right.”
“Man, Sebastian is going to let me have it,” he said.
“Well, he can’t really, because he’ll be wearing the same set,” I said with a giggle. “Mom and I picked them out this year, and as you can probably imagine he’s not the happiest with the design.”
“Oh I can definitely imagine. Let’s put these on.” Grayson stood, and quickly slipped into the pajamas. I followed suite, and then he wrapped me in a tight hug, kissing the top of my head. “You’re so cute, matching me like this. It makes me feel so happy.”
“I’m glad, it makes me feel happy too.”
“I promise that you’ll get your present later today.”
“Oh, I’m not worried.” I pulled back to look up at him. “I have to say, the best present of all is definitely getting to spend the day with you.”
“Well then, you’ll be very happy to learn two things. One, that I have another gift for you, and two, that I plan to spend as many days with you as possible.”
I let out a squeal as he lifted me up and into his arms, holding me right to his chest. My arms went around his neck, and he looked down into my eyes with a smile.
“Now, my Cinderella, shall we head out? They’ll be expecting us, and I plan on not having your father after my head.”
“Yes, let’s.”
Grayson grabbed my bag, and then carried me out to the car, depositing me in the passenger seat with a kiss.
We drove to my house and parked nearby. It was beginning to snow, and so the two of us rushed to get to the door, giggling as we knocked.
Sebastian answered, sleepy-eyed and in his matching set of pajamas, then his eyes opened wide as he did a double-take.
“You got Grayson pajamas?” he asked.
I looked down at my feet. “Mom and I went shopping before everything happened. I didn’t want for him to feel left out.”
“Of course you didn’t. You would get pajamas for the cat, if we had one.”
Grayson put his arm around my shoulders. “So can we come inside now? It’s absolutely freezing out here.”
“Oh, of course.” Sebastian stepped aside, letting the two of us enter. As he closed the door behind us I let out an audible gasp. My eyes had landed on the massive stack of beautifully wrapped presents beneath the Christmas tree. There had only been a few there the night before, and now they were threatening to take over the room.
I felt like a little kid again, gaping at the number of presents. My mom had had a hand in this most likely. She liked for our Christmas celebrations to be large and full of joy, and she was a master at wrapping presents.
She volunteered every year, in fact, wrapping and buying presents for those who were less fortunate. It was a passion of hers, as she wanted to make sure that no one felt like they were alone on Christmas day.
My mom poked her head out of the dining room then, a large smile on her face and flour on the apron that she was wearing over her pajamas.
“Breakfast is ready in here,” she said. “I baked a fresh pie.”
“Oh yum,” Grayson said next to me, grabbing my hand and pulling me with him into the kitchen.
My dad was already seated at the table, and my mom was just taking off her apron and sitting down. The three of us joined them, and then dug into the beautiful breakfast that my mom had prepared for us.
It felt so peaceful, and joyful, unlike the day before. Now nobody was fighting, and there seemed to be a sense of understanding that had been missing before.
Once we were finished with breakfast, the five of us headed into the living room to start the festivities of the day.
There were so many presents to be opened, so many thank you’s to be exchanged. We waited a few more minutes so that my mom could bring us all a cup of hot cocoa, and then we began opening presents one at a time.
It took us several hours to get through all of them. Those few hours were filled with lots of laughs and even a few tears as heartfelt words were exchanged. I didn’t feel like I could want anything else for the day, and it didn’t seem like there would be anything else, but fate had a different plan.
“I think that’s everything,” my mom said after taking one final look under the tree.
“Wait,” Grayson