Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 60219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
There was a silent acknowledgement in that. I was married now. It wasn’t just that I had a kid, but I was actually married, was living with Graham in our own place, and wasn’t over quite as much as I used to be. I didn’t want her to feel like she wasn’t important anymore, but she seemed to be handling it well. She was starting to ease into the idea that she had done what she needed to do and now could hang back and be a grandma.
I helped Mom finish dinner and then we sat down to eat, enjoying being together and having classic Christmas movies on the TV in the background. Owen was getting sleepy before we even got to the gift-opening portion, and though he woke up for the presents he got from his grandma, he was already asleep thirty seconds into the drive home.
When we got him back, I took him upstairs and put him to bed, tucking him in tight and shutting his door. His door creaked, which was something we didn’t want to fix, since it alerted us if he got up and was moving around. That came in especially helpful for what we were doing.
Gathering up the wrapping paper and bringing what unwrapped presents there still were into the living room, we sat down with our supplies and got ready to play Santa. As I started wrapping the newer items, Graham arranged the tree, filling all the available space under and around it with gifts. I looked away to get some things wrapped, and when I looked up again, I gasped. It looked amazing, and was easily the biggest pile of gifts Owen would ever wake up to.
“We still have a ton of stuff to wrap,” Graham said. “But I don’t know how we’re going to display it all.”
“Well, before we get to that,” I said. “I have something I want you to open.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I can wait until tomorrow morning. I can open my gift with Owen, and we can do a whole thing.”
“No, I think it’s better if you get this one tonight,” I said. “I don’t want you to be too tired when you open it and tomorrow will be super busy. I want you to have it tonight.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “One hundred percent.”
“All right,” he said.
I hopped up, excited, my heart thumping as I went to our bedroom and opened up my bottom drawer where the gift was wrapped and ready. I had put it together a week ago, and it had been killing me not to give it to him. But I wanted this moment to be just for us, special, and for it to be tonight.
I grabbed it and brought it out to the living room where he was sitting on the couch, looking at the tree. Coming up from behind him, I was struck by how perfect this moment was. The tree twinkled with the other lights off, and the television was on one of those static stations that looked like a fireplace.
“There you are,” he said as I came back into the room.
I smiled and curled up on the couch beside him, turning toward him as I handed him the gift. He looked down at it and grinned, then immediately tore into the wrapping paper. I laughed at the boyish way he excitedly went about opening it and rested my head in one hand on the back of the couch. I couldn’t help but smile and wait for him to see what he had.
Inside the paper was a cardboard box, which he tore open rather than opening the tape I so carefully put on. I didn’t care. I wanted him to get to it as soon as possible too. To see the look in his eyes when he realized what it was.
He opened the box and tore away the tissue paper, revealing the present inside. Pulling them out, he looked curiously at each one. The smile wasn’t faltering, but it was turning more curious as I waited for the light to dawn on him.
“The first one,” I said, pointing at the first ornament, “is Owen’s ultrasound. You never got to see it, so I wanted you to have it. I have another copy of it for you in the box too, but I thought you would like it in the ornament.”
“It’s very pretty, and I love seeing this,” he said. “But what’s this one?”
He lifted the other ornament. From his perspective, it looked like an ordinary silver ball for a tree, but as I turned it around, he saw that it matched the other one. Only the ultrasound inside was different, and there was no name on it.
“This one is a little different,” I said.
“It doesn’t have a name,” he began, and then his eyes started to widen.