Keene carefully undoes the wrapping, and inside is a book. I sincerely hope it’s not a copy of theKama Sutra. It’s not.
It’s L. Frank Baum’s,A Kidnapped Santa Claus.
“Read what I wrote,” Phil says softly. Keene flips the book to the title page and reads aloud.
Keene,
I’m not comparing you to Santa. There’s not a chance in hell of that. I just thought you might appreciate the fact that Santa needed to rely on someone else to do his most important duty for a while—his elves. They all wanted the same thing. A perfect Christmas for those they love.
We’re glad to have another brother in our family.
Phillip
Keene’s hands are shaking as he closes the book. “Thank you, Phil. This means so much even without the other gifts.”
Phil’s smile broadens. “Open the red one first.”
Without another word, Keene carefully opens the glossy red paper. Inside is a matte black box, which Keene slowly lifts the lid off of. Wordlessly, he lifts out a thick photo album to an almost silent room except for the occasional squeak from the kitten. Turning the cover, he makes a choked sound. “Sweet Jesus, Phil.” Ali, who’s sitting next to him, wraps her arm around him and leans into him close.
“What is it?” Emily calls from her seat on the far side of the room.
Keene obviously can’t speak. He’s too busy wiping tears from his eyes. Ali manages to choke out, “It’s an album of pictures of Cass as a little girl.”
“Since the time we met,” Phil confirms.
“Oh, Phil,” Cassidy breathes.
“I had a lot of help,” Phil admits. He nods toward Holly. “If I wasn’t going through photos, she was. Not just for this album either.” Keene’s head snaps up.
“There’s more?” Keene’s smile is enormous.
Phil nods. “Open the green box.”
This time, Keene tears into it with excitement. Tossing the lid on the floor, he opens the flap of the second album while it’s still in the box. He whoops with laughter while Ali groans. “Jesus, Phil. All of my photos too?”
The room breaks into laughter.
“I don’t suppose I escaped the pictures of my hair dyed red in this?” Corinna is laughing at Ali, while Holly shakes her head. A retribution prank Corinna pulled on Ali was masterfully captured by Holly on camera while they were in college.
“Oh, those are in there. Believe you me,” Phil drawls.
Putting the albums down, Keene stands and approaches us. “Phil?” He extends his hand.
Phil carefully hands me his kitten. Extending his own hand, he’s surprised when Keene pulls him into a back-slapping hug. “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for watching over them, and thank you for this gift.” Keene’s voice is rough.
“Both were absolutely my pleasure.”
7
Not long after, we begin opening the rest of the white elephant gifts. Unsurprisingly, Cassidy is ridiculously thrilled with her brown glass statue that looks like poo versus the parrot she could have been stuck with. Even Caleb is happy with the brass bull that is about two feet long. Looking down at his son, he said it would make a good doorstop for his room.
Ali and Keene look at each other and burst out laughing when they open the exact same gift—a foot-tall golden plastic statue of a head that resembles the Egyptian god Isis. Even knowing this takes them out of the running for eliminating one of their gifts for ugliest gifts, Ali looks at Keene with practicality. “We have two homes. We can stick one in each.”
Corinna has a wreath of seashells, which she says isn’t so bad. “I can hang spices from it if nothing else.” She shrugs.
Phil unwraps a vase that incidentally matches the bright yellow feathers on our bird. It’s an atrocious color, but other than that, there’s really nothing wrong with it. He looks at me and curses. “Damn.”
It’s really down to Em and Holly.
