He gives the cue to our driver, and in seconds we’re literally dashing through the snow filled streets of the city. As if Christmas morning has been made just for this trip.
Wherever we’re actually going, but Jack explains.
“I probably went overboard, but if we’re gonna have a real Christmas, I figure we both have some catching up to do,” he says loudly over the ringing of the sleigh bells, waving to the few people we pass in the street and bellowing a few hearty “ho-ho-ho’s” as they stand astonished.
I should feel embarrassed, stupid even. But I feel like Jack’s right.
I’ve spent my whole life telling myself Christmas is one thing when it could be so many others, if only I let it be that way.
By the time we reach the office.
I kinda figured that’s where we’re headed. But nobody will be-
Oh.
I’m waving excitedly at everyone. I probably have as much snow in my hair as Jack has in his beard, but I don’t mind.
As soon as we round the corner of the city block, I can see more and more people. Mostly smiling but a lot who look like they’d rather be someplace warm.
They’re not employees.
They’re all the folks most people like me forget about when it comes around to Christmas time. But Jack’s made today all for them as well.
The sounds of carolers fill the crisp air and I feel those tears I warned Jack about welling up.
But I save them.
Something tells me I’m gonna need them.
Chapter Twenty
Jack
Okay. It’s a little… a lot overboard, but I always say if I’m gonna do something, I’ll do it a hundred and ten percent.
I could’ve just made it so Avery and I ate at the office, in the cafeteria with everyone else, or even just taken some of the food home.
Lord knows there’s enough of it.
But I guess I wanted to be Santa, and make us our own Christmas dinner too, which is warming in the kitchen back home.
The Santa angle has its benefits too. A new Insurance company takeover, promoting itself with a two day Christmas feast for anyone who wants to turn up?
Sounds like corny publicity and the question on every reporter’s lips is: ‘But where is Jack Cole?’
Best to keep my head down and just help hand out some of these gifts.
Thousands of them, food hampers too, and vouchers for stuff people actually need to.
With Avery at my side, I lose count of how many ‘thank you’s’ and ‘God bless you’s’ we hear. We’re not numb to it by the time I have to go, it’s the exact opposite.
Giving is receiving, and if I have one small regret, it’s that I couldn’t give more to each and every person there. Maybe stay longer.
But there’s always next year.
And the three hundred and sixty-four days in between to make a difference too.
Jack Cole’s no one trick pony, and I can see the wheels turning in Avery’s mind as we finally bid everyone farewell for the sake of keeping up the truth.
Santa has a lot to do today, but we’ll see them all again real soon.
I have our driver take us through the park.
Thinking he’ll throw us off for taking so long, I’m surprised when he cheerfully agrees, gnawing on a hot turkey roll and warming himself with some soup.
“Avery? It’s been a wild ride this past few days,” I start off, feeling her start to stiffen under my hand through the blanket.
She’s chewing her lip, looking nervous. The face people make when the rug’s about to get pulled out from under them.
I know it because I’ve made that face myself a dozen times.
If you bet it all you have to be prepared to lose it all and start over. But that’s not what I want to tell her.
“What I mean is… I know it’s so sudden, moving in and everything,” I stammer, feeling the sleigh slow down, the driver giving me time to say what I have to now.
“It’s just-”
“I’m starved,” she announces suddenly, huddling closer to me, gripping my arm with both of hers.
“Let’s talk about it after dinner, Jack. Please?” she says nervously.
I nod silently, and we’re back to a canter and home soon enough.
My driver’s extra time and patience, I reward with an envelope as I thank him again, booking the same a year in advance before he disappears, singing a carol himself as the snow starts to fall heavier.
The bells fade into the creeping darkness of the afternoon, and I let out a small sound when I see Avery opening the front door with her own key.
It tells me all and it makes my heart bloom against my ribs as I watch her going inside before turning around.
“Well? Get in here, Jack it’s freezing outside.”
Smiling to myself, I leap up the last few steps to reach her, smelling something about to burn that isn’t the warmth between us.
“The potatoes!” I call out, tearing off my suit and beard, grabbing at padding as I lurch into the kitchen, saving a tray of vegetables and the turkey just in time I’d say.
Shooing Avery out of the kitchen, I suggest she takes a bath while I get our dinner ready.
To my surprise, she doesn’t fight the idea, which gives me plenty of time to finish up both dinner and something else.
Something I don’t think can wait through a Christmas dinner.
That something else came with the house I bought at auction. Loved it the minute I saw it, but never understood the strange condition the previous owner had written into the terms.
The house was so much, even above the reserve. But there was something else I’d overlooked, something they wanted to be included in the house and something that was worth almost twice as much once I had it valued.
The only condition was that it could only ever leave the house if it was used as intended, never sold, and only passed on through the same way.
I’d never even really thought about it until today.
Until I knew that I wanted more than just Avery for Christmas.
Slipping my robe on, I find her almost dozing in the huge antique tub, a warm towel over her eyes.
