Heaving myself out of bed, I shooed the dogs into the hallway, closing the door behind them. I crawled back over to give Will a peck on the cheek. “Wake up, sleepyhead. It’s Christmas.”
“Uh-uh. Come back to bed.” He flipped over with lightning speed to grab me and pull me on top of him.
I kissed him, grimacing at our shared morning breath, before tapping him on the forehead. “C’mon, bud.” I knew exactly why he was moving at the speed of a tortoise on wet sand. “Time to do our good deed. This means a lot to Marley and James. Remember, I’m in this with you.”
He made a half-hearted growly sound, which was about as intimidating as a kitten, forcing me to stifle a giggle.
“Fine,” he relented, smiling.
Ten minutes later, teeth brushed, we strode into the living room in matching green holly leaf footie pajamas.
Marley squealed when she saw us. “Oh my god, you guys look even better than I imagined when I bought those. So cute!”
“Absolutely adorable,” Miranda deadpanned from her seat on the couch, sipping coffee in her tan gingerbread men onesie. She lifted her mug at us in a mock salute.
I gave her the middle finger and Marley made a horrified gasp. “Maureen! Not on Christmas.”
“Sorry,” I murmured.Not sorry.
James came out of the kitchen laughing. “I bet I can guess what Maureen just did.”
“All I did was give my sister a Merry Christmas gesture,” I said, going over to kiss him on the cheek. “And a very Merry Christmas to you too, future brother-in-law.”
“Thanks.” James stood next to Marley in their matching candy cane pajamas. “Breakfast is ready.”
By the time we’d sat down at the table, Leo had arrived along with his and James’s parents, Deanna and Chris. The older couple had on blue snowflake footie pajamas, while Leo matched Miranda’s gingerbread men.
As they walked in, I leaned over and said to Marley, “You’re lucky everyone loves you so much.”
“Shush. Don’t be a Negative Nelly. Everyone looks awesome. The pictures will be amazing.”
I had to admit, it was pretty cute to have eight grown-ass adults dressed like toddlers in celebration of the day.
“Hey!” Miranda said to Leo. “Cool. Ours are the same.”
“I think Marley wanted even pairs,” Leo said.
“That’s right,” Marley chimed in. “There were only four different patterns, and you guys are good friends, right? Good friends can be a pair.”
“Of course!” Miranda answered brightly, but Leo had an odd look on his face.
Twenty minutes later, I found myself alone with Miranda while James and Marley showed everyone else some updates they’d made to the backyard.
“Did you and Leo have a fight?” I asked.
“Not a fight, exactly,” she hedged. “There’s just been something recently…that we’ve disagreed on.”
The slider opened. Leo and James came back into the room, ending our conversation.
After presents—I’d given Willone of my father’s watches, rendering him speechless—we all sat in the living room enjoyinghot chocolate while Bambi and Oscar shredded the wrapping paper.
I told everyone about my career plans.
Will had helped me draft a business plan and found a local lawyer and freelance bookkeeper I could work with as needed.
The building that had burned next to The Landslide would be a perfect location to house my retail establishment. The owners were amenable to me renting the space, and the repairs they needed to make on the building allowed me to craft a timeline for getting everything in order for sourcing merchandise. I hoped to be open by summer.
James proudly told his parents the story of going out on his first volunteer fire call. “I like to think the guys and I saved the building just so Maureen could open her business there.”