Page 20 of The Scrooge Effect

“And is Katherine new?”

“Actually, we’ve been dating for about two months.”

Shocked, I didn’t know what to say to him. “Two months! And you’re just now bringing this up?”

“Actually, I didn’t bring this up at all.”

“Why not?”

“Because I knew you’d have Edu run a background check on her. And I wanted something about this relationship to feel normal.”

Scoffing, I got to my feet and started cleaning up. “Checking up on your girlfriend is perfectly normal. Remember that one with all the outstanding parking tickets?”

“Yeah, a real criminal, that one.”

“She was! Unpaid tickets can really damage your driving record. You can get your license suspended!”

“Oh no!” he gasped sarcastically. “Not that!”

“Hey, you would have yelled at me if I had done something as irresponsible as that.”

“That’s because you’re my sister.”

“And she was your girlfriend!”

“I’d been on two dates with her before you ran her off!” he shouted. “Don’t you have somewhere better to be? Like at home, taking care of your kids?”

“They’re taking knife-throwing lessons from Fox.”

“James isn’t even a year old,” he pointed out.

“He says they’re never too young to start. Don’t worry. He’s using rubber knives.”

“Oh, well, that makes me feel so much better,” he muttered sarcastically.

Sighing, I flopped back in the chair, rubbing my hand across my forehead. “Look, I could really use my brother right now. Is there any chance he’s around?”

Like the good brother he was, he walked over and sat in the chair beside me, squishing my hips in all the wrong places. “What’s going on, Squirt?”

“We took the kids to see Santa last night.”

Sighing, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for a hug. “I take it things didn’t go well.”

“He got us kicked out of the mall.”

“Well, you know, he doesn’t do well at this time of year.”

“I know that, but…” I grunted in frustration. “I’m being selfish. I want to enjoy Christmas, but he ruins it for us every year!”

“It hasn’t been that long. Maybe in a few years, he’ll come around.”

“A few years? Oliver, would you want to suffer through your favorite holiday with a man who hated Christmas?”

“Not a man, but maybe the right woman.”

“That’s not funny. I want Eden and Gracie to enjoy this, and instead, it’s all being destroyed.”

“I get it, but you knew he had issues when you married him. Did you really think that was all going to change?”