It would be my first without him. Christmas was pretty special to us, and that only grew after my mom passed. The thought of decorating or celebrating without him just felt wrong.
“I don’t want to decorate. I’m sorry.” I didn’t say anything more than that, but I didn’t have to. Daisy knew me better than anyone in my life did.
“Kaia, I’m such an idiot. I’m so sorry. It’s your first Christmas without your dad—why would you want to decorate? I’m sorry forbeing inconsiderate. We definitely don’t need to decorate. Let’s just look around and not think, okay? Get whatever calls to us?”
I was thankful for the distraction and nodded. “That sounds perfect.”
Chapter Nineteen
KAIA
“Okay, so I know I said we weren’t going to decorate, but it’s Christmas.You have to decorate. It’s kind of the law.”
I groaned. “Daisy.”
“Just hear me out, okay? Well, obviously not literally.” She smiled at her own joke, and I had to mirror it. She was adorable. “We are decorating for Christmas, but not Christmas decorations.”
“What are you talking about? How are you going to decorate the house for a holiday and not use the holiday decorations?”
She smiled. “Because we’re going to use different holiday decorations. Easter, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day. Whatever you want. But we have to do something, Kai. We cannot leave this house looking bare.”
“I’m sorry. You want to what?”
She rolled her eyes. “Come on, why not? We can spend time together decorating the house, and it’ll be fun. We could even get really weird and combine holidays. Imagine spider webs and Easter bunnies around the house, or four-leaf clovers and skeleton heads. What do you say?”
“I say you’re nuts, but I think I like it. Do you already have some we can use, or do we need to go to the store?”
She shook her head, turning to walk away. What? We were in the middle of a conversation and she just walked off? I shrugged and turned to walk toward the kitchen when I jumped. A loud thud caught my attention, and I whirled around, thinking she’d fallen or something. Daisy stood before me with her hands on her hips and a gigantic container at her feet labeled Holiday Stuff.”
I frowned as she opened it and pulled out spider webs and felt hearts. “I think there is a little of every holiday in here. We don’t even have to go through it, just sort of throw things around the househaphazardly. And we don’t need to put up a tree if you don’t want to. Whatever you want to do. You’re in charge.”
“Wait, do you just have decorations from every holiday in there? Like, thrown in together? Not separated and organized? Like a psychopath?”
She shrugged. “It’s more fun this way. If you don’t like anything, we can go get some others.”
I shook my head for so many reasons. “No, Daisy, it’s fine. I’m just processing everything. You’re so weird.”
She smiled. “Thank you. You love me anyway.”
“I really do.” My smile was soft. Not at all the teasing one she wore as I walked over to her and picked out some weird combinations. If we were doing this, we might as well go all the way.
I kept finding myself smiling and shaking my head at the absurdity of the decoration box, and the fact that I was really putting Christmas ornaments and cobwebs on a Christmas tree. I couldn’t help feeling warmth in my chest, even as ridiculous as the house was looking.
I appreciated that Daisy was thinking about me and wanted to do something to cheer me up while still carrying on holiday traditions. I admit, when we started this, all I’d wanted was to lock myself in my room until the new year when the decorations would get torn down.
But seeing how crazy the house looked and spotting the cheery smile on her face made it all worth it. I’d suck it up for her.
She was dancing to no music at all when I tapped her shoulder. She spun around and shimmied once again before catching her breath. “How did your family celebrate Christmas?” I asked.
The smile on her face only grew. I’d give all the money in the world for that smile to be a permanent fixture on her face. “Every Christmas Eve, my cousins would stay the night, and we’d decorate and all huddle up in the same bed, wearing our matching Christmas onesies.
On Christmas morning, we’d each go through our stockings first before the actual presents. Mom would have fresh giant cinnamon rolls ready for us when all our presents were open. We weren’t allowed to eat them until we were done because our hands would get sticky. We still carried the tradition up until last year.”
“That sounds heavenly, actually. Your family sounds amazing. Why aren’t you doing it this year?”
She shrugged, as if breaking a tradition meant nothing. “You’re here this year. I’m spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with you, silly. I’ll still bring everyone their gifts.”
“What? Daisy, you can’t break a family tradition on my account. I’ll be okay, I promise.”
