by Noelle Adams
“I have to admit that I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it but I packed some ornaments in my luggage and then when I went in to town with everyone to get the big tree for the family room, I saw this little guy and knew that we had to have him. I know you’re a sucker for a Charlie Brown tree.”
Tears glistened in her green eyes. “This is just amazing; I am simply blown away that you put so much thought in to this.” Closing the distance between them, Lily leaned in and kissed him softly and then stepped back and eyed the presents under the tree. “So…,” she began, looking from the gifts to Cam and then back again. “Who are all the presents for?” Now she was back to being the Lily that he had always known; the woman who would forever be a kid on Christmas. She was practically bouncing on her toes with excitement.
“Oh, there might be something for you under the tree. But I have to ask; and it’s on Santa’s behalf.”
Her eyes went even wider as her smile spread. “On Santa’s behalf? That sounds pretty serious.”
Cam nodded. “Oh, it is.” Now it was his turn to step closer. “Have you been naughty…or have you been nice?” His tone was very seductive and Lily wanted to strip them both down and forget about the presents but the lure of the twinkly lights and the tree was just too much. “Well? Which is it, Lil?”
“I think I have been…nicely naughty.” Her grin turned wicked as she got up on her toes and kissed him again. She smiled against his lips. “Was that the right answer?”
She shrieked when Cam lifted her up and playfully tossed her onto the bed. “I’d say that just about sums it up,” he teased as he lay down beside her. Reaching out he played with her hair and then stroked her cheek. “Merry Christmas, Lily,” he said softly.
“Merry Christmas, Cameron.” They lay there studying one another for a long time. Lily rested her head in the palm of Cam’s hand. “I have to admit, I have your presents hidden under the bed.”
He smiled lovingly at her. There was no way that he was ever going to grow tired of looking at her. Thinking back Cam realized that he knew Lily’s face better than his own; for years he had watched her; watched over her and now that he was here like this with her, it just felt…right. His mind flashed back to the look on her face earlier in the evening when his father had mentioned grandchildren and Cam had to wonder if Lily truly felt what he was or was she doing as she always did and just living in the moment.
At this moment in time, he didn’t care. For now she was his and he was going to enjoy and savor whatever it was that she wanted to give to him. “Well I have an idea,” he finally said. “How about I draw us a bath in that massive tub while you put your presents under the tree.”
“Ooo, a bubble bath?” Lily said as she waggled her eyebrows.
Cam ducked his head and shook it with a laugh. “I may get my man-card revoked but yes, a bubble bath. Then we can slip into the matching green silk that I still can’t believe we received, and then we can open presents. What do you say?”
Scooting up onto her knees Lily leaned forward and kissed Cam soundly. “I like the way you think!” She bounced off of the bed and went about gathering her bounty from under the bed while Cam started the water in the tub and moved some of the candles into the bathroom for softer lighting.
Lily came up behind him a few minutes later. “You’ve been holding out on me, Cameron.”
Looking behind him, he arched a brow at her. “How’s that?”
“All this time you’ve come off as being kind of stuffy and straight-laced and yet underneath it all you are quite the romantic.”
He kissed her nose and turned so that he could take her in his arms. “Well, I had to keep some mystery in our relationship,” he said lightly. “I can’t have you knowing all of my secrets.”
Lily’s expression turned serious. “But I want to know them. These last weeks have shown me that for as well as we know each other, there is still so much that we have to learn. And to be honest? I’m really enjoying it.”
“Me too, Lil,” he said solemnly. “Me too.”
***
Soaking in the large jetted tub that was almost overflowing with bubbles, Cam found Lily’s laughter contagious. “Maybe we added too much bubble bath.”
“You think?” he asked but rather than being annoyed at the mess, he was feeling rather light and playful. They were blowing bubbles off of the top and finally Cam realized that they needed to shut off the jets in order to get the bubble factor to calm down.
“You’re no fun,” Lily said with a pout as she leaned back against his chest and sighed. “Good thing we’re sleeping in tomorrow because I am not in the least bit tired after all of this.”
“The bath was supposed to be relaxing,” he reminded.
“Well, that was before we had to deal with the tower of bubbles.”
He smiled as he rested his head against hers. “Hey, Lil?” he asked softly, tentatively. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Tonight at the table, after my dad made that toast, you got really quiet. What were you thinking about?”
Lily squirmed slightly in his embrace before settling in again. “This is just such a weird position. I mean, what are we doing, Cam? This was supposed to be about dodging some bad blind dates and now we’re…we’re lovers and our parents are asking us about grandchildren.” She sighed. “I’m not used to anyone taking anything that I do so seriously and I can’t believe that they chose this to get on board with.”
“People take you seriously,” he corrected. “It’s just hard keeping up with you sometimes.”
“How do they know that I’m not going to lose interest in you like I do with everything else? How do they know that I’m not just going to walk away and leave you broken hearted?”
Cam worried about the exact same thing. Lily could very easily just be passing the time with him and after New Year’s, be content to just walk away and go back to the way things were. For all he knew she was just making the best of a bad situation. His body tensed at the thought.
