Christmas Gift (Believe Book 3)

by Shea Balik

He was sure that wasn’t the case. Patrick might have a lot of faults, but the one thing he excelled at was organization. His grandfather had always told him if he spent the effort in the beginning getting things organized, he wouldn’t end up wasting time always trying to catch up.

  Even at the age of ten, Patrick had taken his words to heart. Every year, he and his grandfather would go to the store and pick out a day planner for the upcoming year. And every single evening after dinner, the two of them would go over his calendar to make sure he’d written everything down, from homework assignments, to tests, to doctor’s appointments.

  They also took five minutes every night before his grandpa tucked him into bed to clean up his room and bathroom. By the time he was twelve, he no longer needed his grandpa’s help, but they continued with the routine until he’d gone off to college.

  Now he used a scheduling app on his phone, but he still went through the same routine he had when he was a kid. Which meant Mrs. Sanchez was making a surprise inspection.

  Patrick wondered which of them would end up most surprised. Him, that she was there. Mrs. Sanchez, to learn that a man Patrick had met one week ago was moving in. Or Cabot, when he arrived to discover he was about to become part of the adoption process.

  As if somehow knowing there was something going on, Mrs. Sanchez gave him that all too observant look she often wore. “No. But unless I’m wrong, you were expecting someone else.”

  “Is that Cabot?” Liam yelled excitedly from his room. Then the pounding of feet could be heard racing down the stairs as he kept yelling. “Did he bring his stuff? Is he really moving in today?”

  Damn if Patrick’s cheeks didn’t heat up until he was sure they must have looked like they were on fire. They sure felt that way as Mrs. Sanchez smirked at him. “Did Liam just say someone was moving in?” she asked even as she pushed past him and entered the house.

  “Oh,” Liam said, his voice dropping into one of disappointment as he skidded to a stop. “You’re not Cabot.”

  “No, I’m not,” Mrs. Sanchez agreed. “But I’m curious as to who this Cabot person is.”

  Patrick didn’t miss the way she looked pointedly back at him even though she was speaking to Liam. Talk about awkward. The only thing that could make this worse was if…

  “I’m home,” Cabot called out as he stepped into the still open doorway, carrying two boxes, which made it impossible for him to see Mrs. Sanchez standing there gaping at him. “These boxes go upstairs to our room, love.” Cabot pushed them toward Patrick. “Do you mind taking them up there so I can get the boxes for the kitchen?”

  At some point during Cabot passing the boxes to Patrick, he noticed Mrs. Sanchez and kind of froze in place. Cabot had no idea who she was, but it was obvious he wasn’t expecting her to be there. “Sorry,” he called out. “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”

  Then he proceeded to take the boxes back and head further into the house. “I’ll just take these to our room,” he told Patrick. “I hope you made room in that tiny thing you call a closet for me.”

  Then he dashed up the stairs.

  Mrs. Sanchez stood there, a stern look on her face, that was only marred by the way her lips were curled inward as if she were trying to hold in her laughter. But when Liam quite literally jumped up and down as he followed Cabot up the stairs, yelling, “Yeah, I’m getting two daddies,” that she couldn’t hold it in any longer and Mrs. Sanchez burst out laughing so hard there were tears streaming down her eyes.

  “Is there something you want to tell me, Patrick?” she asked as she tried to regain her composure but failed when they heard Maya start singing, ‘I got two daddies,’ over, and over again.

  “I’m glad you took my advice and started dating,” Mrs. Sanchez finally managed to say. “But isn’t it a bit soon to have him move in? The last time I was here was three weeks ago.”

  She was going to find out the details sooner or later anyway, and if he were honest, Patrick wasn’t someone who could lie easily, so he ended up blurting everything out at once. When he was at the end, Mrs. Sanchez blinked up at him but didn’t say a word, which had him even more nervous than he already was.

  “I know it’s crazy, but…” Patrick spread his hands out from his body, unsure what else to say.

