3. No Traditions
NO TRADITIONS
K andi
“I promise, Mama. I’ll be back in time for our annual celebration. If nothing else, I’ll definitely be back in time for the Christmas Eve birthday celebration, storytelling hour, and the opening of our stockings and first gift.”
“Kandi, you’ve never missed a single holiday.
What’s so special about this new job that you’re having to leave at this time of the year?
Doesn’t your boss know this is the time that everyone flies back home or celebrates the holiday?
I’m sure if you asked him, he would have given you the time off,” my mama complained.
I glanced at Mr. Kayn sitting on the seat opposite mine. We were in a chauffeured limousine, my first time riding in one. And he was busy on a business call as usual. I had been picked up ten minutes ago, and the driver had loaded all my bags into the car.
Mr. Kayn had been on the phone at the time, and he hadn’t even bothered to greet me. I hopped into the car and took the bench seat opposite him with my purse and laptop in hand. I’d been working on a few items when my mother called.
“I did try to explain, Mama.”
“You couldn’t have. Anyone with half a heart would have said yes unless he’s a Scrooge.”
I rolled my eyes and didn’t say a word. I couldn’t with him sitting across from me. After all, that was exactly what the staff at Scenic Vista Landscaping called him.
“He is a Scrooge, isn’t he?” my mother shouted in my ear.
I looked over at Mr. Kayn, who happened to be staring at me at that moment. My stomach squeezed tightly, and I wondered if he had heard her voice through the phone. She wasn’t exactly quiet.
“Uhm, Mama, I have to go. We’re almost at the airport now. I’ll call you after I land and I’m settled in my hotel, okay?”
“Okay, baby. You be safe out there, and make sure that he knows what your family thinks about how he’s treating our baby at this time of the year.”
“Mm-hmm. Sure, Mama.”
I was the baby of the family, and everyone treated me as such. It didn’t bother me that they all handled me with kid gloves. I knew that it stemmed from their desire and need to protect me as the youngest.
I glanced up at Mr. Kayn as he ended his call. I hummed a tune from an old Christmas movie as I typed on my laptop.
“Do you have to?”
I glanced up.
“Excuse me?”
“All that Christmas humming you’ve been doing since we picked you up. ’Bout to drive me out my damn mind,” he mumbled.
Those gorgeous, stern features on that sepia-colored face were contorted into a mask of discontentment.
“Actually, yes, I do feel the need to do that. Christmas songs and humming tunes at this time of the year keep me in the spirit of the season. It’s so easy to get caught up in the world and the hustle and bustle that we forget to focus on what’s important.”
“Which is?” His sleepy, nut-brown bedroom eyes bore into me as if he wanted to really know the answer to that question.
“Family values. Love. The spirit of the season, which is about Christ’s birth and His love for us. Traditions.”
“Traditions?”
“Yeah, you know, family traditions for the seasons.”
“Mmph.” He grumbled and turned his gaze out of the window.
“Don’t you have any?”
“No.”
“Don’t you have anything that you remember doing as a kid that still holds a special place in your heart?”
“No.”
“Come on. You had to have baked cookies, wrapped gifts, decorated the tree, or something. I’m sure if you search your mind diligently, you’ll find something that brings a smile to your heart.”
Mr. Kayn’s gaze grew heavy as he took me in from head to toe, and a slight smile lifted those plump, wide lips. My heart lurched in my chest, and I crossed my legs to ease the way my pussy throbbed below.
“I’m guessing you came up with something.”
“No memories from childhood.”
The way that he said that warned me not to poke the bear.
“Well, we have plenty of memories and traditions in our family. That’s what my mother was calling about.”
“Like what?”
“We wear matching pajamas on Christmas Eve. We spend the entire day cooking our Christmas dinner and snacks for the evening, and we order pizza for dinner. We sit around the living room close to the tree and watch all the Christmas movies that were popular when we were kids. We laugh, sing, and then when we’re done, we empty our stockings, and we’re allowed to open one gift.
It’s the same things that we did when we were kids, but we keep that going as adults.
When my sister and brother, Holly and Nicky, marry and have kids, they will keep the traditions going. ”
There was another special celebration that we held, but I didn’t discuss that. It was too personal.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Will you carry the traditions with your husband and children?”
My face grew warm at the personal question, but I didn’t mind answering.
“I will . . . whenever I find someone. Holly and Nicky are already with someone. I haven’t found that special someone yet.
We watch the tree lighting and decorating in the square the week before Christmas.
We attend the Christmas play at our local church, and then we serve those who are less fortunate.
Our family has so many traditions that we do in the week leading up to Christmas. ”
“This week?”
“Yes.”
“Is your family in Cherokee Springs?”
“Yes.”
Mr. Kayn waved his hand and shook his head. “All that stuff is superficial.”
I smiled at him and replied. “You’ll feel different when you fall in love and have a family. You’ll want to give them everything that makes them happy. You’ll look back on this time and see how wrong you were.”
He shook his head. “Don’t hold your breath, Miss Jolly. I’d hate to see you pass out.”
“Is there a reason that you’re so cynical about the holidays?”
“I just don’t buy into the hype, that’s all.
People go overboard, making something out of nothing.
I’ve watched too many people go into debt trying to buy gifts and memorialize one day when they still have to make it through the rest. Or they place expectations on other people who will undoubtedly let them down.
Little kids idolize people that will break their hearts when they learn the truth. ”
His words saddened me. Someone or somebodies had let him down through the years, and somehow, I doubted it was the belief that Santa Claus was real. No, people close to Mr. Kayn had disillusioned him.
He was so fine and handsome. He would meet some lucky woman one day, and everything that he believed in that moment would change.
He would let his guard down, give her his heart, and let her inside of those brick walls.
Despite the gruff exterior that he held and the fact that he might always have it toward the outside world, I knew deep inside, he was a teddy bear.
I knew that he would be protective and loving to his woman, whoever she would be.
A slight pang of jealousy threaded its way through my heart.