EPILOGUE

Christmas Day

 

I had almost all of their names straight by now. 

The Gentry family frequently gathered for one event or another so over the past six months I’d had plenty of opportunities to get to know them.  Chase’s teenage boys still mixed me up on occasion because the eldest two looked so much alike. Then there were the young sons of Stone and Conway.  They were cousins but close in age and they ran around together so often and looked so similar it would be easy to mistake them for twins.  At least none of the girls looked alike so I didn’t make any mistakes there.  

“Curtis, be an angel and make yourself useful,” announced Cassie’s younger sister, Cadence, before she deposited a tray of food in my hands.  She was home from college for the holidays. 

“Where am I supposed to put this?” I asked her but she was already being swallowed up by a crowd of Gentry cousins. 

“Find a place,” she shouted and disappeared back into the kitchen. 

I looked around but didn’t see any immediate options.  The food tables that had been set up in the living room were already pretty crowded.  I’d have to displace something else to set the tray down. 

“What have you got there?” inquired a voice.  The hungry teenager it belonged to sniffed at the tray. 

“Maybe meatballs,” I guessed.  “Maybe something else. You feel like being a guinea pig, Kellan?” 

I hoped I had used the right name.  His older brother was a little more square-jawed and muscular but they were cut from the same cloth and anyone would be able to tell they were Gentry boys.  Their father, Chase, was laughing about something with Cord on the other side of the room. 

The kid who might be named Kellan didn’t correct me so I figured I’d identified him correctly. He plucked a meatball off the tray and popped it in his mouth.  He took a moment to chew and then offered the thumbs up sign. 

“What’s that?” asked another voice, this one belonging to Kellan’s older brother. 

“Get lost, Derek,” Kellan growled, blocking the food tray.  “I’m claiming dibs.” 

“You can’t claim dibs here,” Derek argued.  “It’s a Christmas party.” 

Kellan wouldn’t step aside.  “Don’t be such a greedy bastard.  Go find something else to eat.”   

Derek slapped his brother on the back of the head. “Stop being a dick.” 

“Stop trying to steal my snacks.” 

Derek tried to reach around his brother and grab some of the meatballs with his bare hand. 

Kellan blocked him with an elbow to the gut. 

I really just wanted to put the damn tray down somewhere. 

“Guys, knock it off,” complained their younger brother, Thomas.  His name was one I always remembered because at fourteen he seemed a lot more mature than either of his big brothers. 

But the boys weren’t finished making a scene. 

Derek shoved his brother. 

Kellan stepped on Derek’s foot. 

And then someone’s flailing arm knocked the tray right out of my hands.  It landed in an unfortunate place.  Right in the lap of fourteen-year-old Isabella Gentry, Deck’s beloved only daughter. 

Isabella gazed down at her fancy red Christmas dress in horror.  Creed and Truly’s daughter was sitting beside her and gasped.   

Isabella stood up and glared furiously at her careless cousins, her face turning nearly as red as her hair.

“You JERKS!” she shouted and stomped away. 

“Sorry, Izzy,” said Kellan. 

“Sorry, Izzy,” echoed Derek. 

Meanwhile, all the festivities had stopped and everyone in the room stared at the scene.  Cassie emerged from the kitchen with her mother and sisters. Even old Angus the Dog nosed his way forward to see what the commotion was about.  

“What the hell?” yelled Chase, who had crossed the room in record time to discover what kind of damage his sons had done now. 

The two boys looked at each other.  Then they looked at their father. 

“I don’t want to hear excuses,” Chase warned, holding up a hand before they could say a word.  “Go see what your Aunt Saylor has on hand to clean up your mess. And then offer your services to do whatever cleanup there is in the kitchen.  Also, apologize to your cousin again.” 

“We will,” said Kellan.  “Just don’t tell Mom.” 

“Uh, I’m right over here, boys,” waved Stephanie, Chase’s wife. “And by the way, I can both see and hear.” 

“Great,” mumbled Derek as he trudged off to the kitchen after his brother. 

Cord stood beside Chase and clapped a hand on his shoulder as he began chuckling.

“Karma, my brothers,” he said, raising his glass to both Chase and the third triplet in the set, Creed.

“Karma,” agreed Creed with a smirk. 

Brecken had been having a serious discussion about baseball with Cami’s boyfriend, Dalton.  Now he made his way over to me. 

“Did you see what happened?” he asked. 

“I kind of got caught in the middle of it,” I said, bending over to retrieve the food tray that Izzy Gentry had thrown on the floor two seconds after it landed in her lap and spoiled her Christmas dress. I didn’t really know what to do with it so I set it on a nearby end table and turned my attention back to Brecken. 

