The Saddest Song - By Susie Kaye Lopez Page 0,55

my parents. Garrett would be tripping out if he was watching. He had begged for a dog all our lives. Neither of us thought this day would ever come.

“She will bring so much happiness to your parents, Max. Garrett will be happy for them.” Rainey turned to show the puppies to a family with three little kids and I marveled how she had read my thoughts.

“You don’t have to be psychic to know when something is meant to be, Max.” Kara winked at me, and I laughed.

Chapter 22

Rainey

“Merry Christmas!!” two sets of parents shouted as Max and I opened matching red and green envelopes.

“Disneyland Passes?” We said in unison. We looked at each other and laughed. We were at Max’s house for Christmas Eve dinner and our parents said they had an early gift for us.

“We thought we would all go tomorrow for Christmas!” Max’s mom said, and I looked at my mom smiling beside her.

“This is a tough Christmas for all of us, so we thought we would start a new tradition!” My dad said, standing next to Max’s dad. We couldn’t help but act happy, and we were, I guess. Disneyland was awesome and I hadn’t been in quite a while but I couldn’t believe they all wanted to go on Christmas day.

“We bought you the year round passes so you could go with your friends anytime you like. I heard Rylee saying that they all go quite a bit,” Mom said. This was true, they went a lot. Max and I had planned to join them eventually. It was a great gift. It touched me that they all were so excited to give them to us, and to spend their holiday there. Especially my mom and dad, they had been wonderful helping all of us through the holidays. It was like we were all one big family. Losing Garrett had brought everyone closer together.

“I wish Grandma hadn’t gone to Aunt Alison’s, she is always saying she wants to go to Disneyland,” I said to Max.

“We can take her when she gets back if you want. We can go anytime now,” he smiled and walked over to pick up the guitar he had left on the couch. He began to play Santa Claus is coming to town and soon everyone was singing along. Luckily, everyone except me could keep a tune.

We had a really nice evening and everyone was sorry to see it end. We needed to get to bed early if we were going to get an early start in the morning. Max helped me on with my jacket and innocently pointed at something above my head. Looking up at the Mistletoe hanging there, Max kissed me quickly but firmly, taking me by surprise. It was a simple peck, so I felt funny when my heart sped up and I felt myself blush. It didn’t help that he just stood there enjoying my discomfort.

“Ready?”

“Huh?” I asked.

“To go home? Your mom and dad are waiting,” he said, grinning at me and pointing to the driveway.

“OH! Yeah, of course. See you in the morning,” I said, hurrying out the door.

Max followed, opening the car door for me. Leaning in he whispered, “Merry Christmas, Rainey.” The door closed before I could say it back.

The happiest place on earth proved to be a pretty popular place to spend Christmas Day. Everything was decorated super cute and both Max’s mom and mine went crazy for every detail. My dad had received a new camera and made quick work of documenting every moment, while Max’s dad made sure we sampled food from every stand in every land. Max and I took control of the rides and we made sure we all rode every single one.

After lunch, Max and I split up from the parents and went off to re-ride a few rides before we met back up with them for the parade.

“I don’t know about you but I could use a couple hours alone. My dad and his camera were starting to get on my nerves,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m afraid that he’s going to be bummed when he sees all of the pictures that you ruined with your scowls.”

“Max! I don’t scowl!” I said, scowling.

Max laughed.

“I don’t!” I insisted, hoping that I hadn’t. My cheeks hurt from smiling every time he said, “say Mickey!” Wasn’t that proof that he had gotten some good shots?

“Come on Grumpy, let’s go ride Splash Mountain.” He took my hand and pulled me past the Haunted Mansion.

“Very funny,”