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WE WERE RIGHT ON TOP of the holiday when I was crowned the victor in the Nick Pierce debacle. It felt good, but it didn’t leave much time for shopping. I managed to secure gifts for Mom, Dad, and Alec on the Internet. They had arrived, already prewrapped, and were waiting in a bag beside the door so I didn’t forget them on Christmas Day.
I took my time shopping for Teddy. I didn’t want to give her the traditional diamond bracelet or anything else so flashy. I knew she wouldn’t appreciate it, and that such a display of wealth would make her uncomfortable. I finally settled on the perfect gift, and I had been debating whether or not to buy it. Again, I didn’t want to overstep my bounds and present her with an expensive present when we weren’t a sure thing. But after the conversation, I went ahead and pressed go on the gift, setting the wheels in motion to make her holiday the best it could possibly be.
We went back to my place for an early night. I was elated and had a lot of energy. She was a match for my tempo, and we made good use of several of the beds in my house. Needing a burst of energy and not interested in cooking, we ordered a pizza around seven and sat in our underwear on the couch, eating straight from the box.
The next day was Christmas Eve. We woke lazily and took a long, luxurious shower together. We weren’t scheduled to be at Corey’s house until much later in the afternoon, so we had the whole day to ourselves.
I decided I wasn’t going to do any work, which was a difficult thing for me to give up. Work was a constant lifeblood pumping through my day, and to spend an extended amount of time away from any device felt unnatural. Teddy made up for it and gave me plenty to do with my hands. She insisted that we watch a cheesy romantic comedy and chided me for not having a Christmas tree.
“I had the landscapers decorate the house, but I didn’t have time to get a tree,” I admitted.
“That just won’t do,” she declared. “We have to get you a tree.”
So we found ourselves tree shopping on Christmas Eve. I drove out to the local tree farm and was surprised to find that they still had a small selection available. Teddy circled the options with a discerning eye, almost as if she was buying a car. I just stood there watching her, not giving a crap which tree we ended up with. Watching her was the best part of the entire event. She looked so serious, dressed in her weekend clothes, studying each pine with an outsized intensity.
“We’ll take this one,” she finally decided.
They strapped it to the hood of my car after piling on all the accessories. For far more than we would have paid in the stores, they offered a stand, a skirt, and a box of lights. I purchased them all, and we drove home to assemble the thing.
Teddy insisted on helping carry it inside, though I tried to tell her I didn’t need help.
“Don’t be silly,” she replied, climbing up on the back seat so she could access the ties that bound the tree to the car.
I pulled out a knife that was designed to fit into my wallet in the shape of a credit card. Like its Swiss Army predecessors, the blade flipped up, and the shell provided leverage. Handing it up to her, I watched her face light up.
“This is neat,” she said, turning the knife over in her hand.
“Always be prepared,” I quoted the Boy Scout motto.
She used the blade to snap the twine and then folded the knife away and handed it back to me. We eased the tree off the roof and carried it inside. I had to admit that I was glad for the help. It would have been a heavy lift by myself.
Teddy scoped out a spot for it, finally deciding that it would work best in the living room. She held the tree in place while I worked on the stand, and then we struggled the trunk into its maw with a lot of curses and a few splinters. I went to the bathroom to get the tweezers. Nipping little bits of bark out of my fingers took much longer than I would have thought.
When I returned, Teddy had the skirt in place and the lights halfway around. I left her to it, going into the kitchen to pour us each a glass of eggnog. Coming back into the living room, I was just in time to watch Teddy plug the tree in. The lights came on in their blocky primary colors, bringing a distinctive Christmas vibe to the entire room. It wasn’t perfect. There were no garlands or tinsel, no hand-me-down ornaments that held sentimental value, but it was a step in the right direction.
By the time we were done, we had only a half hour before we needed to be on the road. Like millions of other families, we were doing the ‘visit the in-laws’ portion of the holiday festivities. While others had to travel by plane or train, we were just driving a half hour out of our way to Teddy’s brother’s home, but it still felt significant. I was officially part of a couple, and we were officially considering a future together. That meant all kinds of things, including a full schedule for Christmas.
