by Natalie Ann
“Or we can have some more dessert in your room?” He pulled her into his arms, his lips covering hers.
“I’ve always got room for dessert.”
She led him to her room knowing that her heart was feeling much lighter this year than it had for a Christmas holiday in years.
27
Perfect Thing
“Good morning, Drew. Merry Christmas. You’re the first one here.”
He opened his arms and gave his mother a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Merry Christmas.”
“You couldn’t convince Amanda to come with you?”
“No,” he said. “I tried, but she didn’t want to leave her roommate alone. We had dinner at Duke’s last night. I’ll go see her a little later today and we’ll exchange gifts.”
“What did you get her?” his mother asked. “Jewelry?”
She was wiggling her eyebrows and he laughed, knowing she was teasing. At least he hoped so. “It’s a little early for jewelry. I got a gift certificate for a spa day at the Retreat and a few smaller things.”
“Any woman would love that. But you know, I knew your father was the one by the end of the week I spent here. Why do you think I moved here?”
He’d heard the story so many times. “I know all about it. And you were married six months later. No baby in the oven either, regardless of what everyone thought.”
“No.” His mother laughed. “We waited for our wedding night. Which is part of the reason we got married in six months.”
“Mom, I don’t need to know those details.” Why the hell was she telling him this after all these years?
“Of course you don’t. Everyone rushes to bed so fast now. That is why it takes so long for a couple to get engaged or married. Or why so many don’t marry at all.”
“Well, I wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it.”
“Drew!” she said, slapping his arm. “That is a horrible analogy.”
He and his brothers had said it plenty of times and she always responded the same way. “Times are different.”
“They are. Why don’t you help yourself to a cup of coffee. I’ve got cinnamon buns in the oven.”
“Homemade?” He loved when his mother made them.
“Of course. Isn’t that one of our Christmas traditions? I slave over the stove for all of you boys’ making your favorites while you fill your bellies?”
“So that means I get the buns. Dad is getting coffee cake.” He looked over on the counter and saw another pan resting, assuming the coffee cake was done. “Coy gets blueberry pancakes and Bode gets bacon and eggs.”
“Our brunch feast. You and your father are the most time consuming. Your brothers are easy.”
“That’s because Drew and I are special,” his father said, walking into the kitchen. “I was just on the phone with your Uncle Mitchell wishing them Merry Christmas. Janet is making breakfast while the boys are all on their way.”
“I bet Aunt Janet is making everyone’s favorites too.”
“Of course she is,” his mother said. “That is what a mom does for her family.”
He thought of Amanda and how she was alone. He’d bet her mother never did anything like this even during the best of times and knew he couldn’t imagine not having what he did in this room.
“How come you never make your favorite?” he asked his mother.
“My favorite thing is to watch you boys all enjoy your favorites.”
“I’m starting to think maybe we should have gotten you a better Christmas gift,” he said.
“Having you all here together is gift enough,” she said.
But thirty minutes later when they were all sitting down to eat, he pulled the gift out for his parents and watched his mother cry.
“You boys shouldn’t have,” she said. “Scott. We’re going to Greece. I’ve wanted to go to Greece for years.”
“Thanks, boys,” his father said sarcastically. “I’ll never be able to compete with that in the future.”
He and his brothers laughed. “Next year you can pick another trip, Dad,” Bode said. “But thank Drew. That was his idea. He did it all. We just put the money in.”
His mother looked at him. “You always know the perfect gift for someone.”
Amanda woke up a little before eight and showered. She normally got up much earlier but for some reason she’d slept in later today.
It was probably a good thing since the holidays tended to make her think of her daughter and what she’d be buying this year. What they’d be doing together. Where her life would be.
Would she be single still? Would she have a husband and another child?
Thinking of what ifs never did anyone any good and for some reason this was the first year her mind wasn’t filled with that.
Most likely because she was still confused over her meeting with Charlotte and then her relationship with Drew.
There were plenty of things to fill her mind and it was probably for the best.
Once the coffee was brewing she went to the living room to plug the tree in. She always liked to have the lights on first thing in the morning. Sidney would be up in a few hours and could come down and see the tree lit up and the gifts she’d put under it.
She glanced down and caught sight of a little gift bag tucked under the tree and bent down to see her name on it and a note to open first thing. Funny how she was just noticing it now.
She opened the tiny envelope to see the gift was from Santa and it made her grin. Sidney probably snuck it under the tree when she came home last night.
As much as she wanted to wait to open it, the directions did say to open now so she would.
Once she pulled the wrapping paper off she saw the Swarovski crystal label on the box. When she flipped the lid she saw a crystal star that said, “For wishing,” engraved on it.
Now she thought it had to be Kayla who left it here yesterday. That she must have stopped over when Amanda was out to dinner and put it under the tree.
