Chapter 26
Nate
SILVER BELLS
“I just changed my flight.” I hear her say the words and everything inside me stills, everything.
“I’m leaving Christmas morning at six a.m.” I stare at her, the sound of my heart pounding in my chest, echoing into my ears, as she tries to hide her smile.
“Kidding, I’m kidding.” It’s like all the air inside of me is sucked out and all I can do is look at her.
My heart studders as if someone is sitting on my chest.
I turn around to make the scrambled eggs. “Mom and Dad would kill you if you left on Christmas Day,” Joshua informs her and I close my eyes, trying to get a hold of myself.
“You think they are going to do anything Christmas Day after your wedding is the night before?”
“I think they mentioned they would be doing Christmas dinner at the house. But from what I gather, most of the family will be taking off that day.”
“Well, yeah, they only have a couple days off,” Elizabeth says. “I think I heard some of them have to travel on the twenty-sixth.”
“For whoever is left here”—Joshua moves to the coffee machine to make his own coffee—“they are doing a dinner.” He pours a mug and leans against the counter. “So I’ll count you two in.”
“Negative,” Elizabeth denies before me. “I’ll be nursing the biggest hangover I’ve ever had in my whole life.
” I look over my shoulder at her. “I plan on drinking as much as humanly possible.” She looks at me and the smile on her face settles me.
“Don’t worry, I plan to sleep on the bathroom floor anyway. ”
“Well, I’m not telling them that,” he scoffs. “You can tell them that. They might take away the Christmas presents they got for you.”
“Fuck.” She slaps the counter. “I didn’t buy anyone anything,” she hisses. “This is all your fault.” She points to Joshua. “I was so distracted by all the wedding stuff, I forgot presents.”
“If you want,” I offer as I pour the eggs in the pan and start to stir them, “we can hit up the mall, and then there is the Christmas market.”
“Yes,” she agrees. “We can go to the market and get everyone Christmas stuff”—she looks at Joshua—“so they can maybe hate Christmas as much as I do.”
I snort. “You are going to waste money, so they hate Christmas?”
“I didn’t say it was a good plan. I just said it was a plan.”
“Well, we love Christmas stuff,” Joshua reminds.
“Who said I’m getting you anything?” She fights back and he finishes his coffee before putting the mug in the sink, rolling his eyes.
“Okay, I’m out, I will see you guys tonight.”
Elizabeth groans, “Do I really have to practice walking down the aisle if I’m not the one getting married?”
“Yes,” he confirms. “You’re lucky I talked her out of doing a flash mob.”
“No.” Elizabeth shakes her head. “You’re lucky,” she growls at him as he walks to her and kisses her head.
“Love you the most,” he says and she pushes him away.
“You’re a lying liar who lies,” she hisses at him. “You better make sure no one objects at this wedding, or I’ll fight all of you.”
“Don’t put that shit in the universe.” He puts his hands on his hips.
“I’m not putting anything in the universe,” she defends herself as I plate the eggs and then walk over to grab the sausage. “If you fucked up by cheating on her and the woman is coming to claim you, how is it my fault?”
“I’m not cheating on her.” He puts his hands on his head. “Can you not even say that as a joke?”
Her eyes go big and I can see her fucking with him. “If there is already doubt, this marriage is doomed from the beginning.” His face goes ashen.
“Elizabeth,” I say her name and she bursts out laughing.
“I’m just fucking with you. I know you would never cheat on her because if you did and I found out, I would tell Mom, and then she would have Dad kick your ass. Then Jack would kick your ass.” She tilts her head to the side. “Then I would definitely shank you.”
“Noted.” He gives me a chin up and walks out of the house. She pushes away from the counter and gets off, running down the hall after him.
“Where are you going?” I look down the hall to see her coming back into the kitchen.
“I locked the door”—she gets back on her stool—“so no one else comes in here.” I laugh at her. “Imagine if you were doing me on the counter and Joshua just walked in.”
“That would be pretty hard to explain.” I chuckle and sit next to her. “Definitely can’t be like, ‘it’s not what it looks like.’” I chuckle with her. “Do you really want to hit up the Christmas market?” I cut a piece of sausage.
She nods her head. “I do, and now I have an extra gift to buy.” She looks at me and I laugh.
“I know a couple things you could give me off the top of my head.”
“I’ve already done most of those things,” she jokes, “unless we get a whole box of toys and really have a party.”
“I wonder if there are any Christmas sex toys?” I ask her and her eyes go big as she takes out her phone. “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking up sex toys for Christmas.” She looks over at me.
“Once I was in Paris and there was a vibrator shaped like the Eiffel Tower.” I open my mouth in shock.
“It came in different colors also.” She types something is her phone.
“Okay, here are a couple of things.” She takes a bite of her breakfast. “You ready?”
“I’m not sure anyone is ready for this,” I admit to her, “but here we are.”
“Okay, stocking stuffers, anal plugs.”
I look over at her. “I could do that.”
“Could you?” she asks me.
“I mean, it’d be hot knowing you were sitting in front of me with a plug.”
She laughs. “I was thinking the same. Sitting down to have Christmas dinner and seeing you wince.” I laugh.
“Okay, so that’s out.” I shovel more food in my mouth. “What’s next?”
