She opens the first one, a guitar chord book. She opens her eyes wide and smiles. “Does this mean you’re gonna teach me, Ryan?”
“Sure does.”
“Yes!” She throws her hand in the air and opens the next slightly smaller gift. It’s a set of picks in different colors and designs, and there are a ton of them. Her eyes shoot open, and she turns slowly to face me as Roxie groans.
“If there are picks, that means… oh my God. Oh my God!” She grabs the huge third present, which we wrapped in a rectangular box so it wouldn’t give it away. She pulls the paper off dramatically to find the cardboard box. She slumps slightly as if she’s disappointed, then opens the box to find a guitar case. She screams so ear-splittingly loud that I actually wince. “Holy hell, it’s a guitar, an actual guitar.”
“Savvy… language!” Roxie chides.
Savvy stands and looks at me. Her eyes droop, and her bottom lip quivers. I smile as her eyes fill with tears before she starts to cry while she walks to me. I’m not sure what to do, so I simply put out my hands and take her into a hug as she sobsuncontrollably into my shirt. I look to Tillie, and she winces as I hold onto Savvy.
“Savvy, sweetheart?” Roxie says.
She sniffs, hugging me so tight. “This is like my birthday, and Easter, and Christmas, all rolled into one. This is the best present…ever.Thank you, Ryan. I’m going to play just like you.”
I kneel, taking her into a real hug. “You’re welcome, Savvy, and I promise I’m going to make time as often as I can. How about once a month, coming over to practice with you? Deal?”
She pulls back, looks at me, and nods.
“The only time I won’t be able to is when I’m on tour, but then I will still Zoom, and we can play, okay?”
“Deal. Thanks again. This is the best Christmasever.”
She leans in to hug me again, and I hug her back. I glance up, and Roxie looks at me with a genuine smile and mouths,Thank you.
“Well, now we’ve had all that excitement, lunch is pretty much ready. I’ll get it all served up,” Donny says.
“Savvy, how ’bout you go and get cleaned up before lunch, okay?” Roxie says, and she and Donny walk into the kitchen.
Savvy lets me go and runs off down the hall, leaving Tillie and me in the living room.
“That was so nice,” Tillie says, walking up to me as I stand. She wraps her arms around my waist.
“I’m so glad she liked it. I didn’t think she would be that excited, but seeing her that enthused gives me hope she might make a go of it.”
“Well, with a mentor like you, who knows where she might end up? We should go help them set up for lunch,” she says, going to walk off, but I grab her around the waist and hold her to me.
“Before you go, there’s something I wanna ask.”
She raises her eyebrow. “Mm… sounds ominous.”
“Nothing too scary. So, Danger and Lunar are obviously getting married.”
Her eyes open wide, and she stops breathing. “Oh God… please don’t ask me to marry you.”
I shake my head. “Well, I wasn’t going to, but I’m gutted to know it would be a no if I did.”
“No, it wouldn’t be a no. It would be a…not yet. We’re not ready for that kind of—”
“Relax, babe. I’m not asking, and I’m not offended. I’m right there on that page with you.”
“Oh, thank God.” She smiles.
“But, I do think that Danger and Lunar deserve a house to themselves. There’s something else I haven’t told you…” I take a deep breath. “To do with Katie.”
She nods. “Okay.”
“My house. It’s where we lived as a family. I couldn’t bring myself to sell it after they died. Sure, I got rid of everything that reminded me of them, but I couldn’t part with the actual house.”