I made a move to get dressed, but Teddy stopped me. “You don’t have to dress up for Corey.”
“I’d like to,” I said. It was force of habit. I didn’t go anywhere to visit anyone wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. I would feel uncomfortable, and I was afraid it would show. It was one of the side effects of being a self-made man in the public eye.
Teddy frowned, stepping close to give me a sultry kiss. “Please.”
What could I do? If she wanted me to dress down, it seemed like a petty thing to argue over. And it was her family, after all. When we went to see my family the next day, I would make sure I was presentable. But I could see her point; Corey was the king of the backyard fire pit and spent the bulk of his time in a woodshed. He was unlikely to care what I wore.
I relented, and we got into my car, looking like we had just carried a tree across town. It didn’t take long to arrive at the partly rural, partly suburban development where Corey lived. I pulled into the driveway, and Teddy hopped out, eager to see her family. I thought she was going to go straight for the front door and leave me in the dust, but instead, she turned toward the garage and climbed the stairs to what had once been her loft.
I followed, slightly confused. “What are you doing?”
“Just grabbing my art stuff,” she explained. “Come help.”
I sighed. One of the things I loved about Teddy was her take no prisoners attitude. In the board meeting and on the street, people rarely spoke to me like that. Teddy didn’t see dollar signs when she looked at me. She saw a partner, a friend, and a lover. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and followed her up, remembering the last time I was there all too well.
“Here,” Teddy said, handing me a folded easel before I even got in the door. “And here.” She pressed a canvas book bag against my chest. “Just put them in the car.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I teased, turning back to walk down the stairs.
Teddy followed with a few canvasses, brushes, and a pallet. We settled all the stuff in the backseat before going up to the main house. Corey welcomed us in with a hug each, and his little girls were equally as enthusiastic in their greeting.
Corey’s wife, Sunny, hung back, giving me a small hug before taking Teddy by the hand and leading her away. Corey glanced at their retreating figures before meeting my eye. “Girl talk,” he explained.
“They’re probably talking about me,” I concluded.
“Probably,” Corey agreed.
“We want to open presents!” the older child, Cassie, announced.
“Is it time?” the younger girl, Chloe, asked. “You said when Auntie Teddy got here.”
“I did say that,” Corey confirmed. “Sunny! Teddy! Don’t take too long.”
The girls reappeared a moment later, with brilliant smiles on their faces. Whatever information they could have possibly shared in the brief time they were alone, it obviously made quite a difference. They separated, Teddy coming around to my side and Sunny going to her husband.
“Shall we?” Corey asked, gesturing toward the living room set.
Their house was much smaller than mine, and the tree was oversized for the space it was in. Pressed into a corner beside the fireplace, there wasn’t much space to sit around the tree, but none of the seating was very far away. I picked a spot at the far end of the couch, and Teddy plopped down beside me. Corey and Sunny chose the loveseat, and the kids got down on the floor to sort through the presents and hand them out.
Chloe grabbed one that was wrapped in red paper. Climbing up on the couch beside Teddy, she held it out. “This one is from you.”
“Open it,” Teddy instructed.
The little girl tore through the wrapping, nearly frantic to get to whatever prize was inside. I caught a glimpse of joy in Teddy’s eye, watching her little niece make short work of her gift.
“It’s a rainbow loom!” Chloe shouted, throwing her arms around Teddy’s neck.
“What’s a rainbow loom?” I asked.
“You can make jewelry out of rubber bands,” Chloe explained. She climbed down off the couch and ran around to show me. Pressing the box into my hands, she poked it in several places to demonstrate how the thing worked. “Here, you put the rubber bands in here and then you release them, and it creates bracelets and keychains and things.”
“Oh wow,” I replied, amazed by the amount of pleasure the child was taking from the thing. “It looks like this was a good present,” I said to Teddy.
“Thanks,” Teddy replied. “I try to pay attention.”