“Now you’ve gotten quiet,” she said, twisting around to look at his face. “What are you thinking right now?”
His gaze was serious as he met hers. “Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Going to lose interest in me and just walk away at the end of the month?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” she asked hesitantly, not sure if she was ready for the answer.
Cam wasn’t ready for this; he wasn’t ready for them to talk about the end when the present was so gloriously fine. Without a word he fully twisted her around so that she was straddling his lap. Water flowed over the edge of the tub and Lily gasped at the intimate contact. “I want you,” he said roughly right before his mouth descended to devour hers. Water continued to slosh over the edge of the tub but neither seemed to care.
***
“I’m not going to lie to you; I feel utterly ridiculous. What were they thinking?”
Lily couldn’t help but giggle. The hunter green silk boxers that Cam was walking around in were completely out of character for him and with every step he took she could see and feel his discomfort. “I think you look cute,” she tried to say with a straight face but failed.
“Keep laughing and you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to open your presents.”
“It is tomorrow,” she reminded.
“Well then after brunch. How do you like that?” Hands on his hips he faced where Lily was sitting on the bed in the super short matching green silk slip nightie that she had gotten. The color matched her eyes perfectly and her hair was beautifully mussed up and all in all she made a very erotic picture. If it were up to him, he’d forgo opening presents and spend his time unwrapping Lily from her silky garments.
“Okay, okay…no need to get all cranky,” she was saying, holding up her hands in surrender. “You know I don’t want to wait until after brunch; I’ll go crazy before then.” Scooting off of the bed, Lily walked over to
their tiny tree and took a stack of presents and carried them back over to the bed. She watched as Cam arched a brow at the pile.
“We’re opening all of our gifts tonight? You don’t want to do that with the family tomorrow?”
She shook her head. “I like that it’s just the two of us. Do you mind?” There was no sarcasm, only concern.
In response Cam picked up the rest of the gifts that were left under the tree and carried them over to the bed where he sat beside Lily. Once he was comfortable, or as comfortably as he was going to get in the ridiculous boxers, he handed Lily his first gift.
Her eyes lit up at the generic sized box. “What is it? What is it? What is it?” she said as she tore at the paper. Lifting the lid and moving the tissue paper aside she stared at the contents and smiled. “One Hundred Careers for Creative People Looking to Change the World,” she read aloud and then looked up at him and smiled. “I cannot even believe that someone actually wrote a book about this.”
“It just screamed Lily to me,” he said and was relieved when she laughed with him. “I figured I’d start with something light first.”
Lily’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “First? That sounds promising.” She looked at the pile in front of him which had several more boxes and her mind raced at what could possibly be in the rest. “Okay, my turn.” Looking through her stack, she chose a box and handed it to him.
Cam opened the box and smiled. “Ah, how did I miss getting one of these for myself?” he asked as he held the t-shirt up in front of him.
“See? It’s an ‘I heart New York’ shirt but the heart is in the shape of Mickey Mouse! How cool is that?” She was bouncing on the bed with excitement. “Do you like it?”
“Absolutely. Thank you.” Leaning forward, he kissed her on the cheek and then picked another box from his pile and handed it to her and laughed at how fast she tore through the wrapping. “You know, it took me a really long time to wrap this stuff. Maybe you can slow down and admire my handiwork for more than a tenth of a second.”
“What fun would that be?” she asked and took the top off of the box and gasped. “Oh, Cam,” she said with a dreamy sigh. Inside the box was a snow globe that she had admired when they were in New York. It was a miniature of Times Square. “I love it.” Her eyes shone bright with tears. “Every time I look at it I’m going to remember our time there.” Before she gave in and cried, Lily reached for the next box and handed it to Cam.
He smiled as he opened the latest best seller by his favorite author in hardcover. “Thank you for not mocking my refusal to switch over completely to an eReader. As much as I see their appeal, there is still nothing like holding a book in your hands.”
When Cam handed Lily her tablet rather than another box, her brows furrowed. “What’s up?”
“Turn it on,” he prompted and then sat back while she did that and waited for her response.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” She looked up at him with a big grin. “Is this the super deluxe Solitaire app that I’m seeing?”
He nodded. “That’s right,” he said proudly. “I figured that I can’t get you in to a twelve-step program for your obsession so I might as well feed it.” He saw her getting ready to boot it up and placed a hand over the screen. “Seriously? You’re going to play Solitaire when there are still presents to unwrap?”
Grumbling about too many rules, Lily placed the tablet back on her nightstand and handed Cam his next gift. He smiled when he opened the new iPod. He was forever misplacing his and he thanked her for remembering that the needed another one.
Taking the next present from Cam’s hand, Lily made a big production of shaking it and admiring his skill as a gift wrapper before slowly opening the paper – only tearing where there was tape so that nothing got ripped. After five minutes of theatrics, Cam gave her the go-ahead to tear into it. There was an envelope inside the box and Lily looked at him quizzically. “What in the world…” she began before opening the envelope. She gasped with giddy surprise when she saw that it was five-day’s worth of park passes to Disney World. “Oh, my god, Cam!” she squealed and launched herself into his arms, toppling him over and almost off of the bed. “When are we going? When are we going?”
