Undeniably Yours (11 page)

Fifty dollars was a lot, but she could do it. A little more scrimping would be worth it if it meant not feeling awkward about joining in the family’s holiday. “I have Wednesday off this week. I could get the directions from you if you’re sure you don’t mind giving up your ideas.”

Paulie waved a hand at her. “I’ll get them all Nerf guns and call it good. And if you go in the morning, I can go with you. I’ll drive and treat you to lunch after as long as I’m back by two.”

The warm glow Beth had felt walking through the door returned with a vengeance. “I’d like that.”

“Nine o’clock, then.” She rolled her eyes as somebody bellowed for her again. “I swear I’m going to change my name. I’ll talk to you later.”

After Paulie walked away, Beth stood up and dug in her pocket for a couple of ones, which she dropped on the counter to cover the tip. They refused to let her pay for her meals and she’d stopped arguing the point. Kevin was happy and she was able to save that money, but she wouldn’t let his employees wait on her for nothing. Feeling more optimistic about the impending holiday, she headed for the elevator.

All she needed to do now was figure out the perfect gift for Kevin.

If there was one thing about his parents, Kevin thought as he helped Beth and then Paulie out of the Jeep, they seriously knew how to deck the halls. And they didn’t go for boughs of holly, either. His parents’ house was ablaze in flashing, multicolored lights that illuminated every inflatable reindeer and snowman known to man.

“Wow.”

He looked down at Beth, her awestruck expression bathed in twinkling lights. “My mom’s favorite holiday.”

“I can see that.”

As they walked up a path lined with gigantic plastic candy canes, Kevin hummed a merry holiday tune under his breath. It had been a while since he felt so jolly about spending Christmas Eve at his parents’ house. Vicky had never really warmed up to his family and they’d usually argued about it on the drive up from Boston.

After the divorce, he’d usually spent the evening in the corner trading barbs with Joe—the other single guy in the crowd—watching the family make merry. But this year Joe had Keri and he kind of had Beth and they had a baby on the way. A few trips to the enormous buffet table and it just might be the best Christmas ever.

Once the hugs and kisses were over, Kevin made the multiple trips to the Jeep to carry in the gifts. The kids hovered as he added them to the mound already surrounding the nine-foot Fraser fir, trying to spot their names on the gift tags, and they protested loudly when Kevin placed them all upside down.

He found Beth in the corner of the dining room, where she stood with a heaping plate of food. She laughed when she saw him, showing him the assortment of goodies.

“Your mother made it pretty clear eating isn’t optional.”

“I think it’s how she keeps us all under control. You don’t move fast when you’re in a food stupor.”

“Paulie wasn’t kidding about the nutcrackers.”

Kevin laughed, looking around the room and trying to see it from Beth’s point of view. His mother collected those wooden nutcracker soldiers and they covered pretty much every flat surface downstairs. If something didn’t have food set on it, there was a soldier there.

“When we were kids, Terry got it in her head they should all be lined up in order of height. Ma likes them random. The battle went on forever until Terry superglued them down. That was an interesting Christmas.”

Beth was laughing at his story when Bobby ran up to her. She lifted her plate out of harm’s way and smiled at Kevin over his nephew’s head as the boy put a hand on either side of her waist.

“Hey, cuz!” Bobby yelled at her stomach. “What does a snowman eat for breakfast? Snowflakes!”

Then he laughed like a loon and ran off in another direction. Kevin chuckled as he reached for a plate. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. It’s sweet and I like being here with your family, knowing that the baby’s going to be a part of all this.”

As if the constant aching need for her wasn’t enough, Kevin lost another chunk of his heart. While he wouldn’t call himself a mama’s boy, his family was everything to him and he’d struggled with being torn in two before. He wouldn’t do it again.

Even before his captain started banging Kevin’s wife, putting the final nail in the coffins of his relationship and his career, his marriage had been shaky. Vicky had never really warmed up to the Kowalskis. Not that she strongly disliked them, but she was always trying to maneuver Kevin in a different direction. She wanted to go to Cancun over Thanksgiving or stay in Boston for the Fourth of July.

He’d tried to compromise. She was his wife, after all, and that meant something to him. But rather than appreciating his meeting her halfway, she’d pushed for a skiing trip to Colorado over Christmas. His flat-out refusal had caused drama that would have put Shakespeare to shame.

“Presents!” The joyous shout from the living room echoed through the house.

“Brace yourself,” he warned Beth. “Picture a tornado tearing through a wrapping-paper factory.”

