I smile and bite my lip. “I thought you’d have some fun. I know you prefer your races illegal, but this might be cool too,” I joke, and he smiles warmly at me, an emotion in his eyes that makes my heart squeeze.
“I love it. You didn’t have to do this, but thank you.”
He puts the envelope down on the dresser beside my necklace and holds out his arms. I practically scramble off the bed and jump into them.
I barely kiss him before there’s banging on the door.
“Hey!” I hear Noah’s voice. “Hurry up in there! We want to open presents!”
“Guess we should go before the children get antsy,” he says, even though neither of us makes a move to pull apart.
“I am not a child!” comes Noah’s voice from behind the door. “But I still want presents!”
We laugh as we pull apart and head into the living room, where everyone is gathered with the present from their Secret Santa.
As I sit down with Aiden and grab the gift with my name on it, I look around at all my friends and their happy faces. The twins are jumping all over e
ach other to show Aiden what Santa left for them, and Aiden manages to look genuinely surprised. He even tells them he’s jealous that the boys got video games and all he got was some chocolate and a tub of protein powder, and tells them it must be because they were extra good this year. Julian, Chase, and Mason are already devouring some of the snacks left in their stockings. Annalisa and Charlotte are reading the uses of each face mask, and Noah is complaining that his real stocking must be hidden somewhere because there’s no way he could’ve gotten coal.
This may not be the most conventional holiday, and we might be away from home, but I already know that this is my favorite Christmas ever.
15
It’s Friday night, and we all go to the carnival that the locals have been talking about. It’s a pretty big event, with people from towns all over showing up to have a good time. There are a bunch of rides that, to be honest, look pretty rickety, but are holding their own, a bunch of games and stands, and seemingly more food trucks than there are people. The rain even stopped for the night, letting us enjoy the night wearing just sweaters.
“Congratulations! You’re the winner!” the man at the makeshift stand tells Aiden as Annalisa and I pout since we were also competing.
“This game is rigged anyway,” Annalisa mumbles as Julian hands her purse and jacket back.
“Amelia has two fingers taped together and she didn’t do too bad.” Julian motions to my dislocated finger, earning him a glare from his girlfriend.
“You get to pick anything on the top shelf.” The game attendant waves at the line of medium-sized stuffed animals.
Aiden looks at me. “Pick whatever you want.”
I beam at him and turn to the game attendant. “I’ll have the dark-blue dragon, please.”
I thank him when he hands it to me and clutch it to my chest as I turn to my friends.
“There’s a whole collection of cute bears and dogs, but you go for the dragon,” Aiden says.
“Dragons are badass.” I defend my choice as we walk to the food trucks where the others are supposed to be. “Plus, it kinda reminds me of you, Aiden. I think I’ll name him AJ, for Aiden Junior.”
“How do I remind you of a stuffed dragon?”
“Because you’re scary and fierce like a dragon, but on the inside you’re cute and cuddly like this plush toy,” I tell him as I hug AJ to my chest, resisting the urge to pinch Aiden’s cheeks.
“I am not cute and cuddly,” Aiden grumbles, but a small smile escapes anyway.
We laugh at him as we reach the picnic table Mason and Jason are sitting at, eating giant pretzels and arguing about something that’s most likely trivial.
“Where’s Jackson and everyone else?” Aiden asks.
“I don’t know, we haven’t seen them in a while. They went off to go on rides and stuff,” Jason says as he wipes his mouth on his sleeve.
Aiden scowls at him but is interrupted from saying anything when there’s an outburst from a crowd not too far from us.
“What’s going on over there?” Annalisa asks as she sits down at the table and steals a piece of Mason’s pretzel.