Chapter 29 #2
“I don’t know...” I was flirting too close to the edge, because Addy looked over her shoulder and gave me the slightest shake of her head. Whoops. The expert was telling me to back off.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” Jeannie asked. “It’s not like you to shoot down an idea so quickly.”
Thankfully, I was saved from having to answer as we finally stepped through the doors that led to the rink. Max and Jeannie stopped dead in their tracks.
Jeannie’s eyes went wide. “I…”
“Why are there Christmas decorations everywhere?” Max said, arms above his head as he raced forward. “This looks just like Santa’s Workshop! Just with water!”
Jeannie’s head slowly turned to me like it was half rusted, that shocked expression on her face turning to one of suspicion. I tried not to look too pleased with myself, but I was failing miserably.
“Christmas in July?” she asked, her voice going small like it always did whenever she was afraid something was too good to be true.
I dropped all pretenses and beamed at her. “I figured we have a whole lot of Christmases to make up for, especially with Max, so what better way than to celebrate the season while Mr. Claus himself is on vacation.”
“I…” Shaking her head, she flung herself at me, her lips crashing to mine. I lifted her off her feet and spun her around.
Right on cue, the kids yelled, “Ew!”
“That’s no way to talk to your father,” a soft voice said from behind us.
“Mamie!” my girls cried out before running to my mother-in-law, throwing themselves at her. “What are you doing here?”
“You didn’t think I’d miss a Christmas, did you?”
“Even one as hot as this,” my father-in-law added.
I didn’t know where they had hidden, but I never would have been able to pull off the surprise if Jeannie had the same hearing they did. There certainly were advantages to surprising a human.
“W-what?” Jeannie sputtered, and it was even more satisfying to see her surprised all over again.
“Hello, Jeannie,” Amara said as she set Eva down and opened her arms to my girlfriend. Jeannie untangled from me to accept the embrace, and warmth filled me at the sight of it. “Happiest holidays!”
I hadn’t gotten to spend as much time with my parents and in-laws as I would have liked over the holidays.
Unlike a lot of the younger people, they didn’t stay all the way through past New Year’s, which was understandable.
Even though they weren’t that old by shifter standards, I understood that the call to be back home in their den was too much to ignore.
I was starting to feel that way myself. Sure, I liked vacationing, and I still wanted to celebrate holidays on our family’s land, but there was something about home and the routine we were all building up together that made any sort of disruption rather exhausting.
“I heard that there were some very good boys and girls here!” another voice boomed as the community doors opened again, revealing my parents.
My father was still my father, and always would be, but he was more relaxed and louder when interacting with the kids.
Especially Max, who appreciated someone not handling him with kid gloves.
Although Jeannie and I did our best, sometimes it was hard not to mother-hen him.
“That’s us! That’s us!” Max said, skedaddling over to the older man. “Wait, what’s that bag? Did you actually bring presents?”
“It wouldn’t be much of a Christmas without gifts, right?”
“But we don’t have anything for you,” Eva objected.
“Oh, that’s all right. I’m just doing this favor for Santa since he’s off in the Bahamas. If you’re that worried about it, you can get me something real nice for my birthday.”
“Uh… when is your birthday, Grandpa?”
He winked at her. “That’s for me to know, and you to find out.”
Probably not the best challenge to issue the three kids who had enough determination to fill the body of someone three times their size, but luckily they were distracted as more and more people revealed themselves.
Ana and her children, my mother, some of the kids from the snowball wars who lived close enough, and several others, including Symphony from Addy and Eva’s school.
Although they were still academic rivals, the girls had struck up a friendship.
We filled the entire area, and everyone spread food, drinks, and gifts over the tables.
I had requested stuff for the kids only, and to make sure there was enough for every child to have something. Even the decorations were absolutely perfect. Fake snow hung from things, red-and-white ribbons tied in bows, wreaths, you name it.
Naturally, with so much hubbub and excitement, we drew the attention of the other attendees, especially the kids.
So, after checking in with their parents, we shared our candy with them and invited the adults for grown-up conversation.
Yes, we would have to watch ourselves with not too much bear activity or secrets getting out, but that was part and parcel of throwing a celebration in the city.
