Christmas Surprises

by Jenn Faulk

Before Maddie could even respond (though the response was already there in her emotionless, empty gaze), they heard barking again.

  And Taylor ran down through the hall and straight through the dining room, a tiny ball of white fuzz chasing him, yelling, "She'll kill us all!"

  Natalie

  Brian balanced a treat on the tiny dog's nose and whispered, "Hold."

  Mia and Zoe giggled with delight, then held their breaths as he backed away slowly, the small dog whining softly.

  "Sugar," he said with warning in his tone, a grin on his face. "Hold."

  Andrew and Lydia also watched with rapt attention, as did the adults, waiting to see what other tricks Brian had for the little dog who hadn't even begun to kill anyone. Not yet, at least.

  The dinner had been over approximately ten seconds after her poor son-in-law had come screaming through the dining room with the little terror chasing him.

  "Demon dog," Rachel had muttered under her breath as she'd jumped to her feet, right as Micah had turned to the twins and said, "Well, merry Christmas, girls. Meet Sugar."

  Mia and Zoe had been thrilled.

  So had Natalie, because the dog took them from the table where Micah had been cross-examining Brian rather unfairly all evening. Oh, she couldn't blame him for being protective of her, for being wary of a stranger coming in like this, and for treating her with a coldness unlike him because she'd kept it all a secret for so long.

  But she could blame him for being a horrible host. Inviting his cousin to live with them in one breath and insulting the man she loved in the next.

  The man she loved. She knew that better and better as she watched him help her granddaughters with their new dog, who they agreed was definitely a Sugar... even if she tried to nibble on their fingers.

  "Be careful, Brian," Rachel whispered as she, too, watched him hold a finger over the dog's quivering nose and the treat he'd positioned there. "She got a chunk of my lip earlier."

  "This sweet thing?," he murmured. "Noooo..." And satisfied that the dog knew yet another trick now, Brian told her, "Release."

  Sugar ate the treat in one bite, her little tail wagging and all the humans applauding.

  "How'd you teach her to do that so fast?!," Zoe exclaimed.

  "Yeah, I think we'll send Ben to you and let you potty train him, given your Jedi skills with miniature creatures," Jacob said.

  "Well, if Ben is half as smart as this little dog," he said, "it'll be a breeze. She's a fast learner."

  Most definitely. Sugar was as quick to learn commands as the girls had been to warm up to Brian, all of them gleeful as he gave them his attention and displayed a talent for them that Natalie hadn't even known he had.

  She'd known he was a dog person, of course. They'd talked about all the dogs his girls had owned over the years, all the cute little fuzzy dogs, just like Sugar, who had worn bows in their hair and even toenail polish on their little claws, just like their three mommies, Katharine, Ruth, and Elizabeth, Brian's daughters.

  Who had been the one to paint all of those tiny toes? Natalie hadn't had to wonder as Brian had told her all about his skills with toenail polish. The stories he had told about his past, about his life before grief, had been ones that she'd seen as vividly as though they'd been on a movie screen set to play in front of her. Brian, younger but not nearly as handsome, sitting on the bathroom floor with his daughters and their tiny dogs, singing songs and painting toenails.

  She smiled even now, remembering this.

  Just as her mind was going over the dogs of the past, all gone on to a greener pasture in glory, she thought about Boomer, Brian's labrador retriever. She was an old, familiar friend to the old boy now after all the time she spent at Brian's house, and she'd understood the appeal of a bigger, manlier dog for a bachelor who lived alone and liked the companionship.

  She should've gotten a dog herself back when she was first widowed. But she wouldn't need to get a dog now, given that Boomer, who would soon be hers as well, was enough dog for two people... and given that Brian all by himself was companion enough for her.

  "I wonder what Boomer is doing for dinner," she murmured, thinking of all the nights he sat at her feet waiting for scraps from her plate.

  Brian grinned up at her. "I left him half a meatloaf, which he ate before I was even out the door to come and pick you up. He'll be going in and out through the doggy door all night now, which means he'll also probably have half the pool water drunk before dawn."

  The girls stared at him.

  "What?," he asked. "You two are looking at me like I've just grown a third head."

  "It's the talk of a pool," Rachel said, grinning. "And Boomer. Whatever that is."

  "Boomer," he told the girls, "is my dog. He's huge. And drooly. And the pool will be back in business this spring, so your grandmother and I will definitely have to host some pool parties, won't we?"

  Natalie refrained from making some excuse as to why she would be hosting them with him as though she would be living there with him, which she would be, which no one here knew anything about, of course, and --

  Oh, no one was even thinking anything either way.

  Except Micah, who was staring at her. He tore his eyes from hers and looked to Brian. "I taught the girls to swim last summer. They very nearly drowned me in the process."

