“We dated for a while in college.” He sets some of the luggage down as I step back, gawking.
Eight months. We dated for eight months my junior year of college…until he ripped my beating heart right out of my fucking chest. His voice covers me in our shared past as I try to wrap my head around what’s happening.
“It’s been a long time. How are you, Whitney?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I screech at my brother’s back as he unloads an armful of luggage in his designated upstairs bedroom.
“Sorry, when I asked him what his Christmas plans were, I didn’t think to ask him if he dated my sister over, what, twenty years ago?”
“Seventeen, and you should have.”
“You’re overreacting.”
“Am I? Am I?” I am. I totally am. And I’m pretty sure everyone can hear me.
I lower my voice and step around the bed, so Brenden’s forced to face me. “We’ve had sex.” My brother grimaces at that admission. “Dirty, raunchy, college sex. Experimental sex. Do you remember that? No, because you’ve been married for a hundred years.”
“Shut up.”
“He hurt me,” I say under my breath. “He’s an original player, and he hurt me—badly. Do you even care? I’m your sister!” I’m still screeching, just as horrifically as Gracie was when I arrived—and realizing it, I do my best to calm my racing heart. Eli Welch is downstairs.
Eli!
“Of course, I care, but it was seventeen years ago. I think it’s time to let go of old grudges. What am I supposed to do, go down and tell him, ‘Hey, you boned and crushed my sister in college—and she’s still bitter about it—so you’ll have to spend Christmas alone?’”
“Yes.”
Brenden begins to unpack a diaper bag. “Not happening.”
“It’s what he deserves.”
“He’s a good guy, a great guy, actually.”
“I hate you so much right now.”
“He’s the closest thing I have to a friend these days, and I think you might be surprised to find—”
I cover my ears. “La la la la la.”
“He’s obviously matured far more than you. You need to let it go and not make things weird.”
“Make things weird? Make. Things. Weird?! You invited my college ex-boyfriend to our family Christmas!”
“Technically, all he is now is my coworker. He’s a consultant, which means he’s not my employee, which makes our friendship legit. What can I say? He loves me for me.”
“You’re making jokes? You’ve got jokes! You’re the worst brother ever!”
“We all have to have goals.”
“I can’t believe this.” I shake my head.
“Well, if you’re wanting to get even with him in the ‘eat your heart out sense,’ then you might want to rethink the makeup. You look like a bedazzled geisha.”
“Go straight to hell.”
“That’s the Christmas spirit, sis. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a diaper to change, a wife to appease, and I’m sure Dad needs my help with something.”
“Don’t expect me to entertain him, Brenden.”
“I’m sure you’re doing a good job of that already. When’s the first drag show?”
“I’ll get you for this. Bet on it.”
“Great, looking forward to it,” he says, unbuttoning his sleeves and rolling them up just as my sister-in-law, Erin, walks in with my nephew, Wyatt, and places him in Brenden’s arms. Unable to help it, I soften as Wyatt gives me a shy smile in recognition before burying his face in Brenden’s chest. I walk over and lay my hand on his back. “Hey, baby boy. Wow, you’re getting so big.” He wiggles in his father’s arm when the smell hits me, and I grin as my brother’s nostrils flare. “Keep those stink bombs coming for Auntie Whit, would you?”
Erin laughs as I turn to greet her, pulling her into a hug. “Been too long, sister.”
“We’ve missed you.”
Erin is five years younger than me but doesn’t look a day over twenty-five. “You look incredible, which is surprising since you married horribly. Where’s my niece?”
“Grandma claimed her already.”
“Crap.”
“I’ve really missed you,” she says with a light laugh before the trace of sadness in her tone catches up to her expression. Brenden moved them all from Nashville to Charlotte just after Wyatt was born. It’s been a rough adjustment for Erin leaving her friends and family behind. She seems relieved to be here, and I can’t help but give her sympathetic eyes.