The Exception (17 page)

“I’m sorry…I just. I’m not understanding why it is such a big deal.”

Jake chuckled to himself, “And maybe one day I’ll tell you. But for now, we have the entire house to ourselves for the rest of the night, and I can think of a much better way to spend our time.”

“Is that so?” I teased.

Jake leaned forward and covered my mouth with his. “Mmhmm.”

Happy to finally be all alone with Jake, I didn’t want to waste any more time sitting at this table and Jake was clearly thinking what I was thinking. So in the next moment, I was standing with my back to Jake. Crossing my arms over my body, I slowly lifted my shirt up and over my head and then tossed it at him. Looking over my shoulder, and as sultry as I could manage, I whispered, “Then what are you waiting for?”

Jakes eyes went wide and glazed over with a hungry look. He scrambled out of his chair and threw me over his shoulder as he walked us toward his bedroom.

“Jake! My shirt!” I squealed.

“Later. I’ve been waiting all day for this, and I think I’ve been patient long enough.”

The urgency that had been in his voice earlier was back, and it sent a welcome chill throughout my entire body.

Chapter Fourteen

Christmas morning I woke up earlier than I had in years, without an alarm, which was a big deal considering I had been up late talking on the phone with Jake all night. I’m not sure what it was, but something had me up early and full of Christmas cheer. I climbed out of bed and quickly threw a hoodie over my PJs and ran into my sister’s room.

I crawled onto her bed and carefully stuck my legs in the covers. Cuddling up right next to her I gave her a light shake, “Merry Christmas, Kenz!”

She let out a groan as she rolled over to see who was shaking her. “Seriously? What time is it?”

“I don’t know. A little after eight, I think.”

“Then why in the world are you in my room? Has Maya invaded your body or something? You would be so pissed if I disturbed the princess’s sleep.”

I let out a small laugh. She was right. I’m never a fan of being woken up too early, and eight in the morning after being up late would have resulted in one very grumpy Emma. Yet, I just could not stop the merry mood I was feeling.

“Oh come on, Kenz. It’s Christmas! Remember when we were kids, and mom and dad would make us go back to sleep because we would get up at like six because we were so excited?” I put my chin on her shoulder, making a dreamy face about the good ole days.

“Yeah, but we were like both under the age of ten, and how are you so perky? I know for a fact you were still up when I got home last night.” She rolled over on her stomach, burying her head in her pillow.

Up when she got home. Wait. What? What was she doing sneaking in so late, and how had I not noticed? “Kenz?” I said slowly, walking my fingers up her back. “Care to share where you were last night that required you to sneak in?” I teased in a singsong voice.

Her body went stiff, and I knew she hadn’t meant to say that, which only made me want to know more. “Spill, sister!” I died laughing. “I can’t believe little Kenzie has started her teenage rebellion years!”

“Shut it,” she groaned. “There are no rebellion years. I just…just lost track of time.”

“OK, who is he?” I ran my fingers up her sides, hitting where she was most ticklish.

“He’s no one. I mean there’s no one,” she shrieked.

“Who’s he?” I countered in a dreamy tone, as I reached down and pinched her rear, causing her to flip over.

“Uggg. Logan. I was out with Logan. OK?”

She was trying too hard to convince me. I knew it wasn’t Logan, but I let it go. Kenzie never was good at keeping secrets from me, and I knew she would eventually spill.

Just then her phone beeped signaling she was getting a text message. Since I was sitting up, I was able to reach across her and snatch her phone before she had time to react. No name – just a number.

We need to talk.

Hold on, I recognize that number. I was rolling the last four digits in my mind, 7424, as Kenz reached over and snatched her phone out of my hands. Ryan. That’s Ryan’s number!

“Kenz, why is Ryan texting you? And how does he have your number?”

She clamped her eyes shut and puffed, laying her arm across her eyes. “Because I put my number in his phone last night.”

“I thought you were with Logan last night?” I pressed.

“What is this, twenty questions? Yes, I was with Logan last night. Yes, we ran into Ryan last night.”

“Did you see anyone else?” I was now really curious. I couldn’t even get my friends to hang out with me after the whole Gabe thing went down, and now Ryan was texting my sister? After apparently “running” into her last night. He better not be making his move because we aren’t on the best terms. Promise to Gabe, or no promise.

