A Christmas to Love You (4 page)

Amanda stutters. “Um, y-ye, yes.” She coughs. “It actually is. The wedding we had booked cancelled yesterday after the groom and bride’s sister were caught sleeping together.” She rambles on. “Sorry,” she coughs again. “too much information. I find it pretty funny. This kind of thing happens more times than you would think it would.”

I chuckle. “Well, not to sound like an asshole but I’m glad they got caught. Now I can have my wedding here and it saves that bride a hell of a lot of money and heartache.” I’m sure the bride will be bitter for some time to come but she’ll deal with it and realize that there is someone better for her out there.

Amanda giggles and then it turns into a snort. “Would you like to come in and tour our venue?”

For the next hour, Amanda and I plan our wedding. It’s going to be a perfect day for my perfect bride. And it also turns out that Amanda knew who I was, her family has season tickets for the
BlueClaws
. They’re huge baseball fans.

When everything is set and Amanda assures me that everything I’ve listed off will be met with satisfaction I sit back and take a deep breath and prepare myself for the next two weeks of complete chaos.

As I sit here rocking Alexis at three in the morning I realize what Hailey has been dealing with by herself when I’m not around. Alexis is babbling and cooing to herself as I try to get her back to sleep which doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon. Caleb is fast asleep and thankfully doesn’t allow his sister to keep him up too. Alexis brings my finger to her mouth and tries to bite down on it. She must be teething and that’s what’s keeping her awake. “Lexi,” I say pulling my hand away and turning her in my arms so I can stand up. “Let’s go get you a teething ring and some Tylenol.”

Christmas is a few days away and so far the planning for the wedding has been going smoothly. Hailey has been sneaking out of the house for a few hours each day looking for her dress along with the bridesmaids. She said that their job was a piece of cake. She let them pick them out as long as they were long and black. Her dress hasn’t been an easy task though. She found one she really likes but nowhere around here has it. After a little research she found one store in New York that has it. I offered to stay here with the kids and sent her, Jaylinn and Cooper up there to spend the night. No way was I sending her and my sister up there alone. Hailey’s appointment time was at eight in the morning and I didn’t want her to be stressed out trying to make it up there in this chilly, snowy weather.

Alexis and I make our way downstairs. I set her in her highchair and pull a teething ring from the freezer and I hold it out for Lexi to grab. She immediately puts it in her mouth. Poor thing. I search in the bathroom downstairs for the medicine. Finding it in the medicine cabinet I realize I have no idea how much she’s allowed to take. Hell, is she even allowed to have it? Groaning, I read the bottle hoping it’ll tell me something. It gives me nothing, figures. I look to Alexis and to the bottle. “Shit,” I mumble closing the bathroom door behind me.

Glancing up I notice the blue light on my phone flashing. Reaching across the counter, I grab it and look at the missed message.

Boo 1:42am: I know you’re up with Lex ;) Give her a teething ring and a little Orajel on her gums. Give her a bottle and put her back to bed. She’ll be out in minutes. Love You.

I look over to Alexis and shake my head. No way is she going back to sleep, she’s wide awake and I really don’t want her to wake Caleb so I find the Orajel and do as Hailey told me, only taking her back to bed with me instead.

Twenty minutes later with a fresh diaper and a warm bottle, sure enough Alexis is sound asleep on Hailey’s side of the bed. Thankfully our bed is up against the wall so I don’t have to worry about her falling off. I guess Hailey moved the bed this way for this exact reason because it used to be in the middle of the far wall.

I roll onto my stomach, close my eyes and let sleep find me again. I swear not even five minutes later Caleb is screaming from his crib. I jump up, half asleep, tripping and stumbling into the nursery. Caleb is red faced with tears pouring from his eyes.

“Shh,” I pick him up and rest him against my shoulder. I go to pat his butt to calm him down, which normally works, and it’s then that I realize the problem. He’s pissed through his diaper. “Ahh shit.” Shaking my hand as I try to find something sanitary to grab to wipe my hand off.

Feeling a sneeze coming on I bring my hand up to cover my face, big mistake, it smells horrible. Now I’m gagging, sneezing, and trying to calm Caleb down.
What a fucking disaster.

Laying Caleb on the floor I strip his clothes off him. As I pull his pajama pants off, a horrific smell assaults my nose once again and Caleb giggles like he knows what is going on.

I shake my head. “That’s nasty, buddy. You’re supposed to wait for mommy for this shit.”

Looking around the room I’m trying to figure out how to handle this shitty situation. I’ve got one baby on my bed and now one who needs to be bathed.
Okay, I can do this.
I grab a towel from the laundry basket next to the changing table and wrap a half-naked Caleb up in it then pick him up and go back into my room. With Caleb in one arm I line all the pillows around Alexis with the other arm so she can’t roll off the bed. Once she’s secured in, I go into my bathroom and start the water for Caleb’s bath.

My eyes are growing heavy from the lack of sleep. I just need a ten-minute nap and I’ll be fine I tell myself. I quickly wash Caleb as he laughs and splashes around like it’s the middle of the afternoon. After getting him all dressed in fresh pajamas I make him a bottle and then we crawl in bed with Alexis who is thankfully still sleeping.

