Here We Come (Aggie's Inheritance) (78 page)

Her
eyes
flew
up
over
the
table
and
met
the
tear-filled
ones
of
her
father.
“Did
I
just
say
all
that
out
loud?”
she
whispered,
her
voice
sounding
like
someone
else.

“Yes.”

“I
can’t
believe
I
said
it.”

“Did
you
mean
it?”

The
pathetic
little
nod
she
gave
cut
her
to
the
heart,
but
not
nearly
as
deeply
as
her
next
words.
“I
didn’t
say
the
half
of
it.”

She
found
herself
pulled
from
the
floor
and
engulfed
in
her
father’s
famous
bear
hug.
“Ag
g
s,
I
want
to
tell
you
something
that
you’re
not
going
to
like
to
hear.”

“What?”

“I
am
relieved
to
hear
you
say
that.”

“Relieved?”

Ron
squeezed
her
tightly
before
stepping
back
and
leaning
against
the
table
she’d
erected
for
her
wrapping
station.
“You’ve
been
brave—too
brave.
You
have
broken
down
about
your
loss—about
Allie.
You’ve
broken
down
about
your
concerns
about
your
abilities
as
a
mother.
You’ve
broken
down
when
you
thought
you
hurt
a
friend
or
something
like
that,
but
you’ve
taken
the
job
itself
in
stride.
If
you
failed,
you
picked
up
and
made
it
a
success.”

“Isn’t
that
good?”

“Aggie,
if
you
walk
around
holding
yourself
up
by
your
bootstraps,
you’ll
find
that
you
walk
funny
and
soon
the
straps
break.”

“Can
I
be
Scarlett
O’Hara
and
think
about
that
tomorrow?
I’m
going
to
have
an
epic
fail
if
I
don’t
get
this
Christmas
going.”
She
pointed
to
the
stack
of
wrapped
presents.
“Can
you
take
those
down
and
put
them
in
the
school
room?”

Mibs says:
Luke?

Luke says:
It’s almost Christmas!

Mibs says:
Four and a half minutes.

Luke says:
Bet I say it first.

Mibs says:
You’ll just type it and wait until the clock turns and then hit enter. I know you of old.

Luke says:
Who are you callin’ old?

Mibs says:
Hey, if the age fits…

Luke says:
You seem a bit more yourself. I was worried about you.

Mibs says:
Well, I wanted to talk to you, but I knew you needed sleep. Then I saw you online and thought I’d see if you were headed to bed or not.

Luke says:
I’m good.

Mibs says:
Dad and I got to talk today after you left.

Luke says:
Yeah?

Mibs says:
I kind of broke down.

Luke says:
I’m sorry. I wish I had been there. Are you ok?

Mibs says:
I don’t know. That looks horrible, but it is true. I just don’t know.

Luke says:
I’m glad you’re honest about it though.

Mibs says:
Did you just get a maintenance message?

Luke says:
Oh, great now there’s a maintenance message.

Luke says:
Yes.

Mibs says:
I’ll talk to you about this later then. Probably not tomorrow. No reason to ruin Christmas.

Luke says:
Are we ok, Aggie?

Mibs says:
As ok as we with me in “we” can be, yes.

Luke says:
That sounds ominous.

Mibs says:
I’m sorry. It’s just all I can come up with right now that is both honest and reasonable.

This service is temporarily unavailable.

Tears
of
frustration
filled
Aggie’s
eyes.
She
needed
to
talk
to
him—desperately.
Her
eyes
slid
across
the
couch
to
the
phone.
She
hated
talking
for
long
periods
of
time
on
the
phone,
but
surely
this
was
important
enough.
The
clock
on
her
laptop
said
it
was
ten
minutes
past
midnight.
She
hadn’t
even
gotten
to
say
Merry
Christmas.
Her
fingers
flew
over
the
phone
keys.
She
could
at
least
text
him
that
much.