“Behave yourself, we could get busted at any minute, and that would really ruin our surprise.”
“I think the rental car in the driveway is going to give us away, babe,” I remind her.
“Oh, yeah, that.” She laughs and takes off for the kitchen. I head for the living room and flip on the TV. It is already on the Hallmark channel and playing some cheesy Christmas movie. I know my mom loves to watch these things, so it is no surprise that it was already on this channel.
“What are we watching?” Hailey asks as she joins me in the living room, a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows about falling out the top.
“Do you have any hot chocolate with your cup of marshmallows?” I ask, laughing at the fact I can’t see any liquid because of the marshmallows that cover the entire top of her cup.
“Yes, just not a full cup,” she says, rolling her beautiful eyes at me. We take a seat on the couch, and Hailey pulls the throw that Mom keeps on the back over her lap as she settles in next to me.
“Mom had it on the Hallmark channel. Did you want to watch this movie or find something better?” I ask, pulling the lever for the recliner to pop my feet up so I can relax.
“I’m fine with whatever,” she says, sipping at the hot liquid in her cup.
Since I’m a guy and, well, these movies are cheesy as all get out, I flip through the channels, looking for something a little more entertaining for us to watch. I finally find a channel showing Christmas Vacation, so I stop on it. You can’t pass up the chance to watch a classic like this one. “This okay?” I ask Hailey before dropping the remote on the couch next to me.
“Yep,” she agrees and snuggles in a little closer. I put my arm around her, holding her close while we get lost in the movie while we wait for my parents to return.
“Dylan, is that you?” I hear my mom call out from the doorway into the house from the garage.
“It is I,” I confirm to her, and she comes running into the living room.
“I didn’t think you were coming home at all!” she says, grabbing me by my face so she can pull me down for a hug and kiss my cheek.
“Surprise!” I tell her. “I didn’t take into consideration that you might be out and about taking care of last-minute things today, so we kind of spoiled things a bit,” I confess.
“You did no such thing! I’m just happy to have you kids home!” Mom exclaims. My dad walks in, joining us in the living room.
“Nice to have you home, son,” he greets, pulling me into a half hug. “And it’s good to have you back, too,” he says to Hailey as he releases me and pulls her into a hug.
“I’m excited to be back! I’ve missed everyone so much,” she tells him.
“So, how long do we get to keep you?” Mom asks.
“I have to fly back the day after Christmas. We only have three days off, and we leave on a long road trip first thing once we’re back.”
“That’s better than nothing,” Mom states.
“That’s what I figured,” Hailey tells her. “We’ve got some other news to share,” Hailey continues, and I can see the questions that immediately pop into my parents’ minds. Both Hailey and I found it kind of funny that people automatically jump to the baby or engagement ideas when we say something about having news to share. Like those are the only two newsworthy things we might have to tell anyone.
“Well, don’t leave us hanging,” Dad encourages her.
“I’ve transferred to the University of Indiana, Indianapolis campus, and will start my spring semester in a few weeks. I’m officially moving to Indy so we can be together. No more living halfway across the U.S. from each other.”
“Well, that’s exciting!” Mom states.
“We’re happy with the decision,” I state, wanting my parents to know that I’m just as excited to have Hailey with me as she is about moving to be with me. This was a mutual decision, and one I’m grateful was an option.
“Did you bring everything with you when you finished the semester?” Dad asks as we all take a seat in the living room. I mute the TV, so we don’t have to try and talk over it.
“Nope, so my dad and I are going to fly out next week, pack up my dorm room and then drive my car back to Indianapolis, then he’ll fly back here after a couple days visit.”
“Ah, sounds like a good plan.”
“It’s the best and easiest option. I don’t have much out there, so it won’t take us long to pack and load. The long part will be the hours on the road. It’s about thirty hours of driving.”
“Having your dad along for that will be helpful. You can take shifts driving while the other takes a nap,” my mom states.
“I think that it’s the plan,” Hailey tells her.
It is late when we crawl into bed, opting to stay at my parents’ house tonight. We decided to stay here since they have a queen-sized guest bed rather than the full in Hailey’s old room at her parents’ house.
“I think today went well; everyone was shocked to see us,” Hailey says once she’s tucked in by my side. This is quickly becoming my favorite time of night. When the house is quiet, and we’re both in bed, the day behind us. We’ve fallen into a routine of just decompressing, having some time to relax into one another, talk about things that might have happened or that we’re looking forward to. It’s our time to connect, just the two of us.
“Wake up! It’s Christmas morning!” Hailey shakes me awake. I rub my eyes, tired from the late night. I roll over, getting a glimpse of the clock, and see that it is just barely six am.
“Really, Hales, why the early wakeup?”
“Because it is Christmas! We’ve got to go open presents,” she says all excitedly, almost like a six-year-old would be acting.
I can’t help but laugh at her antics. She might be almost twenty, but she’s still a kid at heart, and I do love that about her. “Okay, okay,” I say, standing up from the bed. I bring my hands up and over my head as I stretch out my muscles. Sleeping in a foreign bed has them a little tight this morning. “Get your eyes off my dick, or else we won’t be opening presents that are under the tree for a little while longer,” I smirk at her.
