My brother acts as if Christmas breakfast is a family tradition he needs to uphold or something. As if Christmas was anything but a big fat disappointment when we were growing up. Maybe that’s why it appears to be so important to him now, especially with Charlie still being so young.
A confusing pang of jealousy throbs behind my chest at the thought that Charlie is forming happy memories that we older siblings never had the chance to experience. It’s not his fault, and still, I find space to resent my younger brother for something he has no control over.
Connie nods wordlessly, bringing her hand to her mouth as she chews and carefully swallows. It almost looks like she’s trying to bide her time now that she’s been put on the spot.
Finally, she speaks. “Yup, kind of crazy, right?” She lets out a small laugh, waiting for Ozzy to respond.
“Not crazy at all.” Ozzy smiles.
I roll my eyes.
Always so fucking supportive.
Connie’s gaze shifts to James sitting in front of her, then back to Ozzy at the head of the table, and she smiles back.
“I know it’s impulsive, but sometimes you just have to follow your gut, you know?” She takes a quick sip of her mimosa. She follows it with a nervous laugh. “And sometimes your gut tells you to buy a rundown theatre.”
The table laughs, and I stab my fork into a breakfast potato.
“Oh my god,” James suddenly says, her mouth falling open, as if something just dawned on her. With stars in her eyes, she looks over at Connie. “I’m assuming that you’ll need to hire people to help you renovate, right?”
“Yes …” Connie answers a little suspiciously, and my own suspicion spikes right along with hers.
She wouldn’t.
My heart drops when James looks over to me, her smile widening. “You can hire Hux!”
My gaze slams into Connie’s as we both look at each other with horror before returning our attention to James. We protest awkwardly in unison.
“No, no, no, that’s fine,” Connie blabbers politely.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I mutter at the same time, breaking into a cold sweat.
James watches us both in confusion, eyebrows dipping low, then finally settles on me, tilting her head.
“Aren’t you in between construction jobs ‘til spring?” she asks so fucking innocently that I just want to crawl under the table and pretend none of this is happening.
“Yeah, but —” I start to argue.
She doesn’t bother letting me finish whatever excuse I was about to pull out of my ass before looking over to Connie.
“And youwillneed help, right?”
I watch Connie’s throat work around a hard swallow.
“Yes.”
James is now beaming as if having come up with the answers to all our problems.
“So that settles it then,” she chirps.
Ozzy is sporting a similar expression to his fiancée when his gaze slides to meet mine.
The insufferable duo.
Connie looks over to me again. We’ve been pushed right into a corner. I give her a thin-lipped smile as a silent confirmation of our sealed fate.
Connie’s smile is shaky, but no one at the table seems to notice but me.