“I can’t believe you did all this,” Jeannie said once things started to get into a rhythm.
Max, Eva, and Addy were running around in their bathing suits, using pool noodles to fight for the right to be true king of the wading pool.
Valencia was right there with them, as well as a couple of human kids.
I had no doubt each and every one of them would be sleeping well tonight.
“I’m glad you like it,” I said, polishing off the glass bottle of root beer I’d been working on. “It’s a little cheesy, but I wanted to do something special for you and Max.”
“It’s not cheesy at all,” she countered, settling herself on my lap.
“No one has ever thrown me a party just because. Well, I know it’s not just for me, it’s for all of us, but still.
..” She trailed off, her gaze going to the middle-distance, but I let her have her time.
I knew she was likely thinking of things, or perhaps even processing things, and I didn’t want to interrupt that.
She took my face in her hands and kissed me softly. It was the barest hint of a caress, but my body responded instantly.
Whoa, buddy, I chided myself. We’re in public.
“Thank you for doing this, sweetie. I’m not gonna forget it.”
I reached up and took her hand from my cheek, pressing a tender kiss to her palm. God, I loved her so much. Ever since we’d said it the first time, I made sure to announce it whenever it was appropriate.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” Another little kiss, and I was tempted to deepen it, but then there was a crackle of a Bluetooth speaker and suddenly a Beach Boys version of “Deck the Halls” came on. Jeannie’s eyes flashed, and she stood, pulling me up with her.
“Shall we dance?” she asked, nodding her head toward my in-laws who had taken off their shoes and were cutting a rug at the very edge of the wading pool.
“Let’s,” I said, grinning from ear to ear.
All in all, it was the perfect day. Everyone was laughing, everyone was smiling, and all the kids were having a blast. It was indeed Christmas all over again, minus the snow and cold.
I hadn’t been sure that the whole thing would go over well, because Christmas in July wasn’t an official holiday, but clearly everyone was loving it. That made me feel better about the plan I was putting together for when I put a ring on it.
I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Jeannie. And while I felt no need to rush into it, I also wanted to be ready when the time was right.
“Miss Jeannie, Daddy! Come see!”
I tore my eyes away from Jeannie to look at Eva, who was bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Can it wait, sweetie?” I asked.
“No! Come now! Hurry, hurry!”
I shared a look with Jeannie, and she let out a soft sigh. “It looks like we’ve been summoned.”
Further proof that I was never, ever going to have to choose between Jeannie and my children. She was already the best bonus mom they could ever ask for, and I was doing my all to be a great bonus dad for Max as well.
We followed Eva to the deepest part of the wading pool, where a dozen kids were lined up, not quite sure what was happening, especially when someone cut the music.
“Ready?” Ana called. Why was Ana always involved in something?
“Ready!” came the very confident response.
“All right! Three! Two! One! Go!”
She tapped her phone, and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” began to play from the Bluetooth speaker. All of a sudden, the kids were moving, clearly having designated roles as they acted out and lip-synced the story. Of course, Max was the lead.
It was silly, but for an impromptu production, it was pretty impressive.
All the kids put their best into pantomiming being bullies, or kids getting their presents, and Eva really surprised me with her Santa, holding her belly and going up and down on her toes to mimic a jolly jiggle.
I fleetingly wished I was recording it, but my mother was already on it. Thank God for grandparents.
When it was done, everyone cheered and clapped, even the humans who hadn’t accepted our invite to join the party.
All in all, the atmosphere was jubilant.
It made me a little sad to think I had locked myself away from the world for a year and a half when I had a knack for throwing a good shindig, but hey, I needed that time to mourn and really feel the effect of a lot of my bad coping mechanisms to realize that I needed to change them.
“Did you like it?” Max asked, bounding up to us as soon as it was over. He was a little out of breath, but not concerningly so considering the number he just pulled off.
“Sho did,” I drawled, holding my hand up for a high five. “You know, between this and the whole cabin thing, I think you’ve got kind of a knack for acting.”
“I do?” His shocked expression told me he’d never really thought about it, which was kind of a surprise since Max tended to think about everything.