“Similar to Bryan.He hates this time of year because he feels like he becomes a show pony for his parents at parties.We’ll have him for a couple hours, but he’s needed at an event tonight,” Seth said as he came back into the room.
“He told me about it,” I said.I had volunteered to go with him, but he didn’t want me spending my Christmas there.
“Cadie!”Cal’s voice boomed through the house.It was loud enough to get a bark from Bebe who was in another room somewhere.
“Not so loud,” George said.
A moment later, Cal was running into the room.
“Merry Christmas!”He hugged me, his arms nearly a steel band around my waist.
“Merry Christmas,” I said, resting my hand on his head as I gave him an awkward hug.Hugging kids always felt weird with how much smaller they were than me.
“We have presents for you,” he said.“Want to open them now?”
“I told you later,” Paxon said as he came into the kitchen.“Once everyone gets here, we can do presents.”
“I’ll have to run over to my house to grab yours,” I said to Cal.
His eyes practically sparkled at the idea of more presents.
“Cal!Come here,” George yelled.
“Now who’s yelling?”Paxon mumbled as Cal went to his dad.
We laughed.
Paxon gave me a simple hug.“Merry Christmas,” he said.
My smile slipped.“Merry Christmas.How’d you sleep?”
He ran his hand through his hair, which looked like it was already in disarray.“Fine.I got a treat for Bebe, so I’m going to go give it to him.”He slipped out of the room before anyone could say anything else to him.
“What side of the bed did he get up on?”Toby asked.
“Not the right side,” Seth said.“I’ll be right back.”He slipped out of the room.
We shared glances with each other before going back to our tasks.
My dad was the next person to show up, giving me a big hug and handing me a present.I grinned when I saw the record player.He even gave me some records for it.
“This is perfect,” I whispered.
“Good.Was hard to find this particular one.You should be able to play music from your laptop through it too.”
“Thank you.”I kissed his cheek.
Justin helped me set it up in the kitchen, and it wasn’t long until we had Bon Jovi’s raspy voice in the background.Paxon seemed back to normal as he worked on some of the salads.
“Smells good,” Liberty said as she came in to check on us.
“It’ll taste even better,” Seth said and then had to talk her into going back to hang out with all the other adults in the living room.
Soft laughter from the living room made all of us grin.
At one point, Seth and Toby left, but no one said anything.And when Toby came back, looking like he was in a better mood, we only smiled and kept making sure the adults in the house got to relax in the living room and stayed out of our territory in the kitchen.
Bryan finally showed up just as it was nearly time to go open presents and it felt right having everyone together, even if it was only for a short time.
