“So, what’s the big surprise?” I ask. “Lunch in bed with your cock warming inside of me? Or naked roof sex again?”
He shakes his head, “I promise there will be lots of that this weekend but what I have first is even better.”
“I can’t imagine what can be better than naked roof sex,” I grumble.
He opens the gate to the newly stoned pathway he’s remodeled and up to the front door. When we finally walk inside, it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the lighting and when they do, they grow wide at the site of so many familiar faces filling his living room.
“Merry Christmas, Dove!” My family and friends all shout at the same time from their positions spread out around his home.
I swivel around, taking in how the place has transformed since I was last here over eight weeks ago. It’s full of Christmas lights, a large, decorated tree to the side, and tiny paper snowflakes cut into various shapes, draped from the second floor down to the first-floor ceiling.
“What is this?” I ask, feeling the familiar, salty burn of tears in my throat.
“You couldn’t be home for Christmas this year because of the tour, so I had the Camerons, and your family help me put up some decorations so we could celebrate when you got back.”
He moves his face closer, his lips brushing against my ear. “And I remembered how you said that when you were little, your favorite part of the holidays was making paper snowflakes and stringing them around the house with your mom. Your mom and I worked on those last night and I have the fresh blisters to prove it.” He holds out his hands with a wide grin.
My eyes fill with tears as I look around the room again. My mom and dad are in the corner, Millie and Franklin hang out in the kitchen, Wylie and Stevie—now fully pregnant—stand nearby, and Jovie and Nash are wrangling their two wild baby twins by the fire place. Clay and Savannah sit on the couch, and a few of my high school friends I’ve kept in touch with are cozied up next to them. It’s more than I ever imagined.
“It’s… magical. I can’t believe you did this for me.”
Dallas shrugs as if it isn’t the most thoughtful thinganyonehas ever done for me.
“I know you were disappointed that we didn't get to spend our first official Christmas together, and I would have loved to have you here, but you were living your dreams. I don't see how celebrating a month later makes things any different.”
I turn to him abruptly, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him close. The tenderness, thoughtfulness, and care he’s put into this moment shatters my heart into a million pieces,fragmenting the parts of me I thought I knew so well. Parts of me that long to be free, to travel, pursue my wildest dreams, to be filled with wanderlust and untethered to anyone.
Now, I know that those parts of me will always exist, but they’ll be safely framed by being loved, wholly known, and honored by Dallas as he respects my body and supports my dreams, wherever they take me. There’s something to be said about being with someone who doesn’t try to reduce you to what they want you to be for them and I was just seeing that for the first time.
“Merry Christmas, sis,” Millie says, breaking the moment. She slides up next to us and slips her arms around my waist in a tight hug.
“I can’t believe you all did this,” I shake my head, still in disbelief that everyone I love is here together tonight.
“Come on! Grab some food before it gets cold. We're doing potluck style so that everyone can spread out and catch up,” my mom says from the kitchen.
My brother Franklin throws an arm around my shoulders, tucking me into his side as he guides me into the dining room. Dallas lets me go, and as I follow the rest of my friends and family into the heart of the cheerful celebration, I glance over my shoulder to find him smiling knowingly, mouthing the words, "I’ll deck your halls later,” and that sounds like the only way to make this day any better.
Five hours later, after indulging in all the Christmas classics and my favorite dishes, opening the gifts my friends and family had saved for my return, and sharing so much laughter and joy that my cheeks physically hurt, we transition to a lively round of Christmas karaoke in the living room of Golden Farm. My parents and Nash and Jovie have already retreated with their kids back to their homes, leaving the rest of us to continue the festivities.
“Who’s up next?” Stevie asks the wild group that remains.
“I think it’s the marine with a soft side's turn,” Wylie says, nudging Dallas forward.
“Oh, gosh, this is going to be good,” I smirk as I take another sip of my spiked eggnog.
Dallas grabs the karaoke microphone as he whispers something into Millie’s ear who bobs her head excitedly before typing into the laptop we've connected to speakers.
"I think you’ll remember from one of my letters years ago, that I once tried my hand at karaoke. It was a disaster. Miserable failure actually and something I swore I wouldn’t do again."
I giggle like a schoolgirl, recalling how he’d admitted to discovering his limits that night. He’d said singing was something he’d leave to me and the other rock greats.
“But I’ve been practicing this one, so I hope you’ll see my dedication to continuing to try new things, even after knowing I'm bad at them,” his brown eyes are warm as the melody of No Doubt’s, ‘Underneath it All’ begins to play through the stereo speakers.
I burst into laughter as Dallas starts belting out the lyrics to a Gwen Stefani love ballad, one of my favorites from the badass rocker chick I’ve always admired.
“Oh my gosh, don’t stop, please.” I laugh harder as Dallas dances animatedly around the living room, showing a side of him that I always knew existed, but my friends and family had likely never seen. It wasn't a Christmas song, but it was meaningful to us. No one else knew that I'd told Dallas years ago that Gwen Stefani had been my inspiration for choosing to pursue rock music as a kid.
Just another thing that I hadn't realized he'd remembered...
