Chapter 17
I’m the first to wake up on Christmas morning. I know this because if Stella had woken first, she would already be in my room, jumping up and down with excitement. And Felix always sleeps in.
I don’t know how he does it. I can’t sleep in, no matter how late I stay up the night before. There is just something enchanting about Christmas morning. The air feels different, joyous, light, and yes, magical.
Throwing off the covers, I slide my feet into my reindeer slippers and shuffle out of my room. Mom and Dad’s voices carry faintly from downstairs. I spend a few minutes in the bathroom, getting ready, and when I come out, Stella is up.
“Merry Christmas!”
She rubs sleep from her eyes and murmurs back, “Merry Christmas.”
I wait for her, and we go downstairs together. To my absolute surprise, Felix is already up, dressed, and has a cup of coffee in his hands.
“Merry Christmas,” he says, and tips his mug in greeting.
“Breakfast before or after presents?” Mom asks, setting out the flour for her traditional Christmas morning homemade biscuits. Every year she asks and every year, the answer is the same.
“Presents!” Dad shakes his head and smiles as he takes a step toward the living room. “Who could possibly eat before seeing what Santa brought?”
Felix, Stella, and I share amused glances before we follow him. Mom is always last, making us wait just a few minutes longer to get started. I think she does it to build the anticipation or maybe just to annoy Dad.
Stella gets to open the first present. When we were little, she somehow convinced Felix and me that because she’s the youngest (by one minute!) she deserved to be first at something. I think she used that line to get her way a lot when we were younger, but this is the only thing that stuck.
She holds up a pair of swim goggles and smiles at Dad. “Thank you.”
He winks. “Welcome.”
After that, we tear into presents at random. I get some new books that were on my wish list, a bracelet, and new notebooks and pens.
Felix gets practice gear and clothes, and stuff for his apartment.
He chuckles when he opens the present Stella and I got him.
I wrapped it in a football poster I got from the Valley U bookstore and made sure his face was most prominent.
He still hasn’t gotten used to all the attention, which makes it slightly more tolerable that he’s such a big deal.
“Thanks, guys,” he says, eyes twinkling with laughter, as he holds up the ‘World’s Okayest Brother’ mug.
All three of us get things we didn’t ask for but always receive: new toothbrushes, floss sticks, vitamins, socks, and gift cards to Target and various fast-food restaurants.
By the time we’re done, our gifts are stacked up in piles beside us and wrapping paper is strewn everywhere. Dad pulls on the new ‘I survived the Griswold Family Christmas’ sweatshirt we got him and begins to clean up. Mom heads straight for the kitchen to get breakfast going.
Felix says he’s going to help Dad, which probably means he’s going to nap, and Stella and I put on A Christmas Story and flit between watching our favorite scenes to helping Mom in the kitchen.
The day passes with all our usual tradition and merriment.
As we gather around the dining room table for our Walters’ Family Annual Christmas Day Ultimate Game-a-thon (for the record, I am not the one that came up with that awful title), Felix puts on his jacket and says he’s going to meet up with some friends.
“On Christmas?” Mom asks.
“He knows he’s no match for my mad skills,” Dad says as he places his tiles on the board to kick off our Scrabble game.
Felix swings his keys around one finger. “I won’t be long, promise. I’ll be back in time for Boggle.”
Stella sinks down in her chair beside me. Things are still tense between her and Felix. If they’ve talked it out, they haven’t come to a resolution.
Stella says she still believes he’s a good guy, but she can’t deny that Felix got in her head a little, so she’s letting things simmer.
As I look closer, her phone is mysteriously not in sight.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen her texting all day.
That would make two of us. After checking every hour, on the hour, for a text from Teddy, I gave up around dinner time and left my phone upstairs, so I couldn’t torture myself with it.
Maybe everything is fine and he’s just busy with Emmett and his family. Maybe what we had at the cabin was a moment, and nothing else will come of it. It’s the not knowing that is the hardest.
“Ugh, you’re killing us,” Dad groans as I get a triple-word score. My second of the game and I’m officially out of letters.
“She cheats,” Stella teases. “I swear she cheats somehow.”
“I need more coffee.” Mom covers a yawn as she stands. “I think I have jet lag.”
Headlights flash in the front window.
“Back just in time,” Dad says as he starts to put away Scrabble, and Stella gets Boggle from the game cabinet. “And it looks like he brought a friend.”
My head snaps up. Sure enough, a second set of headlights turn into the driveway. My heart beats wildly, hope rising with it. I push out of my chair and heads to the front door.
Teddy’s truck comes to a stop behind Felix’s car. My feet have a mind of their own, moving quickly toward him. My brother grins as I round the front of Teddy’s truck.
The driver’s side door finally opens, and Teddy hops out with a hesitant smile. “Hey.”
“Hi.” I’m frozen three feet away from him. “What are you doing here?”
Felix shuffles toward the house, giving us some privacy.
“I wanted to call, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I’m sorry about how we left things.”
“Me too.”
He steps closer and takes my hand.
I’ve missed him. After two years of dreaming of being with him, the reality was so much better.
“I want to be with you. Do you want to be with me, or did you just take looking out for your best friend’s sister a little too far?” I add in a little laugh at the end, like I’m half-joking, but my pulse races while I wait for his answer.
“Felix is like a brother to me. He’s my best friend. I owe him a lot. Of course, I’m always going to want to look out for you and Stella because of that.”
“But?”
“I like you. I’d like you even if you weren’t his sister. And it’d be a hell of a lot less complicated.” He smiles tentatively. “I want to be with you too.”
“We could have had this conversation over the phone, you know?”
Quiet laughter slips from his lips. “What can I say? I like how the Walters family does Christmas. And I also needed to deliver your present.”
My parents and Stella file out of the house.
“Theo!” Mom calls from the front porch. She is the only one that calls him that, but he doesn’t seem to mind. “I’m so glad you could join us.”
“Sorry to impose on your Christmas game night.”
“It’s no imposition,” my dad says. “Come in, come in. Holly was just destroying us at Scrabble.”
Teddy’s lips twitch with amusement as he looks to me. “One second. I need to grab something out of my truck. Felix?”
My brother nods and he and Teddy go to the back of the truck. Felix lowers the tailgate and then the two of them pull out a tree. I gasp and move closer. A Grand fir.
“I heard you might need one of these,” Teddy says, a slight flush painting his cheeks.
I toss my arms around him, breathing in him and the tree. His hands are occupied, trying not to drop the tree, but he leans into my touch and his lips brush against my temple. Felix chuckles. “I think she likes it.”