Chapter 24

I wake up slowly to a grey room, the sky overcast and dark outside, but I am warm and comfortable. Paige is still sleeping – we are facing each other, embraced and embracing – and I wonder why I woke up. Then I hear small feet patter in the hallway followed by longer strides. I smile and nuzzle Paige’s neck, at the junction with the shoulder. I stroke up and down her back with my hand flat in long slow motions, and I pepper kisses along her shoulder until I feel her stir. Her grip around my ribs tightens and she purrs in my ear.“Merry Christmas,” I whisper.She only hums, and I keep stroking her back for some minutes until she pulls away from where she had buried her nose in my hair. Blurry-eyed and squinting, she finally echoes my greeting with a smile, before adding, “I did not get enough sleep to face a whole day of cheer.”I chuckle and kiss her. “I can think of a way to wake you up,” I half-jokingly suggest with an eyebrow wiggle. She hums and kisses me back more deeply. She grips my hips and rolls us so that I’m draped over her and she can use both hands. When I try to shift my weight on my elbows so I’m not crushing her, she resists and slides an arm higher around my back so I’m lying against her from chest to legs. Her other hand goes lower and when I stop trying to pull away, the first follows suit. Despite my hips snug between her thighs, I can tell she is not trying to start something we won’t have time to finish, but my position is too uncomfortable to sustain, so I roll us back. I wrap my arms under hers and interleave our legs. Which is not a good idea if we don’t want to be suspiciously late. Paige pulls away, and I follow her for a dazed moment, before she pushes me back with a laugh.

“I need a shower,” she says, still keeping her arms around my shoulders and laying small kisses on my lips, too quick for me to respond in kind. Finally, she turns away and slips off the bed. I’m about to follow her and grab her hand when she spins around accusingly and warns, “And you need to stay here.”“Aww, but I’m cold without you,” I smirk as I recline, naked from the waist up and her eyes follow the movement of my hardened nipples. “So cold and lonely in this big empty bed.” She turns to riffle through her drawers so she doesn’t reply right away, but I can’t say I’m complaining at the view. As she straightens, she faces me with a grin, “It’s about to get even colder when you realize you need to open the window.”I’m confused long enough for her to saunter to the bathroom and lock the door. When I grasp her meaning, the shower is already on, and there is no more delaying to be had. When I get out of my own hot shower, the window is closed, the room is warming up, and Paige is nowhere to be seen. I finish putting on warm socks and a comfy sweater. I learned the first time that Christmas day may give license to wear more casual clothes but PJs are decidedly not welcome.It’s still way too early for breakfast, so I simply follow the sounds of activity to the living room. I thankfully didn’t have to participate in setting everything up for this morning after the little ones were sound asleep. When I enter, I hear cries of “finally!” and see glares turned to me, except for the twin smirks on Paige and Asher’s faces. Huh, I’d never realized they looked so alike in their mocking me.I don’t bother apologizing since no one outright came out and said I was at fault for getting up as late as I possibly could. And anyway, everyone’s attention is on the children as I force my way on the couch between Asher and Paige. I sit slightly with my back against his side and he rests his arm on my shoulders. A picture perfect couple. Meanwhile, I make sure to rest my fingers on Paige’s back, out of sight on the thin band of skin I can reach between her t-shirt and her jeans and Asher’s pocket keeps vibrating with messages from someone who makes him smile shyly. The majority of the gifts we’ll open this morning are for the children. Everyone else will also open one or two of their own to keep up with the charade in front of the young ones, but the focus is on the kids. Hannah opted to open the gift that looked like books first, Paige's of course. I don’t know if she already suspects the truth about Santa or if she just wants to share her happiness with Paige, but she beams at her upon seeing them.

Opening gifts takes the entire morning and lasts even a bit over lunchtime. Lunch is piecemeal and informal, some eating hastily-made leftover turkey sandwiches, others wandering in and out of the kitchen for bits of cheese, fruit, meat, or bread, few preparing proper hot food – and we are all still crowding the couches and rugs of the living room well into the afternoon. This is always the most informal time of the holidays, in sharp contrast to the previous day. Many will start leaving tomorrow, and nostalgia may settle tonight, but this day is still the happiest for most.Once the kids are in bed – and it happens early after their valiant efforts of staying up, and then waking before dawn on a day filled with excitement – we adults, or near enough, open our remaining gifts. The recipient order is always youngest to oldest on the first round, so that I am always right after Asher and right before Paige. Which also tells me Gabriela is slightly older than Paige. Asher's first choice was from me – or at least the acceptable part we selected together for appearances – a beer brewing kit. The other half is a big basket of expensive skincare products waiting for him at home.

