The Sweetest Gift

by Scarlett Cole

  Elliott was on the beach, too far to easily shout, so Daniel reached in his pocket for his phone and, with one hand, called his dad.

  Elliott answered on the first ring. “You okay?” he asked.

  “I have her. Walk back to the boardwalk… I’m to your right.” Daniel hung up and wrapped both arms around Petal. In many ways, she was just like a younger sister.

  “I just wanted to ask the dancers to join my dance troupe,” Petal said, hiccups now wracking her body.

  “I know, Bug. We’ll sort it out when we get back to the restaurant.” Daniel watched as his dad made a couple of calls as he jogged up the beach, likely calling Uncle Dred and the rest of the band.

  Elliott reached them and pulled them both into a hug. Pressed against his dad’s chest, he could hear his heartbeat. A fast pounding sound that matched his own. He was sixteen. A hug shouldn’t feel so reassuring, but holding Petal safe while his Dad hugged him felt perfect.

  Adrenaline shook his body, his thoughts filled with relief over what could have happened to her. It had him a couple of steps away from puking. But that would only scare Petal. He took a few deep breaths.

  Elliott loosened his hold. “Petal, Sweetheart. You scared me.”

  Petal lifted her tear-stained snotty face off his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Uncle Elliott.”

  “Come here,” he said, offering to take her from Daniel. “Let’s get you back to your daddy. He’s really worried about you and wants to give you a hug.”

  Petal turned to Daniel. “Can you carry me, please, Daniel? I won’t fidget. I promise.”

  Daniel felt a moment of pride that she’d picked him over his dad. That she thought he was strong and capable enough to look after her. “Sure, Bug. I’ve got you.”

  For a few moments, they were all silent. Elliott would periodically run his hand through his hair, Daniel would sigh, and Petal would hiccup. He ran his hand in circles on her back until she started to feel limp in his arms.

  “I think she just fell asleep, Dad.”

  Elliott smiled. “Yeah. Little ones tend to do that. Cry themselves out. You did really well today, Daniel.”

  Words of praise from Elliott were the best kind because, unlike his mom, Elliott wasn’t obligated to give him any. “Thanks.”

  “I’m serious. You were the first to notice she’d gone. You thought about what had been happening before she went. And you formed a plan of where you thought she’d be. That was so levelheaded of you. I’m really proud of you.”

  Guilt whispered through him like an icy blast. “I’m the reason she ran, though. I wouldn’t dance with her.”

  Elliott shook his head. “No, no, no. All of us were too busy. And Dred and Pixie are likely beating themselves up for assuming that she was safe in a room full of friends. And I wish I’d danced with her, too. You didn’t cause this, Daniel. You fixed it.”

  In the distance, Daniel could see his uncles Dred and Jordan sprinting toward them and gave Petal one last squeeze.

  “Holy fucking shit,” Dred gasped as he got to them. Tears were in his eyes as he grabbed Petal from Daniel’s arms. Dred squeezed Petal just like Elliott had squeezed him. “Petal, Sweetheart,” he said, pressing her head against his shoulder as she roused from sleep.

  Jordan arrived, but instead of reaching for Petal as Daniel expected, his Uncle Jordan pulled him into a hug. “You are a fucking credit to yourself and this family,” he said gruffly. “What you did today, Daniel…”

  He left the words hanging.

  Uncle Jordan really loved Petal.

  Jordan let go of him but gripped him by the shoulders. “I probably don’t say this often enough, but I really love you, Kid. You’ve grown into a great young man.”

  Dred reached for him with one arm and tugged him into a hug. “Same here, Daniel. What would we do without you?”

  Emotions conflicted. Pride, love, and a healthy dose of teenage embarrassment.

  He had a family. A much bigger one than he’d ever known. Men who cared about him and would protect and love him.

  People were now looking, starting to figure out who the three men on the boardwalk were. There had been at least one camera flash.

  Elliott pulled Daniel in against his side. “We should get going,” he said, cautiously.