  Natalie thought back to the vacation they'd all taken that summer, before Brian had been in the picture, when Rachel and Micah had invited her on nearly every vacation, not wanting her to sit around by herself at home. She'd go down with them to the pool every evening and watch as Micah, with both girls hanging from his neck in their princess-themed bathing suits and their little tulle skirts floating around them in the water, had managed to say, "Well, you're in the water, at least. Can you let go for just a --"

  "No!," both girls had shrieked, strangling him even more.

  Most men would have lost their temper after an hour of that, but Micah had remained calm and gentle, the perfect father to little girls.

  Not so unlike Brian, actually. Natalie wished for a moment that her fiancé could have seen her son back then, behaving better than he was now.

  Brian grinned over at Micah, likely imagining the scene anyway, even though he hadn't been there. "That sounds familiar," he said. "Had to teach my own daughters at the community pool, and I was always sure the authorities were going to be called out as it was always an issue of crying and carrying on like I was abusing them, simply because I expected them to be brave enough to dunk their heads into the water. Great swimmers now, though, all three of them. And they were plenty mad that I only found a house with a pool after they grew up and left."

  "We're going to put in a pool this summer," Rachel smiled.

  Likely because Rachel was going back to work and they'd be able to afford nicer things like that, as if the house as it already was wasn't nice enough. Natalie had wondered why Rachel was going back to work at all from a financial standpoint, at least, even as she'd understood the need for her to have a life apart from her children.

  But watching her daughter-in-law with them... she couldn't see anything but contentment and fulfillment. And Micah was supporting them well. And Rachel, bless her heart, didn't yet know how hard it was to go back to work and inevitably miss school parties, special programs, lunches at the school cafeteria...

  They would figure it out.

  "I'm going to train for a triathlon," Micah announced. "Soon as that pool is in, I'm going to start training."

  "When did you decide that?," Rachel asked, regarding him incredulously.

  Probably earlier, when Brian mentioned that he did them. Competitive. Something Chris had been back when they'd first met in class, all those years ago. A trait Micah had picked up as well, never satisfied unless he was the first to finish a race, make the top grade, and be the best at something.

  Natalie watched her son with warning in her eyes.

  Micah ignored it, looking instead at Brian. "What do you think, Brian? A guy
my age. Probably can finish a triathlon faster than you, huh?"

  Natalie watched Maddie exchange a look with Rachel... and saw them both try not to laugh out loud.

  "Not likely," Jacob laughed, grinning over at Gracie, beating them both to it. "How long has it been since you've run a mile, Micah?"

  "We were married the last time he ran a 10K," Rachel said. "But I'm pretty sure the girls weren't in the picture yet."

  "It hasn't been that long," Micah muttered.

  "Yeah, it has," Jacob argued. "Look at your paunch, brother. Almost as big as mine. They'd call us full-figured, whoever they are."

  Chris had been a little round around the middle at the same age. Micah and Jacob were following the genetics of fathers who weren't even related, bless their hearts. It would take work to look any different, and neither one of them had any time to devote to that with all the small children needing their attention and care.

  "Nah," Micah said. "With my shirt off, I look just like Grant. It's just the shirt I'm wearing that's making it look like --"

  "I resent having my fine physique compared to your marshmallow shaped self, Micah," Grant said, texting on his phone, likely to someone at his restaurant. Natalie watched Maddie regard him as though he wasn't even there... which he wasn't. Not really.

  Kids today and their electronics. Natalie worked with handheld devices all day, engineering and perfecting them to run faster and do more, and she knew just what little value they had when it came to what really mattered. She and Brian put all their devices away the second they were together and were never tempted to look at them again...

  "You are thin, though," Maddie murmured to her husband as he finally sat down next to her after having spent the past ten minutes pacing the room.

  "If you work around food all the time like I do," he said, "you don't have any desire to eat it." He looked over at his wife.

  Finally, Natalie thought.

  "What?," Maddie asked softly, reaching out for his face with an uncertain smile.

  But before she could touch him, his words stopped her. "Speaking of being thin, you should probably have a snack."

  And even as Maddie opened her mouth to respond, likely to remind him that they'd all just eaten, he was up and on his feet, leaving the room.

  "But I do run," Micah said, still arguing about his fitness level even though no one was listening to him anymore. "Just need to get back to it."

  "You sound like Sadie," Jacob sighed, looking over to Brian. "My sister Sadie, is training for her third Ironman."

  "Wow," Brian said, grinning appreciatively. "That's impressive."

  "Annoying and impressive," Jacob said. "She's a real bully about working out. Likes to make jokes about how out of shape I am."

  "Well, you are out of shape," Gracie noted.

  "But still," Jacob added.

  "You know," Brian said, "I've thought about doing one of those. Not the full thing, of course. I'm not crazy like your sister or anything."

  "Amen on the crazy," Jacob nodded.

