by Nella Tyler
“I know you didn’t want advice from me, or you would have asked me for it,” she said as she was putting on her coat to go downstairs. “But here’s what I think, for what it’s worth. You and Patrick like each other—even before you were dating I could see it on both of your faces. Don’t worry about waiting for him to make the move again. Invite him over.”
“But what if he’s lost interest?”
“Then he won’t come over,” Amie said with a shrug. “But at least you’ll know where you stand.” She gave me another quick, awkward hug and settled her bag of presents on her shoulder again, heading for my door. “You’re going to the party tomorrow, right?”
“Obviously,” I said, smiling in spite of myself. I wasn’t sure how practical Amie’s advice was, but it definitely gave me something to think about as I went through the rest of my day, getting ready for the party and cleaning up my apartment. I felt a little bit better—but I couldn’t end the nagging voice in the back of my head wondering what I would do if it turned out that Patrick had lost interest.
Chapter Six
Patrick
“Hey buddy, make sure you pack your toothbrush this time,” I told Landon even as I tried to find my own travel toothbrush to shove it into my suitcase. “I’m not going to stop at the pharmacy in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to get you one to use.”
I had gotten off of work at noon, picked Landon up from the babysitter’s house, and spent the rest of the afternoon fighting against the clock. My parents expected me at the house by dinner time, and while it was flexible—with so many relatives coming into town, it had to be—I didn’t want to be more than thirty minutes late at most. Just like I’d told Mackenzie, I’d had to buy a few last-minute gifts for in-laws; I’d stuck to gift cards since they at least couldn’t be offended that I had no idea what they liked, but it had taken forever to get through the lines, even at two in the afternoon. Then Landon and I had come back to the house and I’d set him to work right away packing his things.
The plan was the same as it had been every year of Landon’s life: we would go to my parents’ house for Christmas Eve, open presents early on Christmas morning, eat breakfast with the family, and then I would take Landon to Joanne’s parents’ house about an hour outside of the city to spend some time with them. I wanted to keep Landon in touch with my in-laws, his grandparents on his mother’s side, even more than anyone else in Joanne’s family. They had lost their daughter at the same time that I had lost my wife and Landon had lost his mom; I didn’t want them to ever think that I was ignoring them or trying to forget Joanne.
“I’m all finished, Dad!” Landon came into my bedroom with his suitcase in his hands, looking as proud as he had when the Principal at his school had announced that he’d won the award for Most Improved Reader for his grade level.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” I said, grinning at my son. Landon threw his suitcase onto my bed and I put aside the clothes I was trying to fold long enough to unzip it and look inside. Of course, being five, Landon had no real concern for making sure any of his packing was neat; so to make sure that he had everything that he was going to need for the long weekend, I had to pull almost all of it out piece by piece. I found his toothbrush, his pajamas, a few extra pairs of socks beyond what I’d told him to pack, plenty of warm clothes. He’d snuck in a toy as well—but that was fine with me. “Looks good, kiddo,” I said, turning to give him an approving grin. “But this is a mess. Fold your clothes and put them back in.”
“Why does it have to look nice?” Landon picked up one of his socks and pouted.
“Because then you’ll know where everything is, and you’ll be able to fit as much as possible,” I explained. I pointed to my own suitcase. “See?”
“Yeah, but you’ve got a lot more than I do,” Landon pointed out. “I don’t have to worry about fitting things.”
“It’s a good habit anyway.”
I looked at Landon sharply for a moment, wondering if he’d gotten overtired and was going to start throwing a tantrum out of sheer boredom and worry. “Come on, bud. You know Santa can still make changes to his big list.”
“Okay,” Landon said, shrugging. He began to fold his clothes, and I went back to trying to make sure I had everything I wanted to bring with me. I’d dropped Landon’s “Santa” presents at my parents’ house a few days before, and the ones that were coming from me were wrapped and in a big bag with all the rest.
“Are you excited to see your cousins?” I asked as I shoved a charging cable into one of the compartments on my suitcase as a backup to the one I kept in my car.
“Yeah,” Landon said. “More excited for desserts.” My parents always had a huge table of sweets set up starting Christmas Eve, through until Christmas night; it was the universal favorite of all of the kids—as it had been when I was Landon’s age. He continued folding and putting his clothes into the suitcase for a moment and then spoke again. “I wish Mack was coming.”
“Well, she’s got her own family she needs to see,” I said. He’s getting really attached to her. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him that she and I were dating. “She’s going to have a really good time with her parents and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.”
“Couldn’t they come over to Granny’s house too?” Landon looked at me. I tried to laugh it off, but I worried that I’d given Landon too much to hope for in the bet he’d made with me.
“Why would they do that? They’ve got a perfectly good house of their own.” I looked into my suitcase and checked the contents against the mental checklist I kept running through my head. “You’ll see Mack again soon.”
“Okay,” Landon said. “Can I have as much of the desserts as I want?”
“After you’ve had dinner, absolutely,” I said. Landon pouted again, but he kept packing his things away, struggling with a sweater with a weird shape. I started to suggest that I could help him and then remembered what his teacher had told me about letting Landon do things himself and only intervening if he actually asked for help.
