Chapter 12
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Marnie
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” I snarl as I look down at the letter.
Ash’s sister sent him a letter from jail asking if we could put some money on her books and maybe visit so she could explain.
As far as I’m concerned, she can rot in hell with my ex and his brothers.
Maybe that makes me a bad person, but after what Alice did to Becca, she doesn’t deserve any forgiveness or grace.
We’re only about a week away from Christmas, and today, I’m taking Becca shopping so she can pick out some things for Ash as well as Mina and Ruby.
While she and Mina are ‘best friends forever’ according to Mina, Ruby is definitely in the thick of things.
Ash has already taken Becca shopping for me, and he said she asked if she could get something for Mrs. Talbot, in addition to her teacher.
I told him I’d help her with those, and we’re also getting the stocking stuffers for the brothers for Christmas morning.
I know from Ash that their businesses give all the brothers healthy bonuses, but Holly, Esther, and I decided they all needed presents as well.
New Henleys, leather gloves, heavy winter socks, beanies, beard care kits, and small tool sets are waiting to be wrapped at Esther’s house, which is what I’ll do during the day tomorrow while Becca’s at school.
Tomorrow night is the school’s Christmas play, and even though the kindergartners are trees, we’re going as a club to support the school and our kids.
I suspect there’s going to be a whole forest of giggling little ones, and Data’s already promised to take video for us.
I’m not always keen about technology, but right now, I’m glad for it because this will be a sweet memory for Becca to have of the year she became ours.
The club has delivered all the Angel Tree gifts, including the bikes and safety equipment the brothers bought, so at this point, it’s merely little stuff that’s left.
Well, outside of the food boxes that we’re putting together for the families of the kids we bought gifts for of course.
Esther is spearheading that one since PJ came down with RSV and Holly ended up taking him to the hospital.
She’s also watching over Becca’s unexpected gift that literally fell in Ash’s lap, which means that she’s sleeping at their house with the girls, so they don’t accidentally give away the surprise.
Grinning, I think about that day when he called me.
“Hey, what’s going on, is everything okay?” I ask. He was out ‘finishing up his shopping for his girls’ so I didn’t expect to hear from him until he got back home.
“Uh, yeah. So, it’s okay if you say no, Marnie, but I kind of think this was destined,” he says.
“What was destined?”
“Well, I was following behind a truck, not too close so don’t worry your pretty little head about that, when I saw something fly off into a ditch.
I pulled over and went to investigate and found a tiny orange and white kitten.
He’s got his eyes open, but he’s young. Do you…
I think we should get it checked out and give it to Becca for Christmas.
I’ll grab one of those automatic litter box things to make it easier, but we can get all the rest together or something. ”
I think about the stuffie she carries everywhere and realize that maybe she needs this. “Yeah, let’s do that and I’ll check with Esther to see if we can keep it there until Christmas. Do you want me to order the stuff to send there? We can have some of it delivered here, of course.”
“Okay, I already named it too,” he admits, chuckling.
“Of course, you did. So, what is this orange mush’s name?” I ask.
“Chance, because he’s getting a second one of those. What do you think?” he questions.
“I love it! She’s going to be so darned excited, Ash, she really is.”
He put the kitten in his hoodie pocket that was underneath his cut, then went to the vet.
While the little guy didn’t quite get a clean bill of health, he’s on antibiotics and should be good to go by Christmas morning.
Meanwhile, all the things we’re going to need here are tucked in our closet, presents from us have been wrapped and most of them are under our tree, which has Becca so excited already, and the ones that’ll come from Santa are hidden in Ash’s wardrobe.
Walking into Becca’s room, I ask, “You ready, Freddy?” which has her giggling as she grabs her coat.
“I’m ready! I even have my shopping list like you and Miss Holly make,” she exclaims, holding out the wrinkled piece of paper. She’s painstakingly written down each name she wants to buy presents for and my heart melts.
“Then let’s hop to it, chop suet,” I decree.
Prophet’s downstairs and he swings her up in his arms and carries her out to my SUV then gets her buckled into her booster seat.
It’s more like an enhanced carseat, actually, but it’s the safest one on the market for her age and weight.
While she’s steadily gained weight since we got her, she’s still got quite a ways to go before I’ll feel comfortable putting her in a regular booster seat.
She doesn’t seem to mind, so I push it out of my thoughts as I get into the driver’s seat, buckle up, then start my vehicle.
