“I’m so relaxed,” I insist, closing my eyes as I rest my hand on my belly.
“How’s the short coming along?”
I nod around a yawn, burrowing into his side. “It’s good. I invited Kathleen over before New Years to watch the latest version. Is that okay?”
“Of course, pretty girl. You don’t have to ask to have people over in your own home.” He tugs at my hair, gently massaging my scalp. I nearly groan in pleasure. “Are you ready for tomorrow?”
I nod very convincingly with my eyes still shut. “Uh-huh.”
His body vibrates as he chuckles. “It’s not too late to cancel.”
“Don’t be silly.” I tilt my head up to him. “I’m excited to meet them. Besides, they’re already in Scotland.” As soon as their visit was confirmed, his sister Tara added me to the family group chat, so I’ve been welcomed with a daily photo dump of their trip across the UK.
Jackson is picking them up at the train station tomorrow after they travel down from Edinburgh. “What time are you going to pick them up again?”
He readjusts and pulls his phone from his pocket. “Train gets in at one.”
“Are you sure I shouldn’t come?”
“Nah,” he sighs. “You won’t all fit in the car. Besides, I need them to get all their energy out before they meet you otherwise we’ll all get overwhelmed.”
“I can handle it.” I snicker.
He leans his head back dramatically. “I don’t know if I can.”
I laugh as I burrow into his side more. I take a look around the room. It’s neat and tidy. Quiet and cozy. Soon it will be full of people, full of laughter and conversation.
I know Jackson is worried that it will be too much,but I can’t wait.
“I’m excited,” I tell him with a smile. “We’ve always had a quiet Christmas and it’s always been…tense.”
Jackson gently rubs his hand up my arm. “Why? What do you do?”
“It’s just quiet.” I readjust my glasses as they slide down my nose. “I spend most of the morning cooking breakfast while they open their presents and then I start on dinner.”
“When do you open your gifts if you’re doing all this cooking?” He tugs at my hair gently.
I shrug, “I usually get gift cards, so there’s not much to open.”
He tightens his hold on me.
“Gift cards are fine,” I reassure him. “Obviously, I used to get gifts as a kid but the older I got the easier it was to just buy what I wanted myself. Sometimes I head out on Boxing Day and face the sales. I’ve got some really great stuff there. That bedding upstairs? I battled with a middle aged lady for it in the John Lewis sale one year.”
“Who do you go with?” he asks.
I shrug. “I go on my own.”
“I’ll go with you this year.”
“I think I’ll give it a miss this year. It’ll be nice to just sit around in my pajamas.”
“There’s a lot of that with my family,” Jackson reassures me. “I don’t think anyone can fit into their jeans after Christmas dinner.”
“What do you guys normally do?”
“We wake up, we watch Cody open all his gifts and embarrass him because he hates the attention, so then we have to open all of ours. The last few years, I’ve gone quite hard. And everyone gets mad at me for spending so much on them, but I do it anyway.”
I smile, thinking about the car that Jackson’s ordered forhis mum back in Wellington, and the elaborate gifting scheme I’ve helped him come up with so she has something to open on Christmas morning.