“Santa’s sex position coupons,” she reads and I nod my head in agreement. “Twelve sex games of Christmas.”
“We are like one day out, so we’ll have to do triple every day.”
“That goes on the maybe list, then.” She takes another bite. “Under-the-mistletoe-sex dice.”
I laugh at her. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“Well, it says Keep Christmas Slutty.” She laughs. “It’s a roll of the dice that says suck dick, fuck like dogs, grind genitals, or fuck like rabbits.”
“We already do all of that.”
“True that. Ohhh I should get this for the bridesmaids.” She turns the phone so I can see. “Reindeer or Santa nipple pasties.”
I snort and move my finger up, swiping the screen. “That’s it,” I say, “a candy cane vibrator.” She turns to look at it. “Add to cart.” I shake my head. “I’ll surprise you.”
“Please do. I wonder if they sell boxers that have the mistletoe right on the dick area.”
“Ohh”—she points at me—“I’m going to get that for my dad and Jack, just to make them feel really uncomfortable.”
“Your mother would die.” I can’t help but laugh. “Or she might thank you.”
“Eeew,” she says, “I’m done eating. I don’t want to think my parents still do that.”
“They’ve been together for a long time, I’m going to say they have a healthy sex life.”
“Nate,” she hisses my name, “I’m going to need you to shut the fuck up right now.”
I can’t help but laugh at her. “I’m going to take a shower and get ready for the day.”
“But I cooked,” I remind her as she walks out of the kitchen. “Who cooked doesn’t clean.”
“You should have thought about that before you opened your mouth,” she quips.
I did not do the dishes, instead I joined her in the shower. I did the dishes while she fixed her hair. An hour later we are walking out of the house, I slide my hand in hers as we walk toward the truck. “It’s a nice day.” She lets my hand go to get in.
“You think the snow is going to be melted by the time the wedding comes?” she asks me when I get into the truck.
“Not sure.” I start the truck. “But my guess is Macy is going to make us take pictures outside.”
“Great.” She looks out the window as I make it to the Christmas market. I pull into the parking lot, shocked that it’s full. It takes a full twenty minutes before I find a parking space.
Getting out, she meets me in the back of the truck, and I bend to kiss her lips.
She smiles at me as she lifts her hand to wipe off the lip gloss.
I turn and slide my hand in hers as we walk toward the little huts that have been set up.
There are rows and rows of huts set up like a little village, all around the lot.
A big Christmas tree is in the middle of the square with children running after each other. “Where do you want to start?” I ask her and she shrugs.
“I’m not sure, why don’t we start here?” She looks up at me. “Then work our way down the aisles.”
“Sure,” I agree. “Just tell me when you want to stop.”
“You’ll know. I’ll be yanking you.” She holds up our hands, our fingers loosely holding on to each other.
We pass a candle shop first and she pulls me into it.
The scent of pine hits right away when I see wreaths hanging at the sides, as well as over the wooden top that is hanging overhead to stop the rain or snow from ruining them.
“These are so pretty.” She picks up one of the candles in a mason jar.
The top of the candle has a string of red and white around it, with holly hanging from it.
“It smells like cinnamon,” she mentions, taking a whiff of it and holding it to my nose.
“They are so good,” she says, taking another one that smells like cranberry and orange.
“This would smell so good in the house.”
“So, buy it,” I urge and she nods her head. We walk out with a bag of three candles. I grab the bag from her as we walk to the next shop. This one is all full of knickknacks and she just walks past it until she gets to the shop where they have homemade hanging stockings.
“Ohh look.” She points to one of the socks that has a caramel cat on it with a Santa hat. “We have to get this.” She looks at me. “And this one for Whiskey,” she says of one that has Woof written down the front, a Santa face in the OO’s. “We need one for Baby Cat and Bean also.”
She looks through them and then a woman comes over. “Can I help you?”
“You wouldn’t have one with a gray cat, would you?” she asks her and the lady shakes her head.
“Just take one that has a cat on it,” I tell her and she glares at me. “You know he’s not going to know, right?”
“We’re going to fill it with cat toys,” she informs me.
“Elizabeth,” I reply, trying not to laugh, “cats don’t really play with toys.” She looks at me like I just told her Santa isn’t real and she’s eight. “They chase things when they want to chase things.” The glare turns into a deep look of death. “I’ll shut up now.”
“That would be wise,” she agrees. “We’ll take these three,” she tells the woman, “and I’ll take this one.” She picks up one that has a Grinch on it. “Which one best suits you?” she asks me. “Here, you can either have a reindeer or a snowman.”
“Why don’t you surprise me?” I tell her and she shoos me away. I turn and head away as she picks a stocking for me. I see her smiling at the woman and then walking to me, practically skipping. “I got one for each of us.” She holds up the bag. “We can hang them and fill them with little treats.”
“Like the anal plug?” I ask her and she throws her head back and laughs.
I reach around to hug her neck, pulling her close to me.
The smile on her face is from ear to ear and it dawns on me that in a little over a week from now, she’ll be gone.
I don’t say anything else, instead I let her go and she walks over to the other hut, and I try to contain the crushing of my heart.
I knew the score going in, knew it wasn’t going to end well. I had just hoped it wouldn’t hurt.
I. Was. Wrong.