The year had been a tough one for all of us, but perhaps most of all for him.  He’d lost his home and the only parent he had left.  Our mother had finally been sentenced to serve two years and had been moved to a federal detention facility three hours north of here.  Once a month we made the drive to go see her and Brecken faithfully wrote letters twice a week, which she always answered.  I was grateful she’d come back.  Apparently even an incarcerated mother was better than none. 

“You having a nice Christmas?” I asked Brecken.  He’d grown at least three inches since the summer and filled out quite a bit.  He didn’t look so much like a little kid anymore.  He looked more like a teenager inching toward manhood.  

But he was still enough of a kid to be awestruck by a storybook holiday celebration, even with the occasional meatball mishap. Then again, I was kind of awestruck too.  

Brecken nodded eagerly.  “This is the best,” he said and I knew he didn’t just mean the tree and the presents and the food.  There was a spirit in this room that was rare and precious.  These people who were all bound together by love and by blood had created a unique and special world.  And we got to be a part of it.

Cadence appeared and urged Brecken to get another plate of food, “Before those two jokers who were sent to the kitchen return and consume whatever’s left.”  She went with him and got another plate as well. 

“Hello there, handsome,” whispered a soft voice and I felt Cassie’s arms around me. 

“Hey, gorgeous,” I said, bending down to kiss her.  She was wearing a sleek black dress that had been custom made by her Aunt Truly and even though I’d been admiring the sight of her in that dress all day I couldn’t wait to get it off her tonight.  She was all the Christmas present I needed on this day. And I never got tired of unwrapping her. 

Cassie leaned into the kiss. She was a few inches taller than usual thanks to the black heels she wore. The dress had to go when we got home.  The heels could fucking stay. 

I tightened my arms around her.  “You want to get out of here soon?” I murmured. 

She glanced across the room.  “Not yet,” she whispered.  “Cami hasn’t made her announcement.” 

“What announcement?”

“Shh.  It’s a surprise, although I can’t believe no one has noticed yet.” 

I felt like we were having two different conversations.  “Noticed what?”

Cassie smiled.  “The ring.” 

As if on cue there was the sound of metal clanging on glass and then Camille Gentry was standing in the middle of the living room with Dalton at her side.  She took his hand and smiled up at him.  “Everyone, we have an announcement.” 

“You’re pregnant,” shouted a voice. 

Cami’s smile didn’t falter.  “No, Kellan. Now shut up and go back to the kitchen.”  She held up her left hand.  “Last night Dalton Tremaine asked me to marry him and I said yes.” 

  The room erupted.  There were cheers, there was backslapping, there were hugs.  Three times someone came over and shook my hand even though I had nothing to do with any of it.  Cami was proudly showing off her diamond ring while Dalton dealt with the entire Gentry tribe descending on him for congratulations.  I was happy for the guy, for both of them.  They were very much in love and they were both great people who deserved happiness. 

Cami and Dalton’s announcement signaled the unofficial conclusion of the Gentry Christmas celebration.  Families began leaving one by one and in the end it was just Cord and Saylor and their three beautiful daughters, along with Dalton, Brecken and me. 

Cord and Saylor were embracing beneath the mistletoe while Cadence and Brecken scavenged the last of the food and laughed over some of the evening’s events. 

“Congratulations, man,” I said to Dalton, offering him a firm handshake. 

“Thanks,” he said.  He gestured to the corner of the room where Cami and Cassie were locked in a sisterly embrace.  “How the hell did a couple of ordinary guys like us get so damn lucky?” 

Dalton wasn’t exactly an ordinary guy but I was glad to know I wasn’t the only one who asked himself that same question all the time, that it wasn’t unusual to wonder why fate had done him a great big fat fucking favor for no reason at all. 

“I’ll never know,” I said.   

We left at the same time as Cami and Dalton.  Cord, Saylor and Cadence stood out front waving as we pulled away. 

“Can I set up the Xbox when we get home?” Brecken asked from the backseat.  The generous gift had been from Cord and Saylor. 

“Sure,” I answered.  “Just don’t stay up all night playing games.” 

I was thinking of another gift that had been received today. I wasn’t sure what to make of it yet. Early this morning I was already half awake when I thought I heard a scratching noise at the front door.  Suddenly on high alert, I snatched the baseball bat I kept underneath the bed and left Cassie peacefully sleeping while I crept into the living room to investigate.  There was no one on the other side of the front door peephole.  I lowered the bat and wondered if I’d just been hearing the last echoes of a dream.  But when I opened the door I realized it had been no dream. 

