Plain Christmas (Plain Fame Book 6)

by Sarah Price

  She walked away, wondering whether he would drop the subject or continue mulling it over. After all, he had meetings in the afternoon and had promised to take Nicolas fishing after school. Given that he was leaving the following day, Alejandro certainly had other things on his mind and didn’t need to be bothered with last-minute requests to change his demanding itinerary. He was always willing to squeeze in more appointments for the sake of his career and to accommodate others, but he never responded well to unplanned changes in his personal life.

  Nevertheless, she hoped that a seed had been planted. Not a flower seed but more like . . . a weed. It had not been her intention to burden him with making this decision, however important it was to her. She just thought that there might be some way to compromise, some way to satisfy both sides of the family. She felt a lump building up in her throat as she realized that her husband did not need the additional stress; he had enough to deal with on his own.

  It wasn’t until later in the evening that the subject was brought up again. After spending the rest of the day away from home, Alejandro had returned with a pensive expression on his face. Amanda noticed it right away and kept her distance. She knew better than to interrupt Alejandro when he looked deep in thought. Those were the times when she kept to herself, knowing that he would come to her when, and if, he needed to talk about something.

  By the time he finally approached her, it was well into the night. Amanda was already in bed reading a book when she heard the door to their bedroom open. She looked up and smiled as Alejandro walked in and yanked at his tie. Tossing it onto a nearby chair, he crossed the room and sat next to her on the edge of the bed.

  “Everything go well?”

  He nodded. “Sí, quite well. The new LP is going to set many new records on the charts.”

  Folding down the corner of the page she had been reading, Amanda shut the book and set it on her lap. He glanced at it before pushing it aside so that he could lean over and rest his arm across her thighs. He stared up at her. “I thought about what you asked today, Amanda.”

  “About?”

  He raised an eyebrow, suspicious of the genuineness of her reply. “About Christmas, sí?”

  “Oh?”

  “You know my mother will have a—¿cómo se dice?—temper tantrum,” he said. “But if you are willing to deal with her, then we can go to Lititz.”

  Amanda caught her breath. “Really?” she asked, her eyes wide and disbelieving. She hadn’t expected him to be keen on spending the holidays with her family. Her mother had never really approved of their relationship, especially during the tumultuous beginning. Even the last time they had visited, Lizzie made a disapproving noise whenever Alejandro talked about the music industry with Anna’s husband, Jonas.

  “Sí, really.” He reached out and tugged at the long brown hair that hung over her shoulder. “You are right about the cousins. And your mother is their grandmother, too. Besides, you never complained once, in all these years, about spending all these holidays with my friends and family. It’s time for us to spend it with yours. But,” he said abruptly, holding up his hand in an effort to stop her from saying anything, “we can only stay for a few days. Geoffrey has his people making the arrangements. And remember”—he lowered his voice and stared into her eyes—“you agreed to break the news to my mother, sí?”

  Barely able to contain her emotions, Amanda threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him. She couldn’t believe that he had agreed so easily! She felt his arms wrap around her waist and pressed her cheek against his shoulder, beaming with joy, even though—or perhaps because—he couldn’t see her.

  “Oh, Alejandro! That is the most wonderful Christmas present ever!”

  Chapter Four

  “What do you mean we won’t be home for Christmas?” Sofia cried out in alarm.

  Just the way Sofia enunciated the word Christmas, her blue eyes bulging out of her head and her mouth hanging open in surprise—and not the good kind of surprise—made it sound as if Amanda had proclaimed that there would be no Christmas at all.

  With the exception of Alejandro, the rest of the family gathered in the large kitchen at the back of the house. They were waiting for the photographer to call them to come out and take their places in the garden. A team of people had descended upon the house earlier in the morning, setting up equipment in the backyard for the photo shoot. While they were waiting, Amanda had mentioned the big news as casually as she could.

  Sofia had been putting on her shoes and was standing the closest to her mother when the announcement was made. “We’re always home for Christmas!”

