Page 80 of Saving You

She goes back to her stocking, slowly putting everything back inside before helping Finn take everything out of the stocking Bailey insisted we get him. He excitedly plays with his new toys, and I set the treats on the side table. Once his stocking is done, Charlie puts everything back into it, like she did hers, and comes over to Bailey.

“Mommy, I cleaned up my stocking. Can we open presents now?” she asks as she clutches her hands together and places them under her chin in a pleading motion.

Bailey smiles at her. “Yeah, Baby Girl, we can open presents.”

Bailey drops to the floor in front of the tree and hands a gift to Charlie. “This one’s for Caleb,” she says, and Charlie runs the gift to me.

I thank her as she runs back to Bailey, grabbing her own gift before settling on the floor in front of me.

I look down and read the tag on the gift in my hand.

To: Caleb

Love: Charlie

I open the gift, and inside is a hoodie that says,It’s okay if you don’t like hockey. It’s kind of a smart people sportwith crossed hockey sticks in the middle. I laugh, and have Charlie come over so I can hug her and thank her for my gift. She shows me the new dress her mom bought her and then she opens another gift. She sits in my lap as she pulls out the giant haul of books I bought her. Her voice is full of excitement as she pulls each one out.

She turns in my lap and hands me a book. “Will you read this one to me?” she asks, and I chuckle.

“I will, but how about we open the rest of the presents?”

“Promise?”

“Promise,” I say.

Bailey hands her another gift and then she hands me one. She looks hesitant as I take it from her and slowly take the wrapping paper off the box. When I open it, I see a digital photo frame as well as additional frames underneath. I pull them out and see a photo of me with the guys at a game. There’s one of me and Charlie the first time I took her on the ice, one of the three of us Christmas tree shopping, one of me and Finn in the backyard. I continue to go through the stack until I come to one at the bottom. It’s of my dad and me at a hockey game when I was a kid. I stare at it, stunned. I don’t know how she managed to get her hands on this.

“I asked your mom for that picture,” Bailey whispers beside me.

I raise my gaze and meet hers. Shegnaws on her lip as she stares at me.

“You don’t have a lot of pictures, and I thought that maybe adding a few might warm the place up a bit,” she says as she fiddles with her fingers in her lap.

I reach out, my hand going to the back of her neck, I pull her in for a slow kiss. This gift was not about the material, but rather she put a great deal of thought into it. She melts into me as she kisses me back.

I break the kiss and whisper, “Thank you,” across her lips.

She smiles and whispers back, “You’re welcome.”

“Open yours,” I say when we pull apart, and she goes back to the tree and pulls out two individually wrapped boxes with her name on them. She opens the smaller box first, and inside is a pair of earrings. They’re a pair of drop earrings with an amethyst stone in each. She stares at them for a minute before her eyes come back up to mine.

“They’re amethyst. It’s Charlie’s birthstone.”

“They’re gorgeous,” she says as she takes them out and immediately puts them in, not caring that she’s currently wearing pyjamas with Santa printed all over them. It’s adorable.

I hand her the other gift, and she opens it with a smile. Inside is a gold locket. It’s open to a picture of Charlie. I caught her staring at one during our trip to the mall, so I went to a jewelry store and found one worthy of her. She holds it reverently before she hands it to me and turns, lifting her hair so I can secure it around her neck.

She kisses me. “Best gifts I’ve ever received,” she whispers, and pride washes over me.

She snuggles into my side as we watch Charlie open the rest of her gifts. She opens a set of American Girl dolls I got her as well as clothes she can dress them in. There are a few games and movies too. She seems elated by all of it. Charlie goes over to the tree and grabs the last gift. It’s from Charlieto Bailey. I helped her wrap it and put it under the tree.

“For you, Mommy,” she says.

Bailey sits up, taking the gift. She looks over her shoulder at me and then back to the gift. She carefully opens the box, and her jaw drops as she looks inside and then back at me.

She pulls out each vinyl album in awe. When I asked Charlie what she wanted to get her mom for Christmas, she told me Taylor Swift, so I did some research and we got her all the albums on vinyl.

“Do you like them, Mommy?” Charlie asks.

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