But no. Kayla wouldn’t spend this much on something frivolous. She might be marrying Hunter and money wouldn’t be a problem but she was still practical with money. This had to be a few hundred dollars.
And if it was Kayla, she would have left something for Sidney and Bri too.
No. It had to be Drew. It was the only other person who could have done it. He must have slid it under the tree when she wasn’t paying attention last night.
Tears formed in her eyes. How could he have known the perfect thing to get her?
That there were wishes and dreams she had that she never shared but hoped to come true?
That even the necklace Kayla gave her with the star on it was worn more than any other one when she wanted something to come true. Like the few times she’d worn it out with Drew.
She pulled the star out of the box and brought it to her room and put it on her bedside stand so she could look at it each night before she fell asleep and each morning when she woke up.
Since no one was around, she pulled the drawer open and reached in for a book that was always there. Not one she ever read. Not one anyone would think much of. It was a romance novel. Something with a happy ever after ending she’d never experienced.
The cover was worn, not because she opened it to read but because she always opened it to pull out the picture inside of it.
The black and white ultrasound picture of her daughter. The only thing she had left besides the ashes in a tiny heart container next to the book hidden away.
28
Spoil You
Drew rang the doorbell and waited a few seconds before it was opened by Amanda, then she reached for him and gave him a massive hug and kiss. “Thank you, Santa.”
“Did you like it?”
“That’s a crazy question. Of course I did. When did you leave it?”
He took his coat off and handed it over. “When you went into the bathroom I ran in there and put it under the tree. It was in my jacket. I’d been waiting for the right opportu
nity to sneak it in.”
“I can’t even begin to tell you how perfect it was. Kayla is all about wishing on stars, but I guess deep down we’ve all been like that in life.”
“I wanted to give you something that I remembered doing as a kid. I get the feeling that you were not only down over your sister but something else too. Maybe it’s just memories of Christmas past. Maybe it’s more. But the object was to get you to smile.”
“I did. I even shed a tiny tear.”
Not what he wanted to happen. “I’m sorry for that. It wasn’t my intention. My mother told me I had the knack of giving the right gifts to people but maybe I miscalculated that.”
“No. You knew what I needed. It’s in my room next to my bed so it’s the last thing I see before I go to bed at night and the first thing when I open my eyes.”
“I’m glad. That wasn’t really your gift though. Not your Christmas gift from me. That was Santa. Do you want to exchange them now? Where is Sidney?”
“When you pulled in she went to her room to give us some privacy. And we know you’re Santa. You just admitted it.”
He laughed. No reason to argue with her. He liked doing things for people and it was a no brainer to put that under the tree and surprise her.
“She didn’t need to do that,” he argued. He supposed that was the problem with roommates, though he’d never shared a space with anyone outside of college and that had been bad enough. The old sock on the door handle got old fast.
“I made dessert so I’m sure she’ll want to come down for that too, but she knew I might want to open gifts with just the two of us.”
“Let me go get mine,” he said. “It’s not a lot, but I didn’t want to carry it in just yet.”
“I’m not sure I like that you didn’t,” she said, laughing. “I hope it’s not too much. I mean what you gave me already was too much and you said you got more.”
“I want to spoil you.”
“Okay. I guess I won’t argue with you. I’ve never been spoiled before. I might like it.”
He walked out to his car and grabbed the box the gifts were in. He hated that whatever life she had before this island wasn’t anything like what he had.
Not the money but the closeness with family. It wasn’t just immediate family either, but aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. He was surrounded not just here on the island but off.
When he walked back in the front door she was already pulling gifts out from under the tree and putting them around in a circle. “We can sit on the floor and open them if you want. Sidney and I exchanged gifts this morning. Kayla will be over tomorrow before Sidney goes to work and after I get home. Bri said she’ll be back by then too rather than coming back on Sunday.”
“You have to work tomorrow?” he asked. She normally worked on Saturdays, but he’d kind of hoped she wouldn’t have scheduled anything.
“Yes. There are a lot of people who want to get pampered after the holidays. I’m not scheduled all day though. I hope to be done by three, but like I said, the girls and I are exchanging gifts.”
So that meant he wouldn’t be spending time with her. “Okay. Maybe we can do something Sunday?”
“That would be nice,” she said. “I’m sorry if you had plans or wanted to make plans. It’s just, it’s hard for us to find time to be together in the house. If Kayla didn’t have Hunter, she would have been here with Sidney and me this morning. Sidney and I only opened our gifts to each other. She said she could wait, but I think everyone should open something on Christmas day and if her family sent her anything, I have no idea. There were no gifts that arrived for her that I’ve noticed.”
“I’ve got something for your roommates,” he said, pulling everything out of the box. It never occurred to him that some of them wouldn’t have gifts from people. He only did this because he’d met them and they were close to Amanda. Anyone close to her was someone he wanted to get to know too.
Her jaw dropped. “You’re kidding me?”
