Chapter 22
Katana
Christmas Eve arrived, and Nix came home with a real Christmas tree. I met him at the door as he told me he had a surprise. “Wow, a real one, huh?” I asked as he pulled it through the door, pine needles leaving a trail in its wake.
“Always a real one, baby.” He leaned it against the wall and came to me, pulling me into his arms and giving me his usual hello kiss. “This is a tradition in my family. We don’t put up a tree until Christmas Eve, and we take it down the day after New Year’s.”
“Why wait so late before you put it up, Nix?” I asked as I ran my hand over the tree, finding it somewhat sticky and prickly.
Nix went to the closet under the stairs and pulled out a box that had Christmas written on it. He came to the tree and sat it on the floor. “Well, my family is big, I told you about that. And with a lot of kids, Mom and Dad found out a lot of begging and pleading to open just one present got to be annoying.”
“I can imagine,” I said as I helped him take the things out of the box and laid them on the coffee table to sort them out.
“So they came up with the idea of only putting the tree up on Christmas Eve, and we each got to open one present that night. The next morning we’d open the rest, giving Santa a chance to bring us more presents and fill our stockings with candy and little toys.” His eyes lit up as he pulled out the tree topper, an old star with hardly any silver glitter remaining. “This came from my gram-gram’s Christmas ornament collection. I got this out of a box full of them after she passed away.”
With a nod, I understood why he had the ugly old thing. “I see. What a sweet sentiment.” I began to notice that all the ornaments looked old and worn out. “Did you inherit all of these?”
“I did.” He stopped pulling things out of the box to pull something out of his jacket pocket. “But I’ll be adding something new this year. It’s the first ornament I’ve actually purchased.”
A small brown bag was in his hand, and he handed it to me. “What is it?” I asked. The bag was flat, almost as if nothing was inside of it.
“Open it.” His smile went wide as he watched me.
I opened the flap that closed the bag and found clear plastic inside. Pulling it out, I found a brass baby bootie inside and pulled it out too. He’d had it engraved with the words, “Daddy and Mommy’s first Christmas with their little orb.’
Tears clouded my vision as I thought that it had to be the sweetest thing he’d ever done in his entire life. I threw myself into his arms for a hug and tried to hold back the tears, but just couldn’t. “Nix, you’re the sweetest man on the planet.”
“Aw, it’s just a little something to help us remember our first Christmas together.” He looked down at the ornament I held and took it from me, placing it on the table with the rest of the things. “So, first we have to put this thing in a tree stand, and that’s no easy task.”
I’d never had a real tree before. My foster parents had had this little plastic tree they’d put up each year. It went up right after Thanksgiving and didn’t come down until sometime after the New Year. And we never got to decorate it. Mrs. Davis did that alone.
All I’d ever gotten was one present each year. I was thankful for that. And it was always something useful, never a toy. I didn’t ever have any toys that I could recall. But I’d make damn sure my kid had a ton of them.
“I nearly forgot,” Nix said. As he snapped his head up, he wore a grin. “Can you go out to my car? It’s parked in the front. Somebody left something for you inside. It’s sitting on the passenger seat.”
“For me?” I asked, surprised. I made my way to his car and opened the passenger door to find a small box and a red envelope. “Hmm, who’s this from, I wonder.”
I thought it had to be a small early present from Nix but when I opened the card I found it was from Shanna. The envelope housed a Christmas card with a lighted tree on front that wished me a Merry X-mas.
When I opened it, I found she’d written me a note inside. The first line hooked me.
To the woman who’s stolen my best friend’s heart.
I had to read it all now. How could I not?
Nixon Slaughter has been like a big brother to me since I can remember. So I might come off kind of overprotective of the man now and then.
That said, I can see that he looks at you with love-glazed eyes. And that makes me happy.
I’m sorry for my prejudice about what you two enjoy sexually speaking. (I know—not your typical Christmas card material!) Anyway, please forgive me for jumping to conclusions about you. I don’t know you well yet, but you’re my best friend’s girl so that means we will become great friends too.
I hope you can give this old friend of the man you love a chance to prove I’m not always a bitch. Maybe that could be your Christmas gift to me, forgiveness for being an overbearing, prejudice, buttinsky.
Now open the present I gave Nixon to give to you and we will consider this hatchet buried.
My heart felt full of emotion as I put the card away, making sure to put it up nice and neat as I’d keep it forever. I felt it was such a sweet sentiment and would treasure the card.
When I opened the small black box, I found a bracelet inside. It had a sterling silver charm bracelet and there were a few charms on it already. One of the charms stood out amongst them all. One in the shape of a heart that said friends for life on one side and on the other she’d had our names engraved.
I took my present and card inside and found one tear had fallen. Nix looked as me as I came inside and his smile beamed at me. “Do I see a tear?”
I wiped my eye with the back of my hand. “I’m afraid so. I think I’ve made a new friend.”
