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squeezed him tightly.

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    The Christmas Throwaway
    RJ Scott

    "My presents, Mel…" Mark couldn't stop the disappointment filtering into his voice. Whatever the reason, it wasn't as if he actually received that many presents now he was a dad. Mel just chuckled and tucked her head up under his chin.
    "I'll owe you one." Mark looked over his wife's head at Annabelle who stood in the front room inches away from the presents under the tree.
    "I'm holding you to that."

    The cold was a slap to his warm face, and he
    shrugged the collar of his coat higher around his neck, shivering at the wind chill. He wished he could explain to Mark but if he didn't understand fully why he had taken Zach into the family home, then how the hell was he going to explain it to his best friend? He needed to go back for a bit, drop the clothes off, check in with his momma and make sure Zach was doing okay. Drawing in a deep breath of frigid air, he began the short walk. He passed few people. Seemed he was the only idiot out this early on a snowy Christmas Day. It was beautiful. His town was crusted with the white stuff, the frost climbing windows, multicolored lights adorning the houses, glimpses of trees 45
    The Christmas Throwaway
    RJ Scott

    inside the windows. A gorgeous painting.
    Some questioned why he stayed, why with his
    college degree in his hand he chose to come home to work in the small police department when he could have done better for himself in Harrisonburg or Charlottesville.
    Ben never questioned it, just went with his heart.
    Hill Valley, Virginia, nestled in the Shenandoah Valley was his town, and he wanted to be part of the tapestry of its history. As much as the Mercantile on Main, or Mr. Perkins who was a shade under ninety; Mr. P, who sat on the bench outside the very same shop, dispensing wisdom from the bottom of his whisky bottle.
    When he arrived back home, Zach was still asleep, and his momma and Ellie were curled up on the sofa with breakfast. They both came to help Ben with the wrapped gifts.
    "Who is he, Benny?" Ellie asked softly.
    "Ben, not Benny," Ben automatically replied, "and his name is Zach, Zachary Weston. He's a runaway until the twenty-seventh when he turns eighteen."
    "What was he running from? Do I want to know the answer?"
    "Homophobic parents by the sound of it. I don't know much, but he needed somewhere to stay."

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    The Christmas Throwaway
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    Ellie narrowed her eyes briefly. "I changed the label on one of the gifts for you," she said quickly. "It was just some small stuff, but if he is staying…" Her voice tailed off as he pulled his little sister into a hug of affection.
    "Thanks, Ellie," he said simply, squeezing her tight then releasing her. "Mark donated as well, or rather, Melanie donated Mark's stuff."
    Ellie held up the bright red sweater with the fluffy snowman on the front, from the pile of clothes Ben had brought from Mark.
    "Oh, my God," she snorted. "She donated last year's fugly sweater."
    Ben indicated the package under the tree, the large suspiciously squishy package. "And this year's," he pointed out, before snorting his own amusement. His mother, in full-on mom mode, held up the jeans that Mark had donated, eyeing the waist and remembering the thin boy that was upstairs in her spare room. Even Mark saw the jeans might well be the right length, but the waist was huge and the material would swamp him.
    "Pass me my sewing box, Ben," she asked, settling back down on the sofa, and he imagined she was gauging just how much of an alteration she was going to have to do to the thick unwieldy denim. She thanked Ben as he handed 47
    The Christmas Throwaway
    RJ Scott

    her the carved wooden box that held buttons and thread and needles of all sizes. Ellie held the denim straight as her mom started to adjust the material, and Ben just smiled fondly at them both.
    "He's gorgeous, isn't he, Ben? All sharp angles and those amazing eyes," Ellie commented carefully, looking up at him all