The sense of relief I’d had since Trey woke up from his coma could not be described.
If he asked for a monkey, I’d search high and low.
Luckily, all he wanted were the puppies.
The presents were packed.
I even stuffed in a small package for Monique. I couldn’t send it out earlier—due to circumstances—and mailing it in Canada would be faster anyway.
Cooper and Carson were beyond excited at the prospect of taking a trip with us. We’d also told them that Santa would visit us in Alberta, and not to worry.
They were skeptical at first, but then accepted this new information wholeheartedly.
Once we landed in Calgary, the first thing I insisted on doing was buying the boys their first pair of skates. We didn’t even go out to the ranch first to unpack.
Beau rented a Jeep and off we went to my favorite skate shop.
They all knew me there and had always treated me like family. We stayed far too long to chat and catch up, but it felt so good to be home again. My mom was now texting me every ten minutes wondering where the heck we were.
When I sent her pictures of the boys in their skates, she texted back, “Oh, good! I already bought them jackets and ski pants.”
I already knew this due to the fact she’d told me a dozen times. It was debatable who was more excited for this trip—my mom or the boys.
Anyway, to say I was grateful to her foresight in buying them coats and ski pants would be an understatement. The skate shop had been fun, but I was ready to get back on the road and go home.
An hour later, we pulled into the driveway at the ranch. It was dark, but they had all the outside lights on. “Wow, your mom really goes all out with the decorations,” Beau said when he stopped the car.
I gazed around the property and said, “Uh, yeah, there’s roughly a million more lights than usual. And I’ve never seen those blow-up cartoon characters before.”
He chuckled as I frowned at the huge characters in Santa hats.
“Cool!” the boys shouted over and over again. My mother had won them over and she hadn’t even met them yet.
The boys undid themselves from their car seats and bounded out of the Jeep as soon as Beau opened the back door. “Hang on, guys. Wait for Geneviève,” he said, but they didn’t hear him at all.
They went running directly to the blow-up characters and started jumping up and down.
My mom rushed out the door, yelling, “Geneviève, ma fille!” It didn’t take her more than a few seconds to capture me in her arms. “Je t’aime, ma fille. Tu m’as tellement manqué.”
“I missed you, too,” I replied back in French as she squeezed the living daylights out of me. Mom gave the best hugs out of anyone.
“Noémie, you’re hogging your kid. Give everyone else a chance,” Jase said, and I laughed, letting go of my mother.
“Hi, Jase, Merry Christmas,” I said in English, giving him a hug, too.
“Bonne fête, G,” he said, and we both snorted.
“That’s ‘happy birthday’, but close,” I said, still giggling at him. He knew what he was saying—or not saying. Jase and Mom had been together for years, but he still hadn’t picked up much French yet.
“Geneviève, aren’t you going to introduce us to your young gentleman?” my mom asked rather coyly.
I let go of Jase and turned to Beau. After I slid under his arm, I said, “No, but I’ll introduce you to this guy,” I said and Beau chuckled a nice, deep laugh, “Beau, meet my mom, Noémie and her husband, Jase.”
They all shook hands and made some initial small talk about our trip here.
Then Mom got all mom-ish and went to grab the boys.
Jase carried some of our luggage in, and Beau whispered to me, “You and your mom could be twins. I hope I make out with the right one of you tonight.”