Page 15 of The Stone Family Warrior

Tom laughed, shaking his head. “Uh, no. Not my kind of thing.”

“Sure it is.” She gestured to him. “You’re fit, you run and eat clean, and you and Letty used to …” She didn’t finish the sentence.

Her brother’s red-rimmed eyes betrayed his sadness. “It’s fine. We used to go hiking all the time.” He looked terribly forlorn.

A different idea hit her. “Why don’t you stay? Christmas is four days away. You can help me with some projects and cleaning and organizing. We’ll stick up a tree and be together.” This was the first time she’d thought about actually doing something for Christmas.

Tom shook his head. “That is nice of you, but …” He reached for her hand. “I’m going to be the idiot who still tries to work this crap out.”

It was a dagger through her heart. But unlike when they’d been young and the whole world had felt so black and white, she understood confusing adult situations. She just wished she could fix things for her brother. She went in for another hug. “Okay.”

He held her for a few seconds, then pulled back. “I’d better go.”

She followed him down the hallway, past a bunch of guest rooms, then to the main room and the entryway where her grandparents had always greeted guests from the main door. There was a large staircase leading to the second floor. Down the hallway, there was a ballroom, and past the ballroom, a greenhouse led out to the beach.

Tom moved to the front door, pointing to the closed library door. “I still want to believe Granddad is in there, smoking one of his pipes and reading Jacques Cousteau.”

The memory made her smile. “Me too.” She looked around. “Did you get all of those boxes in Grandmother’s office with your name on them?”

“Yes.” He let out a soft sigh. “Whatever you choose to do with the place is fine with me.”

“I can’t believe it’s all going to be over in this house. No more dinner parties or Christmas balls or New Year’s Eve. Do you remember the New Year’s Eve parties?”

He nodded. “They were the best.”

She felt her eyes become misty with tears—not so much because of the memories of New Year’s Eve parties, but because her brother was struggling and she wanted to take his pain away. “Yes, they were.”

Tom covered her hand with his own. “I’ll be in touch.” He pulled her in. “One more hug.”

Liberty closed her eyes and imagined that everything would be wonderful for him, that Letty would really be sorry and they would have a happy Christmas together. “Love you, bro.”

“Love you, too, Lib.” He pushed open the door, and then he was gone.

Liberty looked at the large mahogany front door. Emptiness threatened to consume her. Slowly, she sucked in a breath and turned back to face the huge entrance area. The house was a mansion—a mansion that needed a lot of work to make it sellable.

Again, her mind flitted to Trent and the fact that he was watching the Stone Family Inn. She knew Ava and Trey had made a home of it and were running a bed and breakfast. Could she do something like that? Would she even want to do that? That thought was out of left field; she’d never wanted to do something like that before.

She moved back down the hallway and decided to do something she’d been needing to do all day—run on the beach. Quickly, she went into her room and changed. Once she’d grabbed her earbuds, she headed through the back door and down to the beach. Maybe she couldn’t fix anyone’s problems, including her own … but she could run.

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