  Isadora looked up from her cell phone and asked, “What’s this about Christmas?” She was sitting at the table with her textbooks spread out before her, but as far as Amanda could tell, she hadn’t done anything more than check her social media.

  Amanda gave Isadora a look. “How about some more homework and less texting, Izzie?” She glanced over her shoulder in time to see Grace struggling with Nicolas, trying to keep him from getting his clothes wrinkled or dirty before the photography team was ready. He was trying to run away from her, and her attempt to contain him in the large atrium was not going well. “Nicolas! Calm down and listen to Grace. Please!” Amanda called out, but he ignored her.

  “What? We won’t be here for Christmas?” Isadora’s voice sounded as horrified as Sofia looked. “Please tell me not Tia Maria’s house! It’s so small for all of those people, and Papi’s cousin Adolfo still pinches my cheeks!” She rolled her eyes and groaned. “Doesn’t he realize I’m not a little kid anymore?”

  “No, no, sweetheart. Not Tia Maria’s house. We’re going out of town instead,” she exclaimed cheerfully.

  Suddenly, a look of excitement crossed the fourteen-year-old’s face. “Out of town?” Her blue eyes flashed as her mind clearly began to check through all of the possibilities. “Where to? Europe?” She gasped. “Paris?”

  Amanda started to respond, but Isadora talked right over her.

  “Wait, no. That’s too far away, right?” Isadora pressed her lips together, thinking of her next guess. “Oh! I know! New York City? You know how much I love New York City.” She practically squealed in delight at the thought. “Fifth Avenue! Here we come!”

  “No, not quite like New York City,” Amanda said as she knelt before Sofia and tried to buckle her daughter’s shoes. Of course, Sofia didn’t like the shoes that Jeremy’s team had picked out for her to wear, whining that they were too babyish for an eight-year-old. She kept swinging her feet away from Amanda, no matter how hard her mother tried to hold each foot still. “Sofia, please,” she said softly. The foot finally remained motionless long enough for her to fasten the buckle. “There! Next foot.”

  “Los Angeles?” After a brief hesitation, Isadora’s expression changed, and she gasped. For a moment, she looked as alarmed as Sofia had just moments ago. “I’m not going to miss the Miami concert, am I? You know I told everyone I was meeting Banff! That would be an epic tragedy! Please tell me I won’t miss it!”

  This time, it was Amanda who fought the urge to roll her eyes. When had the holidays become about everyone else’s needs? Didn’t anyone think of other people at Christmas? She sighed. Apparently not in her family. Like sharing the holidays with her family, giving to others was another change that needed to happen to their family holiday tradition, and she didn’t mean giving material gifts. “No, Izzie,” she said at last. “You won’t miss the concert.”

  Glancing over her shoulder, Amanda looked at Grace and Nicolas. They were standing in the hallway. Nicolas was still trying to run from her, but Grace had a firm grip on his arm. “Please, Nicolas,” Amanda said in an exasperated tone. His energy was exhausting her patience. “You’re going to knock something over.”

  No sooner had she said the words than the small boy swung his free arm and hit the flower vase on the table. The vase shattered, scattering broken crystal and water across the floor. Startled at the noise, which echo
ed against the cathedral ceilings, Grace released the little boy’s arm, and the now-free Nicolas ran out of her reach. As he sprinted past Amanda, she just barely managed to grab him.

  “Nicolas!” she snapped at last. He finally stopped squiggling and stared up at her, his big blue eyes searching her face. Immediately, Amanda took a deep breath and counted to ten. Twice. It wasn’t even ten o’clock, and with the three children home from school for the photographer, Amanda could tell it was going to be a very long day. “Please, sweetheart,” she said with forced calm. “I need you to calm down. Just for an hour or two.”

  “Mami!” Isadora interrupted, ignoring Teresa and Grace as they cleaned up the mess that her brother had made, even as Teresa swept up the shards under the table by her feet. “Could you please answer me? Where are we going for Christmas?”

  “I want to be home for Christmas!” Sofia cried.

