel the temperature drop.

“YouandDusty?” he asked tightly.

“Mmhmm…”

The longest silence of her life. And then…

“Okay.”

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