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Pride that was alh my chest “Good job, kid”
“I proht” Juliet squinted atat the corners of her mouth “You didn’t eat them all, did you?”
“You hid them on me,” I accused
Her lips twitched “Maybe”
She tilted her head, inviting Pip to follow her into the kitchen He stepped lightly, al, like he was afraid to leave a trace of his visit
I sat at the kitchen table with thelad to seeher with questions She helped hinment for history class while he snacked on brownies
It was a nice afternoon
“Thank you” I curled one home
“He asks about you all the tiled her head to look up at me “I hope it was okay—”
“It’s your house You can invite whoever you want over”
Anger lit up her eyes “It’s not my house It’s our house”
“You knohat I mean”
We rarely fought but e did, it was abouta job Juliet wanted e I knehatever Mrs Shields had left Juliet was for her education, not mine I’d find a job, eventually
Turned out, not a lot of places were eager to hire a juvenile delinquent with a GED and limited skills
We set that aside for the winter break Too many crappy holidays as children, and the desire to feel like adults, led us to do the miniot around to putting up a tree
She stood back, ad up a quarter of the living room “Now that it’s here, I kind of like it”
“It shts Besides all the tools, I’d unearthed a large collection of holiday decorations in the garage
Juliet studied the green wiry strand she was holding “It’s weird, I don’t re the holidays I think Mrs Shields would hang a Santa on the door and some bells and that was it”
“Maybe after their daughter lanced at the boxes we’d dragged into the living room “It’s a lot of work”
“I feel bad If I’d known they had all this stuff, I would’ve helped her” She scowled in the direction of the front door “My aunt and uncle certainly never bothered to do anything”
“Hey” I curled hts “We’ll ht up every inch of the house, we’ll do it If you’d rather string up purple lights instead of red, white, and green, we can do that too”
One corner of herto find purple lights?”