December 20th
Traditions.
Ainsley
“Good morning,” Damon says brightly when I answer his call.
“Good morning to you,” I say groggily. “What time is it?”
“A little after nine.”
“Oh wow,” I say, surprised.
“You’ve had a busy last few days,” he says.
“So have you. I feel like we’ve barely gotten to talk.”
“Well, with us deep in preparations for the bowl game and you starting your new job, I think we’ve both been pretty tired.”
“I think it’s more the fact that I’m starting to feel heavy. My lower back is sore, and my hips feel like they aren’t functioning right. Like, they are too loose. When I get up, you’d think I was quite old.”
“Your ligaments are loosening up in preparation for birth.”
“I know, logistically, it’s all normal and everything. What I’m saying is, I’m not super comfortable. And I’m only thirty-two weeks on Monday. How am I going to do this for two more months? Thank goodness I don’t have to walk up the stairs every day at work.”
“Are you sleeping with pillows?” he asks me.
“Of course I sleep with a pillow. Should I stop that?”
He chuckles. “When Jennifer was pregnant, my dad would laugh and say that Jennifer would rather sleep with her pillow than him.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Lying on your side and sleeping with a pillow between your knees can help align your hips and reduce lower back pain.”
“Really?! Hang on.” I set my phone down, grab the pillow next to me, roll to my side, and position the pillow. I hit speaker on my phone and lay my head back down. Immediately feeling some relief. “Oh, that actually does help.” I let out a deep sigh, feeling relaxed. “You’re my hero.”
“Glad I could help,” he says with a laugh. “What are you doing today?”
“Sammy and I are going shopping online.”
“How does that work?” he wonders.
“For him, it means he’s opening a bottle of champagne, sitting next to me with his laptop, and we’ll be online shopping side by side. He even has a set time for it. Like it’s a date or something.
“Anyway, last night, my mom was out with Hayes. So, we had dinner together and came up with ideas for everyone on our list. Thankfully, mine isn’t that long since I usually just buy for my parents and Sammy.
“How does it work in your family? Should I buy something for everyone? Do you all exchange presents?”
“We do, but Chase and Devaney are doing joint gifts this year, so I think we should too.”
“And have you bought any of these gifts, or do I need to? And what do you spend?”
“I actually have all our holiday shopping done. I shipped everything to my mom’s, except for her gift, and she’s going to wrap them.
It’s her favorite thing to do during the holidays.
Most other things, like decorating the house and cooking, she hires to get done, but she loves gift wrapping and offered. ”
“That’s nice of her,” I tell him. “And it’s funny. My mom loves decorating the house, putting up garland and the tree, but she hates wrapping and always lets me do it. Sometimes, she’d sit next to me while I wrapped my own gifts!”
“Didn’t you peek?”
“No, that’s why she’d sit next to me!”
“That’s funny.”
“What do you like about the holidays?” I ask him. “Like, are there traditions your family does that we’ll want to make sure we do in our family?”
“It’s crazy to think that this time next year, we’ll have a baby who is crawling for sure and maybe even starting to walk.”
I touch my stomach and smile, just imagining it. “I can’t wait.”
“Me neither,” he says. “But as far as traditions, we always dress up on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning, we all wear pajamas and get to open our stockings while food goes into the oven. We take turns opening presents so we can see what everyone gets—that’s my favorite thing.
I like watching more than I like opening my own presents. ”
“My family does the same things, so I’m in agreement on all of that. Once, I went to my uncle Van’s house, and they opened their presents in a free-for-all. I sat there and watched and didn’t touch mine because I was trying to see what everyone got.”
“I would be that way too,” Damon says.
“Any traditions you think would be fun for us to do?”
“Well, Dani brought up some food for thought the other night. How will we celebrate together, just you and me? Our family?”
“Our family. I love that,” I say, tears filling my eyes. I sniffle.
“Are you crying?”
“Maybe a little. It’s just the thought of us together. Having our own family. It’s really sweet.”
“I love you,” he says. “There is a lot of family stuff on my side to do, and I’m sure yours too. We probably need to make a schedule.”
“Yeah, we probably do.”
“I’ll send you a text with what I know, you add what you know, and then we can discuss later when we’ll go where. Deal?”
“Deal,” I say happily.
“And as far as you and me, on Christmas morning, I’d like for us to have some time to ourselves in our little cottage.”
“That sounds like heaven,” I tell him. “Just think, only four more days until I get to see you.”
“We’ll be flying home on Wednesday, right after practice, so really, only three more days.”