  “We’re a family,” Cabot said as he came down the stairs. “We knew it the moment we met, which…” Cabot came up and wrapped an arm around Patrick as he stood by his side, right where he belonged. “From what Patrick told me about the kids, was what he felt the moment he heard they needed someone to care for them.”

  Since Mrs. Sanchez had been there for that, she knew what Cabot was talking about. Her gaze was fixed on Cabot as if she were sizing him up. Cabot didn’t even flinch as he remained relaxed against Patrick.

  A smile was the first indication that Mrs. Sanchez wasn’t going to take his – their- kids away from them. “Then I guess all I have to say is, congratulations.” She stepped up and hugged them both before offering a hand to Cabot. “I’m Mrs. Sanchez, by the way. I can’t get you on the adoption papers this quickly, but I’m sure we can fix that at a later date.”

  After shaking his hand, she turned to Patrick. “Which brings me to why I’m here. Your adoption has been moved up. The family court judge wanted to give a few families an early Christmas gift by making you officially a family before the holiday.”

  Patrick felt his jaw drop as he stared at Mrs. Sanchez in disbelief. “Really? I’m going to be their father?”

  “Babe,” Cabot said as he leaned in and kissed his cheek. “You already are their father. Mrs. Sanchez and the judge are just making it legal.”

  “I knew I liked you,” Mrs. Sanchez said to Cabot. Then her gaze went back to Patrick. With a wink, she said, “I think you picked a good one.” Clapping her hands together, she said, “Should we give the kids the good news?”

  Patrick called them downstairs. Upon seeing Mrs. Sanchez, Maya went straight to Patrick and Cabot, fitting her little body so she was half shielded by their legs. All three adults smiled down at her.

  Cabot had only been a part of their lives for a week, yet, already, Maya was trusting him to keep her safe. In a way, they all were. Before Cabot, the only person he’d trusted in his life had been his grandpa. He’d feared he’d never be able to love anyone enough to bring him into his life. Then he met Cabot.

  Suddenly, his concerns had seemed silly and inconsequential in comparison to having Cabot in his life. Now, in only a week, Patrick couldn’t imagine him not being there.

  “Mrs. Sanchez is here to give us an early Christmas present,” Patrick told the kids. He placed his hand to the back of Maya’s head to reassure her he was there only to find Cabot’s already there.

  His heart soared. Finding Cabot really made all of their lives better. But now, it was time to make it complete.

  “What gift?” Liam asked.

  “You will be adopted by Patrick next week,” Mrs. Sanchez said. “You will get to be officially a family before Christmas.”

  The kids cheered. But Liam was the first to stop and look up at Cabot. “What about you? Are you going to be part of our family?”

  That wasn’t even a question in Patrick’s mind. Reaching into his pocket, Patrick pulled out the small jewelry box he’d picked up from the jeweler yesterday. Getting down on one knee, he faced Cabot and said what was in his heart.

  “I know all of this has been fast, but from the moment we met, there was never any doubt that you were meant to be part of this family. I love you Cabot Spencer. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

  Tears rolled down Cabot’s cheeks as he knelt down in front of Patrick. He rested his forehead against Patrick’s and said, “Yes, I will marry you.” His kiss was soft, sweet and way too short.

  “But married or not, legal or not, we…” Cabot turned to pull Maya and Liam, so they were all together in a group hug. “We are already a family.”

  The four of them held each other and all Patrick cou
ld do was to thank whatever fate was involved for giving him the most cherished gift of all, his family.

  CHAPTER 17

  Nervous, Cabot was bouncing his foot as he sat in the passenger seat while Patrick drove him and the kids to the courthouse. It was Thursday, two weeks before Christmas, and they were heading to Lansing, where the adoption would take place.

  It was where Patrick had lived before moving to Winter. Where he’d lost his grandfather, found the kids, and started the process of adoption. The drive was only two hours, but it felt like forever. Especially since the adoption wasn’t the only thing happening that day.

  A hand covered his, causing Cabot to stop staring sightlessly out the window and look at the man he loved. With a simple spreading of their fingers they entwined and Cabot was holding onto Patrick as his anxiety continued to grow.

