Chapter Thirteen

Jordan spent the following days in a dizzying Christmas-tinged haze.

On Saturday, they baked more cookies and built an extremely lopsided gingerbread house that Lucy wanted to dismantle and eat almost right away. On Sunday, Lucy insisted on sitting down and making paper ornaments with him, that way he’d have his own special spot on the tree. On Wednesday, they ventured out into the freezing cold to sing songs and embarrass themselves in front of strangers. On Friday, Noah hung up a third stocking on the mantle with Jordan’s name on it. On Tuesday, it snowed, and he spent pretty much the entire day sitting on the back porch bundled up in as many layers as he could find, sipping hot cocoa and watching Noah and Lucy play.

For the most part, it was all still very foreign to him. He couldn’t help but feel like an interloper, worming his way into all of Noah and Lucy’s happy family traditions, but at the end of the day, spending time with him seemed to be making Lucy happy and decreasing her chances of nightmares, just as he’d hoped. He didn’t want to be a scrooge and take that away from her. Besides, awkward or not, all the holiday festivities made for a good distraction. It meant that the three of them didn’t have to think so much about the horrible day they’d all endured last month.

And eventually, amid the fluff and the carols and the cookies and the dozens of shiny candy canes, Jordan even found aspects of the holiday that he actually genuinely enjoyed; like watching Christmas movies in the living room with Noah’s thigh inches from his own and Lucy sprawled out on the floor at their feet, or playing board games in front of the crackling fireplace late into the night when Lucy was refusing to go to bed and Noah didn’t have the heart to force her. The best part about the latter was when she inevitably did start to crash, falling asleep on top of the board or in one of their laps, and Noah and Jordan had to figure out how to keep their game going without disturbing her or waking her up.

He didn’t even hate the music as much as he used to. Hearing it outside of a retail environment in a safe, warm, inviting space had worked wonders. Now he no longer associated Rudolph with ungrateful Black Friday shoppers, which made it easier to let it just slip into the back of his mind and serve as background noise to whatever conversation they happened to be having.

Today was the day before Christmas Eve, and they were supposed to be having a relaxing day at home full of hot apple cider and fuzzy socks and homemade snack mix, but around 1:00 in the afternoon, Jordan had an epiphany. The race car. Lucy had asked Santa for an orange race car with a dragon painted on it. Did Noah know that this is what she wanted, or had this been some kind of secret between her and Santa? Jordan felt compelled to find out, just to be safe.

“Hey,” he said, walking into the kitchen where Noah was standing over the stove, babying his cider. He glanced back a couple of times to make sure that Lucy was still planted in front of the TV before continuing. “Did you by any chance get Lucy a race car for Christmas?”

Noah turned to him with furrowed brows.

“No... why do you ask?”

Jordan explained Lucy’s very specific request and Noah’s face went suspiciously blank.

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” he asked.

Jordan ducked his head, feeling guilty. 

“Sorry, I just now remembered. I was kinda under a lot of stress that day.”

Noah sighed and moved his cider pot off the burner. Then he pushed past Jordan on his way into the living room.

“Where are you going?” Jordan asked.

“To find a babysitter,” he answered. “Apparently you and I have some last minute shopping to do.”

And thus, nearly an hour later Noah and Jordan found themselves braving the sea of procrastinators just to make sure that Lucy got everything she wanted for Christmas.

Under normal circumstances, they probably would have just hit up one of the toy stores over at Northgate, but the mall was still closed down because of the shooting and wasn’t likely to reopen anytime soon. Jordan, though he was upset over needing to find a bunch of new jobs, was kind of relieved. He didn’t particularly want to step foot in that building ever again. He wouldn’t have been surprised if they decided to bulldoze the whole thing to the ground.

Unfortunately though, the mall’s absence created a ripple effect through all the rest of the city’s shops. Every big box store they went to was absolutely jam packed full of people and every little mom and pop shop was practically picked clean. Jordan was sitting in the passenger seat with his phone in one hand and a pen in the other as he scrolled through the list of nearby stores and marked them off using the notepad in his lap. It was stressful, but also kind of fun. He felt like he and Noah were on their own personal scavenger hunt.

It wasn’t until they hit store number thirteen that they started to feel discouraged. It was nearly 10:00, and most of the businesses were getting ready to close up for the night. They had also ventured a good twenty miles from Noah’s house to visit Poppy’s Toy Box, who, according to their website, were the best toy collecting resource in all the upper peninsula. Jordan was hoping that meant they would have some odd, vintage, or imported items. That was probably the only way they were going to find Lucy’s race car.

Poppy’s was located in a “blink and you might miss it” shopping plaza off to the side of the main road, right next to a sporting goods store and a tattoo parlor. Noah had to circle around a few times to find parking, but eventually secured a space. By the time they stepped out of the car and made their way into the shop, they had about twenty minutes to find what they were looking for.

The inside of the toy store was not nearly as impressive as the website made it out to be, but they definitely had a lot more variety than the other places they’d visited. There were shelves piled high with action figures that were two, sometimes even three, deep. There were dollhouses, blind boxes, figure keychains, plushies, blocks, puzzles, and hundreds of vintage board games. All of it was squished into a space about the size of Noah’s living room, and the sales floor was currently occupied by more than fifty people, making it nearly impossible to navigate.

“I don’t think we’re going to find one,” Noah said with a sigh. “It was a nice thought, but we should probably cut our losses and head back home.”

