have the confidence to know I loved everything she did for me, no matter how big or small. Until then, I had no problems reassuring her. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pulled her to my side. “It makes it perfect, because you didn’t know he went all out like this and yet still wanted me to have something. I loved everything about my condo, especially the sad little wounded tree.”
“There you are!” my dad called out, coming around the corner from the hallway. He was dressed in black dress pants, a white shirt with a tie decorated with hundreds of miniature Santa hats and holly bushels. “Merry Christmas!”
Despite his dress clothes and annual tie, his skin held a gray hue, making the dark purple circles beneath his eyes more pronounced. He looked like he’d lost weight since just last night.
And that pain in my chest burned hot, spread to my gut.
“Merry Christmas, David,” Lilly said.
Stepping out of my hold, she went to him and wrapped him in a hug he easily returned and was already prepared for with outstretched arms. “Thank you for this. I know said this last night, but your house… it’s so incredible.”
“Anything for you, sweetheart.”
She flushed from his praise.
When she pulled back from their hug, she had tears in her eyes. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Nothing I wouldn’t do for any of my kids. You know that.”
“Yeah. I think I’m learning.”
She grinned at him, turning that burn in my chest into something less painful… but something more at the same time.
“You got any hugs for your old man?”
“Always.” I walked to my dad, hugged him tight, slapping his back until he let me go. “Merry Christmas, Dad.”
More voices filtered down from the hallway, easily recognized as Jenna and Brandon, and once we saw them, more Merry Christmas greetings were exchanged along with hugs.
“It’s about time you’re here,” Jenna said to Lilly. “I need help in the kitchen.”
Lilly’s eyes shot wide open, and she turned to me.
“Don’t look at me for help. Christmas morning has become Jenna’s domain.”
“I’m not sure you want my help,” Lilly admitted. “The only thing I can use in the kitchen to some degree of success is the microwave.”
“I’ll show you. You boys need anything to drink? Coffee? Bailey’s?”
“I’ll get it.”
Brandon asked for coffee, Dad requested eggnog, and I left the two in the entry area and followed Jenna and Lilly to the kitchen.
The sways of Lilly’s backside, encased in tight skinny jeans, was a sight I didn’t want to miss.
After we tested out her new lingerie last night, I’d pulled out gifts I bought for her. She was wearing one of the outfits today, a red and black buffalo plaid cardigan sweater over a new black tank top and skinny jeans.
I’d enlisted Jenna’s help for that one which she noticed once she and Lilly reached the kitchen.
“Nice outfit,” she told Lilly, plucking her sweater at the shoulder. “Do I have good taste or what?”
Lilly shot me a playful glare. “I was wondering if you had help picking this stuff out.”
“When it comes to fashion, there’s no one I trust more than Jenna.”
She turned to Jenna. “Then thank you. Everything I got was perfect. If not excessive,” she said, shooting me another glare.
“It’s Christmas. If this isn’t the time to be spoiled, when is there one?”
It was hours later. Hours after the mayhem of presents was over. Hours after we practically inhaled the sausage and bacon frittatas Jenna had whipped up, teaching Lilly as they went along.
And it was hours after lunch, after the fifteenth conversation when company stopped by when Dad yawned so long and so loudly I was worried he’d fall asleep on the living room couch, in front of almost a dozen guests. At that sound, our family who had stopped by—family not by blood but by circumstance—slowly began filtering out the door.
More tears flowed.
Lilly cried so much every time Dad had to tell someone about his cancer, I was worried her eyes might not ever be able to get the redness in her eyes to go away.
It was an exhausting day. Long.
It was beautiful too, one I would always remember.
And I hoped like hell it wasn’t the last.
A knock hit the doorframe and I turned, putting my back to the remaining pictures I’d ripped down weeks ago. At some point, Dad must have picked them up and settled them on a pile on Melissa’s old nightstand.
“You okay?” Lilly asked.
She lingered in the doorway, her blonde hair