Gifted Connections 4

“If she says she okay, let’s go eat,” Megan said firmly.

I flashed her a grateful smile and allowed Jace to take my hand. I kissed the back of his hand and squeezed it. Ella, Alex, and Kade perked up when they saw me. Everyone was in the living room spread out watching a movie.

The food was in disposable metal pans and covered in aluminum foil on the counters, buffet style.

Suddenly I felt famished. “Let’s eat!” I exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked worriedly.

“I’m fine.” I waved her off as I went to the counters to begin unwrapping the pans. I told myself I wouldn’t get annoyed. I convinced myself their concern showed me they cared.

“Sounds good to me, that prime rib has been calling my name.” Terrance clapped his hands in anticipation as he gave me an encouraging wink.

It seemed to snap everyone out of their enquiring, worried glances. I was thankful for that. I grabbed my plate and piled a massive amount of food on it. I planned to eat it all, too.

I paused to appreciate how festive it was in here. I admired how Jemmy and Dawn had the stockings ready by the tree. It was pretty impressive seeing the three-foot-long stockings overflowing with gifts.

A twinge of pain hit my heart. Dad would have loved this. Dad would have loved the guys and even grown to like Will. I knew it.

Some of our team didn’t have much family or wasn’t close to their family, and that’s why they had chosen to spend their Christmas with us. I still felt like I needed to pinch myself at times. This time last year I was stressing about the number of gifts I had gotten for Ella. I had been filled with fear that Heidi was going to party too hard and ruin our Christmas as she had in the past. At that point, she wasn’t with Tom yet, so it was Russian roulette on who was going to be leaving her bedroom in the morning.

My only hope back then was to graduate high school, save enough money to get myself and Ella out of that environment, and pray we would have a good day together. I had tried to keep the tradition alive with Ella, as far as what Dad and I would have done. Our meals were generally spent at whatever restaurant was open. Then we would try to find another place we could spend indoors that was open and warm. The longer we could stay out of the house, the better.

“I want everyone to open my gifts first,” Jemmy said with a mischievous grin.

“We’re not wearing ugly sweaters again. Our Christmas cheer will not extend that far,” Noah insisted with a groan.

She giggled wickedly. “It’s not ugly sweaters.”

“But something just as bad,” Jaxson said with an eye-roll.

Troy looked at the rest of us sitting at the table as he started to scroll through his phone. “Jemmy made homemade Christmas gifts one year, and needless to say, we didn’t accept them graciously.”

“Because they were ugly!” Jaxson interjected.

“I don’t know… I really liked my snowman ornament,” Remy smirked as he looked over at Jemmy.

“It was a cat,” she cried out plaintively. “I remembered the cat you tried to ask Pops to keep, and he wouldn’t let you.”

“Because I’m allergic to cats,” Will interjected with amusement around his lips.

I looked over at Remy in surprise. I would never take him as a cat person. Maybe a dog person. A breed that was huge and tough like him. He gave me a small smile and shrug. I loved watching the light in his bluish grey eyes. It had been some time since I’d seen his smiles reach his eyes.

“Long story short,” Troy continued, “Pops made the rule that we had to be thankful for our gifts and show graciousness. We had hurt Jemmy’s feelings so bad she refused to leave her bedroom. Pops told us to choose one gift each under the Christmas tree and open it, then proceeded to tell us that we had to return it the day after Christmas.”

Troy handed me his phone, showing me a picture of them standing next to a Christmas tree that looked like it was ten times the size of the one we currently had. The men stood in front of it with unamused looks, whil

e Jemmy was grinning ear to ear. I covered my mouth to prevent a loud laugh from escaping. Their sweaters weren’t just ugly, they were positively hideous. Some of the ‘ugly’ sweaters I had seen were a cute ugly, but these couldn’t even fall into that category. It was as if Jemmy had scoured every store possible to find the most hideous one’s ever!

Remy had a red sweater on with several cats wearing astronaut suits riding rockets, the words Meowy Christmas boldly emblazoned across his chest. As I looked at the rest of the guys, the sweaters only got worse to downright distasteful.

Remy huffed over my shoulder and shot Troy a look. I could see the mirth in Troy’s eyes. I was almost certain, even though he had hated being tortured by Jemmy, watching the guys suffering with him amused Troy to no end. Why else would he have kept a picture that was apparently two or three years old?

“I opened up socks that year,” Jace said a bit smugly as he took a sip of wine.

“I opened up my new cleats,” Jaxson said woefully. “I didn’t know that’s why Dad was allowing us to open gifts without her. I just knew I had asked for new cleats for months and it was in the shape of a shoebox. I had several more months before I could even get another pair.”

By then almost everyone was laughing, some to the point of tears.