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Because there were times Caleb’s Christmas schedule was similar, Sydney and Caleb sometimes hosted Christmas for both families. Last Christmas being one of them.
Even Grace had made it to the Christmas Eve festivities before flying home to Illinois to spend the day with her family.
I was late.
Seemed to be my MO when it came to arriving to large functions at the Prescott house. This time it wasn’t my fault though. The plane was late coming into Salt Lake City, thus delaying my flight.
I left my regular suitcase in the rental car, grabbing the other that had Christmas gifts in it, and headed toward the house. Immediately upon opening the front door, I was bombarded with the smell of ham, cranberry candles, and noise.
His back straight and his little legs going quickly like a roadrunner, my two year old nephew came rounding the corner from the main living area, barreling toward me. “Unca Soya!”
I closed the door behind me, chuckling, and let go of my bag so I could bend down to catch Brandon’s propelling form. “Hey, Slug.”
Brandon began telling me about the cookies both Gramma and Granny brought, Granny being Caleb’s mom. Apparently we had cookies and baked goods for days, if what Brandon was telling me was true.
Which I believed.
The mothers were bakers.
As we walked the slight distance, past Sydney and Caleb’s home office and through the open, formal dining room—that was never used—voices grew louder. I could make out Smith’s deeper voice as he spoke with our father. I could also hear as Caleb’s younger siblings fought over a game.
Sure enough, in the living room stood one of Caleb’s brothers, Porter, and a sister, McKenna, having a heated discussion, with The Game of Life between them .
Sitting behind them though, with a soft smile on her face, and her eyes widened ever so slightly, was Grace. She sat in a large stuffed chair, leaning into the arm with her legs folded at her side. Any other person looking at her would think she was just taking in the game and conversation in front of her, listening with half an ear to the other conversations around her, but I knew better.
Her soft smile was slightly strained, the sides pinched tight. And her widened eyes were slightly glazed over. Upon closer inspection, her breathing was too quick for her to be feeling as comfortable as she appeared.
I put Brandon down on his feet, bending to his level and whispering in his ear. Then I stayed crouched, stayed hidden, as Brandon did as I asked. My arrival had come unnoticed as men talked sports, women cooked, and others played.
Brandon ran to the cookie table, snatched up a peanut butter and chocolate kiss blossom—making me grimace at his choice—and ran it over to Grace. I watched as her face came to life, her smile becoming less strained, and her eyes brightening.
“Will you share it with me?” I heard her ask him. Brandon shook his head, no doubt because he was aware there were plenty more where that one had come from.
I stood to my full height and fully entered the room. Sydney caught my movement in her peripheral and waved as she stirred something at the stove. “Hey, Soy.”
Another hello came from one of the guys, Caleb’s dad I thought but I couldn’t be sure, as my eyes were over to Grace. When she lifted her head from Brandon to me, her face further lit up. “Sawyer! You made it.” Just like that, she melted into herself again.
Maybe it made me an ass to revel in it, but I enjoyed knowing I could be “her person,” as she had once told me. The person she could lean on when places got too crowded. The person who could calm and ground her when she was feeling overwhelmed.
“I’ll share with you,” I told her, walking over to my friend.
I often had to remind myself that that was what she was, a friend. But I would take her friendship any day.
I moved past the Life set up, where Avery Prescott had now joined her seventeen and twenty-one year old siblings. “Hey, Sawyer,” Porter addressed me, sitting down and waiting for his sisters to do the same. Whatever feud he and McKenna had been having must have resolved itself.
I nodded once. “Porter. Hello, girls.” They said hello as well and I glanced at the board, seeing a fourth car, decked out with many Life people in it. I wondered who else was playing; who had the shit luck of continuously landing on extending family options.
A door opened near the mudroom—the bathroom, I presumed—and out walked Sean, drying his hands on his jeans. “I’m back!” He walked to the set up and clasped his hands before sitting across from Porter. “Alright, where were we?” I shook my head when I realized it was my thirty-two year old bachelor for life brother who managed to do the direct opposite of his life, in Life. Ironic.
I plopped down next to Grace on the oversized single person chair, causing her to scramble from her relaxed, leaning position to one that would accommodate my larger frame.
She smiled at me. “Did you tell Brandon to get me a cookie?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I answered, reaching for the blossom in her hand. “I didn’t think to specify.” I took the cookie from her and popped off the chocolate kiss. Unlike damn near every other woman I had ever encountered, Grace didn’t care for chocolate.
I gave her back the peanut butter cookie. “Better?”
With a sweet, light laugh, she nodded. “Much.”