“It’s going to be so much fun, buddy,” I said, checking my suitcase once more. “We’ll have dinner, and there will be all those sweets—the candy, and the cookies, Granny’s pies.”
“What are we going to do after that?” Landon finished the last of his clothes and closed the lid on his suitcase, turning to look up at me.
“Well, we’ll play games—you can play anything you want. I think your Granny’s going to have Apples to Apples, and Monopoly, and Uno. And I’m sure that your cousins are bringing their own games too. Maybe before we leave you can go into the closet and find something you want to bring with you.”
“But I might forget it.”
“I’ll let you put your name on the box so that everyone knows it’s yours,” I promised.
“What are we going to do after the games?”
“Movies,” I said. “We’re going to watch movies and have fun together until everyone goes to sleep.”
“And we’re going to make sure that Santa has cookies and milk?”
I nodded. “Of course. We can’t let him go without—he might give us all coal.”
“What about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow you’re going to open all your presents, and then we’re going to have a nice big breakfast with the family.” I thought I had everything—I hoped, at least, that I did. “Then we’re going to visit your Gramma and Granddaddy, and they’ll give you their presents to you.”
“I’m getting a lot of presents this year,” Landon observed.
“You are! In fact, Mack got a present for you, even. You’re going to be the most spoiled little boy on the planet.”
“No I won’t!” Landon frowned up at me. “I am going to be nice even if I get all the presents in the world.”
I laughed. “I believe it shrimp.” I took a deep breath and looked over the contents of my suitcase once more. “I think we’re ready to go, don’t you?”
“Remember t
he presents,” Landon said. “You told me remind you.”
“I did tell you to do that,” I agreed, reaching out and tousling my son’s hair. “Okay. Let’s go look at the present bag and make sure everything is in there, and then we can go.”
I made one last pass through the house to check on everything; the last thing I needed was to leave something plugged in where it could light on fire while I was gone. I checked again to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything in my luggage or in the present bag. I’d stashed some stocking stuffers at my parents’ house as well; once the kids had all gone to sleep, sometime after midnight, we’d all be going through and putting the presents from Santa out, making Christmas happen for all of the young ones.
As I loaded everything into the car, I thought about Landon’s insistence that he wished Mackenzie could be with us. I’d brushed it off, trying to make sure he didn’t feel too let down about her absence, but the questions had hit me harder than I’d let myself realize at first. I wished that she was spending the holiday with us too; in spite of the comments I’d made to Landon about how she’d be happier with her own family, doing what she did every year—just like us—I wished I could show her to my parents, and kiss her under the mistletoe, cheesy as that was. I wished that I could have her with me while I put the Santa Claus presents under the tree and stuffed stockings with goodies and worked with the other adults in my family late into the night to make a magical Christmas happen. I wished that I could have given her a present and watched her open it, and had her at my side for Christmas breakfast—all the stupid little details that came along with a family holiday.
But I still hadn’t lost the impression I’d gotten of her during our last date, two days before; I still didn’t know what she was thinking, how she felt for me. I played the things she’d said through my mind as I pulled out onto the road, heading for my parents’ home. Everything had been so awkward between us. I thought resignedly that I’d probably just have to give up on Mackenzie altogether; and I dreaded the expense I was almost surely going to face when Landon won his bet and I had to duplicate his Christmas presents in honor of his win.
Chapter Seven
Mackenzie
I was still sleepy—I hadn’t gone to bed until almost four in the morning—but as everyone piled around the Christmas tree to start opening presents, I was at least happy. “Coffee for the grownups,” my brother-in-law announced, wheeling a big cart my mom had gotten a few years before just for that purpose into the room. “Juice for the kiddos,” he added.
“What? Adults can’t have juice?” my brother smirked at my sister’s husband.
“Which do you need more: caffeine or vitamins?”
I laughed and settled into my usual seat off to the side of the tree, where I could watch the kids opening all of their presents but still be part of everything.
“Mack should get the first cup,” my sister said. “She stayed up like a champ.”
“Did you see Santa Claus, Aunt Mack?”
I shook my head in response to my niece’s question. “Just missed him, I think,” I said, twisting my face into a grimace. “Which is actually good, since he would have skipped the house if we’d been awake.” My sister, Evie—who was struggling to keep her kids all believing in Santa Claus until the youngest was at least four—grinned at me.
Dad came into the living room, wearing a big, fluffy Santa hat with his pajamas, and I accepted a cup of coffee with milk and sugar from Evie as Dad started towards the tree. “It looks to me like we’ve got some good kids here this year,” he said, surveying the enormous pile of presents. “Who wants to start with Santa presents, and who wants to start with family presents?”
My brother and sisters voted for Santa presents first, my mom for family presents—along with me—and the kids, of course, didn’t care. Dad called it a tie and started distributing presents as they appeared in the pile, handing them off to whoever’s name was on the tag. All of us went to work on ripping paper and untying ribbons, and I looked up every so often to catch the reactions of my nieces and nephews as they unveiled one new present after another.
