you, come on.” Rolling her eyes behind her mother’s back, Kayla let herself be led inside and the rest of us followed.
Unlike Thanksgiving, the house was nearly bare of decorations. There was an undecorated tree, and not much else, which surprised me. Or maybe it wasn’t surprising, giving the absence of Mr. Hallman.
Mrs. Hallman led Kayla into the kitchen and forced her to sit down and have some tea, before slamming her with questions about the baby and how far along she was and everything else. Katie and I slipped away so I could get my things and put them in her room. She’d said that it would be okay for me to stay in her room, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. I could always bunk down in the basement if I had to.
“Kayla’s a big one for the surprises, isn’t she? First it was the engagement, now this.”
“Yeah, I can’t believe it. I knew she wanted kids, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this soon.” She sat down on her bed, lay back and closed her eyes. “I wonder if this means she’s going to come home. That would be good.”
“Yeah, it would take some of the pressure off you.”
“I shouldn’t even think of it as pressure. I shouldn’t think of it that way. I should want to do it. She’s my mom, Stryker.”
“I know, I know.” I lay down next her, squishing myself against her on the twin bed. “Listen, I have a present for you, but I wanted to give it to you when it was just the two of us. I know it’s not Christmas, but I want to give it to you now, if that’s ok.”
She turned on her side to face me, smiling.
“Okay. Give it to me.”
“Geez, demanding much?” I bit her shoulder as I got up and fished in my bag. I’d pre-wrapped her presents in paper I’d drawn on myself.
“Stryker. It’s so pretty.” I’d duplicated a lot of the drawings I’d made on her body. “I almost don’t want to unwrap it. Almost.”
I sat down beside her and tried not to freak out as she slowly unpeeled the wrapping from her present.
“Oh, Stryker.” She revealed a wooden box that I’d painted on. Then she turned it and saw what the painting was. “Oh my God.”
“I may or may not have stolen that picture from your house last time I was here.”
I’d painted a picture of her father on the top of the box, from a photograph that I’d commandeered from an album last time I was at her house. I had the feeling I’d need it at some point, even if it was just to give to her. Mr. Hallman sat on the recliner and smiled, waving at the camera. It must have been taken quite a few years ago, because his hair was definitely darker than when I’d met him.
She opened the velvet-lined box and brushed the inside.
“I thought you could use something better than a Ziploc bag. And you can close it and carry it around with you. See?” I pointed to the little lock on the front of it.
“This is…this is one of the sweetest and most creepy things anyone has ever done for me.”
“Is it more on the sweet side or more on the creepy side?” I was hoping for the former.
“It’s a little bit of both, but I absolutely love it. Thank you so much.” She reached for her purse and took out the bag of ashes that she always carried with her, putting them in the box and locking it shut. She smiled down at the portrait on the front.
“Now he’s with me all the time.”
I put my arm around her.
“Exactly.” I wiped a tear from her cheek. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Katie
After Kayla’s announcement and Stryker’s present, things were sort of uneventful. Mom had flipped the nice switch and treated Stryker like he was a member of the family. She even asked about him and they had an entire civilized conversation, which was crazy.
“I think she likes you,” I said that night as we lay in bed. Mom had given me a look when I’d said we were going to bed, but she hadn’t said anything as Stryker followed me.
“Well, that’s a nice step up from loathing me, so I’ll take it.” He was busy drawing on my arm.
“So you gave me a present, so I’m going to give you one.” He’d been pretty sneaky with his, but I was pretty sure he