23. Drew
CHRISTMAS DAY
“Hey, beautiful.” I greeted Pretty with a kiss and wrapped an arm around her waist. She had met me at the edge of the sidewalk at the lodge we were staying in.
“Heyyy, baby. Are those for me?” she asked, pointing at the bouquet of tulips and roses in my other arm.
“Nah. This beautiful, older woman gave them to me and asked me to be her man. She said since I didn’t have a skiing partner, she wouldn’t mind being my partner for life,” I teased.
Pretty shoved my shoulder playfully. “All right. Don’t get that old woman fucked up out here.”
“Damn! Language, baby, language.” I chuckled.
I handed the flowers to her and kissed her lips sweetly again.
“I was only thinking about you up on those slopes. As soon as I finished, I walked into the gift shop and got these for you. I’m a territorial ass nigga, but I had no idea you were kinda that way too. ”
“I won’t deny it; I’m a bit territorial myself. You’d better remember who you belong to.”
“I’ll never forget that I’m yours and you’re mine. On the real, though, I can’t believe that you didn’t hit the slopes with me.” I took her hand, and we walked back into the lodge.
“I told you that you weren’t about to get me out there and break my neck.”
We stopped at the front desk, grabbed our hot chocolate, and headed to the lounge area by the large picture windows and found comfortable seats.
“Girl, you’re being dramatic. I told you that you could take the bunny trail. You think I would let you hurt yourself?”
“I wasn’t about to find out. Besides, why would I risk it all on the bunny trail when you were out there expertly skiing like a pro? We wouldn’t be together anyway, so what difference did it make?” she teased, sticking her tongue out at me.
I captured her chin and tugged on it until she opened her mouth. I seductively sucked her tongue. She moaned, and I gave her thigh a little squeeze. “You’d better watch that tongue of yours.”
“Whatever. Back to what I was saying. Why would I risk it all? We weren’t going to be together on the slopes, so it didn’t matter if I stayed behind at the lodge, now, did it?”
“That’s your excuse, and you’re sticking to it, huh?”
“Yep. I might as well have stayed inside and remained warm while you froze your butt off in all that snow and ice.”
“Even if you weren’t a trooper or a ride-or-die—”
“Hey! Who said I wasn’t? I was all about the ride, but that dying had a different ring to it.”
I laughed. “Girl, you didn’t even take the ride.”
“Well, did I really need to get in that lift chair thingy and ride to the top of the mountain, just to ride back down and have done nothing?”
“It’s all about the experience, baby.”
“I think I’m pretty well experienced, especially in all things Drew Jennings.”
“Experienced on riding this dick,” I muttered, smirking at her above the rim of my mug of hot chocolate. “This is the best Christmas that I’ve had in a long while, babe. I wanted to tell you that and thank you for this gift.”
Pretty had gifted me with a Christmas trip to Aspen, Colorado. I had always wanted to spend the Christmas holiday at a ski resort. This resort had so many things to do beyond skiing, and we’d had fun doing everything together, except skiing.
“You’ve been so good to me, Drew. This was the least that I could do to bring happiness and joy to your life.
You’re always doing beautiful things for me.
Take this for instance.” She held out her ring finger on her left hand and marveled at the rock that I placed there.
With her chin resting in the palm of her right hand, she stared at the ring on her left hand.
“You didn’t have to go through all of that to propose to me.
You could’ve just taken me out to dinner and proposed or walked to my house and proposed over a good meal, or anything regular, but you didn’t.
You created an entire event to bring people out to tell me how special I am, how much they appreciated me, and in front of all those folks, you asked me to be yours.
That was so very special and sweet, Drew. So romantic.”
I smirked. “It was the least that you deserved, baby. How are we going to spend the rest of our Christmas Day?” I asked.
“Well, we spoke to our family on video chat first thing this morning. We’ve exchanged our gifts to one another, and you’ve been skiing.
We’ve been ice skating and sledding already.
We don’t need to shop anymore. I think we bought their stores out,” she declared with a giggle.
We’d shopped every day that we’d been in the small town, except for today.
“Okay, but how about a mild outdoor activity?”
She turned her lips down and asked, “How mild?”
“Mild enough that we’ll take a gondola lift to the mountaintop for dinner at Ice21. On the way, we’ll get to see some stunning panoramic views of the mountains, and after dinner, we can watch the sun set from up there.”
Her eyes lit up at my answer. “I would love that, Drew. It sounds so lovely and peaceful.”
“All right. Well, let’s head up to our room, shower, and get ready for dinner. The next lift leaves in about an hour,” I announced, glancing at my watch.
I had one more gift to give to her for Christmas, and I wanted to do it with a beautiful backdrop over dinner.
“That was just what I needed, baby,” Pretty declared, leaning into me. We had just finished dinner and dessert, and we were sitting outside on the restaurant’s patio bundled in blankets we were able to purchase. There were large outdoor fireplaces on two sides and one in front of us.
I squeezed her thigh underneath her blanket. “Are you cold?” I asked when I leaned into her and kissed her temple.
“No. It’s actually cozy enough that I’m starting to get a little hot, my feet and hands anyway.”
She removed her gloves, and I took them and stuffed them in my coat pocket.
“You’d better keep those boots on. If your ass gets frostbite on this mountain, I’m not carrying you back to our room.”
