♫ All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey ♫
I hadn’t felt the holiday cheer in years.
But as Lux and I walked around this Christmas-themed wonderland, the young lad in me was seeping outward through my fucking pores in innocent delight.
The lights, the music, the constant laughter and sheer sense of excitement filling the air…
Mum would have loved this place, Siobhan too.
It was everything Christmas magic was made of.
A smile tore across my face as one of my favorite childhood memories flashed through my mind.
“What are you thinking about?” Lux asked around a mouthful of what these American’s call an elephant ear; deep-fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar and confectioners.
“The year mum bought us tickets to Disneyland. Sio screamed for half hour straight, completely lost her shit,” I laughed.
“How old were you two?”
“I was thirteen, Sio was eight.”
“Was it fun?” She munched on another piece. “I’ve never been.”
“We never got to go. Mum ended up having to pick up more shifts at the club just to scrape by after buying the tickets. Passports, plane tickets, hotel stay—it was just too expensive, unfortunately,” I answered, far more forlornly than intended.
Lux’s face fell, brows cinching together. “Was Sio crushed?”
“Shattered is more like it. She cried about it for months.”
“That’s so sad.”
“Anddd this is where we end this conversation.” I slipped my arm around her shoulders, burrowing her in my side. “What do you wanna do now?”
Blue eyes peered up at me from the very corner, gauging my reaction. “Take me on the Ferris wheel? I’m dying to see what this place looks like all the way up there.”
“Well, then, m’lady—shall we?” I grinned, releasing her only to offer up my arm in a gentlemanly fashion.
Lux grinned in return, the smallest giggle escaping along with it. Tossing what little remained of her sugar rush in the rubbish bin, she took a hold of me, tightly.
“We shall.”
The damned Ferris wheel was packed. Took us over twenty-five minutes just to get to the front of the line, and another fifteen after that to be seated in one of the pods.
It was so fucking worth it, though.
The look of enchantment on Lux’s face as we rose higher and higher to the top was all worth it.
“It’s breathtaking…” she gasped, taking in every bit of the scenery splayed out before her in awe.
“It is,” I agreed, but we weren’t talking about the same thing.
Lux turned to me then, as inquisitive as ever. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she questioned.
I tried playing it off, hitching a shoulder nonchalantly, but the tone of my voice gave me away. “Because you’re breathtaking.”
“Shut up.” She shoved at my arm, cheeks heating beneath her blasé facade.
“Give me those lips and I will,” I murmured, reaching out to cup her face in my palm.
She came willingly, leaning in closer with heavy-lidded eyes. The briefest of smiles danced on our lips before they fused together softly. Whipping my phone out of my pocket, I accessed the camera with a swipe of my thumb and captured the moment in a single swift tap.
The shutter went off, snapping Lux’s eyes open. “Did you just take a selfie of us.” She was cheesing, prompting me to hum as I nodded.
“I did, yes.”
“So basic,” she quipped.
“Cheesy too, I know. But I want you to remember this.” I pulled up the image and turned the phone for her to see it.
It looked like it belonged in one of those multi-million dollar romance movies—the glimmer in her eyes corroborated it.
“I won’t forget it,” she decreed, leaning in to kiss me once more. “Never.”
After the Ferris wheel, we wandered around the rest of the fair grounds, and rode a few more rides. I suggested we play a few games, too, for the sole purpose of keeping her out longer, but Lux declined graciously, suggesting we go home instead.
I knew exactly what she was getting at, the sly little thing.
Could practically feel the heat emanating off her, slowly but surely unfurling the beast with in me.
“One last picture before we go?” she questioned with a squeeze to my hand as we passed an illuminated gazebo. “You can add it to tonight’s cheesy collection.”
“Do you wanna do the honors this time?” I waggled my eyebrows, leading her up the pathway.
“Your arm is longer,” she pointed out.
“Or, we can have someone else take it.”
Lux seemed to like my suggestion, glancing around us in search of a possible photographer.
“Excuse me?” She released me and approached a young woman with a small lot of children off to the side.”Would you mind taking a quick photo of us in the gazebo?”
The woman nodded pleasantly and took Lux’s phone, instructing her children to stay put as she got into position. On her cue, Lux slipped her arms around my neck and I snaked my own around her waist, dropping my lips to her cheek.
“Got it!” The woman called out, rushing back over to us. “So cute!”
“Thank you!” Lux waved her off, giddily showing me the newest image.
Another silver-screen worthy image.
“That is a good photo,” I agreed, once again living for that genuine megawatt smile of hers. “Send it to me.”
“Then send me the Ferris wheel one,” she concurred, swiping through several screens on her phone as I did the same on mine.
But then suddenly she froze, jutting her neck out on high alert. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” I didn’t hear anything.
“Shhh, listen.”
Still I didn’t hear anything, straining my ears. Until I did. Faint at first, it sounded like…
“Is that a cat?”
“It sounds like a kitten,” Lux squealed, dropping down on her haunches near a cluster of bushes. “Rome, ohmigod, look!”
Curled up beneath the closest bushel was the teeniest kitten I’d ever seen in my life; midnight black coat with bright green irises.
“Are there anymore?” I queried, squinting to see further into the bushes.
“I don’t know—I can’t see. Flash your light.”
Enabling the light on my phone, I shined it over the area in question. “Looks like she’s the only one. Grab her, baby.”
“I’m trying! C’mere, girl,” Lux cooed, reaching out with a cajoling hand while making adorable and unbelievably realistic little mewling sounds.
And then she wondered why I called her kitty kat...
Took several minutes and a whole lot of patience, but the kitten finally approached her, climbing right into her grasp. Rising to full height beside me, Lux lifted the little feline and nuzzled the top of her head.
“No collar—she’s probably wild,” I pointed out.
Lux nodded, completely taken with the teeny animal.
“I’d ask if you’re superstitious but…”
“Yeah, I’m not,” she laughed. “And even if I was…look at her little face. She’s co cute!”
“We should keep her,” I suggested.
My proposition snapped her gaze on me in record timing.
“We?” she stressed.
Nodding, I reached out to pet the little thing. “I quite like felines, and she is rather cute.”
“Cuter than me?” Lux quipped.
“Just about,” I joked. “What should we name her?”
Lux lifted her in the air and observed her closely, tilting her head from side to side. “She looks like a Wednesday.”
Christina Ricci was the first thing that came to mind. “As in Addams?”
“Don’t you think so?” she asked, turning back toward me.
The more I examined the feline, the more I could see it, but even if I hadn’t, it was Lux’s choice. She was elated to have come across this little creature, and all I cared about was her happiness. She could have wanted to name her Beans and I’d have agreed.
Chuckling, I pet her again. “You’re right, she does.”
“Wednesday it is then,” she conceded. “Wednesday Mercier-King.”
I kinda liked that sound of that…