Jordan pursed his lips and continued scanning the surrounding area until he finally found a bin of old race cars way in the back, out of everyone else’s way.

“We’re here,” he told Noah, tugging him along by the wrist. “We might as well check.”

Noah used his beefy arms to pull the bin off the shelf and set it on the ground between them. He and Jordan both crouched down and started looking through it. There were so many. Every color and every design imaginable. The selection was so vast, that each orange one he pulled out that didn’t have a dragon on it was actually starting to piss Jordan off. There had to be a way to make this happen for Lucy. Otherwise he’d be failing miserably at his vow to give her a perfect Christmas.

Jordan picked out another orange race car only to find that it was completely plain with a smooth surface and no design on either side. Maybe there was a way to DIY this somehow. Jordan didn’t know anyone who was good at art, but maybe they could find a stencil or a sticker or something. Jordan absently turned the car over in his hands and suddenly thought of the tattoo shop next door. A light bulb went off in the back of his head.

“Go pay for this and come meet me next door,” he said, tossing the object at a startled Noah. Then he was up and wading through the crowd before the other man could utter a word of protest.

Jordan stepped outside into the icy cold and ducked into the tattoo parlor with his heart pounding in his ears. The shop was pretty standard, with neon signs shining in the windows, all kinds of classic images lining the padded walls. There was a faint buzzing sound coming from behind a closed curtain, as well as a woman letting out a rapid string of curses in French. The room also smelled very strongly of antiseptic.

Jordan made his way over to the front counter where a lady with choppy black and pink hair and multiple piercings was looking down at a magazine with disdain.

“Can I help you?” she asked, without looking up. She had a thick Italian accent.

Jordan stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Uh, I have kind of a weird request.”

At this the woman glanced up from her magazine and gave Jordan a very searing onceover.

“Bookings are done at least a month in advance,” she told him.

“It’s not for a tattoo. I uh, kind of was hoping that one of your artists might be able to help me out with something real quick. I’d pay them of course, and it shouldn’t take very long at all.”

The woman quirked her brow and said, “I’m listening.”

So, Jordan gave her the cliff notes version of the story, starting with the day of shooting and ending with him and Noah frantically searching for a customized race car. When he was done, she just stared at him for several seconds without blinking.

“You are serious?” she said.

“Dead serious,” Jordan responded.

At that moment, Noah came barging in with a small paper shopping bag in hand, perfectly emphasizing his point. The receptionist looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment and then stood, pausing to flatten out her skirt before clomping into the back room.

Jordan and Noah waited in suspense for a few minutes, then the receptionist reappeared with a big burly man with gauges and two half sleeves. He introduced himself as Dominic and asked them what kind of artwork they needed to get done.

“A dragon,” Noah answered, pulling out the toy. “On this.”

He handed it over to Dominic who inspected it for a few seconds before taking it into the back room with him and telling them both to take a seat. When he came back out, the car had a traditional red and black Chinese dragon curling around the exterior. The head was placed perfectly so that it lined up with the top of the vehicle. The tattoo ink on the car’s wooden surface gave a beautiful watercolor effect that fit Lucy’s style even more than Jordan could have imagined. It looked wicked cool and had only taken him about fifteen minutes to do.

“How much do I owe you?” Noah asked, already digging into his back pocket for his wallet.

Dominic shrugged.

“Don’t worry about it. I usually only charge by the hour anyway. I hope your kid likes it. Merry Christmas.”

Jordan and Noah thanked the man profusely and each took some of his business cards with the promise to pass them along to people. Then they got back into the car with matching smiles on their faces. Noah placed the painted race car in the center console for safekeeping and turned to face Jordan.

“You are a miracle Jordan Mitchell,” he said in awe. “I have no idea how I ever got by without you.”

Jordan felt his heart skip a beat. He’d been called a lot of things in his time, but never anything as nice as a miracle. He placed his hands on his knees and gave an awkward shrug.

“Well, we make a pretty good team,” he said.

Noah gave a soft snort of laughter in return.

“Yeah, we do.”

On the ride home Jordan turned the radio to the rap station, which also happened to be the only one not blasting Christmas music, and he did his best to give Noah a crash course in all the best artists in the game right now. It was clear that he wasn’t really into it, but the way he remained so intently focused while listening, was cute and incredibly endearing. By the time they made it back to the house, he was trying his hand at freestyling, which in turn made Jordan laugh so hard that he thought he might puncture a lung.

The two of them went inside and Noah relieved the babysitter of her duties, paying her handsomely for showing up on such short notice on a holiday weekend. Jordan felt happy and accomplished and on top of the world. Despite the hustle and bustle, it had been an amazing day, and most of that was due to just spending some quality time alone with Noah. Not to mention, he absolutely couldn’t wait to see Lucy’s face when she opened that tiny little package from Santa on Christmas morning.

Jordan was quickly realizing that just like all the movies and cartoons and cheesy greeting cards said, it wasn’t about the foods or the music or the gifts. What made Christmas so beloved by all who celebrated it, was the pure and simple joy of spending time with the people you loved, and try as he might, he was well on his way in that regard. Noah and Lucy were easy people to love. Especially when they were including him in their family traditions and calling him a miracle.

That night, for the first time in a long while, Jordan fell asleep feeling content with his life as it was, even if just for a moment.