“Can you blame a girl?” she asks. “When you’ve got it on display like that, it’s a little hard to ignore.” She’s got me on that one.
I walk around the bed, pulling her into my arms and pressing my half-hard cock against her belly. “You sure I can’t talk you into some Christmas morning O’s?” I ask as I kiss her neck. She’s got her hair pulled up into a messy bun, leaving her neck exposed to me quite nicely.
“Nice try, Romeo. But you’ll just have to tuck it away until later tonight,” she tells me, popping up on her toes to kiss my cheek before she pulls from my grasp and bounds out of the room. I’m left standing here, arms still open from holding her, my dick still at half-mast in my boxer briefs that don’t leave much to the imagination. I hear my parents down the hall, so I quickly reach over and shut the bedroom door before going in search of some shorts or sweats to pull on, along with a long-sleeved shirt.
Once dressed, I make my way out to the kitchen. Everyone is awake, sipping on cups of coffee while Mom waits for the oven to finish pre-heating so she can start baking her traditional Christmas morning casserole and monkey bread that she has made for as long as I can remember.
“Morning, Dyl, how’d you sleep?” Mom asks, handing over a cup of coffee. I top it off with a splash of creamer before taking my first sip. The warmth hits my insides, instantly helping to rid me of the chill that I feel.
“Just fine,” I tell her. “Thanks for the coffee; I needed it this morning. Someone woke me up earlier than I was expecting.” I shoot a stink eye in Hailey’s direction but can’t hold it long before it turns into a smirk.
“I think someone is excited to open presents,” Dad says, motioning to Hailey, who is bouncing up and down in her seat at the counter.
“We’ve got to open up stuff here so we can make it over to my parents’ house,” she reminds me.
Hailey hops off the stool, grabs my hand, and pulls me to the living room. She plops down on the couch, pulling me with her. I get situated on the couch, tucking her in next to me. “Calm down, babe,” I whisper into her ear, then kiss her temple.
“This is my favorite day of the year. You should be used to it by now,” she says, elbowing me lightly in the ribs.
She’s not lying; I do know this is her favorite day; I guess I’ve just never experienced it like this. We’ve always been at our respective parents’ houses, meeting up in the late morning.
Dad hands out a present to everyone, and we start the excitement of opening everything up. I got my parents a framed collage; there is one picture of them at my first NHL game with me, along with a picture of my now-famous between-the-legs, behind-the-back shot I made. I also framed my first game-worn jersey and included a plaque that states the game information, so they’ll always have that as a souvenir.
My parents got Hailey a necklace with my number, 25, surrounding a puck. She instantly falls in love with it.
“Help me put this on, please,” she asks, handing me the opened clasp and turning so that I can secure it on the back of her neck.
“It looks good,” I tell her, leaning over to kiss her cheek.
“Thanks,” she says, smiling at me, her cheeks the ever so faintest shade of pink.
I open a new overnight bag from Hailey. One that I’d been eyeing for the last couple of weeks but hadn’t pulled the trigger on buying for myself.
“Thanks, babe,” I say, leaning over to give her a kiss.
She opens one of the few things I bought for her, the first being a new MacBook. Her current one is old and would often take forever to do things, and she was always complaining about it, so I secretly ordered a new one with all the bells and whistles possible, price be damned.
“Dylan!” she screams my name. “You didn’t!” She jumps up, holding the box to her chest. I love seeing the look of complete shock on her face. Knowing that it will make her school life easier and seeing this reaction makes it all worth it.
“You’ve been complaining all semester about the one you have, so if this makes your life easier, and it is something I can make happen for you, you can be damn sure I’m going to do it,” I tell her as I pull her into my lap. She sets the box aside, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her lips to mine.
“Thank you, I love it,” she says, pulling back. We finish up the last few presents with my family, eat a quick breakfast and then pack up our things and head back over to her parents’ house. Emily greets us at the door and pulls Hailey straight to the living room.
“About time you two showed up,” she teases. “I was about ready to tell Mom and Dad to just move on with our morning, and the two of you could open stuff up when you finally got here. I knew I should have insisted you stayed here last night,” she pouts.
“It isn’t like it is noon, Em,” I tease. “It’s hardly eight in the morning. Calm down.”
She sticks her tongue out at me, scrunching her face up in the process.
“None of that, now,” Hailey’s mom, Melissa, scolds Emily. “We’re just waiting on Justin and Mallory to arrive any moment now, and we’ll be ready to start opening.”
“So, you gave me all that shit just a little bit ago, and Justin and Mallory aren’t even here yet?” Hailey questions her twin.
Emily’s cheeks go a few shades of red in embarrassment. “I didn’t know they were coming over this morning. I thought they weren’t coming until this afternoon or evening,” she says, trying to feign her innocence.
“That was the original plan, but they changed their plans when they found out the two of you were here,” their mom says, pointing at Hailey and me. “They wanted to make sure to get some time with the both of you before they head to Mallory’s family.”
