Page 66 of Theirs for the Holidays

Lennox sighs heavily. “Can we not do this right now?”

Both brothers look at him, but Sawyer has a nasty expression on his face. “It was fine when you were poking at me a minute ago, but as soon as I poke back, you want to step in and be the responsible one?”

“I wasn’t poking?—”

“Fuck you, yes you were! You and your fucking air quotes. You know good and damned well I didn’t say it like that.”

“Then how did you say it, Sawyer?” Lennox asks, putting down the silicone spatula he’s been holding. “How did you put it when you said you were running away?”

“I told you there was no point in me sticking around. You made sure of that.”

There’s a ringing silence after Sawyer’s words, and I glance between the three of them, not sure what that means. Before I can ask, or try to move things back to the lighthearted mood from before, Lennox explodes.

“Just say what the fuck you mean!” he snaps, turning to face Sawyer. “Blame me. I know you want to. Both of you do.” His hands are clenched into fists at his side, and one of them shakes noticeably. But he doesn’t seem to care, too caught up in this argument to hide it or shake his hand out.

“If the shoe fits,” Sawyer mutters.

“Say it with your chest, Sawyer.”

“Fine.” He faces off with his older brother, everything about his posture screaming anger and hostility. “You want me to say it? Fine. Itwasyour fault. We could have kept Zephyr going, regrouped after Mom died, and built it up to something evenbigger. But at the first offer, you fucking folded. You didn’t give a shit what we wanted, or what made sense. You just gave in, and the rest of us didn’t have a fucking choice in the matter.”

“That’s not true,” Lennox replies, his voice quiet but lethal somehow. “You know that’s not true. Rhett?—”

“Rhett wasn’t going to fight for it! And you knew that. You got him on your side because he didn’t give enough of a shit?—”

“Ididn’t give a shit?” Rhett breaks in, looking angry and incredulous. “As soon as the deal was signed, you were gone. Don’t act like you weren’t champing at the bit to be done with us. You took your share of the money and you were on the other side of the country within a week. If you wanted to hang on to the company so badly, why didn’t you fight for it?”

“Maybe I was sick of being the one fighting alone,” Sawyer says. “Lennox brought the fucking offer up every other day.Youwere sulking. What the fuck was I supposed to do? Itoldyou I thought it was too fast. We’d only had the business for two years. I told you we needed to think about it or talk it over more.”

They go back and forth between the three of them, laying the blame at each other’s feet. Through the argument, I slowly start to understand what happened between them. Their mother died, and I know it knocked them all for a loop. I can imagine it would be hard to run a business while grieving, especially since they were all new at it and didn’t really have much experience.

But to hear that’s what killed their relationship in the end is hard. They should have been pulling together after losing their mom, instead of breaking farther apart.

“Lennox took the first opportunity not to work with us anymore!” Rhett is insisting. He’s right up in Sawyer’s face now, physically larger than him, but Sawyer doesn’t back down. “What the hell was I supposed to think?”

“That I had some motivation other than not wanting to be with my brothers anymore?” Lennox says.

“Like what? Like being a fucking coward?”

“Like wanting to make sure we walked away with something!” Lennox shouts back. “God, you’re so fucking up your own ass that you can’t see anything. None of us were in our right minds. What would have happened if we started failing clients? If our reputation tanked and Zephyr failed? At least if we sold, we went out on our own terms.”

“On your terms,” Sawyer shoots back. “Just like always. What Lennox wants, Lennox gets.”

Lennox laughs bitterly. “As if that’s ever been fucking true.”

“Oh, cry me a fucking river. People get hurt in the service all the time. You’re the only one turning it into your own personal pity party.”

I can see Lennox react to that like a physical blow, and he rounds on Sawyer. It doesn’t look like he’s going to hit him or anything, but there’s anger in his eyes, and he’s shaking from the intensity of his emotions, his shoulders tight.

Jesus. This is too much.

“Stop it!” I shout, moving to get between Lennox and Sawyer. “Just stop it.”

All three of them stop in their tracks, staring at me in surprise. I guess they’ve probably never heard me shout before, but if it’s the only way to get through to them right now, then that’s what I’ll do.

“I can’t believe you guys,” I say. “You’re brothers. You were always so close, and this is what your relationship fell apart over?”

“You don’t understand—” Sawyer starts, but I silence him with a look.