“No. It’s nothing major. Just some specialty chocolate and candies I picked up in Boston this week. I hope no one has allergies. I didn’t even think to ask but it seems like everyone has dietary restrictions nowadays.”
“No one does in this house. We are all chocolate whores.”
He started to cough on his laugh. “Okay then. I might have some new friends.”
“Oh, the girls love anyone that makes me happy.”
He reached his hand over and laid it on hers. “I make you happy?” Guess it was a good move on his part with the chocolates, but that really wasn’t the reason as much as he really loved giving gifts.
“You do. I’ve always been a happy person, but I guess you are bringing it to another level for me that I didn’t even know I was missing in my life.”
“Then I’d say this was the best Christmas for me.”
This went back to what his mother said earlier. That a mother is always happy when her children are. That she liked doing things because it made her family happy.
Well, he was learning if he found the right woman, that he could feel the same way.
Best Christmas ever? Yep, Amanda had to agree.
It wasn’t just the gift under the tree or the spa gift card and a few other smaller gifts. She wasn’t a materialistic person and didn’t think she’d ever be one.
It was more that Drew just knew the right things to do, say, and give her. No one had ever been like that in her life before. Ever!
Not her parents.
Not her sister.
Not even Randall who she’d loved and thought they’d live together forever and forever while she worked in her salon but came home to have dinner on the table each night for them as a family.
She’d been so foolish in her hopes and dreams as a kid. Wanting something she never had in her house growing up.
“This is definitely a twelve on a scale of one to ten for me.”
“Only a twelve?” he asked.
“Well, if you score too high then it’s hard to beat the next year.”
He started to laugh. “My father said something similar today. My brothers and I gave them a trip to Greece that my mother has been asking for for years. My father was annoyed and said he couldn’t top that now.”
A trip to Greece. That is what his family considered Christmas gifts for their parents. My God, she knew Drew had more money than she’d ever be able to equate, but those things didn’t happen in her world.
“That’s a wonderful thing you did for your parents,” she said.
“It was my idea. Bode just goes with the flow. Coy is good for coming up with things, but he was blank this year. I remembered my mother always said she wanted to go. You know she is romantic and Greece has always been on her bucket list.”
“I hate that,” she said.
“What?” he asked.
“Bucket list. I get it, people make a list of all the things they want to do before they kick the bucket, but it puts so much pressure on our lives when we’ve got enough pressure to begin with.”
“I guess I never thought much of it.”
“It’s easy to not think much of it when you can do a lot of the things on your list.”
“A shot against my having money?” he asked.
“No. I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant that there are a lot of people in this world dealing with day-to-day issues that a bucket list to them is not worrying about paying a bill. Or having a roof over their head. A health care issue. I suppose I’m thinking of it more since I’ve met Kayla. I’ve never had that worry even when I was on my own.”
“I’ve heard bits and pieces of her background. I guess it was hard not to with so much in the news and her mother trying to run her name through the dirt. She seems like a real sweetheart and when you say things like that, I realize how lucky I’ve got it. How lucky my whole family is though there are plenty that wouldn’t agree.”
“How is that possible?” she asked.
“Not ever
y branch of the family had it easy. There are illegitimate ones in the family who were cut off early on, not acknowledged by their fathers let alone the rest of the family. I’m not talking about money, but just identity.”
“By you?” she asked.
“I don’t know that many personally. I just heard stories but if anyone came to this island and said they were related to me, I’d treat them no differently than someone else I just met. I wouldn’t give them a handout if they asked for it, but I wouldn’t turn my nose at them because their ‘blood’ wasn’t pure. A marriage certificate doesn’t mean the blood is or isn’t pure in my eyes.”
Her mother didn’t think that. Her mother had been pissed off that Randall didn’t jump to get married. When it was apparent it wasn’t going to happen, the abortion talks started. Or more like pressure from her parents. There was no talking on her end.
Randall’s parents couldn’t give two shits about a marriage certificate. Amanda Moore had never been good enough for their only son and never would be.
Had her daughter survived, she was positive she wouldn’t know her paternal grandparents, or have any relationship with them.
Not only because the Vernons did not want it, but because she would have forbidden it based on their treatment of her.
She wasn’t dirt on their sleeve that could just be wiped off even though they felt it.
And all her happiness with Drew on this day was going to go down the toilet into the sewer if she didn’t turn this conversation around.
“You’re absolutely right. We are getting off topic. This is supposed to be a day of celebration. I even made sugar cookies in the shape of Santas and elves. Plus I made a chocolate peanut butter pie. It’s Sidney’s favorite.”
“That’s good to know because I got everyone a lot of chocolate and peanut butter. Do you want to call her down now for her gift or have her wait until tomorrow?”
“I’ll go get her if you don’t mind hanging with both of us for a bit. She’ll want to go back to her room, but I hate doing that. We don’t make it a habit of having guys in the house so it’s a bit odd.”
