Page 53 of His Gift
“I still let Papa know that you and Shawn are sleeping together and living together,” Walt said, like he was trying to make his own excuse for why he should be shunned from the family. “Papa knows you were hired unfairly.”
“You think Shawn is the only person ever in the history of business to hire someone he knows and is sleeping with?” Enzo asked, still miraculously keeping things light.
Walt huffed out a breath that curled in the frigid air. “Why aren’t you mad at me?” he asked, first Enzo, then me at the top of the stairs. “You’re never mad at me, no matter what I do.”
I jerked back slightly at the unexpected accusation, if it really was an accusation. “You’re my brother,” I said, coming slowly down the stairs to join them. “I love you. How can I be mad at you when I know that none of this—” I gestured randomly, “—is your fault. You’re just doing the best you can, the same as anyone.”
Walt shocked me again by bursting into tears. “It’s not fair, any of it. I’m angry with you all the time. I hate you! You’ve always been the favorite, always gotten everything I wanted.”
“You think Shawn has your parents’ approval?” Enzo asked, resting a hand on Walt’s back.
Walt quickly shrugged him off. “He does! He’s always been the favorite and I’ve always been the screw up. I was supposed to be an alpha, not another useless omega who’s only good for popping out babies. I couldn’t even do that right.”
“Walt, please,” I pleaded with him, but I wasn’t sure what for. I wanted my brother to accept that I loved him and maybe to love me in return. I wanted us all to be a family. The good kind of family, not the messed-up kind we were. But I didn’t know how to get there.
“No!” Walt shouted, pulling away from me and Enzo. He nearly slipped on the ice, but Enzo reached out to stabilize him. “No, I don’t want any of your help and I don’t want your pity. Dad is going to kick me out of the family anyhow, so I might as well just leave on my own.”
He turned and stormed off toward his car.
“Walt, please!” I called after him.
I wanted to catch up to him and somehow convince him to come back. We had a major event to plan and execute, after all.
But Enzo said, “Let him go.”
“What?” I wheeled back to face my omega, panting. My heart felt like it might squeeze its way out of my throat and break under the weight of emotion I felt. Everything was so wrong. “He’s my brother and he’s upset. I have to go after him and make this better.”
“You can’t,” Enzo said. “Not on your own, at least. Walt needs to be alone for a second to deal with what he’s feeling in his own way.”
“Does he? Wouldn’t he want to know that we’re there for him and that we love him?” I asked. I had no idea how these stupid emotion things worked, I just wanted to be the brother I would have wanted to have if I was in the same position.
“Send him a text,” Enzo said, resting a hand on my arm. “In about an hour. Maybe half an hour. You can be there for him and let him know that we’re on his side while still giving him space.”
“Is that enough?” I asked. “Can’t we do something now to fix this?”
Enzo laughed and shook his head, then slipped his hand into mine. “The best thing we can do right now is walk back into this convention center and do our jobs.”
“That feels like a letdown,” I said. I wanted to do more, much more.
“Is it?” Enzo questioned. “Your Dad and Papa are in there. They’re probably just as emotional as everyone else. They probably have all sorts of questions. Your Dad probably thinks this entire Christmas Eve supper and job fair is a terrible idea. If you go in there an prove him wrong about one thing, he might just accept that he’s wrong about other things, too.”
I didn’t know whether Enzo was very wise or totally naïve about the situation. He didn’t know Dad the way I did.
But he might have had a point where Papa was concerned. Papa had been on the verge of trying to understand Walt when Dad had come along. I wasn’t sure, because I wasn’t an omega,but he might have even been trying to get to the point that he would be there for Walt and accept him and his baby.
“I guess you’re right,” I sighed. Then, because I really needed to, I pulled Enzo into my arms and hugged him tightly. “What would I do without you?”
“I have no idea,” my saucy omega said.
We went backinto the Pullman Center and spent the rest of the day running around like we really were Santa’s elves in the final countdown for Sleigh Night. Dad and Papa were still there, but they said nothing about Walt for the rest of the day. They didn’t really speak to me or Enzo at all. Papa was polite but distant, and by lunchtime, they’d both gone off to do whatever other business they had.
I texted Walt with my support as soon as Enzo said I could. I had no qualms at all deferring to my omega when it came to things like how to deal with other people. I knew what I was good at, organizing, getting things done, and being the alpha my dad said he wanted, but I didn’t know how to have basic human interactions with other people very well. I hadn’t even known that was a skill I was lacking until Enzo came along.
By the end of the day, everything was ready for Christmas Eve, but instead of resting on my laurels, I just wanted to get out of there.
“What would you say to a nice, long bubble bath tonight?” I asked Enzo as we put on our coats and got ready to head out for the night.
“I’d say that sounds like a brilliant idea,” Enzo sighed, practically drooping with exhaustion as he took my hand and headed outside with me.
