28. Caleb
CHAPTER 28
Caleb
D erek never showed up to the scheduled meet-up with Charlie last week, so we spent time in the park just the three of us. Then I took the girls to get ice cream to take Charlie’s mind off the fact her dad never showed. We took notes and recorded everything to help Bailey build her case to have Derek’s visitation rights revoked.
We decided to spend Christmas Eve at home, just us. Bailey shares their traditions with me, an easy dinner in before baking cookies and watching Christmas movies with hot chocolate.
Bailey hands me a wrapped gift, and I look at it with furrowed brows. “I thought we were doing gifts tomorrow.”
“We are, but this is the Christmas Eve gift,” she says with a wide smile as she hands another gift to Charlie and takes one herself. They begin to unwrap theirs, and I open mine. My heart skips a beat as I see what she wrapped. I hold my pair of matching pyjamas in my hands and close my eyes.
Matching pyjamas is something families do.
This small gift means more to me than anything anyone else could get me. I reach out and pull both girls into a hug, kissing the tops of their heads and hoping my tears don’t fall. I don’t cry, but being pulled into this family—and being wanted—is making me more emotional than I’ve been since my dad’s death.
Charlie secures the matching bandana around Finn’s neck before we head upstairs and change into our matching pyjamas. Bailey insists on getting a photo of the four of us, so I hold Charlie on my hip while Bailey uses her phone for the picture. We take several, some nice and some silly. I watch as Bailey selects one of me kissing her temple and Charlie kissing my cheek and makes it her lock screen.
I lean down and whisper in her ear, “Send me those, please.”
She smiles and nods before we bundle up on the couch. Charlie insists on sitting on my lap, and Bailey tucks into my side. Contentment washes over me.
After Charlie falls asleep, I carry her upstairs and get her settled in her bed. I meet Bailey in the hallway, and we begin taking gifts out of our closet and bringing them downstairs, placing them under the tree. I stuff Bailey and Charlie’s stockings while she fixes some of the gifts. When she gets up and turns to them, tears fill her eyes.
“You stuffed them,” she whispers.
Her eyes find mine, and I stride right for her, wiping the tears as they fall. Her eyes close, and she leans into my touch.
“I always had to stuff all the stockings,” she says. “I didn’t stuff my own at first. And as Charlie got older, she would ask me about mine and I had to tell her Mommy didn’t get one. I decided to stuff my own after that first year so she wouldn’t ask me about it.”
Anger rises in my chest. Who doesn’t stuff his wife’s and child’s stockings? At least his wife’s, if she does his and their kid’s. Standing here, I vow to myself that I will make sure her and Charlie’s stockings are stuffed every year.
“You don’t need to worry about that anymore,” I say, giving her a quick kiss. “I’ll take care of it from now on.”
She closes her eyes, and I lean my forehead against hers. After a minute, we make our way upstairs and I hold her close as we fall asleep.
I n the morning, Bailey and I cook breakfast while Charlie colours at the table. When we finish, we head into the living room and open the stockings. Charlie is ecstatic about all her chocolate. She pulls out her new crayons, card game, and socks with bears printed all over them. She ignores everything else and brings the socks right to me.
“Look Caleb, Santa brought me socks with bears. You call me Little Bear. It’s so cool,” she says excitedly.
I smile at her and run my hand over her hair. “That is really cool. So, you like your new socks?”
She nods vigorously. “They’re my favourites.”
She goes back to her stocking, slowly putting everything back inside before helping Finn take everything out of the stocking Bailey insisted we get him. He excitedly plays with his new toys, and I set the treats on the side table. Once his stocking is done, Charlie puts everything back into it, like she did hers, and comes over to Bailey.
“Mommy, I cleaned up my stocking. Can we open presents now?” she asks as she clutches her hands together and places them under her chin in a pleading motion.
Bailey smiles at her. “Yeah, Baby Girl, we can open presents.”
Bailey drops to the floor in front of the tree and hands a gift to Charlie. “This one’s for Caleb,” she says, and Charlie runs the gift to me.
I thank her as she runs back to Ba iley, grabbing her own gift before settling on the floor in front of me.
I look down and read the tag on the gift in my hand.
To: Caleb
Love: Charlie
I open the gift, and inside is a hoodie that says, It’s okay if you don’t like hockey. It’s kind of a smart people sport with crossed hockey sticks in the middle. I laugh, and have Charlie come over so I can hug her and thank her for my gift. She shows me the new dress her mom bought her and then she opens another gift. She sits in my lap as she pulls out the giant haul of books I bought her. Her voice is full of excitement as she pulls each one out.
She turns in my lap and hands me a book. “Will you read this one to me?” she asks, and I chuckle.
“I will, but how about we open the rest of the presents?”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” I say.
Bailey hands her another gift and then she hands me one. She looks hesitant as I take it from her and slowly take the wrapping paper off the box. When I open it, I see a digital photo frame as well as additional frames underneath. I pull them out and see a photo of me with the guys at a game. There’s one of me and Charlie the first time I took her on the ice, one of the three of us Christmas tree shopping, one of me and Finn in the backyard. I continue to go through the stack until I come to one at the bottom. It’s of my dad and me at a hockey game when I was a kid. I stare at it, stunned. I don’t know how she managed to get her hands on this.
“I asked your mom for that picture,” Bailey whispers beside me.
I raise my gaze and meet hers. She gnaws on her lip as she stares at me.
“You don’t have a lot of pictures, and I thought that maybe adding a few might warm the place up a bit,” she says as she fiddles with her fingers in her lap.
