Chapter 13 #2
“He was an investigative reporter and photographer for a globally distributed magazine, and he liked being where the action was,” Robbie explained.
“He was pretty much the only one who encouraged me to pursue my professional surfing ambitions, and when I got disinherited by my old man and his family, Gramps helped me out where he could. I think he liked knowing that he was helping me do something that my old man didn’t want me to do. ”
“Family members should support and encourage one another, even if they don’t agree with or understand the passions and pursuits that others love.”
“Yeah, that’s how I feel about it too,” Robbie said.
“It’s unfortunate that so many are stuck in some belief that if a person doesn’t follow a particular path, they won’t be successful, or they’ll be wasting their lives.
Sometimes I wonder if my old man would have learned to relax and look at things from a different perspective if he’d spent time with my grandfather and gotten to really know him and why he was so doggedly determined to pursue a story to the bitter end. ”
“Why was it so important to him?”
“Because he felt like the truth deserved to be told and people needed to be protected,” Robbie explained.
“He used to say that silence was as detrimental as lies. He knew all the ways that people tried to threaten and intimidate others to keep them from sharing their stories, so he made it a point to make sure their voices were heard, but he was fair about it too; he’d always try to get both sides so he could write a balanced article, but man, he could be a bulldog with a bone if he felt like he was being stonewalled.
He knew my old man didn’t care about the lights, but each year he’d go outside and offer to help, and each year my old man would tell him that he could manage just fine, thank you very much.
The thing was, Dad sucked at getting those lights up there.
Like, he was horrible at it. Every other year something went wrong, from broken windows to him falling off the ladder into one of the rose bushes.
And my grandfather, he’d just shake his head and go check on him, only to be told everything was fine. ”
“Sounds almost like they had a tradition of their own with all of that.”
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it,” Robbie said.
“I’ve thought about putting up lights, but each time I started to purchase them, I got this nagging feeling like I was heading down my old man’s path and hanging them as a means of avoidance.
So I wouldn’t think about the things I was missing in my life.
Next year, we should hang them together and assemble that whole scene you’ve been envisioning. ”
Rolling, I turned to look at him instead of the screen. “Seriously, are you sure?”
“Yeah, I am. If it’s you and me, then I know I’ll be doing it for all the right reasons, because we’ll be poised to have fun celebrating our second holiday together.”
He tugged me into a kiss as soon as he finished saying it, eyes sparkling with joy when the kiss broke moments later. We’d just settled back in to watch more of the movie when he reached for his soda and chuckled.
“Is that an elf on a lampshade?” he asked, pointing to the small one I’d propped against the wall, its legs dangling over the rim of the shade.
“Yup, but only because I couldn’t get it to stay up on the windowsill with the lights and the garland.”
“I can see where that would be an issue. A hotel room doesn’t offer many places for an elf to roost, but I’m sure I can manage something tonight, so you wake up with it in a new spot in the morning.”
“Ohhh. Yay!” I was giggling when I hugged him. “I’ve always wanted to do the whole elf on a shelf thing and have someone move it around for me to search for in the morning.”
“We’ll have to add that to next year’s list of holiday activities,” he said.
“Along with anything else we’ve missed out on experiencing over the years.
We’ll make a tradition out of exploring traditions, like decorating gingerbread houses, though I think we might want to start with kits unless you already know how to bake gingerbread. I hear it can be a bit of a challenge.”
“My cookie baking skills start and stop with those premade packs you snap apart and put on a baking sheet,” I explained.
“Kits it is.”
“We should get a few ceramic ones too and pick out a bunch of paints so we can paint them together.”
“Definitely.”
I snagged my can and popped the tab as he did the same with his. Clanking them together felt like sealing a magical Christmas pact.
“You know,” he murmured after he’d taken a sip, if we’re going to make gingerbread houses, then we’ll have to try our hand at decorating a few gingerbread men too.
“With gumdrop buttons?”
“Absolutely.”
“And a little gingerbread crutch to help it stand after I’ve eaten one of its legs?”
“We can absolutely do that too,” he replied. “And if we mess up and accidentally break them while decorating, we can always strew the pieces around in front of the houses to make it look like a gingerbread massacre took place.”
“Ohhh, yeah, let’s, and we can squirt that red gel icing stuff all over the place to really give it that holiday horror feel.”
“I wonder if they do holiday horror episodes of those bake-off shows,” Robbie mused. “They’re a guilty pleasure of mine. I’ve been known to binge whole seasons, but I’ve never come across a horror one.”
“Then we’ll have to look, because I love them too, and the Great British Bake Off.”
“See, that one just makes me hungry and jealous as hell that I don’t have the kind of skills in the kitchen to let me make anything like what they’re creating.”
“Right! Try watching it with scented candles burning.”
“No thanks, I don’t have that kind of willpower,” he replied.
“I’d have to make a trip to the bakery or eat the bloody candle.
” he said as he attempted a British accent, but it was so bad I caught a case of the giggles, and he had to pluck the soda can from my hand before I spilled it all over the bed.
“Man, now I’m thinking about cake, and it’s all your fault,” I declared, pouting once I’d gotten my giggles under control.
“Then it’s a good thing I came prepared,” he replied. “Which one would you like to dig into first?”
“Red velvet,” I said, enjoying the view of his ass as he got out of the bed to get it, not that I let him go alone.
Not when there was mistletoe over the refrigerator and more kisses to claim. Hashtag new favorite holiday tradition. I was going to make it my special mission to find a bunch of fun, interesting, and totally off-the-wall places to hang mistletoe for all our amazing Christmases to come.