The chaos lasted nearly an hour, even with the men passing out the gifts while the women shoved paper into garbage bags as fast as the kids could strip it. He noted the thoughtful gifts she’d brought for the kids and the hand-carved nutcracker she gave his parents, as well as the fact his family had respected his request they not make Beth uncomfortable by spoiling her with presents. A gift card to the bookstore, a stuffed bear for the baby. A few things like that, and she was glowing with happiness.

The chaos came to an abrupt halt as everybody held their breath when Brian pulled the trigger on one of the Nerf guns Paulie had brought and accidentally shot Beth in the forehead.

“Brian,” Lisa shouted at her third son.

Beth blinked in surprise, then carefully set her gifts to one side and rose from her chair. Kevin stood, too, in case she was going to try to lock herself in the bathroom or make a break for the front door.

She did neither. Grabbing a gun from under the tree, she very calmly started loading darts into the clip and then she smiled at Brian and cocked it. “You are so gonna get it.”

Brian screamed and took off toward the dining room, Beth on his heels. Bobby grabbed his gun with a whoop and took after them as the sounds of running headed toward the kitchen. Joey and Danny, being older and wiser, headed in the other direction with stealth, readying to cut the others off.

“Epic Nerf Gun Battle of Doom!” Keri shouted and all the adults laughed. Joe’s new bride had already suffered through the Tandem Cannonballs of Doom and the Annual Kowalski Volleyball Death Match Tournament of Doom over the summer, but she wrestled Stephanie’s gun away from her and took after the crowd.

A minute later they heard Brian’s screech and Beth’s triumphant shout. Then Bobby yelped and all the footsteps started pounding in a new direction.

Kevin felt his mother’s arm slide around his waist and he kissed the top of her head. “I like this girl, Kevin.”

“I do, too, Ma.” A lot.

***

Her cellphone chirping out a rather tinny and way-too-cheerful-for-the-hour Christmas song woke Beth the next morning. She fumbled for it and managed to answer it before it went to voicemail. “Hello?”

“Merry Christmas!”

Kevin’s voice was as cheerful as the ringtone and she winced. “What time is it?”

“Nine o’clock, which is way too late to be in bed on Christmas morning. I’ve been crossing the hall and listening at your door since seven, but you won’t get up.”

She stretched and looked at the clock. Nine o’clock. “That’s kinda creepy, you know.”

“Maybe a little.”

“I should get to sleep late after the Epic Nerf Gun Battle of Doom.”

“Ma gave me a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls. All I have to do is pop them in the microwave for a few seconds.”

Throwing back the covers, Beth sat up straight. “Your place or mine?”

“I’ve got coffee made.”

“Yours. I need a few minutes to get dressed.”

She heard him snort over the line. “You don’t get dressed on Christmas morning. Everybody knows that. I’m putting the sugar in your coffee cup as we speak.”

“Two minutes,” she said and snapped the phone closed.

She brushed her teeth and hair and washed her face in record time, then grabbed Kevin’s gifts and went across the hall. His door was standing open and he grinned when she walked in. “Merry Christmas!”

The pajama rule obviously applied to him, as well, since he was wearing nothing but a well-worn pair of drawstring flannel sleep pants, riding low on his hips.

Merry Christmas, indeed. She repeated it back to him and eyed his table, where two steaming mugs of coffee and a plate of Mary’s cinnamon buns were waiting. But first she went to the small, artificial Christmas tree in the corner of the living room and set her gifts down next to a gigantic box with her name on it. While the size of the box intrigued her, she was thankful it appeared he’d held himself in check rather than burying her in an avalanche of presents she couldn’t reciprocate.

“Presents first?” he called and she laughed. Christmas mornings at the Kowalski house must have been insane when Kevin and the others were kids.

“Coffee first. Always.”

“It’s decaf, because—”

“Shhh! Don’t say the d-word out loud. It destroys the pretense.”

They sat at his table and drank coffee and plowed through the warm, sticky cinnamon buns while Beth tried hard not to stare at Kevin’s naked chest. It was impossible to avoid it entirely, but she tried not to let her gaze linger. They were in a good place, relationship-wise, and she didn’t want to give him any ideas.

The second she’d licked the last crumbs from her fingers, Kevin jumped out of his chair. “Presents!”

Their baby was going to have the best Christmases.

The thought blindsided her and her eyes teared up as she imagined Kevin and a small child shouting and laughing as they rushed to the tree and tore into wrapping paper. She blinked away the unshed tears and joined Kevin in sitting cross-legged in front of the tree. In a few months she wouldn’t be able to sit like that anymore.