“I was surprised at how late you stayed up last night,” Evie said to me, putting aside a mug set that John got for her after thanking him. “You been staying up late often these days?”
“Mack doesn’t have a reason to stay up late, if you know what I mean,” my brother Alex called out.
“I have plenty of reasons,” I called back, rolling my eyes at him. I finished unwrapping a present from my mom to find that it was a cashmere scarf—absolutely beautiful. “Thanks, Mom!”
“No problem sweetie,” Mom called out absently, tearing the paper on a big, lumpy box from one of the kids. “It looked like it would be perfect for you.”
“So, are you going to be kissing anyone on New Year’s Eve at Mom and Dad’s party?” I rolled my eyes at John’s question.
“I don’t know—are you? Because Angela’s present doesn’t seem all that impressive. Maybe she’ll kiss me instead.”
“Guys, back off of her,” my brother Alex’s wife, Liz said. “You do realize that if Mack settles down and has kids, none of us are going to get as many presents from her, right?” Liz gave me a quick smile that told me she was concerned about more than just a lack of presents from me. I grinned back.
“It’s practically tradition for everyone in the family over the age of eighteen to meddle in my love life,” I said, shrugging off the questions. I took a sip of my coffee and went back to opening the pile of gifts in front of me. I’d gotten a new pair of smartphone gloves, a couple of new books, a bracelet my niece had made by hand, and other odds and ends.
For a little while, at least, everyone was too interested in the presents in front of them to even worry about giving me grief about my love life, and I started to relax. My nieces and nephews took turns coming up to me to give me a hug and kiss of thanks for their presents, and I beamed at their excited reactions: Charlotte almost couldn’t wait to have me help her figure out the art kit I’d gotten her, Evie had to keep Lacy from shaking her new butterfly kit to pieces and killing the caterpillars inside. Derrick put on the pieces of his superhero kit and opened the rest of his presents with a cape and a mask on.
As the frenzy began to slow down, I sat back, my new scarf draped around my neck, examining some of the more intricate presents I’d gotten. “Didn’t you say you had a date with someone about a week ago or so?” I rolled my eyes at Dad.
“It starts again,” I said, sighing. “I did have a date, yes.”
“Was it a first date?” John leered at me.
“No, it was more like the fourth or so,” I admitted. At least, I thought, if I gave them some kind of details about my relationship with Patrick, they might let off of me for a while.
“Why didn’t you invite him over? You’re old enough that we wouldn’t make you stay in separate rooms,” My mom said. I laughed.
“He’s actually got his own family Christmas to go to,” I told them. “He’s got a son, a five-year-old boy named Landon.”
“How’d you meet?”
I blushed; at least, I thought, my parents and siblings wouldn’t have much of a clue about the fact that my relationship with Patrick was not exactly appropriate. “He’s the father of one of my patients,” I said. Charlotte climbed into my lap and leaned against me.
“So his little boy got hurt?” …her understanding of my job wasn’t very deep.
“He did,” I told her. “He was playing soccer and moved wrong on the field, and broke his leg.”
“Ouch!” Charlotte’s face twisted into a sympathetic grimace. “You’re helping him get better?”
“I am!” I gave Charlotte a little squeeze. “He has to get strong so he won’t keep limping.”
“What does he look like?”
“Yeah, and tell us about the dad—if you’re dating him, he must be interesting.” I blushed and focused on answering Charlotte’s question.
“Landon’s abo
ut a year or so younger than you are,” I told my little niece. “He’s like your brother Cary—always moving around, even though he was still on crutches when he started coming to see me.”
“Is his dad handsome?”
I glanced at Evie and my other siblings and smiled in spite of myself. “He is very handsome,” I admitted. “I like him a lot.”
“One of the girls in my class is going to get a new mom,” Charlotte told me. “Her dad asked his girlfriend to marry him. Lisa said that she was going to be the flower girl in the wedding, and that she was going to get a new sister or brother, too. Are you going to be Landon’s new mom?” My cheeks burned, the blood rushed into them so fast. All the rest of the adults in the room laughed, and Charlotte had no idea why; I didn’t want her to feel bad.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be Landon’s new mom,” I told her. “I’ve only known his dad for a little while. It takes a long time to know if you want to spend the rest of your life with someone.”
“Lisa said her daddy’s been dating her new mom for a whole year!” Charlotte looked shocked by that timeframe and I heard more laughter from the other adults in the room. “That’s a really long time, isn’t it?”
“It is,” I said, though it didn’t seem all that long to me; for Charlotte, at age six, it was a chunk of her lifetime.
“Do you want to become Landon’s new mom? If you’re still with his dad?”
“A lot of things can happen from now till then,” I pointed out. “But Landon is a nice boy. He deserves a good mom.”
“You would be a good mom,” Charlotte said, nodding seriously. “I hope that you can be Landon’s mom someday.” She scurried off of my lap then, tired of her own questions, her curiosity satisfied; fortunately the rest of my family seemed to have gotten what they wanted out of the exchange too, and everyone settled in to play with their new toys or admire their other presents.