“No. He was with some people I didn’t know. I only spoke to him briefly, and he was asking about you. He wanted to know how you were doing after everything.”

Asking about me? “Oh.” Things must be bad between us if he resorted to checking up on me via McKenzie. I watched as she quickly texted something in reply and then turned off her phone.

Then it hit me. “Mom and dad let you go out on Christmas Eve?”

“They let you go out.”

“But I was with Jake, my boyfriend. His family does a big Christmas Eve thing. It’s not like I went and just hung out with friends.”

“Yes, and I was with Logan. My boyfriend. And I went to the church’s Christmas Eve caroling thing with him.”

“I’m sorry, Kenz. I didn’t mean to…look, I just don’t know how I got to a place where my closest friends check up on me through my little sister instead of just talking to me. Ya know?”

McKenzie sat up and took my hand. “Hey. It’s going to be OK,” she smiled, trying to reassure me. “Let’s not worry about any drama today, OK? Everything will work itself out. Now, where’s all that entirely too early Christmas spirit you had going on all of five minutes ago?”

She was right. Today was Christmas, and I didn’t need to let all my life drama effect Christmas morning with my family. I gave myself a mental pep talk and decided to deal with all the other stuff later. “You mean…this Christmas spirit?” I broke out into a Jingle Bells remix, which cued Kenzie to crack up and beg me to stop singing before picking her own Christmas song to start singing.

We must have been singing louder than we thought because eventually we noticed our parents creeping in the doorway holding out one of their phones. It must have dawned on us at about the same time that we were being recorded because almost simultaneously, we turned to face them, placing our hands around the other’s shoulders while swaying to the carols we were singing. 

After our singing subsided, we spent the morning making cinnamon rolls and eating them while we opened our presents. I was on my third cup of coffee and who knows how many cinnamon rolls later when I finally checked my phone. I had a text from Maya saying, “
Merry Christmas, Em!”
and
one from Jake wishing me a Merry Christmas and saying he couldn’t wait to see me today to give me my present. I quickly texted them both back and, apparently, was smiling as I sat my phone down. I looked up to see my mom dipping her cinnamon roll in her coffee as she watched me intently. 

“Was that Jake you were texting, honey?”

“That obvious, huh?”

My mom laughed to herself, “Oh to be young again.” She smiled at me sweetly. “When is that boy coming over today?”

“I was actually just about to ask you about that.”

***

An hour and a half later we had the living room cleaned up, were dressed, and had just started making lunch when the doorbell rang.

“I got it!” I put down the mixer and mixing bowl and ran to the door. Jake was all dressed up in slacks and a red button down shirt. At the sight of him, I threw my arms around his neck while pressing my lips to his.

“Merry Christmas, Jake.”

Tightening his arms around my waist he pulled me back in, kissing me once more. “Merry Christmas to you too, Em,” he murmured against my lips. He didn’t loosen his grip on my waist as he leaned his head back and looked down his nose to meet my gaze. “Now, are you ready to open your present?”

“Yes. But you have to open yours first!” I reached down and took his hand, noticing for the first time the shoebox-size wrapped present in his other. “Come on. It’s under the tree.” My eyes slowly raised back up to meet Jake’s as I wondered what could possibly be in that box.

Jake chuckled. “I see you finally noticed your present. Here, why don’t you hold onto this so I can open mine,” he offered as we walked inside, taking the short cut toward the tree.

He was acting sort of strange, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. “O-kay?” Stopping to take the present, I immediately noticed how light it was.
Oh my gosh. It’s empty.
I looked up at Jake with a questioning glance, cueing him to let out that cute little chuckle he does. Then, without any sort of explanation, he walked right past me and up to the tree.

“I’m guessing this is mine?” He bent down and picked up the last remaining present under the tree. “You sure you still want me to go first?” He arched an eyebrow as he pretended to tug at the bow.

As curious as I currently was about the seemingly empty box that I held in my hand, I was also really excited for him to open his present. His mom had given me a heads-up about what to get him, and I’ve been excited ever since. “Yes! Then we will get to this mystery box.” I lifted the box up and down a few times while pretending to analyze its contents.

