Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

do pancakes and grilled cheese."

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"Interesting specialties," Ariana said.

"Yeah, well, when I was a kid we didn't really do dinners together as a family and the maid was always

making, like, fish with mango chutney, so I used to sneak back into the kitchen and make what I wanted."

"Pancakes and grilled cheese," Ariana said with a smile. "Exactly."

Ariana understood. It was just like her twelfth birthday when she'd had to plan and throw herself a party

because her dad was away and her mother was in one of her states. Sometimes you just had to learn to do

these things for yourself. She wondered what had broken Thomas's family. Had it been anything like what

happened to hers? A philandering father and a mother who wasn't all there even before he broke her heart?

"You never mentioned why you're not going home for Christmas," Ariana said. She watched as Thomas

concentrated on the mixing bowl.

"City's too crowded over the holidays," he said quickly. Defensively. "Thomas," Ariana said.

He glanced up, and their eyes locked. The vulnerability, the pain that she had seen in passing flashes, was

there, written in his expression. But this time, it didn't disappear. It only intensified the longer she held his

gaze. Only sharpened the deeper she looked.

A lump rose in the back of her throat, and she bit the inside of her cheek. She'd seen that kind of pain before.

Staring at her reflection in the mirror of a hospital bathroom. Wondering what unforgivable

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thing she'd done in life to deserve a family like hers. Instantly hating herself for the thought.

He was silent for a while. "Let's just say Christmas Eve is not fun at the Pearson home. Unless you're big on

drunken parental throw-downs."

"Oh," Ariana said. "Has it always been like that?"

"Pretty much since birth," Thomas said with a grim smile. "What about you? Why would you rather spend

Christmas with the Sticks-Up-Their-Asses?"

Ariana smirked. "Kind of a long nickname for 'the Ryans.'"

"I'm working on it," Thomas replied. He ran some water over his fingers, then flicked them toward the heated

griddle. Water droplets popped and sizzled across the surface. He even knew how to test for the right

temperature. "Your parents fighters, too?"

"No." Ariana took a deep breath and sighed, letting the familiar heaviness of family thoughts settle around