Page 96 of Strictly Business
MICHAELA
“WE’RE SO GLAD YOU chose to join us for the holidays instead of spending another year out in the boonies,” Helen says with a smile so sweet it makes me sick. This isn’t the first time we’ve been in Montana during the holidays, but it is the first time we’ll spend the entire season here. Normally, we spend one holiday in Winchester and the other in Montana or Richmond, going home in between, but not this year. David said his mother hoped we could stay longer since they hadn’t seen much of him this year, and he was more than happy to oblige. Glad to know he will carve out time for his mother but not his wife.
Stop, Michaela.
You’re supposed to be making this work.
“Oh, be nice, Mother,” Hannah says across the living room. Hannah is the one saving grace of the Reed family. She might be the only person who hates her mother more than I do. I swear she lives to find ways to annoy Helen; like right now, Hannah sits in one of the armchairs, her feet resting on the hand-painted brass inlay trunk that’s supposed to be a coffee table. It’s one of Helen’s favorite pieces, and she visibly cringed from her armchair when Hannah’s feet touched it. “Winchester is cute.”
“Winchester is cute, but Bridgeport is—”
“Better be careful. Bridgeport is the epitome of small-town America, the thing Daddy ran his campaign on years ago.”
“It’s a little run down, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing.”
I hide my grimace behind my wine as they go back and forth. David walks through the front door. Finally, is all I can think. He’s been gone the past two days overseeing some business back in Washington while I was left to bond with the girls. “It’ll be good for you,” he said packing up a small travel bag moments before he walked out the door with a small peck on the forehead.
“Darling!” Helen exclaims. “How was Washington?”
“Fine, just finalizing a few things before I hand everything over to Jonah.” David leans down over the back of the couch and kisses the crown of my head. I don’t miss the harsh look from his sister that follows him into the kitchen. Only when she meets my gaze does she offer a small smile before getting up from the couch to follow. Hushed whispers come from the kitchen, the sounds of a sibling argument I know all too well.
“Is Jonah going to be ready to take over?” Helen asks.
“He has no choice,” David says and tosses a pretzel in his mouth. When he returns from the kitchen, he looks more annoyed than moments before. Jonah has worked with David for a while, and David has been setting him up to take over as Chief of Staff. Why you ask? Because David is running for Congress. Yep. His sisters dropped that bombshell two days after we got here. They were unaware David hadn’t told me himself. He said he was waiting for the “right time” because he didn’t want to scare me away
David falls onto the couch beside me but leaves a small space between us. Just enough that someone else may not notice, but I do. Whenever we sit next to each other, there is always the slightest gap with room for one of us to take the first step, but neither has yet. Yet, because surely one of us will.
“Tay says dinner will be ready in ten,” Hannah reappears from the kitchen with a full glass of wine. “Not sure if we’re ready for whatever she’s concocting, though.”
“I heard that!” Taylor shouts. Taylor, the youngest of the Reed siblings, recently started culinary school. She was adamant about cooking all of our meals. Most everything has been delicious, but some things have been a little questionable — like that duck påté inside of some kind of dough thing she made three nights ago. David’s father had pizza delivered not long after dinner was served that night.
“I better go get your father,” Helen says grabbing her jacket from the coat rack. “He’s been fiddling with that old truck all afternoon.” James does that a lot — finds a project to keep him busy when the family gets together. This time, it’s a 1956 Ford pickup truck that he purchased from a local shop where it has sat in the back lot for the last ten years. His project has kept James safely tucked away in the barn, and away from his family for the last weeks. Helen tells Hannah to set the table before walking out the front door.
“So, David—”
“Don’t start, Hannah.” David drapes his arm around the back of the sofa, his fingers graze the base of my neck, and as much as I want to pull away, I don’t. His touch feels…weird. Foreign.
“Whatever do you mean?” Hannah smirks. “I was going to say it’s nice to have you back. Things were getting a bit bland here, weren’t they, Mic?” A twinkle in her eye tells me there is more to this conversation than just letting her brother know how bored we’ve been. Hannah and I tried to escape to town — Kalispell is only twenty minutes away and perfect for a day of shopping and gossip — but Helen put a stop to that.
“That’s one way to put it,” I say earning a laugh from her, but an eye roll from David.
“Now that David is back, maybe Mom will let us go into town tomorrow. What do you say?” Hannah sits up in her chair planting her feet on the floor, that twinkle in her eye still there.
“Sounds like a date.” I down the rest of my wine standing from the couch. Hannah joins me to start setting the table. “I’m not very hungry, don’t worry about setting a place for me. I think I’m going to go take a bath instead.”
“I’ll sneak you some later if it’s edible.” She winks, and I laugh thanking her before heading upstairs.
Two days after we arrived in Montana, I found myself in Taylor’s room waiting for Hannah to join us so the younger Reed sister would spill the beans about her new boyfriend. She had casually mentioned it while we were baking cookies and it put a stop to our baking immediately. Hannah wanted to know everything about this secret boyfriend, and I was just here for the gossip — anything to make the day go by a little faster.
Hannah returned with three mugs, handing one to each of us before flopping on the bed next to me. When I took a sip, a cough surged from my throat, not expecting to taste bourbon with a dash of apple cider. Taylor did the same. “Damn, Han,” I chuckled, “you like a little cider with your bourbon?”
“Keeps you warm in the winter,” Hannah shrugged sipping her own. “So, Washington, huh?”
“We’re not here to talk about that.”
“Oh no, we are,” Taylor said with a smirk, and I looked between them rightfully confused. We were supposed to be talking about Taylor’s boyfriend, not me and David.
Hannah sighed, “I know this isn’t my place, but why are you doing this? Not that I don’t love having you around — it’s nice to have someone else who doesn’t enjoy being stuck with my family as much as me…”