Jacob looked at his phone. He’d had a notification his delivery had arrived which meant he didn’t have to worry about any more gifts for Lucas; he could just go home. He stopped just as a florist was closing early and snagged what she had left. He fingered his phone, torn, as he sat in the car. Did he want to do this? He could email. Keith’s contact details were on his business card, but it seemed cowardly, and he was leaving for England soon. It wasn’t as if he had to see his brother at all if he wanted.
“Don’t tell mom,” Jacob had begged to try to clean the mud from the scratches all over his arm and knees.
“What happened?” Keith asked and bent down to where Jacob was sitting on the bathroom stool. Mom was downstairs making dinner, and Dad wasn’t home from work yet.
Jacob huffed but didn’t say anything. Keith would think he was as much a loser as Ricky, and he only had one more day of school to get through before the summer vacation.
“Are those idiots giving you trouble at school again?” Keith frowned, swatting Jacob’s hands away and cleaning the cuts himself.
Jacob sighed. “Not really. I was showing off and swinging on the tree rope. They said I was too chicken to do it.”
Keith grinned. “But you showed them, huh?”
Jacob nodded, immensely proud he had done something to make Keith pleased with him. Six years was hard. Jacob had spent all his time trying to run after Keith and his friends, and Keith had spent all his time trying to avoid him.
Keith put a bandage on the one on his knee and stood up. “I’m going to Jack’s for an hour after dinner to check out his new game. You could come if you like.”
And Jacob had. And what was even better, they’d passed Ricky and his friends hanging out on the corner, and Keith had slung an arm around him and told him in a loud voice so Ricky could hear he bet Jacob could beat him at the game.
And Jacob had forgotten that. The six years between them hadn’t been Keith’s fault, and he had been a good older brother when he had been there, and he had been trying to be a good older brother for the last eight years. Jacob keyed in the cell number from the business card, and when Keith had answered and realized who it was, his obvious pleasure made Jacob smile, and another bit of guilt slid away.
Twenty minutes later, Jacob let himself into the kitchen and sniffed appreciatively at whatever Lucas had in the oven. He was half-surprised Lucas wasn’t here, and he ruefully admitted he had gotten used to Lucas greeting him when he came in the kitchen. Then he heard the shower and decided to sneak upstairs with the delivery boxes. He could gift wrap them, and then maybe they could decorate the tree that was in the garage. He knew Lucas wanted to, but he was guessing he hadn’t because he was worried it might upset Jacob. Jacob thought about that as he sneaked upstairs, hearing the shower cut off as he closed his bedroom door, and realized he wasn’t really upset. Ben had liked the holidays, but it had meant working longer hours usually, and he had been more interested in the chance of a vacation when he got the time off. Jacob knew Lucas loved Christmas, and he wanted to make it special for him.
Jacob sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands. What was he doing? He should be on the laptop booking a plane ticket, and instead he was contemplating how to get the table out of the car without Lucas seeing, and worrying about giving him a good Christmas. He hadn’t even told Lucas about the job offer from Patrick.
Jacob stood and peeled off his clothes. He wouldn’t mind a shower and hurried to get in just as he heard Christmas music start downstairs. Lucas obviously hadn’t noticed he was home yet, and he grinned at the surprise he had for him and wanted him to wear tonight. They would decorate the tree, have a wonderful meal, possibly open the bottle of wine Jacob had bought, and then snuggle on the couch until it was time to snuggle in bed.
Giving Lucas a good Christmas was the least he could do. He was going to worry about booking a flight later. Jacob walked downstairs after a quick shower and changing into some comfy sweats and a long-sleeved tee. He headed for the living room where he could hear the music but jerked to a stop when he saw Lucas.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Lucas jumped, slipped, and as if everything was happening in slow motion, tipped headfirst toward the Christmas tree.
Chapter Nineteen
How Jacob had caught him in time Lucas would never know, but not only was the tree still standing, but Lucas was still in one piece.
“What did I tell you?” Jacob ground out after a long moment of crushing Lucas tight to his chest and refusing to let go. Not that Lucas was complaining at all, and he reveled in the rapid thud of Daddy’s heart in his ear. Daddy took a breath and eased Lucas away from him. “You nearly fell. You could have been hurt.”
“But I’m used to having to stand on things,” Lucas protested. “I always have to.”
Jacob caught his hand and pulled him to the sofa. “Did you forget I told you to wait until I got home and then I would help?”
Lucas shook his head slowly. “No.”
“So not only did you deliberately disobey me, you decided to put yourself at further risk by decorating the tree practically naked?”
Lucas blushed. He wondered when Daddy would get around to noticing.
“It wasn’t that long ago you were sick and—”
“But that was a virus,” Lucas interrupted without thinking. The glower he got from Daddy soon had him questioning his decision though.
Jacob nodded and stood up, bringing Lucas up with him. “We were going to decorate the tree together, but for now you’re going to go to your room and get in a robe. You’re going to sit quietly until I get up there and think really hard about why you would be so naughty.”
Lucas gaped. “But—”
“I would think really hard before anything else comes out of that mouth, boy.” Jacob tipped his chin to the stairs, and Lucas sighed but did as he was told.
Lucas got into his robe because it was cooler upstairs than down and after a few minutes of silence started to feel really silly. How long was Jacob going to leave him up here? And the oven needed to be turned off soon. He didn’t want their dinner spoiling when he’d worked so hard to make it perfect. Weren’t Daddies not supposed to punish their littles when they were angry? He was sure he’d heard that, and Daddy had looked really cross. He could be up here for quite a while if he were waiting for him to calm down.
Lucas sighed again and looked at the pile of books. They were on to the third one, and Daddy had changed to his e-reader to read them to Lucas as he said it was better on his eyes. Then he’d laughed. Daddy had a nice laugh, but he certainly didn’t seem to find anything amusing right then.
Lucas sat up when he heard Daddy’s footsteps on the stairs. Should he be doing anything? Daddy had just told him to get in his room, and he knew some littles had to go stand in the corner, but Daddy hadn’t said that, thank goodness.
Lucas looked up when Daddy’s feet appeared in front of him. He didn’t look angry. He looked disappointed which was a hundred times worse. “I’m sorry,” he burst out, tears pricking at his eyelids because he’d ruined their evening. “I thought you were never going to come up here,” he admitted sorrowfully.