Page 89 of Only Ever You

The pale cream curtains dressing the windows did little to help block out the cold morning sunlight. It wasn't clear what time it was. From somewhere else in the house, the lone cries of Imara came, doing the same thing as her sister to Matt and Saira.

Maya bounced more determinedly on her knees and came up even further between their bodies, unbrushed hair flying. No sense of personal space at all.

“Come on! You have to get up!” She shoved at him, but it was too easy to tease her.

Bash flashed a discrete grin at Faye, fisting what he could of the duvet in his hand before yanking it up between them. Maya fell backwards as the metaphorical rug was literally pulled from under her, yelping as she landed on the mattress.

Faye stifled her snicker and glanced, no doubt, to see that Maya was alright, but his niece rolled straight back onto her knees. Before Bash knew it, she clambered across the bed with a determined look on her face and flattened her whole dead weight on his back.

The noise that came out of him was … unique. Like a high pitched groan muffled when the air pushed from his lungs went directly into the pillow beneath his face. Faye laughed a sound he’d been longing to hear after their discussions last night and had the audacity to not help him at all.

Even Bash started laughing in defeat. “Okay, okay, we’re coming.”

After some light bargaining, he persuaded Maya to give them a minute of privacy to put more appropriate clothes on. He didn't exactly want his brother or his parents seeing Faye in almost all her glory and then looking at him for some explanation, as if it’d been expected they sleep in the same bed completely covered head to toe.

Downstairs, they were embraced in rounds of“Joyeux Noël”and“Merry Christmas”in the living room. The stockings on the mantle were full, the lights bright on the Christmas tree which was neither tall nor wide enough to accommodate the volume of presents underneath.

“What are you wearing?” Bash chuckled at Matt as they peeled apart from their hug.

“It wasn’t my idea.”

He’d never seen Matt look so exasperated by pyjamas. And not justanypyjamas: Santa covered pyjamas identical to his wife and daughters. Even their fluffy reindeer slippers matched. Bash couldn’t withhold his laugher and earned a backhand dangerously close to the valuables.

“You better laugh it up now,” Matt chided then lowered his voice, “it’ll be you one day.”

“Ugh. Yeah, no. I’ll love my wife and kids with my whole heart, but we’re not doing this.” Bash gestured up and down the length of Matt and narrowly dodged another ill-aimed backhand.

Moving out of the way, he peeked across at the quiet conversation between his mother and Faye and didn’t feel worried about his best friend at all. They both had smiles on their faces and soft eyes. It was every way that Faye deserved to be welcomed by any family on Christmas day.

But there was one person missing to theirs.

“Where’s Mortimer?” he asked his father, unable to resist flicking his gaze at the beanie knitted like a Christmas pudding that the man wore.

“Oh, he said to not wait for him.”

A plume of smoke lit in Bash’s stomach. “Why?”

Arthur lowered his gaze and fiddled with rotating an ornament on the Christmas tree. “He erh … Wasn’t feeling too sprightly when I checked on him.”

Bash had to force down a breath.So he’s hungover, then.A bottle from the dining table had disappeared between the party and the tidy up. He thought it might’ve been one of the guests but now he knew exactly where it had gone.

He envied the patience of his father – the man who had set the best example any son could hope to follow. But he often wondered justwhatit would take for such a soft spoken man to snap.

It was Christmas Day, and the girls were here. Bash didn’t want to make a scene or sour the mood so he dropped the topic of their missing guest for now.

After breakfast, of which his nieces rushed through theirs so quickly he was surprised they kept it down, they sat on the rug around the Christmas tree. Faye and him happily joined the girls whilst everyone else occupied the sofa and armchairs. Imara and Maya excitedly opened half of their presents until Saira intervened, slowing them down so someone else could maybe open something.

Bash shifted the lay of his jogging bottoms on his crossed legs. “Imara? Could you pass that one?” He pointed at the larger of two wrapped boxes he’d stowed away behind their bags in the car on the way here.

Imara shuffled it over to him and he shuffled it to Faye.

“I got you something.”

“Really?” Why did she look so surprised? Her eyes looked like they’d hung stars.

“Really.” Because there was no way he wasnotgoing to get her something – as if he would ever do that anyway – and have her sit here with nothing whilst the rest of his family opened their presents.

“Two things actually,” Bash said, well aware his whole family had stopped what they were doing and watched the two of them. “The first one you said you wanted, but the second I thought you might like.”

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