Chapter Twenty-Eight
RYAN
Christmas Day
We pull up the car at Roxie and Donny’s house, ready for Christmas lunch. I’m looking forward to seeing them again, although Tillie has warned me that Roxie might give me the third degree for breaking Tillie’s heart for a second there.
But I don’t blame her.
I deserve it.
So I’m willing to take the full brunt of her sister’s ferocity if need be.
“Are you ready?” Tillie asks as I pull the keys out of the ignition.
“Yep, let’s do this.” I smile, and she takes a deep breath and hops out of the car.
I slide out and open the back door to pull out the bag of presents.
I made sure to get Savvy a child-sized guitar.
I know Tillie told me not to, but I felt, as her new uncle, I owed her.
Especially if I’m going to be coming by and teaching her how to play, I need her to have something to play with, don’t I?
Otherwise, teaching her is kind of null and void.
Loading my arms full of gifts, I bump the door with my hip to close it.
Tillie giggles, racing around to help me carry some of the bags.
“I think it’s official… we went overboard,” she says, pointing at the ridiculous amount we are carrying.
I chuckle as we reach the front door, and Tillie somehow manages to push the doorbell.
Not long after, the door opens to a high-pitched squeal in Roxie’s usual greeting.
I shake my head as Roxie races forward, grabbing Tillie in a giant hug and swaying her from side to side even though she’s trying to hold on to presents.
“Oh my God, Till, it’s so good to see you. Merry Christmas! And you, too, Ryan. Come on in. Lunch is nearly ready,” she says while letting Tillie go.
She looks at me and furrows her brows, giving me the stink eye. I scrunch my brows, and she breaks out into a wide grin. “That’s all I’m going to say, Ryan. Okay?” She closes the door behind me, and I nod.
“I’m sorry, Rox. I’m just happy I came to my senses in time for Tillie to forgive me.”
She softly smiles and gently squeezes my elbow. “Me too, honey, me too. But if you break her heart again…” She pauses, giving me her well-practiced stink eye once more, then follows it with a bright smile. I nod, and she turns, walking into the kitchen.
That wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.
I place the presents on the couch and follow Tillie and Roxie to the kitchen, where Donny is busy mixing pots on the stove. He’s wearing a Mrs. Claus apron and a cherry red Christmas-inspired sweater. He looks like something from one of those old-style Christmas movies—it’s quite hilarious.
He turns to me and opens his eyes wide with a gasp while he looks down at his very feminine apron. “Fucking hell, Roxie! You didn’t tell me Ryan was coming.”
She laughs as I raise a brow. “I know, I did that on purpose just for this moment right here.”
Donny groans as he frantically tries to take his apron off, but he fails. “I swear, Ryan, I’m a man, a manly man. I don’t normally wear women’s aprons. It’s just the only one Roxie conveniently had available today. I bet she had this all planned out. The evil woman!”
Roxie giggles. “You may be correct in your assumption, dear husband.”
I laugh as Donny rolls his eyes, and Savvy rushes in from down the hall.
“Ryaaan!” she calls out, running right for me, her cute little curls bouncing as she goes.
“Hey, Savvy! Merry Christmas,” I say as she reaches me and lunges right into my arms. I pick her up before she wraps her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly.
“It’s so good to see you again. This is the best Christmas. Ever!”
“Well, it’s nice to know I’m not your favorite anymore, Sav,” Tillie says with a smile, and Savvy giggles.
“Aww… Auntie Til, you’re still my favorite. Just Ryan is cooler, that’s all,” she clarifies.
“Good to know,” Tillie says as I wink at her and move Savvy to my hip.
“We brought presents,” I say.
Savvy jumps up and down on my side, and I have to grab her again with two hands to keep her from dropping as she cheers loudly.
“Yay, presents! Can we open them, Mom? Can we?”
“Oh God, more stuff she doesn’t need. I hope you didn’t buy her anything expensive, Ryan!” Roxie emphasizes my name with a smirk.
I smile, trying to hold my laughter in and tilt my head. “I can neither confirm nor deny those allegations.”
“Oh, geez… okay, kid, go unwrap your presents,” Roxie says.
Savvy drops down from my arms and runs to the living room.
We follow her in, and Roxie walks up beside me. “You better not have spoiled her.”
“I might have… just a tiny bit.” I move my thumb and pointer finger close together and wrinkle my nose.
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head as we file into the living room, where Savvy’s already gotten all the gifts out of the bag. She grabs one and runs it over to Donny. “Dad, this one’s for you.”
“Thanks, guys,” Donny says.
Savvy runs another one to Roxie, shoving it in her arms so she can quickly get back to the others. That’s when she notices the other three gifts are all for her.
“They’re all for me?” Her eyes light up, and she jumps around in a circle.
