A Beaumont Family Christmas

Josie claps her hands together. “You have no idea how happy this makes me. Even if the kids can’t come, the six of us . . . well, eight with Eden and Paige…will be together again.”

Before we hang up, Josie gives us the dates she’s booked the house for, what airports we can fly into, and car rental services. She also tells us she will email all of the info, so we don’t have to remember everything or decipher our own chicken scratch handwriting later.

After we hang up, I open the internet on my phone and look up the house. My mouth drops open at the majestic beauty of it all. I can easily see Jimmy and I standing on the deck, sharing a glass of wine, or sitting in the hot tub while snow is falling.

I continue to scroll through the photos, wondering when the last time was that I saw snowfall. Sure, it snowed in Beaumont a couple of times, but mostly flurries. Nothing substantial or anything. We had a blizzard once, but that was so long ago, I think Noah was about nine, which put the twins at four. Since moving to California, we just have hot weather and hotter weather. When it does rain, we rejoice and often stand outside in it, soaking up the drops. I used to do this with Eden when she was little. We’d dance in the backyard and just enjoy the showers. Now she spends so much time in the ocean, when the weather is crappy, she’s moody.

The front door slams. I close my app and wait for whoever just arrived home to come into the kitchen, where I spend most of the time unless I’m volunteering or driving Eden to her events. She’s old enough to drive and does drive herself to school, but Jimmy and I decided we’d always drive her to her competitions. We still want Eden to know how much we support her.

“Hi, Mum.” Eden comes in and kisses me on my cheek.

“How was school?”

Eden goes to the refrigerator and opens it. “Boring, lame. You know, the same.”

“Mhmm.” I keep my eye on her, watching to see what she’ll pull out. Lately, she’s been snacking after school and not hungry at dinnertime. For some, this isn’t an issue, but Eden would rather be in her room or down at the beach instead of sitting around the dinner table. Neither Jimmy nor I are fans of this kind of behavior.

I smile but duck my head so Eden can’t see that I’m pleased with her smoothie choice. She comes over to where I’m sitting, pulls the barstool out, and sits with a heavy sigh.

“What’s wrong?” I ask as my hand brushes over her long, chestnut hair.

Eden sighs again dramatically and slouches. I gently push on her back to remind her to sit up straight. For the past couple of years, she’s been working with Xander, Harrison’s brother-in-law, to build a stronger core. You would think with all the surfing she does, she wouldn’t need a trainer, but apparently, to get to the next level, she needs one.

“Stupid girl drama. You know my friend, Zyan?”

Zyan Morgan is Eden’s recent crush, and by recent, I mean for the past six to eight months. They met on the circuit when he came here for a couple competitions. He lives in Hawaii with his dad, which is perfect according to Jimmy.

“I remember Zyan,” I tell Eden.

“Well, he’s moved here.”

My insides twist. I can hear Jimmy already, swearing up a storm about that boy coming to the house, especially when we aren’t home. “He did?”

Eden nods. “And he didn’t even tell me, ya know?”

No, I really don’t.

“I’m walking to class and all these girls are giggling by the lockers, so I go see what’s so funny. Well it’s Zyan and he’s just eating up the attention. I call his name and he looks at me like he doesn’t remember me and then it hits him and he goes, ‘Oh hey, Eden’ like we aren’t friends and didn’t make out all summer long.”

“You made out with Zyan all summer long?”

Eden rolls her eyes. “Not the point, Mum.”

“Oh,” is all I can say.

“Anyway, of course Bentlee and Harmonee were standing there and they knew all about Zyan and me, but today they’re all ‘So, did you make it up or what?’ and they know I didn’t, but now they’re going around saying Zyan is only an acquaintance.”

“I see.” I really don’t, but for the sake of not going into details with her or asking more about these make out sessions with Zyan, I’m going to just accept I’m out of the loop.

“Yeah, so whatever. And while all this is going on, Rusty asks me out.”

I mentally go through the class list from Eden’s school, trying to place a young man named Rusty.