“You first.” Kevin picked up the big box and set it in her lap.

She took a few seconds to savor the moment and look at the present. Either Kevin had unexpected skills or he’d paid somebody—or coerced a friend or family member—to wrap it for him.

“Come on,” Kevin urged. “Rip it open.”

Usually she took her time unwrapping a gift, picking at the tape and carefully unfolding the paper, but Kevin’s enthusiasm was contagious. She tore into the paper and lifted the lid off the box.

Folded up under a layer of tissue paper was a beautiful, warm—and expensive-looking—winter coat. She pulled it out of the box, already in love with the weight of it and the sumptuous feel of the dark green fabric. And it was plenty roomy enough for a growing belly. It was the kind of coat that went right past winter necessity to luxury item. The kind of coat she’d probably never buy for herself, which he knew.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

“Are you sure? There’s a gift receipt if you want to change it.”

“I love it.” She buried her face in it, as much to hide the few tears threatening to escape as feel the warm fabric against her cheeks.

“Okay, I get to open one of mine now, and then you have another.”

She didn’t argue that it was too much. That the coat was so much more than enough she couldn’t possibly accept another gift. He got too much joy out of the giving and she wasn’t going to put a damper on it. “The smaller one first.”

He ripped apart the paper with the same gusto the kids had the night before and groaned when he found a white shirt box underneath. “Uh-oh. Clothes.”

“You got me clothes.”

“A coat’s not clothes. And you’re not a little boy on the inside.”

She laughed as he struggled with the tape holding the box closed and then held her breath as he rummaged through the tissue paper. His grin broadened to full dimple phase as he held up first one T-shirt and then another. One was big and man-sized, the other a miniature version. Both were emblazoned with the Jasper’s Bar & Grille logo.

“Awesome!” He laid the big shirt flat on the floor and put the toddler-sized version on top. “Me and the little guy will look cool in these.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Notice the gender-neutral red.”

“Thanks, Beth.”

His gaze was warm and the smile genuine, killing the last of the reserve she’d felt about the gift. She’d thought maybe it was cheesy, or not enough. And, deep down, she’d been afraid, too. It was too soon to buy things for the baby. If something happened…

Shoving down hard on that thought, she returned his smile. She’d live in this moment and this moment was a happy one.

“Okay,” he said, “right front pocket of your coat.”

She fished around until her fingers closed over the small box. Her heart stuttered for a few terrifying seconds when she recognized the wrapping paper of a well-known local jeweler, but calmed when she realized the box was longer and more flat than a ring box. She’d learned not to put anything past Kevin, but that would have been too much.

This time she took her time unwrapping it while he squirmed with impatience. Nestled inside was a simple yet elegant sterling silver mother-and-child pendant on a delicate chain.

“Oh.” She ran her fingertip over the beautiful symbol. “This is…”

“Worth a kiss?”

The laughter kept her from dissolving into a puddle of tears. “You’re shameless.”

“I am. But I can’t sit here next to a present with my name on it, so a raincheck on the kiss until after I open it.”

She hadn’t actually agreed to the kiss, never mind issued a raincheck, but he was already ripping the paper of his second present.

It was a huge collage frame—the kind with cutouts for a dozen small pictures—she’d filled with photos from Joe’s wedding. She’d spent hours looking at the pictures Keri’s photographer had taken and then copying the ones she wanted onto a disc to have made into prints.

She’d skipped over posed photos, choosing instead from the many candid shots as she tried to capture the essence of his family. There was one of his parents dancing, gazing into each other’s eyes as if they were the newlyweds. One of Kevin dancing with his niece, Stephanie. The three brothers standing together, laughing as though at a private joke. Joe and Keri, in all their finery, leading a laughing Conga line around the room. His nephews all sitting in a row, making a variety of goofy faces at the camera.

Her favorite was a photo obviously taken during the formal bridal party shots. Only it wasn’t very formal. Kevin had the groom in a headlock, while Mike noogied him and Evan made rabbit ears behind Joe’s head.

Kevin didn’t have to tell her he liked the gift. She watched the smile playing across his mouth as he touched a fingertip to each of the photos in turn. “This is amazing.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it. Seriously. This is so cool, Beth. Thank you.” He ran his finger over one of the pictures again. “Look at my parents in this one. You can see how much they love each other, even after all this time.”

She wasn’t even aware he moved, but suddenly he was right next to her. He tipped her chin toward him and kissed her.