His grip on the steering wheel got tighter and tighter, and all I could do was giggle.
“You seem pretty well off,” I said.
“Uh huh.”
“What exactly do you do?” I asked. “Do you own a company or something?”
“Yep.”
“What does your company do?”
“Stuff,” he said.
“Stuff. Sounds lucrative, this ‘stuff.’ Here, it says your net worth is… Yikes. That’s a lot of zeros.”
I looked over at him while we were driving, and for just a split second, I thought I could see the faintest shadow of a grin cross his cheeks.
And I was right. His eyes did sparkle when it happened.
“Well, you’re doing well for being so young,” I said. “You’re what, my age? Twenty-six?”
“You’re twenty-six?” he asked.
“It’s never polite to ask a woman her age. Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?”
Instantly, I saw his face grow cold again. His knuckles reattached to the steering wheel like he was driving for his life, and I felt the car slow back down into the speed limit it should’ve been at for the highway we were driving on.
“I need to pay attention,” he said.
“That’s fine. I need to call my parents anyway.”
“Like you said you would.”
“Yep, and don’t go stalking me now that you have my home phone number,” I said, grinning.
I punched in my mother’s phone number and held the phone to my ear while Colin went back to concentrating on the road. I listened to the phone ring, and when she picked up on the other end, I could already feel myself getting giddy. I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms around my mother. I couldn’t wait to bury my face into the crook of my father’s neck. All I had left of my life was in the bags I managed to stow away on the plane ride, and I hadn’t yet broken the news to my parents.
The news that I was coming home to stay for a while.
“Hello?” my mother answered.
“Mom, hey!” I said, smiling. “It’s me.”
“Oh, sweetheart! How are you? Oh my gosh, has your plane landed already?”
“No, the plane actually had to land a bit early. That’s what I wanted to tell you. There’s a snowstorm that forced the plane to land in Kansas.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re in Kansas?” my mother asked.
“I am. I’m in a rental car now, driving toward you guys, but I won’t be there for another nine or so hours.”
“Drive careful, sweetie. And, keep us posted, Abs. We can wait to see you for Christmas!”
I felt a knot brewing in my throat, and I had to swallow hard in order to speak normally to my mother.
“I can’t wait to see you guys, too,” I said.
Chapter 3
Colin
I honestly didn’t think that woman would ever get off the phone with her mother. They kept laughing and talking about Christmas traditions. Something about homemade hot chocolate and putting colors in it or something. I was trying my hardest to concentrate on the road, but her voice was grating on my ears. It was high-pitched and squealing, and her laughter was boisterous. She snorted when she got going, and it only added to the annoyance she caused me. By the time she hung up the phone, I was ready to pull this car over and pay for a cab to take her the rest of the way.
“Thanks,” she said as she handed my phone back to me.
I took it from her and put it away. My eyes looked up at the sky as I drove. The clouds continued to gather and darken, promising a storm of epic proportions. I was driving as fast as I could down the highway, but the last thing I needed was a speeding ticket. This woman’s antics had held me up at the airport longer than I needed to be, and now, I wasn’t sure if I was going to beat the storm at all.
Of course, she would continue to be a pain in my ass.
She’d talked to her mother for at least fifteen minutes. Hell, I never even talked to my mother that long. With every exit I passed by, I wondered if I could drop her off. Just pull into a gas station, leave her, and call a cab to come pick her up. Her feet were propped up on the dashboard, and she was fiddling with the radio station. I saw an approaching exit, and I pulled into the farthest right-hand lane.
But then a Christmas song came on, and she started singing.
It was the most awful rendition of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” I’d ever heard, but it reminded me of the time of year it was. To me, it was the busiest time of the year. The time I really threw myself into work and prepared for the coming year. It was a time for me to make important calls and set important meetings and wrap up all the paperwork necessary for the coming tax season.
But for people like Abby, it was a time of celebration and vacations. A time of smiles and relief.
So, I got back over into the fast lane and kept cruising on up the highway.
People might call me a Grinch. The might call me Scrooge or anti-Christmas or whatever other types of names they could come up with for people who didn’t celebrate the holidays. I might get weird looks from people when I told them I didn’t celebrate, and I might have to deal with their rants about their own Christmas traditions, but that didn’t make me a heartless person.
I wasn’t cruel. I just didn’t celebrate Christmas.
The