  “We will be at home,” Amanda said with as much patience as she could muster. “My family’s home.”

  The color drained from Isadora’s face. “Pennsylvania? They don’t even have electricity! How will I charge my phone?” she said in a panicked voice.

  Amanda counted to ten again and then tried to reassure her daughter. “You know they have solar electricity. We’ve been there before, Izzie.” When she noticed the scowl on Isadora’s face, Amanda reminded her, “You loved it there once. Remember? When you adopted Katie Cat?”

  Isadora rolled her eyes. “That was eons ago, Mami!”

  “I doubt much has changed since then,” Amanda said softly. “It’s the same place.”

  “Well, I sure hope they have good cell service,” Isadora said, not directing her comment to anyone in particular. “It’s out in the middle of nowhere.”

  At this last comment, Sofia made a face. “Middle of nowhere? How will Santa find us?”

  Already Isadora was notifying her friends, first holding up the phone to snap a selfie and then tapping furiously on it.

  “Izzie, please. Do not broadcast this information.” All Amanda needed was for one of Isadora’s friends to post their plans on social media, and the paparazzi would have a field day.

  Dropping her phone on her open textbook, Isadora rolled her eyes and sighed. “How long will we have to be there?”

  “Will we still get gifts?” Sofia asked. “You know I asked Santa for a laptop.” She tilted her head and eyed her mother suspiciously. “The purple one with the special unicorn case, too. You told Santa, right?”

  Amanda frowned. Her patience was wearing thin. “Santa?” She took a deep breath. Santa Claus. Every year it was the same thing, only now it was multiplied by three.

  Each year, it started earlier and earlier. The list of things that they wanted for Christmas now began shortly after Labor Day. How could they help it, Amanda wondered, when the world of advertising kept finding new ways to brainwash the children to promote its products? The only problem was that they wanted everything. Whether it was the coolest electronic toy, newest connected gadget, or latest fashion style, they simply expected it to magically appear under the Christmas tree.

  “You do remember that Christmas is much more than receiving gifts, right?” Amanda said, finally finishing with Sofia’s other shoe. “It’s about Jesus.”

  “The little baby?” Nicolas asked.

  “Yes, baby Jesus.”

  Sofia looked at Nicolas. “Like him?” she asked and pointed at her brother. He responded by sticking his tongue out at her.

  “Sofia. Please don’t antagonize him.” Amanda stood up and ran her hands down the front of her black skirt. The two younger children were like cats and dogs, constantly bickering. The one-year difference in their age had done nothing to make them close friends. Instead, they squabbled and argued nonstop.

  Isadora stood up and with a mischievous smile said, “Yeah, Sofia. Otherwise Santa won’t bring you any presents in Pennsylvania!”

  “Will Jesus bring us presents, then?” Nicolas asked, his eyes wide as he stopped fussing.

  “But what does baby Jesus have to do with Santa’s presents?” Sofia demanded.

  Inwardly, Amanda groaned. This conversation was heading in the wrong direction.

  In their world of excess, it seemed increasingly hard for Amanda to keep her children grounded. Over the past few years, Amanda had tried unsuccessfully to take the children to church. But between the family’s chaotic travel schedules and the invasion of both paparazzi and fans, she had finally abandoned the effort. Instead, she tried to read them stories from the Bible at night, even though Sofia cried for her Dora the Explorer books. Eventually, Isadora and Sofia began negotiating with their mother: one Bible story for each storybook.

  To Amanda’s shame, she had eventually given up arguing with the children and, instead, did what she could to instill values in the children, talking about God and Jesus as often as she could.

  Clearly, that wasn’t enough.

  “Amanda, the photographers are ready.”

  Grateful for Alejandro’s reemergence, Amanda turned to face him and gave him an exasperated look. If only he would support her in her efforts to provide a religious education to their children. “Honestly, Alejandro, we need to have a talk about Christmas.”