  His Uncle Jordan and Uncle Dred walked ahead of them, Petal’s curls bouncing as she slept on Dred’s shoulder.

  “Well, that was quite the night,” Elliott said, throwing his arm over Daniel’s shoulder. “How are your legs?”

  The truth was, they throbbed. Scar tissue pulled tight over his joints. There had been surgeries to release the contractures where his growing frame and taut skin worked against each other. And there had been plastic surgeries to transform the appearance, something that he desperately wanted. While most of his friends were cool, there were still some who would call him a freak or Freddy Kreuger after the horror movie guy. “I’ll need a couple of painkillers tonight,” he answered truthfully. “And perhaps a chair.”

  “You need me to carry you? It’s not a big deal.”

  Daniel shook his head. “Definitely not.”

  Elliott grinned. “Come on, I’ll give you a piggy-back. We can even make it look like a bet. No one needs to—”

  “No, Dad,” Daniel said with a laugh. “I’m fine. Just, let’s walk a little slower, maybe.”

  They slowed their pace as Dred hurried off ahead of them.

  “Aunt Pixie must be out of her mind,” he said.

  Elliott ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah. As we ran out looking for her, I was wondering what if it happened to Noah or Holly. What if they just wandered off? Scared the shit out of me.”

  “Me, too. Being a parent must be really hard.”

  “You know, when we were looking, and you told me that you didn’t want what happened to you to happen to her?” Elliott asked.

  Daniel looked out toward the water. “Yeah?”

  “I would have believed you. Back then. If I’d been your dad. There would have been no question in my mind. Is being a parent hard? Yeah, in some ways it is. It now takes thirty minutes and about five different bags of clothes and diapers and car seats and shit to get out the door, when I used to just grab my keys and go. And finding time to make out with your mom with you three constantly asking for snacks and diaper changes is a ball ache, literally.”

  Daniel pretended to gag. “That is so gross. I don’t even want to think about that.”

  Elliott grinned. “My point is, the logistics of being a parent are sometimes hard and often involve putting your own needs second. But loving your kids… man, that’s the easiest fucking thing in the world. And loving them means believing in them, and supporting them, and wanting what’s best for them.”

  Daniel’s heart warmed in his chest. The chill he’d felt ripple through him when he’d considered what could have happened to Petal began to ebb away like the tide he was studying.

  “And that’s you, Dan. I love you with every fiber of my being. And in every possible, conceivable way that matters, you are my son. Do I hope next year brings a way to get that on a piece of paper? Sure, because I know how much it matters to you. But if it doesn’t, it won’t have any impact on the way I think about you, because I already consider you to be mine.”

  They stopped at the crosswalk, waiting this time for the lights to change so they could cross. Daniel studied the scuff marks on his new trainers. “I love you, Dad,” he muttered.

  Elliott threw his arm over Daniel’s shoulder. “I love you, too, Kid.”

  They walked the rest of the way to the restaurant in peaceful silence, but when Elliott opened the door to the restaurant, the whole room erupted in cheers.

  Uncle Nik was first to reach him, lifting him off the ground in a hug so tight it was impossible to breathe.

  Aunt Jenny placed her hands on his shoulders. “That was some great level-headed problem solving, Daniel. Well done.”

  Then his mom got her hands on him. “Y
ou,” she said, before kissing his cheek. “I am so proud of you.”

  Everyone wanted a word with him, wanted to thank him for something he would do over and over if it happened again. Yet, he realized that, somehow, despite what had happened to him, despite what he and his mom had to go through, somehow, they’d ended up in a place that was so much better.

  He looked to Elliott, who was just standing quietly next to him, a look of immense pride on his face. He now had a father who truly loved him and would stand by him and believe him. And his mom was happier than she had ever been with his biological dad. And all these people loved them both.

  So, regardless of the gifts he got for Christmas tomorrow… he already knew he’d received the greatest gift of all.

  7

  Nik slipped his arm from beneath Jenny and moved to the edge of the bed to sit up. He rubbed a hand over his face then through his hair. His phone told him it was a little after seven in the morning.