“Can we listen to Christmas music?” she asks.
“Of course, we can, it’s why I have Sirius XM,” I reply.
As the music fills the space, I think about all the experiences she’s had since Thanksgiving.
She’s met Santa several times now, and we have the pictures to prove it, and her teacher has let us know that she’s blooming each and every day.
She’s always been a good student, just very quiet, but now she actively engages.
I just know that I couldn’t love her more than if I had given birth to her myself.
“Can you help me wrap Ash’s presents?” she asks once we’re back home.
I took her to Chick-fil-A where she had a peppermint bark shake, along with nuggets and fries, before we went and bought more wrapping paper, tape, and labels.
Oh, and gift bags since some of the things are too awkward to wrap without them looking horrible.
“Yes, but what about the things you got for your teacher, Mrs. Talbot, Ruby, and Mina?” I question.
“Oh, I’m going to help Ash wrap the stuff we got for you, Ruby, and Mina,” she says. “I like buying presents for people, Marnie. It’s fun to give.”
“Yes, it is, sweetheart, yes, it is. Maybe for your teacher we should use a gift bag so you can take it to school tomorrow?”
She hums and I bite back a giggle when I see her tapping her chin. “That might be a good idea, because it’s a strange size. I want it to look pretty for her. I think we should do Mrs. Talbot’s present too.”
“Then that’s a plan. How about we go and pick up some Chinese food for dinner so we can watch some movies while we wrap? After school tomorrow, we’ll be making cookies for your class party, too.”
Which works out well for me. One of the brothers will pick the girls up from school so that Esther and I can get the other gifts wrapped.
We’ve got a system now; she boxes them up and puts the recipient’s name on the underside, then I get them wrapped up.
We’re actually going to do the cookies at Holly’s house instead of Esther’s so that the girls don’t see Chance.
I have zero clue how they’ve kept him hidden from Mina and Ruby, but so far, the secret has been kept.
“We should make a tray with carrots on it too, I think,” Becca says. “Me and Mina like them and we also like fruit.”
“Okay one fruit and one veggie tray coming right up!” I sing-song like a short order cook, making her giggle. Before we leave, I go ahead and place an order at the grocery store for one of each since it beats chopping and cleaning everything on my own.
“I put a call into the jail,” Ash says later on that night as we snuggle on the couch watching Die Hard.
I’m still not convinced it’s really a Christmas movie, but it’s hard to argue the fact when it’s set in December, there’s a holiday party going on, and decorations are everywhere.
Granted, McLane is blowing a lot of them up, but that’s beside the point.
“And?” I ask.
“I let them know that we want to be put on her no mail list as well as the no call list. I also informed them that we would not be helping her out financially in any way, shape, or form, nor would we be bringing Becca up there so she can ‘visit’ with her. While I know we’re going to get her into therapy after the first of the year, she’s doing so well at this point, I refuse to allow my sister’s machinations to derail that at all,” he growls out.
“Good. Because I would’ve had to consider returning your Christmas presents if you did,” I tease. “All jokes aside, I wonder if she was trying to get under Becca’s skin again.”
“Knowing that bitch, she was. Oh, and thanks for syncing your schedule on the calendar, babe. It makes it easier knowing where my two girls are, although I don’t mind calling you l to ease my curiosity.”
I giggle and say, “Thank Data. He’s the one who showed me how to do it. I figured that way, if there was something you needed and I was already out and about, I could grab it for you.”
“Well, I like it, especially since our schedule is beyond crazy right now,” he replies.
I look up at him from my position on the couch and ask, “Do you think it’s okay if I don’t work? I mean, I can during the day when Becca’s at school, but I really want to be able to nurture her, especially since she’s already showing positive results.”
“Sweetheart, I bring in more than enough money that if you never want to work another day in your life, you don’t have to,” he replies. “But I also know that you aren’t one to stay idle.”
A giggle bursts free because he’s definitely not wrong about that!
I nearly went stir crazy when I was recovering with all the downtime I was forced to take.
Still, there might be other things I can do, but I’ll think about those things after the holidays.
“That’s true too. But I know for a bit, she’s going to have a lot of appointments while we get her current on her vaccinations, and then take her to the dentist. Oh, and therapy.
However, that’s Future Marnie’s problem to deal with because I’m thoroughly enjoying being in the moment this year. ”