An hour after that, we departed the plane again and stood at the private airport. I walked her to the car that I hired for her as the driver loaded her luggage into the trunk.
Placing a hand on each shoulder, I stared into her eyes.
“Thank you for being here with me. I needed you, and I appreciate all that you’ve done for me. Go be with your family and enjoy, sweet baby.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come?”
“No. This is your time. I’ll be fine.”
I kissed her lips softly, and Kandi threw her arms around me. She held me tightly and pressed her face into my chest. Slowly, I lifted my arms and held her close. I didn’t want to let her go.
“Thank you for sharing your Christmas with me, Kayn.”
I smiled, kissed her forehead, and released her. I watched her get into the car before I closed the door on her. When the driver pulled away, I remained in my spot as I watched them until they disappeared.
I had nowhere to be and no one to spend the day with. It had quickly become just another day. Christmas was only Christmas with Kandi in my life.
25
WHAT DO THE LONELY DO AT CHRISTMAS
Kandi
“It just didn’t feel like Christmas with you gone.” My older sister, Holly, pouted as she rested her head on her boyfriend, Chris’s, shoulder. She rubbed her ankle and smiled sadly at me.
“I know, and I’m sorry. But I couldn’t avoid it.”
“This new job is requiring too much of you. I would love to give that new boss of yours a piece of my mind,” my mother, Christina Jolly, stated as she handed my father a bourbon and sat on his lap with her spiked eggnog.
“It’s just one year out of many. We had the memories, and she’s here now, so let’s make the most of it,” my father, Nick Jolly, remarked before kissing my mother’s upturned cheek.
“But we didn’t get to spend her birthday with her, and that’s what upsets me the most. I have never been away from my child on her birthday since she was born,” my mother argued.
“Baby, she’s twenty-nine. It was bound to happen sooner or later,” he objected.
Holly hid her giggle behind her hand. My big brother, Nicky, shook his head. We were all used to the shenanigans. Ourparents would argue about us back and forth like we weren’t in the same room with opinions of our own.
“Do you like the new job?” Nicolette, Nicky’s girlfriend, asked. Nicolette was lying on the floor with her head in Nicky’s lap. He was pulling his fingers through her curls.
“I love it. Honestly, it’s not a new job but a new role at the same company. It was a promotion that was unexpected, and it came with a twenty-thousand-dollar salary increase. So I couldn’t complain.”
“How soon can we eat? I’m hungry,” Nicky complained.
“Well, if Kandi were here yesterday, it would all be done. As it was, I wasn’t inspired to cook until she arrived today, so we have another thirty minutes,” my mother stated.
My father had an old Temptations Christmas album playing softly in the background. It was adding to my melancholy. As I looked around the room and saw Nicky and Nicolette playfully teasing each other, my mother sitting on my father’s lap and him nuzzling her neck, and Holly and Chris singing “Give Love On Christmas Day” to each other, I couldn’t help but think about Kayn.
With all the gifts that he had been given over the last few days, I was certain the best gift that any of us could have given him was love. He had been sorely lacking in it, and considering how his parents behaved, it was no wonder he was starved for love.
I wondered what he was doing now. I missed his touch and having his arms wrapped tightly around me. I missed his smile and his smooth, rich voice. I missed the way he fought the urge to laugh about something and smirked instead, but the humor couldn’t be erased from his eyes.
I hopped up from my spot on the floor by my parents and stated, “I’ll be back.” I headed into my old bedroom to call Kayn. I knew that he had to be feeling lonely because he didn’thave any plans. It made me think about Christmases past, and I wondered what he used to do on Christmas Day. No one should be alone, especially when they had someone who cared for them a great deal.
“Hello?”
“Hey.”
“Hey, baby. Everything okay?”
