“No, silly.” I lied. “We’ve been friends a while and she doesn’t have any children so I thought she’d like to spend the holiday with us. We’ve got the room.”
"Well, since the weather canceled most of the travelers I think…"
“Wait. Wait a second. The weather didn’t cancel anything. Everyone is coming over tomorrow instead of tonight. The weather is supposed to be sunny and the roads will be clear by then. I had Carla call everyone to confirm.”
“When were you going to tell me about this?”
"Tomorrow around four o'clock when you'd need to get dressed." I smiled and sidled up to Michael. "Don't be mad at me Michael. It's not that many people. Twenty maybe thirty guests altogether. I think your son had about five times as man
y people in the house as that without your permission."
“Are you still bringing that up?”
“Yes, because you didn’t do anything about it.”
“He threw a party, Jenna. Kids do that all the time.”
“And he ruined a $14,000 painting.”
“That could have happened at any time.”
“You just don’t want to believe me.” I blinked my eyes to keep from crying.
The truth was that I'd taken a lot of time to make the house look beautiful for Christmas. I hired one of the best decorators's in town. The entire house glowed with soft white Christmas lights and the twelve-foot tall tree in the foyer could be seen from the sidewalk out front. There were seven trees throughout the house and I even took a tiny four-foot tree and had it decorated with all of Lucas's tacky ornaments and gifts from his grade school days. Michael suggested I do it.
“I do believe you. But you need to give a little if you’re going to get along with him.”
“Give a little? Or give in completely?” I folded my arms over my chest.
“Come on, Jenna. You are both adults. I’m not going to get involved in this dispute you two are in. You’ll both have to figure it out on your own.”
Just then, as if on cue, the front door opened and slammed shut.
“There’s your only son.” I huffed.
I watched as Michael walked out of the kitchen where we had been talking and went to the front door. I followed behind him and put on as much of a smile as I could muster.
“Lucas.” Michael stretched out his hand. Lucas took it and shook awkwardly.
“Hi, Dad.”
“You’re looking good.”
“Thanks.”
“You got my text that we’ll be having guests with us this Christmas.”
“Yeah, I thought you guys were having some kind of party tonight. What happened?”
“The weather.” I piped up and stepped from behind Michael. “Welcome home, Lucas.” I just stood there waiting for him to give me a hug or shake my hand but he barely looked at me. “We’ve just postponed the party until tomorrow. Everyone will be here then.”
“Where’s mom’s tree?”
“What?” I looked around. “What are you talking about?”
"My mother, she had a tree. It was like seven feet tall and had all kinds of old-fashioned ornaments on it. She used to put it in the small window in the living room."
“Well, Lucas.” Michael finally spoke up. “We thought it would be nice to have a professional decorate the house this year. I think Jenna had some really great ideas and they turned out fantastic.” He slipped his arm around my waist and kissed me on the head.