Caleb wiggles over and lays his head on the crook of my arm while holding his bottle and we both fall asleep in no time.

Or so I thought.

The morning sun is peeking in my room between the blinds. The sheets rustle around and I hear a yawn. I peek with one eye and Alexis is sitting up looking around. I quickly close my eye hoping she’ll lay back down. No such luck, she decides to start bouncing on the bed. Caleb stirs, his eyes open, and he blinks a few times. I lay here hoping both will figure their shit out and go back to sleep. I’m going off of two hours since I decided to stay up and watch the Penn State game.

Alexis does who the hell knows what and makes Caleb cry. Sitting up, I rub my eyes with the palms of my hands.

“Ugh, how the hell does your mother do this?” I pick Caleb up and rock him a little to settle him down. Alexis crawls over and sits next to me like an angel, like she did nothing wrong. I shake my head, she’s just like her mother.

“Looks like we’re going downstairs to play.” I grab both kids and go downstairs to the living room. Pulling out a few toys I set them both down and turn Sesame Street on for them. In the kitchen I glance toward the oven, the clock displays that it’s five-thirty in the morning.
Holy fucking hell.
My wife has now officially moved up to hero status in my eyes. I couldn’t do this day in and day out on my own.

With any luck I’ll let them play while I fix them breakfast, hopefully with full bellies and a little play time both kids will fall back asleep for a morning nap. And daddy will do the exact same thing.

I pick up my phone and text Hailey.

Me 5:42am: Morning, beautiful. Hope everything goes well with the dress today. Love You.

I don’t get a text back and I’m not surprised, she’s still sleeping I’m sure. I start a pot of coffee because God only knows I’m going to need it. Then I start making breakfast for me and the kids.

It’s two days before Christmas. Most of the gifts are wrapped, just one or two more that we need to buy. Jackson is home early from work today which is unusual for a Tuesday right before Christmas. Alex is upstairs playing in his room; I’m downstairs folding laundry while Jackson is in the garage changing the oil in my car since the oil light came on the other day.

Jingle Bells
, my ringtone on my phone, starts playing from the kitchen. I scurry out of the living room to answer it.

“Hey Kenz.”

“Hey, did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Just folding the never ending pile of clothes.”

She laughs. “I have one of those too but I’m too lazy to fold them. Anyway, with Hailey’s wedding coming up I was wondering if we could maybe have a girl’s day on Sunday. We could all meet for lunch somewhere and then go get mani-pedis? Jaylinn is already in, my mom too. I’m going to invite Sadie also.”

“Yeah sure, sounds good to me. I’ll let Jackson know he’s got Alex on Sunday.”

“Perfect. Maybe they can come over and hang out with Hunter, Alex and Liv.” I can hear Ryder in the background making some kind of noise.

“Yeah maybe. Oh, I meant to ask you the other day, how was your trip to AC with Hunter?”

She sighs, that happy and content sigh of absolute bliss. “Perfect. We decided not to get each other anything for Christmas this year since it’s more about the kids but he planned that whole weekend away without me even knowing.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet.”

“Yeah, it really is. We needed it, we just need to reconnect, you know?”

“Oh, honey, I know exactly what you mean. With Jackson picking up more hours and me still looking for a job, we don’t actually have time to do much of anything. He even came home early today but he’s outside changing the oil in my car.” Truth be told, I’d love to just have an hour alone with my husband. Things have been a little trying around here lately and I can feel the change between us. We haven’t had sex in almost two weeks and that’s the longest we’ve ever went without some type of intimacy.

“I’ll come by and grab Alex for you. I’m not far from your house. I’ll bring him to mom and dad’s with us tomorrow since we’ll all be there for dinner anyway.”

I think about it for a second and feel like a shitty mom because I’m pawning Alex off on MacKenzie. It would be really nice though to have a night with Jackson.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. You’re always with him, give yourself a break but tell my brother he owes me.” She laughs.

I giggle. “Alright. I’ll pack his bag so he’s all ready for you.”

“See you in a few.”

“And Chloe, Merry Christmas!” Kenz chuckles as she hangs up.

“Bye.”

“Who was that?” Jackson startles me.

“You’re sister. Apparently you’re going to owe her a favor.”

He chuckles. “That’s funny, what did I do now?”

“Nothing yet but she’s taking Alex overnight.”

He gets this gleam in his eye and I know that I made the right choice. I run upstairs and quickly pack a bag for Alex. He asks to bring a few toys with him and I agree. After sticking everything in his overnight bag we head back downstairs.

The doorbell rings not even five minutes later. Alex runs to the door and yells, “Aunt Kenz.”

Unlocking the door I open it for her. She pulls off her gloves and holds out her arms for Alex. “Hey buddy.”

“I’m sleeping over.” Alex jumps happily into her arms.

She laughs putting him back down. “I know bud, you ready to go?”

“Yes!” He yells grabbing his bag from me.

“Thank you again.”

She winks. “You’re welcome and we’ll see you tomorrow.”