I crouch down next to the bath, tracing my fingers through the water, pausing to make her shiver as I tease her nakedness underneath the water with it.
“What you got there, Jack. You have time to climb in here with me?” she asks, a coy smile playing on her lips.
I’d thought she’d never ask.
“How’s dinner?” she adds, peeking at my own nakedness from under her cloth as I slide into the tub, the water dangerously close to spilling over.
“It’s ready whenever you are,” I tell her, really seeing just how beautiful she looks in the soft candlelight. Candles I never even knew I had.
I can see her shivering another breath, almost like she knows what I’m about to ask.
And I already know the answer
The water ripples with our own tiny movements as I reach for her.
Slipping the ring onto her finger.
She shudders, trying to take the cloth from her eyes, but I tell her no.
“Just say yes, Avery. We’ve had the best two days of our lives, let’s have this every day. Tell me you’ll be mine forever, officially.”
She’s already nodding her head, speechless.
I lean forward, ignoring the water sloshing from the tub and taking off her face cloth, I hold my eyes in front of hers.
“You’re all I’ve ever wanted, Avery. This is only a ring, but the ring around our hearts, I want that to last forever.”
“Oh, Jack! You know it’s yes. It’ll always be yes because I love you,” she says, her tears streaming as I kiss her.
A kiss that feels the same every time.
Every single one and on every single day, which to me will always be Christmas.
As long as I have my Avery.
My one, my only.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Avery
I should feel embarrassed it took me so long to even remember her, but on the other hand. Who remembers every single thing they throw in the trash?
“Whatever did happen to Angela, Jack? My old boss,” I ask him, decorating the tree in Jack’s office.
He laughs out loud and slaps his hand on the side of his desk, making me jump.
“I thought you’d never ask,” he exclaims, coming around to hold the stepladder steady as it creaks a little under my weight.
“I can do it,” I snap impatiently, remembering how we first met. How trees and I sometimes don’t get along.
“I know you can,” he says firmly, gripping my thighs and holding me steady as he groans, totally distracting me.
Making me feel conscious of my weight for the millionth time in months.
The weight I know he knows that I know has been creeping on.
I’ve been through two whole sizes in as many months and not once has Jack said a word. If anything, he seems more turned on by it.
“Well, what happened to her?” I ask, gnawing my lip in concentration as I set the angel just right at the top of the tree.
Jack’s face is pressed against my thighs, right by my ass and all I can hear is a muffled sound as he pretends to speak.
“Very funny, what happened?” I almost shout, feeling my temper get the better of me too for about the fifth time today.
Who the hell has Christmas in July anyway? I was all for it last year… at Christmas, but this is just-
I hear myself calling out for Jack, suddenly panicked. There are spots in front of my eyes as the whole room starts to spin away from me and before I know it I’ve slipped off the ladder and landed right in Jack’s arms.
His eyes are intense, piercing.
None of us are laughing or angry now.
“What’s wrong with me, Jack?” I ask him, feeling my lower lip tremble.
He carries me over to the couch and lays me out on it, holding up a firm finger when I try to get up.
“We’re about to find out,” he says in his business voice, getting put through to a doctor who I know will be here quicker than a roast beef sandwich, knowing Jack.
While we’re waiting, he sits on the edge of the couch, patting my hand.
“I gave her an ultimatum by email the day we left for home,” he says, coming back to my original Angela, Barbie boss witch from hell problem I had before Jack came along.
I cock my brow with interest, but feel suddenly nauseous too.
“I said she could stay on, under you as her boss or she could take a year’s pay severance.”
I don’t need to ask what happened after that. Neither of us ever saw her again.
“And to answer your other question,” Jack continues. “I like the idea of Christmas in July because it’s a perfect reminder for me of just how we met, and how much you mean to me,” he adds, kissing my ring finger and squeezing it until I’m sure I’ll cry.
“Oh, Jack. I’m sorry. I wanted everything to be just perfect for today, for your Christmas in July. Now I just feel awful. Like something’s wrong with me.”
He presses his hand across my forehead, smoothing my hair back.
“Our Christmas, Avery. For us. With you it feels like every day’s Christmas, you know that right,” he says, blushing as he looks down.
“I feel much better now, Jack,” I lie after a few more minutes, trying to get up, and even though he warns me against it, I feel myself tumbling backward all over again, almost fainting.
Jack makes a low growl, “Where’s that damned-”
Before he can finish, there’s a heavy knock at the door, which is half-open.
In moments I’ve got the scrutinizing eye and the steadiest hands of the city’s finest doctor looking me over.
Dr. Peters is unofficially retired, and the only man Jack will even let take my temperature, let alone examine me.
As long as he’s right there with me, of course.
He listens patiently as I describe how I felt when I fell as he takes my pulse and feels my neck, looks in my eyes with a light, and listens to my heart for a bit.
Looking up the doctor’s eyes narrow and his face darkens a little.
