“Good to see you, bro!”
“You too,” I said, pounding his back and then tousling his hair. “I miss being able to pick on my little brother.”
“You’ll get plenty of opportunities,” he grinned, as he folded up the ladder and stored it back in the garage. “I’m gonna stick around for a month or two before I go back to Brazil.”
“Hot chocolate is ready, boys!” my mother called, as she cracked the garage door and then quickly closed it again.
Inside, Nina and my mother had laid out a spread of cookies, fruitcake, and hot chocolate on the kitchen counter. I helped myself to some sweets and then joined the rest in the family room, where my mother had turned on carols and told us it was now our job to decorate the bare tree that stood towering over the room. I looked over at Nina and noticed that her mood had shifted toward happy and relaxed as she pulled ornaments out of a box, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She worried me.
We spent the afternoon decorating the Christmas tree while singing carols and reminiscing about holidays past until the sun sank below the horizon, leaving only a trace of pink and purple smudged in the night sky. When it came time to place the angel at the top of the tree, Brian hoisted his niece on his shoulders, despite my mother’s protest that someone was going to get hurt. Nina carefully placed the angel on the very top of the tree before Brian walked over to the couch and dumped her off into the soft, fluffy cushions.
My father dimmed the lights and then flipped the switch, and the tree blazed in all its Christmas glory. We clapped and cheered our hard work as my mother called us for supper. Sitting around the table eating soup and fresh, homemade bread my mother had made as we talked about the past year and planned the one to come, I felt more at home than I had in a long time. I loved the fact that my parents were so active, but I missed them when they were gone.
“So, what do you say, Blake?” my father asked.
“Huh?” I replied.
“Dad! You’re not listening!” Nina scolded. “You always tell me I need to pay attention, but you’re not!”
“I was just thinking about something,” I said, trying to cover for myself.
“I said, are you and Nina coming to Christmas Eve dinner?” my father repeated.
“I can’t,” I said. “I’m working. But if Remy okays it, we’ll be here Christmas Day.”
“Mom’s going to go to Nana and Papa’s,” Nina said. “She asked if I want to go, but I told her I wanted to stay here, so she’ll be fine with it.”
“Are you sure about that, Punkin?” I asked warily. Nina had a bad habit of saying what she wanted when it wasn’t quite true.
“Check with her when you drop me off,” she shrugged.
“Well, good!” my mother declared. “I’m happy that I’ll have my whole family here at the same time!”
After supper, my mother packed up bags of cookies and food for Nina and I before we headed home. Brian carried the bags out to my truck before I could protest that there was more food than we could eat in a month, let alone the week between now and Christmas. I watched Nina hug my parents tightly before we headed out to the truck.
“See you next week!” Nina shouted through her open window as I backed out of the driveway. She rolled up the window and cranked the radio up saying, “Now, don’t screw up the lyrics this time, Dad!”
“I’ll try not to,” I promised, as I smiled and pointed the truck towards home.
Chapter Ten
Emily
Saturday morning, I woke up entirely too early, so I laid in bed enjoying Howard’s soft, fuzzy warmth under the flannel sheets and letting my thoughts wander back to Blake Gaston. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since he’d left my classroom, and the thoughts grew progressively racier this morning. As I let them flow, I felt the warmth spreading as I slowly caressed my body with one hand. I closed my eyes and imagined Blake’s face above mine as I slid my hand between my legs and softly stroked my already-damp panties.
Just as I was about to move my hand lower, I felt a furry paw batting my eyes and ears.
“Knock it off, Howard,” I growled, as I tried to shift my focus back to Blake. The paw tapped my lips as Howard mewed loudly. I opened one eye and said, “I’m not kidding, buddy. Knock it off!”
Howard turned in a circle and then leaned his considerably large backside up against the side of my head as he began to methodically clean himself. I reached over and shoved him off my head, but he dug in and resisted, leaving me no choice but to sit up and pick him up. By the time I’d relocated him to the other side of the bed, I’d lost the train of thought that I’d been working on.
&nb
sp; “You are a royal pain in the ass, mister,” I muttered, as I pulled a robe on over my pajamas and slid my feet into a battered pair of slippers. Howard lay on the bed looking up at me, blinking as if I’d disturbed his sleep. I waved a hand as I muttered a few choice curse words at him and walked to the kitchen.
The house was freezing cold, but while I hated waking up in a frigid house, I also knew better than to leave the space heaters running while I was asleep. I flipped the switch on the heater in the kitchen and then went and flipped the one in the living room on, too. I started the coffee and then turned my attention to breakfast.
Once the house had begun to warm up a bit, Howard strolled into the kitchen and hopped up on his stool.