The cardboard box was unwrapped and unmarked.  Inside there were two smaller boxes with brand new laptop computers inside. I was at a loss to explain any of it until I opened up the third box beneath the others. 

It contained a vintage nativity set, nearly identical to one that had sat on the front table in our parents’ home ever since I could remember.  I knew it wasn’t the same one because that one used to have a big crack in the ceramic manger from the time I was three years old and accidentally dropped it on the hard tile. This one had a thrift store sticker on it but I had no doubt who had left this box. I peered out into the winter darkness and called my brother’s name but there was no answer.  Obviously Tristan had found out exactly where we were, although he hadn’t been in contact since that summer night in Emblem.  And apparently even though he’d taken the trouble to leave us Christmas gifts in the cold early morning hours he didn’t want to be in contact now. Eventually I gave up staring out at nothing and dragged the box inside the apartment.

It was only later, as Cassie was admiring the nativity set that she noticed one of the wise men was missing.  When we were kids I used to tell my brothers that the wise men were brothers just like the three of us.  My folks never actually took us to church so I had just made that up but now the missing wise man struck me as significant.  Tristan had removed one of the figures and the set was now incomplete.  Maybe he meant that he would hold onto it and someday the three wise men would reunite.  I wanted to believe that.

Of course the thing might have just been missing from the old set when Tristan bought it in the first place. But I didn’t think so.

When we got home Cassie made us all some hot chocolate while I helped Brecken connect the new gaming system.  He was soon happily pretending to kill digital zombies while sipping hot cocoa from a Santa Claus mug.  Cassie snuggled next to me on the couch and we stayed like that for a while, my hand on her knee, her head on my shoulder.  She’d officially moved in at the end of the summer and even though I refused to take any rent money from her she insisted on pitching in with groceries and slyly providing Brecken with clothes and school supplies.  I appreciated the help and I had a new level of ambition now.  I’d never turn back to the life I used to lead and I’d never stop working toward new goals.  Thanks to some academic help from Cassie’s uncle I was now a high school graduate.  I’ve even been thinking that someday I’d like to be a business owner, like Cord and Deck.  I had a lot to learn and I was ready to work hard.  With Cassie at my side, I was ready for anything.  

“You finished?” I asked, reaching for her empty mug so I could bring it to the sink.  I was starting to get impatient to move on to the next phase of the night, the one that involved getting my girlfriend naked in our bed with her ankles on my shoulders.  That was destined to be one hell of a view. 

Cassie came up and hugged me from behind while I was rinsing out the hot chocolate mugs.  I turned off the water and faced her. Holding her in my arms was always a gift. 

“Cami and Dalton seemed really happy,” I said, circling my arms around her waist so I could get her as close as possible. 

“They are.” Her smile was genuine.  She was absolutely thrilled by her twin’s engagement.  But I couldn’t help but feel that someday I wanted to give her that moment too.  I wanted to stand up with her in a packed room and let everyone know that this was forever. 

I kissed her.  “Someday,” I whispered.  “Someday I’ll be able to buy you a ring.”

Her eyes shone.  “Curtis,” she said.  “I don’t need a ring to know how much you love me.” 

“Nonetheless, you will have one.” 

Cassie smiled and wrapped her arms around my neck.  “If you insist. But all I really need is you.” 

I ran my hands up and down her back.  “You’ve got me, baby.” 

Her smile became naughty.  “Then take me to bed and show me.”   

We had to keep things quiet because Brecken was still in the living room playing video games but Cassie was as wild and sexy as ever until we were both worn out. 

“Merry freaking Christmas,” I panted, lying on my back and trying to catch my breath.  “Wait, why are you taking the heels off?” 

Cassie tossed her shoes to the floor.  “I think they’ve seen enough action for tonight.”  She turned off the bedside lamp and pulled the bed quilt off the floor, covering us both as she laid down with her head on my chest. 

“Love you,” she said sleepily.  

“Love you too,” I told her because they were always the last words we said to one another every night.   

I wasn’t tired yet but I didn’t want to disturb her so I just stared at the ceiling and listened to her breathing become deep and even as she drifted off to sleep.      

This had been one hell of a roller coaster year.  I’d started out living alone in some shithole with no family and nothing of value in my life. 

Then I’d gotten a call that had set me on a path I never would have anticipated. The journey hadn’t been easy.  But now on this Christmas night I could marvel over the twists and turns of life that had led me here. 

Because here was perfect. 

Cassie stirred in her sleep with a soft sigh and I dropped a kiss on her head, hoping her dreams were sweet.  She murmured my name and drifted off again while I stroked her skin and felt my own eyelids grow heavy.   

Yeah, right here was just perfect. 

I didn’t ever want to be anywhere else.