“Where’s my little sister?” I hear Justin call out just then from the doorway. Hailey pops up, running for her older brother’s waiting arms. They’ve always had a pretty loving, sibling relationship and I know it has been hard on her to be away from everyone so much. Hopefully, now that she won’t be all the way out in California, maybe it will make it a little easier for her to get back home for long weekends or for them to come visit us in Indianapolis. “Good to see you,” Justin tells her, setting her back down on the floor.
“Same big bro, same,” she tells him, beaming now that her entire family is under one roof.
“How’s it going?” Justin asks, reaching out a hand for me to shake.
“Pretty good, just living the dream,” I tell him.
“Yeah, you are, and you’ve been doing a mighty fine job at it. Congratulations on that, by the way,” he says, slapping me on the back in that manly way.
“I’m not sure if Mom already told you, but I’m moving to Indianapolis to be with Dylan! I transferred to the University of Indiana and will resume all my classes in a few weeks,” she tells her brother.
“Dad mentioned something about that. You’re growing up, kid,” he says, rubbing his hand on the top of her head, messing up her already messy bun.
“I’m not a kid anymore.” She rolls her eyes at him.
“You’ll always be a kid to me,” he quips back, and she just sticks her tongue out at him.
“Quit being the annoying big brother to your poor sister,” Mallory comes to Hailey’s defense as she pulls her out of Justin’s grasp and into a hug of her own.
“Yeah, listen to your girlfriend!” Hailey tells him, sticking her tongue out at her brother over Mallory’s shoulder.
“I don’t know how you put up with him all the time.” I hear Hailey say to Mallory. From the look on her face, I know she purposely said it loud enough so that Justin heard her.
We all make our way into the living room and dive into opening presents. I showered Hailey with a few more gifts related to her new computer. A new bag, a wireless keyboard, and a mouse, a fun sticker for the outside.
My biggest gift, though, I had to coordinate with her dad, David, and it is really for a few of them. It is a week-long cruise over her spring break for Hailey, Emily, and their parents. Justin couldn’t take time off work, so, unfortunately, it doesn’t include him, but he understood. David reached out to him for me to find out if he and Mallory would be able to go and were bummed when they couldn’t make it work.
It’s finally time for them to open the large box. Once again, David assisted me in prepping all of this for them. Inside are the cruise documents, some beach bags, towels, and other accessories they’ll need. Of course, I can’t go, either, since it is smack dab in the push to the playoffs.
“What did you do?” Hailey asks, giving me a perplexed look over her shoulder before she moves to be next to her mom and sister.
“Just open it and find out,” I tell her and watch as they rip into the box. The level of screeching that happens over the next five minutes from the three women the gift is for about makes me go deaf.
“You are way too sweet,” Melissa says, pulling me into a hug.
“I knew everyone would enjoy some time together and where better to do that than on a cruise to some beautiful beaches.”
“Thank you,” Emily says, holding up the beach bag with her name on it. “You’re the best,” she adds.
“I can’t believe you did all of this,” Hailey says, coming back over to me. I pull her into my lap once again and wrap my arms around her torso. “Anything to make you happy,” I tell her honestly. She’s my weakness if loving someone as much as I love her can be considered a weakness.
“I’ve got another present for you, but you can’t have it until we get back home,” she whispers into my ear.
“Home? We won’t be back home together for more than a week,” I remind her.
“Okay, how about tonight, then?” She smirks, and her eyes sparkle with mischief.
>
“I like the sound of that.” I nip at her lips, stopping short of pulling her lips between mine so I can suck on them since we have an audience.
“Some of it will have to wait until we’ve got a place to ourselves, but I’m sure I can give you some of it tonight.” She winks, the little minx.
“Do I need to take us to a hotel tonight?” I suggest.
“Tempting, but how are we going to play that one off?” She smirks. “Can’t really say ‘sorry, Mom and Dad, we’re going to go stay at a hotel tonight so we can fuck each other’s brains out.’”
I have to fake cough to cover her words as her brother gives me a smirking look like he heard everything she just said to me.
“Hales, quiet down about the ex-say,” I warn her, doing my best to use pig-Latin to say the word sex.
“Like they haven’t heard worse before?” she quips.
“How was your morning with Marcus and Beverly?” Melissa asks now that we’ve finished opening presents.
“It was great. They sure enjoyed having us home and being there this morning,” I answer.
“I bet. Your poor mom, having to really deal with the empty nest. I’m sure everything is just so different without you around.”
“Yeah, but I also think she’s enjoying her time now.”
We visit a while longer; Melissa gets up to go make a brunch spread that everyone can leisurely graze on over the next few hours as we all get lost in checking out our new things. Hailey unboxes her new laptop, getting it all set up and the files transferred from her old one. That takes up a good portion of the day, leading us up to dinnertime. Since we’d really like to be with both of our parents, Melissa called up my parents and just invited them to come over for Christmas dinner so that we didn’t have to split our time between houses anymore.
Chapter Twelve
Hailey
I look around my dorm room, making sure I haven’t forgotten anything. It’s a bittersweet day. I’ve loved all my time here at UCSD, but I’m looking forward to starting our forever life in Indianapolis.
Rookie Move (Indianapolis Eagles Series Book 9) Page 10
