AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Carmela was wearing red and green striped leggings under what was essentially an elf’s outfit. It was adorable, and she said it made her feel festive to wear something so silly. I just liked seeing her so happy and playful, even with the long, hard nights that happened with a newborn.
She was so incredible. I just couldn’t get over it. And I wanted her to know how incredible I thought she was.
Which led to what was in the top drawer of my dresser, wrapped in a sock.
It had taken a fair amount of sneaking around and a credit line she wasn’t aware of yet, but I had gotten the engagement ring a long time back. I’d known I loved her and wanted to marry her for quite a while, but I didn’t want to do it while she was pregnant. The last thing I wanted was to have people think I was only marrying her because of the baby. Not that I thought any of our actual friends would think that, but I could only imagine what other people in town would say.
No, I wanted the baby to be here and for us to be a family, and for there not to be a single thing she had to deal with when it came to people looking down on us for getting married. Plus, I knew she had a vision for how she wanted to look at her wedding. She had mentioned it before. Carrying a bowling ball in the center of her stomach was definitely not part of that vision.
So, I’d held off, and every day was torture. I wanted so badly to ask her, to put that ring on her finger and set a date as soon as possible. But now that the baby was here, that pathway had finally been cleared, and it was up to me as to when I wanted to do it. Christmas seemed like the perfect time.
As I watched her playing with Cassie’s feet and doing peekaboo with her, I formulated exactly how I would do it. We had spoken before about how we bonded over making fun of cliché couples and their cliché celebrations. Yet I knew deep down she liked those silly things, and I had a feeling she secretly wanted something like that to happen for her.
So, I would do it that way. It would be sincere because I thought it was a beautiful idea genuinely and because it would be a total surprise for her. Plus, I had a few weeks before the big day, and I could plan it all out how I wanted it. At least I already had the ring.
When we went to bed that night, I knew it had to be Christmas morning. It was the perfect combination of actual meaningful gestures and sappy silliness that we could both love and enjoy. I went to bed that night not dreaming of sugarplums dancing, but of Carmela swirling around the living room with Cassie in her arms, dancing to Christmas music streaming from her phone.
Weeks went by so quickly and yet at the same time, seemed to crawl toward Christmas Eve. The season was a blast, and I got to spend quite a bit of it with my old friends and taking Cassie around town to experience what a Texas Christmas was like. On the day before Christmas Eve, I even drove us up to Houston, where they had a giant indoor town built up with a real snow machine and sledding down a massive hill.
When we got back home, we were exhausted and had just enough energy to change into pajamas and crash into bed, knowing full well that Cassie would have us up in an hour or two for a change and probably for another feeding. Yet Carmela didn’t complain. She was glowing with a megawatt smile when she laid her head down to sleep, and when she came back to bed after putting the baby back down, she kissed my chest and thanked me for a wonderful day before drifting back out.
The next morning was hectic as I did everything I could to make the day special for her. I woke up early and made her breakfast to the best of my abilities, taking care of Cassie so she didn’t wake Carmela up. Mela preferred to breastfeed, when at all possible, but there were a few bottles in the fridge for just such an occasion, and I did my damndest to let her sleep in as long as possible.
When she finally did wake up, still early but late for her, she stumbled into the living room with a grin on her face. I was just plating her breakfast of eggs and bacon and pancakes when she sat down, and I brought it over to her with a mug of coffee.
