He smiled, shaking his head. "Why?"
“Because in the book The Littlest Pumpkin was the littlest one, and nobody wanted it. It made me sad, and I didn't want any of the pumpkins to feel that way. I remember literally going through each and every pumpkin, picking them up, eyeing them up, and only the smallest one would do."
"Well, what about the biggest pumpkin? Didn't he feel unwanted then?" he teased.
"No, everyone wants the big ones. I had to have the small or deformed ones."
He shrugged. "I don't remember ever picking out my own pumpkin. We always just had one of those light up jack-o-lanterns from the store."
"Really?" I asked, wrinkling up my nose a little. "I can't imagine. Picking it out was the fun part. I got to pick out two of them, too, because I got to pick out one for the grandparents and one for us. My grandpa would gripe about my fetish for little pumpkins though, because they cost the same as the regular sized ones. I have to get this book," I told him.
"You should," he agreed.
I gave him a teasing smile. "Maybe I'll read it to you before bed."
"I can think of more interesting things to do before bed," he remarked.
Rolling my eyes, I ignored his comment and said, "Next year you have to promise me that you'll go pick out your own pumpkin."
"Do I have to get the smallest one?" he asked.
"Nope, that one will be going home with me. You'll have to settle for the second smallest."
"Lucky me," he remarked dryly, following me up to the checkout.
As winter break drew closer, I tried to decide what I should get Derek for Christmas. I would have loved to get him a book, but I knew he wouldn't want one, so I tried to coax other ideas out of him. I wanted to get him something that he would really like, but none of the ideas that I came up with seemed good enough. They all seemed too generic. There was a CD that he wanted, a movie he mentioned, then I thought maybe I would buy him a new hoodie or something. But none of it was good enough. I wanted to get him something really good, I just didn't know what.
It was several days before Christmas vacation, and Derek got off work and came over to my house. We were sitting on my couch watching television and there was some commercial on, predictably about a husband buying his wife a Christmas present.
Derek gave me a little smirk and tugged on my pony tail, stating, "I got you a pretty good present."
I could not believe that Derek, the guy, had finished his Christmas shopping before I did. "You already bought it?"
"Yep," he said, nodding. "You're never going to beat me, either, so you may as well get me a pack of socks." He paused thoughtfully and said, "No, you know what, I have a guilty pleasure. I like toe socks better."
"Toe socks?" I asked, a giggle escaping before I could attempt to stifle it.
He nodded. "They're comfortable. Get me a pair of those."
"I can't just buy you a pair of socks. You're incredibly difficult to buy for, Derek Noble," I informed him.
"Well, you're not, Nicole Harmon," he mocked.
"What's your middle name?" I asked, realizing I had always wondered that.
"Michael," he answered.
"Is it? I thought my mom mentioned something about Mike wanting to name the baby after him if it was a boy."
Derek nodded. "He did, but my mom wanted to switch it around. His name is Michael Derek Noble, and she wanted to switch the names around and name me Derek Michael."
"Well, I'm not going to lie, I'm glad she did. It would be creepy to call you Mi
ke."
"Very creepy," he agreed.
"Okay," I said, rubbing my hands together. "If you could have one thing, anything in the world that you wanted, what would it be?"