“Whatever you say, Blondie.” I could tell Jake was excited as he peeled away the bow and paper, and I bit my lip in anticipation of his reaction. Jake was big on his family’s traditions, and even though his mother had given me the idea, I was still nervous for him to open it. He pulled the lid off the box revealing a personalized leather notepad cover, and a smile that seemed to reach both of his ears broke across his face. “Em. This is perfect. How’d you know?”

Apparently all the men in his family were given a personalized notepad cover before going to college. When I had asked Mrs. Reynolds if she had any ideas for what I should give Jake, she insisted this would be the perfect gift. I wasn’t sure if I should be the one gifting this family tradition, but she reassured me it was fine and that he would love it. And by reassured me, I mean practically made me promise on the spot that I would get him one.

Seeing his reaction to the gift, all my nerves melted away and pure excitement took over. “I have my ways,”  I teased. “I also hid a picture of us from the ranch in the back cover, so you’d have something to remember me by.”

Nerves were back. I had not thought the last part through. I had been so anxious about whether or not he would like the leather cover, I didn’t even think about my decision to put a picture of us in the back. We hadn’t even discussed where we would be next year.
What if he wanted to go to college without anything from home holding him back?
Why did I not think this through more?
I felt the pink rising in my cheeks as Jake pulled the picture of us out and examined it.

He slid the picture back in its place. Using his free arm, he wrapped it around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug and kissing the side of my head. “This is perfect, Em. I love it,” he whispered.

Despite the obvious sincerity in his voice, I was still feeling embarrassed about placing the picture of us in the back cover. “You don’t have to keep the picture in there if you don’t want to. I just wanted to give you a copy of one of the ones of us from the ranch house,” I said sheepishly.

“Everything about this gift is perfect. I’m not changing it in any way.” He gave my shoulders one more squeeze before sliding his arm back, with a mischievous look taking over his face. “Now it’s your turn to open a present.”

I looked down at the present I was still holding in my hands. My mind refocusing on what this featherlight box could contain. I gently tore the paper off, revealing an old shoebox. Glancing over at Jake, I could tell he was loving every minute of this.

“Well go ahead. Open it,” he encouraged.

Lifting the lid off the box, I discovered tissue paper, lots and lots of tissue paper. I stuck my hand in the center of it all and found another small wrapped box. Taking another quick glance at Jake, I noticed he looked more excited now than he had a second ago. Returning my gaze to the second wrapped gift, I removed the paper, revealing a little black box. I slowly opened the lid and gasped. Inside was a silver necklace with a white gold heart charm that was lined with diamonds.

“Do you like it?”

My jaw was still dropped as I tore my eyes from the necklace to look up at Jake. “Like it? I love it,” I beamed. “Jake, you bought me diamonds. No one has ever given me diamonds before.” I took the necklace out of its container. “It’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.”

Jake wore a proud smile as I held it out to him. “Help me put it on?” I raised my hair as he draped the necklace around my neck. “I don’t ever think I’m going to take this off. I can’t believe you bought me my first diamonds,” I gushed.

“And hopefully your last,” he muttered under his breath.

“What’d you say?” I asked turning to face him, giving him a quick kiss.

His eyes widened. “Uh. Let’s go show your parents.” He ran his fingers through all that brown tousled hair, making me wish I could tangle my own hands in it. But no matter how much my parents loved Jake, they probably wouldn’t be too crazy about it if they found me making out with my boyfriend in the middle of the living room on Christmas day – or any other day for that matter.

“Great idea!”

I’m sure my face was lit up like a friggin’ Christmas tree when I walked into the kitchen. Holding my new necklace out for them to see, my mom and sister both immediately started showering Jake with praise over how good he did.

My dad started laughing while walking over to Jake to slap him on the back. “Well, son. You’ve done messed up. Buying diamonds for your first Christmas together.” His laughter continued as he dropped his head and shook it. “Going to be hard to top that next year.”

My cheeks flushed at my father’s words. Again, I wasn’t even sure if there was going to be a next year. Goodness gracious, why does that thought have to keep creepin’ it’s way into my mind? I knew we would have to talk about it eventually, but for now I didn’t want to have to keep thinking about the possibility of him wanting a fresh start when he leaves for college. I just want to enjoy the definite time that we have left.