“Even better,” I tell him.
Perfectly timed.
Damon
“You didn’t tell her?” Chase asks me after I hang up.
We’re in the practice facility, having a post-workout smoothie.
“Nah, I want to surprise her,” I tell him. “Especially with the other stuff I have planned.”
“And how are you going to make that all happen?” he asks, but then we both laugh, and he goes, “Sammy.”
“I suspect that’s why they’re shopping together online. She didn’t mention when they are doing so, but I’m sure it’s perfectly timed so he can keep her in the main house while my elves get everything into place.”
“She’s going to cry—you know that, right?”
“As long as they’re happy tears,” I tease as I glance at my watch. “Speaking of timing, we need to get down to practice. Focus. Shower. Get all pretty. And get our asses home.”
Chase puts his smoothie cup up to mine and says, “Cheers to that. I haven’t seen my wife in way too long.”
“It’s been, like, four days,” I tease.
“Feels like longer than that,” he says.
One of a kind.
Ainsley
I’ve ordered all my gifts and made sure they will be here on time, and I am now listening to Sammy hem and haw about what to get his mom.
He’s trying to decide if she would be willing to give up the stand mixer she’s had since Sammy was a kid for a new one that features a gorgeous wooden bowl. Heck, I want one now. It’s so pretty.
“I think I’m going to go lie down,” I tell him.
He turns to me, his eyes narrowed. “I helped you with your shopping. I am not letting you ditch me in my time of need.”
“Your time of need? You need to hit the Buy button on the mixer, and then you will be done.”
“Fine,” he says, checking out quickly. “But you’re not leaving me yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to talk to you about your house. I know you were a bit overwhelmed before, but I’m wondering if it’s gotten worse since you started work or better?”
“I’m going to have to make a lot of decisions regarding both, but at work, it won’t all be on me. I’ll run everything by the team. The house is another story, and I need to talk to Damon more about what he wants. I’m hoping to do that in person when he’s home for Christmas.”
“I think you should buy some furniture from me,” he says.
I tilt my head and can tell by his expression that he already has something in mind. “Show me.”
He gets a big grin on his face. “Obviously, you don’t want to design a home around furniture—it should be the other way around—but there are a few pieces that I think look like the you that you want to be.”
“The me I want to be?”
“Eh, well, the me you should be.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” I scoff.
But then he turns his laptop toward me and pulls up a photo. “Does it now?”
“Oh my gosh, Sammy. Yes, it does,” I say, looking at a beautiful table. It is round, has dark wood, seats eight, and would go perfectly in the breakfast room. “Can you imagine filling that with kids?”
Sammy chokes out, “You want six kids?”
I shrug. “Maybe.”
“Wait until you have this one,” he says, gently patting my bump. “And we’ll talk again. I was thinking it would be great for when you have family over. There’s this too.”
He flicks to a different saved page and shows me a large sectional sofa.
“I can configure it to fit any sized room, but I was thinking this around the fireplace. Can you just imagine a big Christmas tree in front of the window overlooking the lake, with your family lined up in matching pajamas on Christmas morning, opening presents?”
“Damn, Sammy,” I say, tearing up. “If you say stuff like that to your customers, they are going to buy it all.”
Sammy grins. “I’m an emotional being. And it’s not just about sales. I truly believe we need to have a mental picture of the kinds of ways our spaces will function. If we do that, we’re meeting the emotional needs of our clients.”
“You just quoted one of our professors,” I say with a laugh. “The one we didn’t like.”
“It was literally the only thing he said all semester that I wrote down. I’m so glad school is over.”
“Me too. What colors does that couch come in?”
“Lots of fabric and color options. You haven’t told me what you’re thinking for any of that.”
“I know. I need to talk to Damon. I do have some ideas though. Haven’t we both been packing away ideas for the future in all our classes?”
“Yeah, of course. I wanted something totally modern. Now it’s like I’m living in a space where I come from a long line of royalty.”
“Do you not like it?” I ask, suddenly worried.
“No, I freaking love it. I mean, adore it. I want to marry that room. Seriously. Which kind of opened my eyes, you know. About life. And love.”
“Love?”
“Yeah. I think, sometimes, I had these ideas about my perfect partner. Who, in my stupid head, was Roman. I could see us living in a modern place. Everything perfect. Nothing out of place. And now, when I think of that, it feels cold. Now I want imperfection. I want to love someone who isn’t perfect. ”
“Who doesn’t think they are perfect,” I say with a cough.