He shrugged.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love my little townhouse, but it’s a home, not a showroom.”
There was muttering under his breath as he looked down at his shoes.
“Sorry?”
Head snapping up, his gaze met mine. “I said, I’d rather have a home.”
“Well good, then,” I replied, smiling at him.
Sharp exhale as he surveyed what he could see. “You have a boxwood wreath on your door,” he announced, gesturing at the greenery adorned with a big red bow.
“Well, it’s cute that you noticed it’s boxwood, but of course I have a wreath on my door. It’s gonna be Christmas in a few weeks, so it stands to reason that I would have decorated by now, don’t you think?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask why you hadn’t done any decorating?” I questioned him as I put my key in the lock, opening the door and stepping inside to the sound of an alarm.
“I guess I just never thought about it.”
“Why not?” I prodded, punching in the alarm code on the panel, shutting off the annoying noise that I knew, from experience, got much worse. It was my mistake for having Owen install the system instead of nice people at a normal alarm company.
“It wasn’t something we did,” Benji explained, following me inside and closing the door behind him which locked automatically. I dropped both duffels I’d been carrying and then rounded on him, interested in the explanation. “My mother always had a theme, so it was gold and blue, green and red, pink and silver, or white and whatever. The last one I remember was gold and white, and everything always matched, the ornaments, the garland, all of it.”
“Which is fine. I have no problem with the matching. My sister Jill, she always has a theme, but that’s because she purposely has all the stuff to do that with. Her family still decorates it all together, it’s just all in whatever color it is that year.”
“And that sounds nice,” he assured me, smiling as I turned the lights on in the entryway and he could see the Christmas accents and, more importantly, my hardwood floors. “But we didn’t decorate together. The trees were always enormous, at least twenty feet tall, and she would have them set up in the great room. They were always put up and taken down by the staff. I’ve never hung an ornament in my life.”
I squinted at him. “Even when you moved out?”
“Well, especially then,” he assured me. “I had no interest in starting when I was alone.”
“What about with what’s-his-name?” I walked deeper into the living room, turning on more lights, wanting him to be able to see how great the architecture was in my pre-war townhouse with the original wood molding and the fireplace. It was important that he like my home.
“Justin,” he supplied the name. “And no. Justin had a service come into his place that would decorate and then have things down the day after.”
I scoffed, turning to look at him, resisting the urge to stretch out my arms and say ta-dah! I hoped he could see the open concept, the glass doors that led out into my small back patio and completely private back yard, “My mother would leave her tree up until Easter if we all didn’t insist that she take it down after New Year’s.”
He nodded. “So you all help her put it up and then take it down?”
“Oh, yeah. Some of us go with her to pick it out, normally me because I have a truck, and Cormac because he finds all the good trees, and Tiernan because he’s the oldest and there always has to be a supervisor, but it depends on who can go when my mom decides it’s time. There’s always at least six of us.”
His face lit up. “I love that so much.”
“Well, it’s always noisy and hectic and there’s kids running around, and I hope you’re not overwhelmed at Christmas.”
“I’m sorry, what?” he asked me as I walked into the living room and from there into the kitchen to check the refrigerator. As expected, Nuan, who always watched Kevin for me, had bought milk and eggs, cheese and other staples. “Shaw?”
When I turned around, I was surprised to find Benji in the kitchen with me. “What?”
“Christmas?”
“Yeah, well,” I said with a shrug, “I just figured that you’d stay until then.”
“I can’t do that. I have to go home,” he told me. “I need to find a new place to live and file all the insurance claims and––”
“You can do all that from here, and you’re not going anywhere until I know you’re safe, and I think you know that,” I replied, taking gentle hold of his face. “You’re going to stay with me until we figure this thing out.”
He relaxed, and I took him into my arms and held him tight, loving that after only seconds, he had to hug me back.