  “You having second thoughts?” Patrick asked softly since both kids were sound asleep in the back. Cabot been warned before they got in the SUV that the kids tended to zonk out if they had more than a twenty-minute drive.

  Sure enough, the moment they’d been on the road for twenty minutes, Cabot had looked back to find their eyes closed, mouths open as the slumped in their seats, oblivious to the world.

  He shook his head at Patrick’s question, but speaking he found much more challenging. The lump in his throat made it nearly impossible to get a word out.

  The gentle squeeze Patrick gave his hand helped to calm some of the butterflies that were flapping around wildly in his stomach. At this point, he was thinking they may have turned into bats with the way his abdomen seemed to be churning.

  “What if I suck as a father?” he finally managed to get out in a hoarse whisper. “It’s not like I had any examples growing up.”

  Well, he did, for he’d had ten different foster dads that he could remember. But none of them had made much of an impact. A few, he couldn’t even recall their names, much less their faces. It was more the foster moms who had dealt with him and the other kids.

  “You not only will make a great father,” Patrick assured him. “You already are.”

  That had Cabot shifting in his seat to stare at Patrick in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  Patrick gave him this look that he tended to use on the kids when he was giving them a reality check. It was part encouragement and part ‘seriously?’ As if he were letting them know that they weren’t going to get away with whatever they were trying to do.

  But Cabot wasn’t trying to do anything. He honestly had no clue how to be a dad.

  “Since we met, you have helped to pick out a tree without any major arguments, which, in case you haven’t noticed, those two fight over just about everything. You made their day by helping them make their own ornaments. You taught them how to bake cookies and have included them in cooking dinner every night since that first night you slept over.”

  Cabot was shaking his head at those things. They weren’t anything special. “None of that makes me a dad,” he said adamantly.

  “It sure as hell does,” Patrick insisted. “But the list doesn’t even begin to stop there. You’ve helped with their homework, gotten them to work out their difference on three different occasions that I heard, and I’m sure there were more I wasn’t around for. Put them to bed, read them stories, and…”

  Patrick took a breath, glanced Cabot’s way for just a moment before focusing on the road ahead of them. “And most importantly, you’ve loved them. If that’s not a father, I don’t know what is.”

  Cabot was all ready to argue, except when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. He had no way of refuting what Patrick had said. “But I don’t feel like a father,” he finally told Patrick after a few minutes.

  Patrick squeezed his hand again. “And what exactly is that supposed to feel like?”

  Cabot frowned for he had no idea.

  “Do you love Liam and Maya?” Patrick asked him when he didn’t respond.

  “Yes, of course.” That wasn’t even something he had to think about.

  “Do you want what’s best for them?” Patrick asked.

  Again, he didn’t even have to think before saying, “Yes.”

  “In the end, is there anything more important for a father to feel for his children?” Patrick said it so matter-of-factly that Cabot had to think about it for a moment. Not because he didn’t feel the same, but because the tone in Patrick’s voice was just like the look he’d given Cabot at the start of the conversation.

  The ‘I’m not about to let you get away with it,’ look. As if to prove it, Patrick added, “If you ask me, there is no sudden moment when you feel like a father, you just are. Not because of biology or even necessity but because you would do anything for those kids to be happy.”

  “You know, using logic in an emotional argument isn’t fair, right?” Cabot told him.

  Patrick chuckled softly so as not to wake up the kiddos. “Sorry, but it’s what I’m good at. Logic and organization. Speaking of which,” he said as his phone alarm went off. “We need to start waking up the kids if we have any hope of staving off any temper tantrums when we get to the courthouse.”

  Cabot smiled at Patrick’s need for everything to be done exactly so. He wasn’t rigid, for it was impossible to be that way with two kids, but he was exceeding organized, to the point of obsessive. He even had his socks arranged in color and thickness. Who did that?

  Cabot was lucky to get them in the drawer as pairs. And the man’s schedule app needed a rocket scientist to figure out, yet Patrick only had to glance at it to know exactly how and when to do things. He even had built in delays.