She laughed. “Why not? We’ll take the gondola back down, and you’d just have to carry me into the lodge and up to our room.”
“Did you see how much pasta and dessert you ate?”
Her mouth dropped open, and she elbowed me in the side. “Really, Drew? That’s what we’re doing now?”
I gripped her in my embrace and pulled her closer, laughing at her. I kissed the side of her head. “Girl, quit getting in your feelings. You know that I’m just teasing you.”
“Baby, look,” she declared, pointing at the mountains across from us. We sat higher up than the mountains on the other side. When I looked in the direction she was pointing, it looked as if the sky exploded with an array of colors.
The sun’s beams radiated in an assortment of red and gold hues across the sky’s horizon. It looked eerily beautiful and peaceful as it lit up the valley below and cast shadows across the trees.
“I am always amazed at Almighty God’s blessings and His glory. The works of His hands are stunning and not to be compared with anything man creates.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” I muttered, giving her a little squeeze.
I reached inside of my jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope that I had been carrying around all day.
I was looking for the perfect time to give it to her, but I hadn’t found the right time.
Now seemed like the right time. I had gifted her a Birkin bag, a platinum watch with diamond numerals from Tiffany, a Van Cleef motif bracelet, a silk pajama set, some fluffy house shoes, and a couple of sets of lingerie.
She had gifted me a beautiful diamond tie clip, since I wore a lot of suits now that I was a sportscaster, a thick, cotton, luxury monogrammed robe in black and gold, and a white-gold Rolex to add to my Air-King collection, in addition to this trip.
“This is my final gift to you tonight.”
“Drew, I told you that you’d done more than enough. You didn’t have to give me another gift. This is bananas.”
“I wanted to give it to you, baby. It’s something that I overheard you and your mother speaking about.”
She opened the envelope, and her jaw dropped. She slapped her hand against her mouth, and tears welled in her eyes. “Drew, baby.”
It was two airline tickets and a detailed itinerary for an all-expense paid trip to Alsace, France, her father’s hometown.
“Is that good?”
“It’s more than good. You overheard my conversation with Maman?”
“Yes, I did. Rather than you spending a grip on taking him over there for his mother’s birthday, I figured I would.”
“I could afford it, you know?”
“I know. I just wanted to do this for you.”
She wiped at the tears on her face and threw her arms around me. Her kiss was slow, but passionate and seductive.
She pulled back and smiled at me. The smile that was on her face was worth the bag I’d dropped on her for Christmas. I would do it a million times over again.
I wiped the tears from her face, and she reached inside of her coat pocket. “You’re not the only one who can give great gifts. I have one more gift to give too.”
“What gift?” I asked, staring at the envelope in her hand.
Pretty handed me a thick manila envelope. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”
She kissed me, and her eyes sparkled with unshed tears as her smile brightened even more. Despite the fact that the smile was on her lips, there seemed to be nervous energy hovering around her.
I opened the envelope and pulled out paperwork.
I scanned the details as I set the envelope on my lap. I was confused about what I was reading, but it seemed to be some sort of medical document.
Just as my eyes dropped to some details at the bottom of the page, the envelope slid forward. I grabbed it before it fell and felt something else inside of the envelope.
I reached inside and pulled out an oblong cream-and-blue stick.
“Baby, is this what I think it is?”
“It depends on what you think it is.”
I glanced at the paperwork again and then the stick. “We’re having a baby?”
“Yes, and I’m seven weeks along.”
“Is that why you didn’t go skiing?”
“Yes,” she replied, laughing. “I wanted to, and I hated to disappoint you, but I needed to be safe.”
“How long have you known, babe?”
“I first noticed that I was getting sick a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, but I didn’t think much about it.
I thought I had food poisoning or something.
When I missed my cycle right after Thanksgiving, I knew something was up.
Last week, when you were out of town, I finally decided to go see what was going on.
I stopped by the hospital to visit Lauren’s sister who had just had her baby, and I decided to get a checkup of my own.
I know that you’ve gone through a lot, so I want to offer you any reassurances that you need.
I’ve done some research and found that prenatal DNA testing isn’t as dangerous as it once was. There are much safer options.”
“Come on, Pretty. Baby, I don’t need all that from you. Since day one, you’ve been a woman of integrity, character, and virtue.”
“I don’t know about all that. I was riding your dick the first night that I met you.”
“That’s because I was just that charming,” I replied, cupping the back of her head and tonguing her.
When she pulled back, she laughed. “No, I want this for you, for us. I don’t want there to ever be a doubt or question between us. I want our little one to have the same assurances as well.”
I screwed my face up because I didn’t really need that, but she seemed to want me to have it. I placed my hand on her belly and lowered my head. She giggled when I pressed my lips against her belly and whispered through her coat, “Hello, little one. I’m your daddy.”
Pretty rubbed my head, and I rested it against her belly for a while. I closed my eyes and imagined the life growing inside of her that was a combination of our love.
“This is the greatest gift you could ever give me, sweetheart—the gift of life.”
“The greatest gift you could have ever given me is this little seed growing in my belly, Drew. Thank you for breathing new life into me—when I thought all was lost.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” We exchanged several sweet pecks before we opened our mouths and sampled each other’s tongue. Her kiss was as intoxicating as the sun descending behind the mountains across from us.
The gift of a baby had topped the gift of my holidays being spent in an Aspen ski resort.