  Christmas morning.

  He had mixed feelings over the day. He and the baby Jesus didn’t speak… heck, he didn’t even believe in God, choosing to focus on the idea that there had to be something bigger than he was, something deeply spiritual that had created the earth and everything on it.

  And the great creator was probably a woman.

  The day also brought back memories of envy. Envy of knowing his school friends would wake on Christmas morning to find a motherload of gifts waiting for them beneath a lush green tree that smelled of pine in a warm, secure home. Or worse, returning to school in the new year to see everyone comparing gifts.

  During his years in foster care, there had been years without gifts, years without heat, and years without even the slightest hint of love or affection.

  So, yeah, Christmas really wasn’t a big deal.

  The previous year, Jenny had even worked at the group home she ran. She’d gone so far as to suggest he was a grinch in the run-up to the big day as she’d decorated their home and he’d grumbled his way through hanging a million feet of garland and lights.

  This year, though, felt different. There was no way in hell he’d ever let Jefferson, Henry, and Charlie face the same Christmas morning agony he’d felt.

  He’d started by taking them to Home Depot to pick out the most outrageous decorations for the outside of the house. Jefferson had picked a giant inflatable snow globe with Santa inside it that he took great joy in putting on every evening when he got home from school. Nik had read that kids started to lose their belief in the Santa myth somewhere around eleven, but Jefferson was a hard-core believer.

  Seven-year-old Charlie had picked out a projector that projected falling snowflakes onto the outside of the house. The kid would watch with wonder, his brown eyes wide, for hours. He’d make a snow angel and then just lie there looking up at the house, watching the lights, even if real snow was falling around him.

  But Henry had been a hard sell. He’d been painfully indifferent. Nik had shown him lights, and reindeers made out of wood, and candy canes to light up the path to the front door, but he’d been resolutely against the idea. No matter how hard Nik had tried, and fuck knew he’d tried every trick in the book to persuade him, he’d refused to pick anything. In the end, Charlie had needed the bathroom, so Nik had picked the candy cane lights for him and rushed them all home because Charlie had refused to use the store bathroom.

  In the car on the way home, his heart had broken for them all when Henry had whispered to Jefferson, “You know they aren’t going to let you take the snow globe with you when we leave.”

  It was almost eight months to the day since they’d fostered them, but Henry still kept some of his belongings in a backpack by his bedroom door, ready for when he would be moved again.

  But he knew Henry wanted to believe in Christmas, to believe in Nik and Jenny. Nik had seen it in the way Henry lovingly ran his hand over the top of every candy cane when he came home from school. And Jenny had caught him sitting by the Christmas tree in the family room with a soft smile on his face as he watched the lights change color. And as they’d driven away in the limo the previous day, he’d watched Henry press his fingers to the window in the direction of the projected snowflakes, only to gruffly look away once he realized he’d been spotted.

  The hurt ran deep. Just like it had with him and his brothers. Just like it still did. The occurrences were less as they’d healed themselves and found joy in their lives. But the pain from back then still had the power to slice through them when it raised its ugly head.

  Nik pulled on a pair of ridiculous Christmas pajamas that Jenny had insisted they all wear. When they’d gotten home from the rehearsal dinner the previous evening, they’d put them on to write thank-you letters to Santa and take a family photograph.

  Family.

  The word caught him off guard.

  He’d always known his path to fatherhood would be to build his family through fostering or adoption. How could it not, with both he and Jenny being a product of the system? But he’d thought they’d spend time fostering, help lots of kids, before progressing to adopting. Yet, the idea of letting those three beautiful kids disappear back into a system that may be forced to break them up soon, as Jefferson moved into the older category of children, was more than Nik could handle.

  Quietly, he slipped out of their room in the two-bedroomed suite he’d booked for them all. Housekeeping was going to have a field day with all the fake snow footprints Jenny had made around the table they’d left the food and their letters to Santa on. He’d paid to have a massive tree brought into the suite just for them. Sure, they had to be here for the wedding, but there was no way the boys weren’t having a full Christmas morning.

