Page 5 of Miss Humbug
This was huge. Grans wasn’t directly passing the house to anyone. So any Holly family member had a chance. I loved this house. I felt safe here, even though I’d avoided coming back. I cherished my memories of growing up in this home, despite often pushing nostalgia aside. It was complicated…until suddenly, somehow, it wasn’t.
Grans cleared her throat. “To get us started, I’ll need to know who plans to participate.”
“I’m in,” I said at the exact time as Shawn.
A chorus of voices responded. “Youare?”
Ashe and Cara gaped at us. Joe discussed the update with Aunt Sunny, as Rafe informed the room that no way would anysingle unmarriedsinherit Hollybrooke House over his not-dead-but-not-willing-to-concede body. Or similar. Riley, a single parent, shoved her brother. Some things never changed.
“Why on earth would you want Grans’ house?” I got out to Shawn before he could ask me the same.
He rolled his eyes. “This is an excellent piece of property. There’s thirty acres out there.”
“You can’t sell it!” I was suddenly very invested. He had no idea how invested. I surprised myself at my own interest in investing.
“I’d keep the house,” Shawn insisted. “The land is another story.”
“No way.” Ashe shook his head. “It’s family land.”
Cara emitted a low growl. “Let’s not forget our history. Large swaths of this land were acquired illicitly from existing native populations.” Cara taught high school history and social studies and harbored a passion for local history strong enough to impress the over sixty-five crowd at the historical society. She remained the only member of the family who could tolerate Uncle Joe’s war stories—the ones he read about in books.
“Thisspecificland?” Ashe sputtered.
“Have you done your research?”
She had a point. Who owned land always brought up more questions than answers in my mind, which was why I had only ever rented apartments. Okay, and also, I’d only ever been able to afford to rent. With roommates. I lived in one of the most expensive areas of the country. I figured I’d live lean a few years, then up the corporate ladder I’d climb.
Turned out the ladder was more like a step stool. And I’d managed to swing my foot past the step entirely.
The Hollybrooke House was the only real home I’d ever known. My parents had both passed on before my memories of them fully formed. Within a year of the family portrait currently watching over us. At Christmas. I couldn’t prove it, but my parents’ eyes looked disapprovingly over the family squabbles playing out in front of them.
“The deed is in our family name,” Ashe was telling Cara. “It’s a legal document.”
Steam emitted from Cara’s ears. “Are youexplainingland deeds to me? I know what they are. My problem is with systemic erasure and this entitled sense of ownership people believe they have.”
They continued to bicker. I dug Cara’s commitment, but I couldn’t let them distract me. “I want the house too. It’s important to me.”
Shawn scoffed. “You’re a Scrooge. You can’t handle a month of holiday activities.”
“Scrooge is miserly,” I fired back. “I’m not miserly. If anything, I’m more of a humbug.”
“Semantics.”
“Forgive me for not hauling out the holly the second my plane landed,” I snapped, fully intending my play on words with our family name. “Grans asked who is in, and I’m in.”
Rafe sneered my direction. “I’m shocked you’re away from your precious job at all right now.”
If only I had a precious job to return to. I opened my mouth to say as much and…couldn’t. Making a name for myself became my entire reason for staying away as long as I had. That goal had driven me.
And then I hit a wall. Shock hit every time I thought of the recent job loss.Just get another one, the logical part of my brain argued.
I hated to admit I hadn’t exactly been continuously joyful in my chosen career of supply chain management with an MBA cherry on top. As much as I loved data and the joys of organizing it, the happiness I believed logistics and operations analysis would bring me simply…didn’t. And if my career didn’t fulfill me, which I’d invested in at the expense of literally everything else, how could I admit that out loud? To the people I most wanted to impress?
Because everyone in my family was impressive. That was the problem. I’d always been playing catch-up to them in some way. Always looking at how to define myself apart from the accomplishments of the Hollys who came before me.
“Come on, Mar.” Shawn’s tone came across less harsh than Rafe’s. “You don’t even live here.”
“You don’t live here either,” I told Shawn.
