I laughed. “Ok, I kind of walked into that one.”
“You definitely did.”
***
The next few days flew by in a blur. I spent my days on the slopes, and my nights hanging out with my family and Glen. I only spent a few weeks out of the year with my grandparents, and I tried to make the most of it. In some ways I was even closer to my grandfather than I was to my dad, but I’d have never told him that.
We’d just finished dinner on Christmas Eve when my phone rang. I hurried down the hall to the room I was staying in and picked up immediately when I saw it was my mom. I hadn’t spent Christmas with her in ages, but it was still hard. “Hi.”
“Hey, honey. How are you?” Mom sounded excited. Almost too excited.
I ignored her question, and instead I asked one of my own. “What’s going on?”
“Mac and I have some big news.”
My stomach dropped at the mention of her boyfriend. “Oh?”
“We’re getting married!”
“Oh.” I gripped the night stand, needing to find a way to steady myself.
“Oh? Is that all you have to say?”
I heard laughing in the background. “So he did it with his kids around, but not me. Convenient.”
“Savy, you weren’t here. That isn’t Mac’s fault.” Mom managed to always make things sound so calm. She also managed to always make it sound like I was the one overreacting. Maybe I was, but for once I wasn’t going to own up to it.
“I was there for Thanksgiving. He couldn’t do it then?”
“Well then Mi—”She stopped.
“Exactly Mom, then one of his kids wouldn’t have been there, and of course he couldn’t do something so important and life changing without them.”
“I’m sorry.” All excitement was gone from her voice. I felt guilty, but then part of me didn’t. Mac had done it on purpose. I was sure of it.
“Congratulations. I hope you two have a wonderful life together. And let me guess. You’re moving to New York then?”
“Not until you start school of course.”
“When I start school an hour away from home… yeah, great.”
“It might not be too late. We could try to get you in somewhere further north.”
“No thanks. Mac will just find a way to exclude me from everything anyway. Enjoy, don’t worry about me at all.” I hung up and tossed my phone before lying down on my bed.
My phone rang. It was my mom again. The guilt was back so I picked up. “Hi.”
“Honey, I’m sorry. Mac just wanted to do it on Christmas. You know how much I love this time of year.”
“Yeah…” I could blame her for my love of everything and anything Christmas.
“How are things going in Vail? Is your Dad keeping you busy?”
“It’s been great. I miss you though.”
“I know honey. I’ll see you soon.”
“What if I come home early for New Years? We can rent cheesy chick flicks and order in Chinese. We haven’t done that in forever.”
Silence. I knew what that meant. “Oh. No, I’m guessing Mac made plans for a family trip—he must have forgotten my ticket.”
“Savannah. You spend Christmas vacation with your dad. You always do.”
“Yup. Merry Christmas, Mom. I hope the rock is big.” I hung up, and this time I turned off the ringer. I wasn’t talking to her again. I grabbed my jacket and slipped on my boots before walking back out toward the kitchen.
“Is everything ok, sweetie?” My grandmother asked.
Dad looked up from his book. I could see the suspicion on his face.
“Yeah, I just need some fresh air.”
“I’ll come with you.” Grandpa reached for his coat.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll stay close.” I hurried down the stairs before they could stop me.
Lionshead Village was bustling that time of night, and I tried to get lost in the crowd. Did they really have to do that to me on Christmas Eve? Couldn’t they have dropped the bomb another time? I walked around for a few minutes, trying to let the music and lights cheer me up. Mac wasn’t going to ruin Christmas Eve for me. Our relationship was crummy, but that didn’t mean I needed to take things out on Mom. Being angry at Mac was a lot easier than Mom. I texted her quickly. I am happy for you. I just need to process this. I love you.
She texted back right away. Love you too.
“Savy?”
I glanced up in time to narrowly avoid bumping right into Glen. “Hi.”
He put his hands on my arms to steady me. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I wiped away some tears and did my best to compose myself.
“You sure?” He looked at me skeptically. “You don’t look fine.”
“Ok, I’m almost fine.” I wasn’t good at keeping anything from Glen. I was notorious for texting him in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. I’d have felt bad about it, but he did the same thing. “I’m just celebrating the fantastic news that my mom’s getting married. Hip hip hooray.”
“He did it when you weren’t around.” Glen knew exactly why it upset me. It was nice that I didn’t even have to explain it to him.
“Classic Mac, huh?”
“Yeah. Well, on the bright side he waited a few years. At least you won’t have to move schools or anything. She can’t pull you out second semester of senior year.”
“That is a bright side.” I blinked back some more tears. I refused to let Glen see me upset. Maybe I was blowing things out of proportion, but I was tired of Mac constantly leaving me out of things and my mom just taking it. I was positive he’d purposely waited until I was getting ready to leave for college before proposing. I didn’t fit in with his image of a perfect family, and so the simplest solution for him was to wait until it was easier to keep me away. Maybe if my relationship with my dad was better it wouldn’t have bothered me so much, but it did. I knew that in a lot of ways I was alone, but that wasn’t a feeling I was ready to accept.
“Want to go ice skating?” He gestured to the rink.
“Now?”
“Yeah. It’s Christmas Eve. Ice skating kind of fits the mood, right?’
“Right.” I considered the offer. I wasn’t exactly in the holiday spirit, but maybe some skating was what I needed.
“Nice, I knew you’d say yes.” He grinned.