  He nudged the door open to their room. Jefferson lay as stiff as a log in the position they’d left him when they’d said goodnight. Charlie was snuggled up in a ball with his favorite stuffed cat, Stinky Paw. He held it by the leg and pressed the paw up against his nose while Charlie sucked his thumb. The cat smelled so bad and was likely unhygienic, but the kid wasn’t for letting him put the darn thing in the wash.

  But Henry. The covers were all untucked and he was lying sideways across the bed, so close to falling off that Nik crept to the edge of the bed and straightened the poor kid out. As he placed the cover across Henry’s chilled frame, he wondered if the kid was having nightmares or was just an active sleeper.

  Closing the door behind him, he walked back toward his and Jenny’s room. In the living room were piles of gifts that had been hidden in suitcases in Lennon and Gia’s suite the day before. Stockings hung from door handles.

  Waiting for the boys to wake up was going to be torture. He was actually… excited. Excited in a way he hadn’t felt before. It wasn’t just because of the boys. Something about this Christmas felt different to him, too.

  With lightness in his heart, he crept back into his bedroom and shut the door.

  Jenny rolled over, just her head sticking out of the covers. “Why are you awake so early?” she mumbled.

  Pulling the covers back, he slipped in bed beside her and pulled her into his arms. Her body was warm to the touch, her sweet curves lining up along the side of his body. “Couldn’t sleep so I checked in on the boys.”

  “Are they okay?” she asked, placing a chaste kiss on his chest. Her fingertips traced the ho-ho-ho on his pajama top.

  “They’re fine. Remember when we lived in the apartment?” he asked, thinking about the tiny place above the Greek restaurant on the Danforth. They owned it now, and two nineteen-year-old men, Kyle and Fletcher, lived in it, as they’d aged out of care and had nowhere else to go.

  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Jenny said.

  Nik laughed. “It’s a bit early for Dickens, Babe.”

  “Perhaps. But it’s true. We had each other, and some good memories. And it was so very hard.”

  “Perhaps nostalgia and distance take the edge off those memories. It’s like the impact of them takes on a soft-f
ocus instead of a harsh image.”

  Jenny pushed herself up on one elbow. “What’s on your mind?”

  She knew him well.

  “I’m just thinking about Jefferson, Henry, and Charlie. This is still very much in harsh focus for them. They don’t have the benefit of time, experience, and success later in life to feel stable. They are still very much in the tumultuous waves of it all, trying to keep their little heads above water. Especially Henry.”

  Jenny leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, the connection soothing the sudden discomfort pushing its way through his bones. Nik placed his hand behind her neck, holding her against him.

  “I love you,” she said, her lips barely leaving his. They kissed for a moment longer before Jenny pulled back. “You are a great dad, Nik. Seeing you with those boys the last eight months… you’ve proven yourself to them and to me over and over.”

  “It just doesn’t feel like enough when I know there is more we can do.”

  Jenny studied him carefully. “What do you mean? We could foster more, we have room.”

  Nik shook his head. “How do you feel about making things permanent for the three of them? How about we adopt them? They need us, Jen. They need to stay together. And Jefferson is past the age when most kids get adopted. The chances of somebody offering the three of them a home together is slim. But we could.” The rightness of his words as he spoke settled all the convoluted emotions he’d felt. They needed to give them a home.

  “Yes,” Jenny squealed. She climbed over him until her thighs were either side of his hips.

  His heart rate increased. “Yes? You think we should, too?”

  “Yes. I felt it the moment you came home from Home Depot with all that stupid Christmas crap for the outside of the house. You hate clutter, and Christmas, and sentimentality. But you did it for those boys. And while the steps are small, Henry is making progress. You can see that he trusts us, that he trusts you. So, yes. Let’s give them a home.”

  He yanked Jenny down to kiss her. Her tongue meeting his. Nik slid his hands along her back to cup the cheeks of her ass. “Fuck, Babe. We’re going to have our own family. Three boys.”