The last two months were way too much excitement for me and I refuse to get up before noon today. Paige chuckles but leaves me to my devices. I had hoped to entice her to a lazy naked morning but I caved in the face of her mother’s order to come down and help her clean. I kinda feel bad for not participating this year, but Paige says she will pretend I am “feeling a little under the weather”.

“Don’t say anything that could be interpreted as nausea,” I admonish her half-jokingly. She smiles, and it’s genuine but tinged with tension. I immediately feel bad – even if it is a legitimate concern – so I sit in bed and grab her by the waist before she can put on her sweater, and she lets it drop on the bed. I tighten my hold on her as she encircles my shoulder, and I bury my head in her hair. She takes a deep breath and her body slackens.“Are you sure you don’t want to stay a little longer?” I whisper in her ear. She shivers but doesn’t pull away, so I fall back and drag her with me. The result is decidedlybungraceful, with her collapsing across my lap and my shoulders crushing her elbows. I feel herbwince but she snorts and then I’m laughing for no other reason than I’m a clumsy mess. She laughs and I hope it means she’s not too hurt as I’m unable to breathe long enough to say anything.“I’m sorry,” I say, finally, once we’ve both calmed down. She looks at me with a smile lingering for a few seconds before replying, “I don’t want to get up again.”“Then stay. I’ll text Asher to go help your mom,” I offer, barely joking. She groans, and then chuckles sadly. “That’d be perfect. Her kind obliging son doing the work of her good-for-nothing daughter.”“I’ll say you were taking care of me and–”“No,” she cuts me off. “Nothing will be good enough.” She starts untangling herself from me and the covers, and I rush to think of a way to keep her here a little longer, “I’ll come help so we can be a little late.”She lets herself fall back down on the mattress, and then groans more happily. “You’re gonna get me in trouble,” she says with a smile. I kiss her on the nose first to make amends, and then on the mouth to ensure she doesn’t change her mind. She groans again, and adds, “ten minutes, okay?”

I hum in agreement as I dive back in for a deeper kiss. I’m the only one still naked so I pull her tshirt off. I intend to enjoy those ten minutes to the fullest.The Christmas tree and the decorations will stay on for another day, until all the children have left, so this morning is spent cleaning up from last night. Most of us stayed well past the middle of the night, chatting and drinking in front of the fireplace, and no one had the energy to do more than pack up the food in the fridge or the right cupboards. Glasses and utensils littering every flat surface of the living room and the kitchen counter is of course unbearable for Elizabeth, so she has been cleaning since she woke up – even before eating breakfast herself. She only paused long enough to feed her niblings.And now, late as we were, Paige and I are on dishwashing duties while Gabi, who generously offered, sorts through the mounds of wrapping paper, bags, boxes. Once Elizabeth will have deemed the living room uncluttered enough to stand by until the day after tomorrow for a proper cleaning, we will be released for the day.As I dry the plates, I say, “I can’t believe you don’t have a dishwasher.” Paige doesn’t even pause in her rinsing to reply, “Oh no, we do.”I carefully put down the plate I’m holding and slowly turn to her. “Are you kidding me?” She laughs, “No, it’s right there,” she nods toward one of the lower cabinets. “This tableware is just too delicate and expensive.” I gawk at her for a moment, but I guess it does make sense, so I just shrug and get back to wiping. But before I can pick up the next slippery plate, Elizabeth rushes in the kitchen. She looks both furious and stricken. She is closely followed by Asher, who is pleading with her, and my heart drops.“Listen to me, mom! Please!” He’s more forceful than contrite, and I don’t know if it should give me hope or make me worry even more. “It’s not what it looks like, okay?”Elizabeth glances at me with regret or apology in her eyes, before whirling on her son. “Then, tell what it is. Tell me in front of your girlfriend.”Asher looks at me and Paige, then, and I see he has made his mind up. The realization hits me hard with both profound relief and deep terror. Paige and I are barely starting to come to terms with our feelings, well, more me than her, and our tentative plans could crumble in front of us in this very moment.Heavy silence settles over the kitchen for a moment, and then the front door slams open and children’s too-loud voices fill the hole left in the room. Asher finally begs his mother, “Can we do that later? When everyone’s gone home?” Elizabeth’s eyes flicker towards the open view of the rest of the house, and then harden on Asher.“It might be best,” she finally says with steel in her tone. “But you will tell Katherine. Today.”