I gave her a kiss on the ear, settling into the couch to watch the rest of the festivities. The family only opened presents from Teddy, saving the rest of their haul for the big day. There wasn’t anything for me, since no one was aware that I would come up until yesterday. I didn’t bring anything for Corey or Sunny either, and so no one had any cause to feel left out.
Teddy got an ordinary, non-Christmas sweater from Sunny and a sketch pad from her brother. Chloe and Cassie teamed up to get her a mug for hot chocolate. She beamed and thanked everyone profusely.
“Can I open just one more?” Chloe asked.
“Nope,” her mother said. “The rest of the presents wait until Christmas morning.”
“Man!” the little girl said with all the gusto of a sailor.
“Man yourself,” Corey teased. “Why don’t you open the rainbow loom while the grownups work on dinner.”
“Why don’t the guys work on dinner?” Sunny suggested. “And the girls will open a bottle of wine.”
Corey paused, and I couldn’t tell if he was upset or not. He tilted his head to one side like a bloodhound searching for a scent. Finally he cracked a smile, and the whole room lit up. “I guess we’ve been dismissed,” he said to me.
“I guess so,” I agreed, standing up.
Corey and I walked into the kitchen, where he immediately grabbed a bottle of wine from the refrigerator. Sunny followed, taking the bottle from his hands and kissing him on the lips. She pilfered two glasses from the cabinet and walked back into the living room, leaving Corey and me alone with the meal.
“That’s what you have to look forward to,” Corey said dryly.
“Looks wonderful,” I replied. “Are you sure Sunny and Teddy aren’t related?”
“I hope not,” Corey balked.
“They can be bossy,” I reported, looking around the kitchen for whatever it was I was supposed to do.
“Here, why don’t you mash potatoes?” Corey suggested, lifting the lid off a pot that was cooling on the stove.
Inside were chunks of potato drained of the water they had boiled in. Corey handed me a masher and a bowl and left me to it as he took the bird out of the oven. It looked delicious, all crispy and dark on the outside, steaming and glistening in the electric light.
“I’m glad you stuck around, man,” Corey said, picking up a knife and beginning to shave slices off the top. “Teddy’s been through a lot lately, and it’s great to see her happy.”
“She’s a great woman,” I agreed. “You have no idea how thrilled I am that we managed to figure things out.”
“Well, I think everyone here would agree,” Corey summed up.
It took us another fifteen minutes to get the food ready, but when all the pieces were assembled, we called for reinforcements. The girls were only too willing to help out. A little bit silly from the single glass they had imbibed, they set the table and made space for the turkey. Aside from mashed potatoes, there were green beans and sweet rolls. Altogether it was a simple yet abundant meal.
The kids came down from their respective rooms to join us when it was all prepared. I sat next to Teddy, across the table from the girls. Sunny and Corey sat on opposite sides, like the lord and lady of the manor.
We said grace before digging in, and the food was so good, I was blown away. I ate so often at five-star restaurants I had almost forgotten what home cooking tasted like. When I was cooking for myself, I favored low-carb, high protein meals that were simple to put together and even easier to clean up. This feast was none of those things, except if you counted the protein from the turkey. The potatoes were lumpy but perfectly seasoned, the turkey was succulent, and the green beans were cooked to perfection. I even had a sweet roll, and it literally melted in my mouth.
Teddy reached under the table and put a hand on my knee. I glanced over to see her smiling, and I smiled back. “Thank you so much for coming,” she said.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” I replied.
“I’m so happy to share this with you,” she continued, oblivious to the stares of the rest of the family.
“And I’m happy that you felt you could share this with me,” I said. “No more going backward. From now on, we’re only looking forward.”
“Agreed,” she said, squeezing my knee. “No more second guessing.”
“I want a life with you,” I declared, caught up in the moment. “I want you.”
Teddy blushed, looking down at the table before rebounding to meet my eyes. “I do too.”
“Okay, you nuts,” Corey said, raising a glass to us. “There are children present.”
“Teddy and Brad, sitting in a tree,” Chloe chanted.
I cleared my throat, not used to being teased by an eight-year-old. Teddy laughed, and the whole family descended into a fit of mirth.