A slight pain seeps into my chest, thinking I could have had something like this with Maddie.
But I’ll never see that, feel that elation of watching Maddie open her presents.
In times like these, it’s hard not to think about her, about them, but I know there’s no point in dwelling on the what-ifs of life.
I know from experience, it’s too damn depressing.
She opens the first one, a guitar chord book. She opens her eyes wide and smiles. “Does this mean you’re gonna teach me, Ryan?”
“Sure does.”
“Yes!” She throws her hand in the air and opens the next slightly smaller gift. It’s a set of picks in different colors and designs, and there are a ton of them. Her eyes shoot open, and she turns slowly to face me as Roxie groans.
“If there are picks, that means… oh my God. Oh my God!” She grabs the huge third present, which we wrapped in a rectangular box so it wouldn’t give it away.
She pulls the paper off dramatically to find the cardboard box.
She slumps slightly as if she’s disappointed, then opens the box to find a guitar case.
She screams so ear-splittingly loud that I actually wince.
“Holy hell, it’s a guitar, an actual guitar. ”
“Savvy… language!” Roxie chides.
Savvy stands and looks at me. Her eyes droop, and her bottom lip quivers.
I smile as her eyes fill with tears before she starts to cry while she walks to me.
I’m not sure what to do, so I simply put out my hands and take her into a hug as she sobs uncontrollably into my shirt.
I look to Tillie, and she winces as I hold onto Savvy.
“Savvy, sweetheart?” Roxie says.
She sniffs, hugging me so tight. “This is like my birthday, and Easter, and Christmas, all rolled into one. This is the best present… ever. Thank you, Ryan. I’m going to play just like you.”
I kneel, taking her into a real hug. “You’re welcome, Savvy, and I promise I’m going to make time as often as I can. How about once a month, coming over to practice with you? Deal?”
She pulls back, looks at me, and nods.
“The only time I won’t be able to is when I’m on tour, but then I will still Zoom, and we can play, okay?”
“Deal. Thanks again. This is the best Christmas ever.”
She leans in to hug me again, and I hug her back. I glance up, and Roxie looks at me with a genuine smile and mouths, Thank you.
“Well, now we’ve had all that excitement, lunch is pretty much ready. I’ll get it all served up,” Donny says.
“Savvy, how ’bout you go and get cleaned up before lunch, okay?” Roxie says, and she and Donny walk into the kitchen.
Savvy lets me go and runs off down the hall, leaving Tillie and me in the living room.
“That was so nice,” Tillie says, walking up to me as I stand. She wraps her arms around my waist.
“I’m so glad she liked it. I didn’t think she would be that excited, but seeing her that enthused gives me hope she might make a go of it.”
“Well, with a mentor like you, who knows where she might end up? We should go help them set up for lunch,” she says, going to walk off, but I grab her around the waist and hold her to me.
“Before you go, there’s something I wanna ask.”
She raises her eyebrow. “Mm… sounds ominous.”
“Nothing too scary. So, Danger and Lunar are obviously getting married.”
Her eyes open wide, and she stops breathing. “Oh God… please don’t ask me to marry you.”
I shake my head. “Well, I wasn’t going to, but I’m gutted to know it would be a no if I did.”
“No, it wouldn’t be a no. It would be a… not yet. We’re not ready for that kind of—”
“Relax, babe. I’m not asking, and I’m not offended. I’m right there on that page with you.”
“Oh, thank God.” She smiles.
“But, I do think that Danger and Lunar deserve a house to themselves. There’s something else I haven’t told you…” I take a deep breath. “To do with Katie.”
She nods. “Okay.”
“My house. It’s where we lived as a family. I couldn’t bring myself to sell it after they died. Sure, I got rid of everything that reminded me of them, but I couldn’t part with the actual house.”
She nods slowly. “What does that have to do with Danger and Lunar?”
“So here’s my thought process. I don’t want to sell that house, but I don’t want to keep living in it, either. I think the memories of the relationship I had there make it weird for the relationship I have now, but I’d like Danger and Lunar to stay living there together.”
She nods. “Ryan, are you saying you wanna move out?” I nod, and she smiles. “And are you looking for a roommate?”
I nod again slowly and press my forehead to hers. “Think of anyone who might want to fill that role?”
She giggles. “Ryan, are you asking me to move in with you?”
I nod as I look deep into her dark brown eyes. “Tillie Marks, will you move in with me?”
She purses her lips and slowly shakes her head. “How ’bout this… I love my house, and it’s definitely big enough for two. So, Ryan Hunter, will you move in with me?”
I chuckle and raise my eyebrows in shock. I hadn’t expected this, but hey, it’s as good an outcome as any. “Yes! I’d love to.”