Chapter 18
Christian
CHRISTMAS DAY
“Cheer up. You get out of here at eight tonight,” Timberson stated. “I’ll be on shift tomorrow too.”
“Yeah, at least you’re off for the next couple of days.” Kaden chimed in.
Earlier this year, I volunteered to cover the Christmas shift for one of my co-workers so he could spend the holiday with his girlfriend.
At the time, I didn’t have anyone special to spend it with, so it didn’t bother me.
Now all I could think about was Angel and Belle spending the holiday without me.
After going by her mother’s place last night, I came straight to work.
“I heard you were out playing Romeo last night.” Silas Miller, another paramedic I was working with, teased me as he sat down at the dining table with me.
“Who told you that? I know it wasn’t that snitching brother of mine,” I stated with a chuckle.
They hated having to go out and sing even more than I did.
The only thing that lessened it for me was that it was for my benefit.
And it worked too. I found myself thanking my mother before we left, not only for her great idea, but for making us join the choir and all those Christmases spent caroling.
“Your dad was bragging about his boys online,” Miller stated, shoving his phone at me.
I groaned and dragged my hand down my face when I saw my father’s Sociogram video. He recorded me serenading Angel, and he kept filming all the way until I kissed her underneath the mistletoe.
“I swear, someone needs to delete that man’s account and keep him off social media.” I groaned to the amusement of the other men.
“You’ve got a visitor, Chris,” Raven Cross, another paramedic, shouted when she stepped into the room.
“Why’re you always so loud?” Miller asked, eyeing her.
“Why’re you always worried about me?” Cross asked, rolling her eyes.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think those two had a thing going. But I didn’t care. I hopped up to see who was visiting me, although I suspected I knew exactly who it was.
“Merry Christmas.” Angel greeted me when I stepped into the lobby. Belle was in her arms, wearing a forest green velvet dress with a white fur collar and a matching green and white bonnet on her head. Angel had two gift bags on her wrist and a tray of cookies tucked at her opposite side.
“Merry Christmas, baby,” I greeted, pulling her into a hug and kissing her. She licked inside my mouth and bit my bottom lip.
“I’m supposed to do that to you.” I growled against her lips and then kissed her again as she giggled underneath me.
I licked her lips before pulling back and kneeling. “How’s my favorite girl?” I asked, taking Belle from her arms.
Some of the other crew members joined us to wish them a Merry Christmas. They oohed and aahed over Belle’s pretty green and white dress with the fur-lined collar and cuffs.
“I wanted to bring these cookies for everyone. My mother, my best friend, and I made them,” Angel declared, holding the platter out.
Miller took the cookies before I could, and everyone laughed.
“These are for you,” Angel stated, offering me the Christmas bags.
“Come on back to the living room with us,” I invited, leading the way with Belle in my arms. Once we were seated in the recliners, I opened the gift bags to find some Under Armour Storm Liner Gloves, headphones, and a sterling silver bracelet with the words “Our hero” engraved on it and a diamond, my birthstone, at each end of the word.
“Baby, you didn’t have to do this.”
“I wanted to do it. I wanted to get you things that you needed and something to remind you of us. You are our hero.”
“I love you, girl.”
“Not as much as I love you,” she replied and kissed me.
We talked for a few minutes before I walked her to the car and strapped Belle back into her car seat.
“Well, I’ll be at my mom’s house until you get off tonight. I love you and be safe.”
“I love you too.”
I boxed her in between her car and her car door before I kissed her deeply. “We’ve got some making up to do tonight.”
“I’ll be waiting, Santa.”
I winked, patted her ass, and then closed her car door after she dropped into her seat. I patted the top of the car and watched her drive away.
Coming home to Angel made me want to always come home to Angel. But it wasn’t a revelation; it was something I knew in the earlier years. I wanted a woman like her who made a house a home, a refuge from the world, and made me want to be nowhere else than there with her.
Angel had a beautiful, compassionate spirit, and she always strived to see the good in others. She inspired people without even trying.
She had prepared roasted duck with plum sauce, sweet potatoes, braised red cabbage, and homemade cranberry sauce, and she paired it with a nice Syrah. The spicy, bold notes of the wine complemented the strong flavor of the duck.
“Are you ready to open Belle’s gifts yet?”
“You do realize that she doesn’t even know what these things are, right?”
Shrugging, I replied, “They’re as much for you as they are for her.”
She giggled and let me take her hand and lead her to the living room. We sat down in front of the tree and placed a present in front of Belle. She slapped her hands on top of the present and drooled on it before Angel finally declared, “All right. I’ll open it for her.”
Angel untied the bow and removed the wrapping paper. “Look, Tinker Belle. It’s an activity gym for you. Guess who’s gonna get her muscles tightened? They’re not gonna be ready for my baby,” she bragged.
Belle babbled and tossed her arms in the air excitedly as though she understood what we were discussing. I bent forward and kissed her forehead.
“I think she likes it.”
“I think she does, too, baby,” Angel replied.
We took turns opening the rest of her gifts that I brought her: a musical toy, a couple of textured toys, a stacking toy, four dresses, a pair of shoes for each dress, and a hand-knit blanket with her name stitched on it, and the words “Daddy’s Girl” underneath.