  Like for today, he’d given them an extra hour driving time, which admittedly was smart, but he’d also had an additional half an hour for getting them all dressed and out the door. Okay, so that too had been smart, for they had used up twenty of those thirty minutes.

  Cabot feared he would never be that organized. When baking, sure. He knew exactly what to make and when. But in his daily life, yeah, no. Other than getting out of the house to be at the bakery on time, Cabot struggled to meet his other commitments.

  “Seriously,” Patrick said, giving his hand another squeeze. “If you’re getting cold feet, just say so. We can postpone until you’re ready.”

  That had Cabot practically shouting, “No way, mister. You aren’t getting rid of me that easily.” The statement clearly helped to ease the worry Patrick had been feeling, but because he’d been so loud, he’d managed to also wake up the kids.

  Go him.

  Maybe he was getting the knack of this family thing.

  “Liam, Maya,” he said a bit more gently than his words to Patrick. “Time to wake up, my sleepy heads. We’ll be at the courthouse soon and you don’t want to go before the judge with bedhead, do you?”

  Maya giggled, but Liam let out a grumpy sound. He was the hardest to wake up. Every morning it was a challenge to get him out of bed and dressed for school. Thankfully, Cabot only had to help on Mondays and Tuesdays, as the other mornings he was at the bakery long before it was time for them to get up.

  He had no idea how Patrick dealt with it on a daily basis. Yet he did. He’d claimed it was a process that required an extra thirty minutes each morning. First, he knocked on Liam’s door to get him moving, or maybe grunting and complaining was the more accurate term. And thirty minutes later he was dressed and downstairs ready to eat breakfast.

  Cabot would have gone nuts if he’d had to do that on his own. Maya also took some time, since she still required some help dressing. Although, Patrick mitigated some of that time by having her pick out her clothes the night before. She was good with putting on her shirt and pants, although, occasionally she got them backward, but her boots were still a struggle for her, which Cabot could understand since his own weren’t easy to put on either.

  Three minutes after Liam first started to wake up, Patrick turned on the radio to a satellite station that was kid friendly. That got Maya starting to sing ch
eerfully, and Liam once more letting out sounds that didn’t sound very happy.

  Every few minutes, Patrick would do or say something, even ask questions, to bring the little boy more awake. Sure enough, by the time they arrived at the courthouse, Liam was awake and smiling as the excitement of the adoption set in.

  “You really do a great job with them,” Cabot said as they parked in a nearby parking garage.

  Patrick grinned as he opened his door. “You helped, you know. But thanks.”

  Cabot found himself smiling just as big as Patrick. He had helped. There was little doubt Patrick understood the intricacies when it came to timing and what had to be done to get the kids ready for whatever was planned. He’d also been raising them for nearly a year, so that was to be expected.

  But, for the first time since they’d gotten in the car that morning, Cabot thought, maybe, just maybe, he might actually have what it takes to be a dad. For, yeah, Patrick had known the semantics, but he also was right about Cabot helping. It had been his cajoling that had finally had Liam smiling in the end.

  It wasn’t proof, but it went a long way to helping him realize that he wasn’t completely incompetent.

  “Come on, kids,” he said as he opened the door, got out of the car and opened Maya’s door to help her out of the car seat. “It’s time to make us a family.”

  The kids cheered and Patrick looked at him with all the love he had in his heart. Talk about a gift he’d cherish for the rest of his life.

  CHAPTER 18

  It had taken some work, but Patrick, with the help of Mrs. Sanchez, had managed to get the judge on board to help with his plan. On Monday, he and Cabot had gone to the clerk of court in Winter and filled out the paperwork to get married. In Michigan, there was a three day waiting period from the time a couple filed until they could get married.

  That day was today.

  Cabot knew that Patrick had arranged for them to get married at the same courthouse as the adoption, but what he didn’t know was that the same judge would perform both ceremonies. Or, that a few friends would be there to witness it. Or, and this was kind of a big one, that since all of Cabot’s employees had begged to attend, he’d agreed, behind Cabot’s back, to close Frosted for the day.