  He stood there, his black suit crisp and fresh, his sunglasses resting atop his head, and stared at her with a blank expression on his face. Behind him, Amanda could see the media team out back by the pool, fiddling with their lights and equipment as they waited for the Diaz family. The photographers were on the magazine’s time clock, not Alejandro’s, so Amanda didn’t mind keeping them waiting. Besides, this was more important than any magazine cover.

  “What about Christmas?” he asked at last. “We agreed we’re going to Pennsylvania, no?”

  Isadora and Sofia spoke up simultaneously.

  “Why do we have to go away? I’ll miss everything that’s going on here!”

  “What about Santa? He’ll never find us! We won’t get anything!”

  At the mention of not receiving presents, Nicolas joined them. “I want to stay here for Santa!” He began to cry.

  Amanda tilted her head and spread out her hands, as if presenting the very problem that vexed her.

  “Ay, mi madre,” Alejandro mumbled, rubbing his chin and glancing toward the ceiling. Then, he turned to Nicolas and pointed a finger at him. “No crying, Nicolas!” he said in a stern voice. “Big boys don’t cry over such things!” To his daughters, he merely raised an eyebrow and gave them a warning look. Immediately, the complaining ceased, although based on her quick return to her phone, Amanda suspected Isadora was sharing her distress with her friends once again.

  “We will discuss this later. For now, I want happy faces for the camera, and”—he directed another firm look at Nicolas—“our best behavior.”

  Outside by the pool, the media team was still fussing over their equipment: lights, reflectors, and cameras. There were wires everywhere. As Alejandro walked ahead of his family, one of his numerous assistants hurried to meet him to discuss something in Spanish. Amanda held Nicolas’s hand, but it didn’t make a difference. He was too busy staring at the cameras and, distracted, tripped over a wire and fell, cutting his knee.

  “Nicolas!” Immediately, Amanda scooped him into her arms. He sobbed into her neck, blood from his cut staining her silky white blouse.

  “Amanda! Let’s go!”

  Alejandro’s voice carried through the open space between them. She turned to face him, their whimpering son in her arms, and his eyes quickly assessed the scene. The camera crew stopped what they were doing to watch. Quiet swept through the group. It was well known within the industry that when schedules were delayed, Alejandro became irritated. Yet, his ire was most often directed at others and very rarely at his wife and children.

  “Ay, Nicolas!” His eyes narrowed as he crossed the distance between himself and Amanda. When he noticed the stain on her blouse, he reached up and ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated at yet one m
ore delay. Amanda glanced over his shoulder and noticed the magazine’s stylist frown and roll his eyes, shaking his head in dismay while tossing a hairbrush over his shoulder.

  Unmoved by his son’s tears, Alejandro took the seven-year-old from Amanda and passed him over to an assistant. “Clean him up, sí?” As the assistant led the boy by the hand, Alejandro smiled at the young woman with gratitude. “Gracias.”

  Behind Amanda, Isadora sighed, but it was Sofia who spoke. “How long is this going to take?”

  Alejandro turned his head in the direction of Sofia’s voice, but his eyes fell upon Isadora, who, once again, was taking a photo of herself, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she rolled her eyes for the picture. He frowned. “Ay, hija, can you put down your phone for the next hour?” It was not a question but a demand. He reached out and took the phone from her. “Give the world of social media a reason to miss you, no?”

  A tall man approached them and extended his hand toward Alejandro, who responded by pulling him into a warm embrace.

  “Geoffrey! What’s the good word today?”

  Amanda smiled at Geoffrey, Alejandro’s manager. “Merry Christmas,” she said when he leaned over and kissed her on both cheeks.

  “Merry Christmas to you, too.” He walked with them toward the photography equipment, where the team was waiting. “This should only take about an hour,” he explained, glancing at his watch. “And then we’ll have to leave for the airport, Alejandro. Oh, and the arrangements have been made for getting everyone to Pennsylvania after the Miami concert.”

  At his words, Amanda felt her heart flutter. She shouldn’t have been surprised that Geoffrey had already made the arrangements. Whether by text, e-mail, or phone, the two men were always communicating.