He nodded and went back to pulling decorations out of the boxes. “Good. That girl’s like a sister to me. She’s a little on the tomboy side and doesn’t like to hang with girls much. She’s kind of rough and tumble. That’s how come she and I ended up becoming such good friends. I never want you to be jealous of her. There’s no reason to. I hope you can look at her like you’ll look at any of my family, because she’s as close to me as they are.”
I came up behind him, hugging him. “I think she made a great gesture and I will accept her for who she is. I’m just so happy we can all get along. I don’t want to spoil one thing in our life. I only want to enhance it.”
He turned around, wrapping his arms around me. A sweet kiss told me he was happy with things and that always seemed to make me happy.
I knew the odds were stacked against us. I knew most people thought we’d never make it. But with that against us, I still wanted to see if we could beat those odds.
I wondered if Nix thought that way too.
Mona was in the kitchen, making us something for a special Christmas Eve dinner. I’d told her in secret that I wanted her to take the entire day of Christmas off. I’d been gathering recipes from the Internet and watching cooking videos all week long. I’d even made a trip to the store to buy all the ingredients I’d need to make Nix a proper Christmas dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and homemade rolls.
Nix and I managed to get the tree into its stand and were taking our time placing the ornaments on the tree. Nix told me where each and every one of them came from. His family was huge, and I had to admit that I was intimidated about meeting them all.
“How am I going to remember all of their names, babe?” I asked as I placed a pale blue satin ball on the tree. It had a large yellow stain on it and he told me that was from when it had fallen in a glass of his Aunt Rose’s iced tea as she took the ornaments down on her very last Christmas.
“You shouldn’t worry about that.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Half the time my mother can’t even remember her own kids’ names. She’ll go through the gambit of family names then end up shouting, ‘You know who you are and why I’m calling you, dammit!’”
I laughed as he tickled my ribs. “Nix!” I wiggled to get away from him. “You’re gonna make me pee!”
He stopped and pulled me in for a kiss. As our tongues twirled, I thought I’d never had such a memorable Christmas. He’d brought things to my life I’d had no idea I’d been missing.
Mona popped out of the kitchen. “The formal dining room awaits your arrival, you two. And I’ll be on my way. You can just toss the dishes in the dishwasher when you’re done. I’ll tend to them when I come back.”
Nix took my hand as I called out, “Thank you, Mona. You have a Merry Christmas.”
“You too. Bye now,” Mona called back just before she slipped out the garage door.
A small squeeze to my hand had me looking at Nix to find his green eyes sparkling at me. “Have I told you that you look beautiful tonight?”
A blush stained my cheeks. He made me feel so out of sorts when he looked at me that way and said things like that to me. “No, you haven’t said a thing about that.” I ducked my head shyly.
He lifted it with one finger and kissed me softly. “You’re very beautiful all the time, but tonight even more so, somehow.”
“You’re very handsome tonight too.” I ran my hand over his light green sweater. “This brings out the color of your eyes.”
I’d put on a red dress in honor of the occasion. He ran his fingers over my shoulder. “Red always looks good on you.”
We made our way to the formal dining room, and there we found candles lighting up a gorgeous table that looked like something out of a magazine.
Two gold domes covered our plates, and sparkling water glistened in wine glasses next to them. “Mona is amazing,” I whispered.
How can I ever top this when I make the meal for Christmas?
But all that worry went out of my head as Nix helped me into a chair and took the one at the head of the table. We sat there, looking at everything, and then he took my hand. “You know, back home my daddy says a prayer before we eat on special occasions. I suppose as we’ll be parents from now on, we should start doing that too.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know any prayers. You go for it.”
He bowed his head and so did I as he said, “Our father in Heaven, please bless this food that we’re so thankful for. And please bless our little baby that we’re also thankful for.” He stopped and cleared his throat. “And bless this woman at my side as she’s made this all possible. Without her, I’d be lost. Amen.”
When I looked up at him, I saw unshed tears shimmering in his eyes. I ran my hand over his beard. “You’d be lost?”
He nodded and leaned over to kiss me. “You’re my hero.”
I gulped and tried not to start bawling. “You’re mine.”
He kissed me again, and I felt like I was floating on air. Would this be the right time to admit my love for him?
But when his lips left mine, he pulled the dome off his plate and smiled. “Wow, she really outdid herself. Roasted game hens, mashed potatoes and brown gravy, peas with pearl onions. Yum.”
I pulled the dome off mine and enjoyed the aromas that drifted up to me. “It smells wonderful, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” He dug right in, and I followed suit.
The moment had passed, and now it would be awkward to say the words to him. How did one say something like that—especially for the first time—when the recipient of the sentiment was feasting on delicious food and savoring every bite?
Maybe I’d tell him on Christmas. Maybe that would be the perfect time to let him know that I loved him.