“What does that mean?”
“I told you. I want to be her father. I love her as much as I love you, and if you’ll let me, that’s who I want to be in her life. Even if you and I don’t work out, I want to be here for her.”
Angel’s mouth worked back and forth, but she didn’t say anything for several agonizingly long seconds. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes, baby.”
“Okay, Chris. As long as you don’t hurt her.” She sobbed and pressed her fingertips to her lips.
I pulled Angel close to me and kissed the top of her head. “I promise that Belle will always be the center of my world.”
“I can tell by the way you’ve spoiled her with these gifts,” she replied with a sniffle and laughter.
I chuckled. “This is just a start. I put a limit on it since you told me she was too young. But one day, you’re gonna have to take the limits off. Now open your gifts.”
She reached for her presents with a shy smile. She opened the first box and removed a necklace.
“Aww, Chris. The pearl is Belle’s birthstone.” She sighed as she fingered the necklace. She opened the second box and removed a smaller necklace for Belle. “You didn’t have to do this, Chris.” Her eyes were filled with joy and tears as she looked at me.
“Come here and let me put yours on.” I moved Belle to the floor beside me and fastened the necklace around Angel. Then I took the smaller one and placed it around Belle’s neck.
“And that one has my birthstone, . . . a garnet.” Angel sighed in delight as she fingered the birthstone on the baby’s necklace, as Belle bounced her arms up and down and squealed.
“I’ve got two more gifts for you.”
“Okay.”
“Close your eyes.”
“Okay,” she agreed happily as I grabbed another gift bag.
I removed the box from inside and spoke.
“I know we’ve only been dating for one month, but I’ve known you forever.
I saw how you bent over backward to make your house a home and please your man.
Everyone saw that. And while the others wanted a woman like that, I wanted the woman that no one else saw.
You always had a quiet confidence, not caring what others thought as long as your family was happy.
You love to sing when you cook and clean, and you’re so independent almost to the point of making others think you’re standoffish.
You’re not though. It’s because you don’t want to be a burden to others, but you want someone to take the load off without you asking them to.
“I love how you swing your ponytail a lot when you’re excited or bite the tip of your nail when you’re curious.
I love how you converse with Belle and how you giggle loudly at Baddies and holler at the people on Love Island.
I think it’s funny that you love ratchet music and how you can’t dance to save your life.
But what I love most is the way you love and care for Belle. ”
“You see me,” she whispers.
“You bring sunshine and magic to my life every day. Open your eyes, beautiful angel.”
She slowly opened them, and the tears that her closed lids were holding back fell down her face.
“Angel Snow, will you marry me?”
“I would be a fool not to, Christian Holly. Baby, yes, I’ll marry you.”
“I have one more gift,” I stated, sliding an envelope from my coat pocket that was on the couch.
“What’s this?”
“Open it.”
She took the envelope hesitantly and stared at it. She looked back at me, and I nodded. “Open the envelope, baby.”
“Chris, I don’t . . . I can’t.”
“Open it,” I encouraged.
She sighed, bit her bottom lip, and nodded. With trembling fingers, she unsealed the envelope and pulled the paper from within. Her eyes raced over the words on the paper, and she pressed her hand against her mouth. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she seemed to have difficulty breathing.
“Baby, are you okay?”
“I don’t know. Chris, how? I mean, I don’t understand. This paper says that you’re her father. I don’t believe it.”
“You can call and check for yourself.”
“But how did you know it? How can that be?”
“It was something Jeremiah said. When I took you to our gift wrapping party, I overheard Mama say Belle looked like me as a baby, and she asked you if there was a possibility. At the time, I thought she was tripping. Then there was the couple at the tree farm, Erica and Jay. He asked if there was a chance and reminded me of why there might have been.”
“But how?”
“During my training program, I signed up to become a donor for compensation. As I’m sure you’re aware, Cherokee Reproductive Center gives you the option to share your details with the recipient and vice versa.
At the time, I didn’t want to reveal my information, so I marked confidential with the option to know if someone had received my donation. ”
“I did too.”
“But after my conversation with Jay, I decided to go online to my records and complete the paperwork. I got the phone call this afternoon. I left for a break to get the results. Apparently, you changed your option to disclose also.”
“I did. I changed it when you all had to rescue Belle. I got to thinking what if she had a medical condition and her father or his family did too. How could I ever know if I kept those doors closed? I prayed that her father would change his option eventually because when I changed mine, yours was still closed.”
“Well, thanks to science and the great people at CRC, I learned today that I am Belle’s biological father.”
“Oh my God, Chris. This is a dream come true, baby.”
“This is the best Christmas present I’ve ever received,” I replied, lifting Belle into my arms. I kissed my daughter’s chubby cheeks as she gurgled happily and leaned in to claim her mother’s lips.
When I pulled back, I smiled. “Baby, look.” I pointed out the window.
“It’s snowing, Chris.”
“It’s our baby’s first Christmas snow. Wanna head out there in it?”
“Let me get her wrapped up first.”
My heart was overwhelmed with joy and love.