  "But the half distance," he said. "Natalie and I have been talking about destination trips, loading up my bike and all my gear next fall and just making a vacation out of it."

  They had. She'd even sectioned off some time from work for a few of the possibilities, thoughts of seeing different parts of the country with Brian pleasantly on her mind as she'd done so, marveling that this would be how she'd spend retirement, not sad and alone like she'd figured just a year ago.

  "Vacations together?," Micah asked. "Huh."

  Just that. Huh. Disapproval and irritation, so easy to discern in that voice of his.

  Where had he gotten his attitude from anyway? She was so much more easygoing than that, and Chris had never been as snooty as Micah was being.

  "I think it sounds wonderful," Rachel said. "Micah, if you remember correctly, you and I once planned an entire trip to Europe together, not long after we first met."

  "Yeah, but we were just friends then," Micah said. Then, a pointed look at Brian. "Are you and my mother just friends?"

  "I think your mother can answer that herself, Micah Emmanuel," Natalie said tightly.

  "Oh, the middle name," Jacob murmured.

  Micah looked at her with interest. "Then, let me ask you. Are the two of you just friends?"

  My goodness. It would have to be like this, then, wouldn't it? Her answering him as rudely as he was questioning her.

  So be it.

  "Not that it's any of your business, but we're more than friends," she said.

  "Then, is it appropriate for the two of you to be traveling all around together like that?," he asked.

  Wow. Her own father hadn't been this protective when she'd been a college freshman at seventeen, in a world much too mature for her.

  She was, all at the same time, impressed and irritated by his boldness. She was about to tell him that it would be just fine for her to do whatever she wanted to with Brian because she'd be his wife by then --

  "You know what?," Rachel asked, her voice desperately trying to sound calm and peaceful. "Speaking of seeing places and exciting vacations, I think it's time to open up some Christmas gifts, huh?"

  And this was enough to move Micah's attention from his mother and her suitor.

  For a while, at least.

  Madison

  There were some gifts exchanged to get things started, as the evening began to get darker and as Maddie finished off the snack that Grant had insisted she eat.

  She was so full. How much food could one pregnant woman whose husband wouldn't leave her alone eat anyway?

  Andrew opened a gift from Zoe. Mia opened one from Lydia. The kids tore through paper, gasped with delight, and filled the house with the sounds of toys being played with, buttons pushed, and electronic beeps and buzzes. The dog would bark in her sleep occasionally from where she laid in Brian's lap, completely content.

  Then, the adults exchanged some gifts. From Joy to Rachel, a set of romance novels from one of her favorite writers. "But Maddie is my most favorite," Joy had said so devotedly. To Joy from Maddie, a proof copy of the newest book, not even available yet, which Joy immediately began reading after nearly knocking Maddie over with her exuberant embrace.

  From Taylor to Micah, a tie covered in giant sets of teeth. "Because you're a dentist," Taylor clarified. From the twins to Taylor, a T shirt covered in smiley faces, "Because you're the smiliest guy we know, Uncle Taylor."

  On and on they went as the kids continued playing until there were just a few more left to give, one of which Rachel put into Maddie's lap with a smile.

  "For you and Grant," she said. "From Micah and me."

  They were always so thoughtful. Maddie figured it would be something for the baby or something for the house they hoped to have soon. So, with Grant by her side watching, she smiled as she began to unwrap the package, opening the box and picking up the papers inside.

  It didn't make sense at first as she read a few words then glanced up at Rachel, at Micah, too, as they smiled.

  An itinerary. A list of attractions. A map.

  Oh. Oh, wow.

  "Grant," she said, "they're tickets for a cruise. They've given us a vacation."

  It was too generous. Maddie knew this. But she was still thankful as she looked up to see Rachel watching her hopefully, understanding in her eyes.

  She understood Grant. She understood what was happening with them. In part, at least.

  "You can't..." She shook her head. "You can't give someone a vacation for a gift... can you?"

  "Micah tried to do the same for me once," Rachel said. "But we had to postpone it indefinitely, since the girls were born a week before we were set to arrive in Rio. You won't have that problem, though. You can take the cruise in January. Or February. Whenever you decide. But long before the baby comes. A babymoon, Maddie."

  Before Maddie could murmur her thanks, her heart hopeful at the thought of getting away with Grant on this vacation...

  W
ell, Grant shook his head, took the information out of her hand, and put it back in the box.

  "We can't take this, guys," he said.

  "Why not?," Rachel asked.

  "Because," he said, his eyes not meeting anyone's, "this is too much. We appreciate it, but we can't take it."

  "Grant," Rachel began, "do you remember when you paid off my house, back when I was single, and refused to let me give you your money back when I found out what --"

  "Paying back the money you put into the restaurant," he interrupted his sister. "Totally different."