Trying to right themselves on the bed, Cam sat up with Lily in his arms and laughed at her impatience. “They don’t expire for a year and so you can go any time that you want.”
Lily’s head tilted to the side. “You’re going with me, right?”
He hadn’t wanted to make that assumption because for all he knew, by the time she wanted to go, she could have moved on and be dating somebody else. “We’ll see,” he said lightly and then made to look around her for his next gift.
“Well now I feel kind of silly because I wasn’t nearly as extravagant as you,” she said, reaching for the last box. It was large and flat and she felt a little embarrassed as she handed it to him.
“Hey,” he said softly, tucking a finger under her chin so that she’d have to face him. “What’s the matter?”
“You got me a Disney vacation and well…I didn’t think…I should have…”
Cam moved his finger from her chin to cover her lips to silence her. “It wasn’t a competition, Lily. I love everything that you got for me and whatever is in this giant box? I’m going to love it too.” Silently she sat back and watched as he unwrapped it and then held her breath as he studied it.
“It took me a little while to get it right,” she said quickly, “but once I figured out the software I really had fun with it.”
He was speechless. In his hands was a large framed collage of pictures of the two of them from their trip to New York. Lily had done them all in black and white because she knew that he favored the finish and looking at the dozen or so pictures, Cam barely recognized himself. Gone was the geeky scientist who spent his days in a lab coat talking about the Universe and in his place was a man who stood smiling from ear to ear, looking more relaxed than he ever had in his life.
Looking up at her, Cam saw her uncertainty; her hesitation. His throat was clogged with emotion. “It’s the most perfect gift I’ve ever received,” he said hoarsely. “You outdid yourself, Lily.” He studied the photos again and then ran his hand along the frame before looking up at her. “Did you make the frame too?”
She nodded. “There was a Groupon for a woodworking class. I decided to try it.”
He smiled as his heart swelled with love for her. Of course there was a class. “You do beautiful woodwork.” Standing from the bed, Cam took the framed picture and placed it on their dresser in front of the mirror so that they could see it from the bed. “It’s perfect.”
He turned back to the bed and collected all of the boxes and placed them back around their tree and then picked up all of the discarded wrapping paper and crammed it in the bathroom trash can before turning off all of the lights in the room except for the twinkly ones. Walking over to the tree, he reached behind and pulled out one last gift. It was a small, rectangular box and his heart raced as he sat back down beside Lily. He handed it to her.
Lily wasn’t sure what to expect. Every year they got each other several gifts but this year there was more meaning behind them. Where in years past they had done more gag gifts and more practical gifts, these were more from the heart and her hands shook as she unwrapped the small box.
Nestled inside the velvet box was a simple gold chain with two charms – a gold moon and a diamond star. Carefully lifting it from the box, she wordlessly handed it to Cam before turning and lifting her hair so that he could put it on her. Once it was in place, Lily turned back to face him and then touched the delicate charms. “It’s absolutely beautiful,” she said reverently.
“Remember all of the nights we used to sit out in the yard and look up at the sky?” he asked and she nodded. “You would listen to me talk aimlessly about constellations and the names of the planets but you were always fascinated with finding the brightest star after questioning the size of the moon. Do you remember that?” Aga
in, Lily nodded. “When I saw this necklace, it reminded me of all of those nights and I wanted you to have this so that you would remember those nights, too.”
“I’ve never forgotten,” she whispered. “Thank you.” She continued to touch it and memorize the feel of it when Cam reached forward and cupped her face in his hands. Lily didn’t question the move, she welcomed it.
Someday, she thought, we’ll make love under the brightest star and then…maybe then…he’ll love me.
Nine
Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve.
They were supposed to be planning their breakup.
Neither Cam nor Lily had broached the subject all week. Instead, they had spent their days and nights living like lovers much to the delight of their families. Lily had spent the morning out shopping with her mother and Angela and when they returned to the house, she went out in search of Cam.
“He went out on a hike,” her father said. “He seemed pretty somber when he left. Did the two of you have a fight?”
Lily shook her head. No; if anything they had been getting along better than ever and that was really saying something because they had always gotten along. “How long ago did he leave?”
“About an hour ago. I’m sure he’ll be back soon; it’s pretty cold out there today.”
He didn’t need to tell her that. Unease settled in the pit of her stomach and before she could doubt herself, Lily pulled her gloves out of her pocket and walked out on the back deck to see if she could spot Cam out on the landscape. For ten minutes she walked from one end of the large deck to the other trying her best to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Just when she was about to go back in the house, she spotted a splash of blue amongst the greens. Zipping her coat up higher and taking a fortifying breath, Lily headed down the deck steps and in the direction of where she had spotted Cam.
The cold air burned her lungs as she walked out into the lush greenery in hopes of being able to navigate it all and find him. She wasn’t feeling overly optimistic and was losing her bearings when she heard Cam say her name. Turning, she smiled with relief. “Hey, you. Dad said you went out hiking. I thought I’d try and find you.”