I reach out, my hand going to the back of her neck, I pull her in for a slow kiss. This gift was not about the material, but rather she put a great deal of thought into it. She melts into me as she kisses me back.
I break the kiss and whisper, “Thank you,” across her lips.
She smiles and whispers back, “You’re welcome.”
“Open yours,” I say when we pull apart, and she goes back to the tree and pulls out two individually wrapped boxes with her name on them. She opens the smaller box first, and inside is a pair of earrings. They’re a pair of drop earrings with an amethyst stone in each. She stares at them for a minute before her eyes come back up to mine.
“They’re amethyst. It’s Charlie’s birthstone.”
“They’re gorgeous,” she says as she takes them out and immediately puts them in, not caring that she’s currently wearing pyjamas with Santa printed all over them. It’s adorable.
I hand her the other gift, and she opens it with a smile. Inside is a gold locket. It’s open to a picture of Charlie. I caught her staring at one during our trip to the mall, so I went to a jewelry store and found one worthy of her. She holds it reverently before she hands it to me and turns, lifting her hair so I can secure it around her neck.
She kisses me. “Best gifts I’ve ever received,” she whispers, and pride washes over me.
She snuggles into my side as we watch Charlie open the rest of her gifts. She opens a set of American Girl dolls I got her as well as clothes she can dress them in. There are a few games and movies too. She seems elated by all of it. Charlie goes over to the tree and grabs the last gift. It’s from Charlie to Bailey. I helped her wrap it and put it under the tree.
“For you, Mommy,” she says.
Bailey sits up, taking the gift. She looks over her shoulder at me and then back to the gift. She carefully opens the box, and her jaw drops as she looks inside and then back at me.
She pulls out each vinyl album in awe. When I asked Charlie what she wanted to get her mom for Christmas, she told me Taylor Swift, so I did some research and we got her all the albums on vinyl.
“Do you like them, Mommy?” Charlie asks.
Bailey’s eyes jump up to her daughter’s. “Yeah, Baby Girl, I love them.”
She sets the box aside and hugs her. I pull my phone out and snap a picture of the two of them. They both turn and look at me, and I snap another, then set it as my lock screen.
When Charlie goes back to her toys, I say, “My mom has my dad’s old record player. She doesn’t use it and said we can bring it home with us tonight after dinner.”
“You’re not real,” is all she says before returning to her position at my side.
I wrap my arm around her as we sit and watch Charlie play with her new toys.
We eventually clean everything up and head upstairs, getting changed before heading to dinner at my mom’s place. We load all the gifts for my family into the back of the truck before heading over. When we get there, Bailey insists on helping in the kitchen and Sarah wants to hang out with Charlie, so Max and I sit on the couch in the living room, each with a beer in our hands.
“You love her,” he says.
My head whips to him, and he looks at me with a shit-eating grin and chuckles.
“Never thought I’d see the day when my baby brother was head over heels for a woman, but I’ve got to say, I’m happy fo r you, man.”
I take a deep breath and lean my head against the back of the couch. After a minute, I lift my head and look towards Bailey through the entryway between the kitchen and living room. “I’m not sure she’s ready for the words,” I say. There’s no point in denying my feelings because he’s right. I’ve fallen for both of these girls, but I’m not sure Bailey is ready to be loved again, no matter how much I want to.
“Don’t give up on her.” Max’s voice is soft as he says it.
I look him dead in the eyes. “Never. I will never give up on her. She will always have me.” My voice is full of conviction.
He pats me on the shoulder. “Good,” he says before pushing off the couch and making his way over to his wife. He kisses the top of her head then heads into the kitchen.
“Dinner’s ready,” Mom calls from the kitchen.
Dinner is relaxed, and everyone laughs as we eat and talk. When we finish, we move into the living room for our gift exchange. Mom has completely spoiled Charlie. Bailey grips my hand as she watches Charlie unwrap everything Mom got her.
“It’s too much,” she whispers.
I kiss her temple. “Mom wouldn’t do this if she didn’t want to. Don’t worry about it,” I say.
“I thought you could keep some of these new toys here, for when you come and visit Gran,” Mom says, and Charlie nods excitedly.
Mom got Bailey a peacoat and a scarf, and brings out the record player for her. Bailey fawns over it, and it has both Mom and me smiling.
Max is looking at us like his every suspicion has been confirmed. I get up and make my way into the kitchen to grab a glass of water when Mom joins me. She jerks her head towards the stairs, and I follow her up them. She leads me into her room and makes her way into her closet before returnin g and handing me a small velvet box.
“Your brother wanted to buy a new one when he proposed, but I have a feeling that your Bailey will like the sentimentality of this one. Your father would have loved both her and Charlie. He’d be so happy for you,” she says.
I look down at the box in my hand and open it. Inside is my mother’s engagement ring. It’s a simple white gold band with a round stone in the centre. It’s not overly showy, but big enough to be a statement piece. It was for years. It represented my parents’ love for one another. I know Mom’s right, this is the perfect ring for Bailey when it’s time.
“I see it in your eyes,” she says softly. “The way you look at them both. I see your love and devotion for both of them. I know you’ll spend the rest of your life protecting and loving them. Your father would be so proud of the man you’ve become.”
I take a deep breath and close my eyes as I wrap my arms around my mom. There’s something about a hug from her that centres me, even at almost thirty years old.
“Thanks, Mom.”
She pats my back and pulls away. “I’m happy for you, Caleb.”
Her hand comes up, and she gives my cheek two light taps before she leaves her room. I stare at the ring for a minute before stuffing the ring box into my pocket and heading downstairs.