“What is it?” Jack asks, sounding more worried than I’ve ever seen him.
“Christmas in July, Jack. Really?” The doctor asks, shaking his head.
“What’s wrong with me, doc?” I plead with him, absently running my hand across my belly as I feel a sort of cramp. A kind of dull pain I’ve had for ages, but always put to the back of my mind.
“I’ll run a battery of tests, of course. But I have to ask you, Avery.”
Jack leans forward, the doctor holding his hand up. “Now, don’t go punching me in the nose Jack, I gotta ask.”
Jack makes a face but stabs a nod.
“When did you last menstruate Avery? Have you been regular the past few months?”
I can tell Jack’s annoyed, almost furious at the question, and if it was anyone else he’d probably be throwing the doctor out the window.
But I think for a moment, then have to admit.
“I… I really don’t know. Months, I guess. We’ve just been so busy…”
The old doctor smiles to himself and pats my hand. He stands up and moves over to Jack’s desk, using his phone as if it were his own, calling for a private ambulance from the hospital.
“Precautionary, but I know you wouldn’t have it any other way, Jack.”
“What is it, tell me straight doc?” Jack says hastily, the doctor giving me a sly wink.
“I think that’s something you and Avery might want to work out. Do the math from when you two last made whoopee ‘til when you stopped getting your monthly cycle like usual,” he adds with a chuckle.
“I’ll be waiting outside, give you a few minutes,” he sighs and shuffles off, scratching his head before closing the heavy oak door behind himself.
Jack looks confused until he realizes too. He sees me smiling with relief and he kisses me hard on the forehead.
“You mean?” he asks, his head shaking in disbelief.
“I think we might be having a baby, Jack. You’re gonna be a daddy!”
“We’re gonna be a mommy and a daddy,” he corrects me, gently kissing away the single tear from my cheek.
Extended Epilogue
Christmas Eve~Two years later
Jack
Once we knew baby one was on the way, I made sure I put a different ring on that pretty finger of Avery’s.
I am old school, traditional.
No child of mine is gonna be without proper parents, legal parents.
I know Avery felt the same. The one thing we never need to discuss because our kids are part of our world.
Part of the magic that glues us together.
Jane’s cutting her teeth still, and to add to the fun, Ridley’s just started.
Avery joked that Ridley was just copying his older sister, but once she felt his nibblers when she feeds him, it was official.
Two hungry, healthy, growing babies.
And we couldn’t be happier. Even if it is hard to get them relief sometimes, but there’s no shortage of things to gnaw on and mommy or daddy always know now whether it’s wind, tooth pain, or just pain in the ass with these two.
“He’s just like you,” Avery and I always say in unison before we both start to laugh, closely followed by “Just like his mommy and daddy.” Same for little Jane.
They’re a handful alright, and tonight more than ever as mommy and I try to get them settled. Christmas Eve is also our unofficially official anniversary.
It’s the night I claimed her as my soul mate. The night we both know that little Jane was made, but it’s also the night we never stopped feeling the way we do about each other.
Not for a single minute, so it’s special for both of us to relive it every year.
Out of the city for the first time with the whole tribe, we figure it’s
time to start showing the babies our Aspen house too. A getaway I only ever used a couple of times single, it makes for the perfect family getaway. Especially when there’s a near blizzard blowing and nothing else to do but snuggle and have all the warmth of Christmas, log fires, and tree lights all rolled into one magical week long adventure.
The view down to the valley is usually clear, but today the snow’s piled up to the sills and the sky so thick with it, it looks like a snow dome.
“It sure is beautiful out there,” Avery observes, rocking baby Ridley in her arms. I’m on the couch with a nodding Jane on my lap.
“It sure is,” tell her, remembering her that first day. Remembering how every moment since has stayed the same.
Just that feeling. This glow inside that makes me anxious to sleep sometimes, in case I wake up one day and find it all a dream.
But it’s not a dream, this is real. And as Avery turns to see me checking out her ass instead of the view she raises a brow.
“Kids are almost down for the count,” she whispers, and I’m already nodding in agreement.
Our unspoken, secret code that we speak with our eyes.
We love our kids, adore them beyond anything else.
But we also love each other just as much. And mommy and daddy time, our special time alone is still just as important as the time we give our beautiful babies.
But today, there’s something else in Avery’s eyes, like she wants to share something before we have our afternoon nap.
A look I’ve only seen a couple of times, and one I’ll never tire of.
“It’s not too early for presents?” she asks softly, checking baby Riley’s sleeping and kissing his head as she put him in the bassinet by the couch followed by Jane into hers before she sits on my lap.
“Now, who’s the one with all the secrets and surprises?” I ask, pecking her lips, feeling her warmth on me.
Hoping like I shouldn’t that I’ll get my extra Christmas wish like I have every year so far.
My wife never disappoints.
Like she just knew it would be this way, she produces her little wrapped gift from under the couch on her side, and I in turn take out mine.
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