Page 56 of I Knew You Were Trouble

“Now?” Demi’s voice pitches high, and I drop my gaze to the box Candace is handing me. It’s green with a tag that boasts Santa on a motorcycle. The corner of my mouth picks up, but my heart thuds unevenly. I have nothing for her. I’ve never even heard of Christmas Eve boxes.

“Go for it,” Candace urges, and Demi chucks the lid off so fast it flies across the room and hits Mad in the face.

“Watch it, Tasmanian devil.” Maddie digs into her own box, beaming at the contents. My hands slip on my gift, refusing to open it until I see what’s in Demi’s.

“Sweet!” she says, pulling out a nightgown. “I’m not a big fan of pink, but I can totally pull it off.”

Pink is Demi’s least favorite color, so I’m glad she edited some of that comment for Candace’s benefit. She sets it aside and digs through the tissue paper for more stuff.

A book, a mini can of soda, snack packs of Christmas cookies, and… oh boy… I wonder if Candace will realize—

“Stickers!”Demi shrieks, jumping up and down on the couch. “Pete, look! Seven hundred stickers!”

“Don’t you dare decorate my walls with that,” I tease, but there’s a good chance she thought about it. Even the evil glint in her eye says she still is. “This is a rental.”

“I don’t know what that means.” She drops her head back to the stickers, and I’m too grateful she doesn’t know what rent is yet that I don’t care to explain it.

“Thank you, Candace,” Maddie says from her spot on the floor. A pair of pajama pants drapes over her legs, the material covered in horse print. I can’t read what the top says from this angle. “You didn’t have to.”

“Pete didn’t have to invite me.” She nudges my arm, her gaze dropping to my unopened present. “Hey, open it.”

“Yeah, Pete, I wanna see what you got.” Demi bounces on the couch again, the book of stickers still clutched tightly to her chest.

I smirk and turn my eyes to Candace, lifting the lid. “You didn’t have to…” I repeat Maddie. Candace sticks her tongue out in response.

The pajamas are green, plaid flannel, warm already in my cold fingers. I lay them out for Demi to see, and she’s pretty indifferent about the boring pattern compared to her sparkly pink. It pairs with a cotton t-shirt with the wordsHo Ho Vroomon the front in the same plaid pattern, and a motorcycling Santa underneath. I let out a bark of a laugh, knowing there is no way in hell I’d buy this for myself, but I’ll be happy to wear it tonight for her.

“I took a guess at your size.” Candace holds the shirt up against me. “Might be a little big.”

“Pajamas are better big,” I tell her, shuffling through the rest of my goodies. She knows me better than I thought. Peanut M&Ms, large bottle of purple Fanta, a book of tattoo art, and a card. I’ll save reading that for later.

“I’m hungry.” Demi bounces off the couch and looks at Maddie. “Is dinner ready?”

“Yep.” Maddie pushes her goodies to the side and gets to her feet. “Hope you like crunchy ham.”

Turns out, crunchy ham tastes a lot like bacon, so it’s the best damn ham I’ve ever eaten. Since we don’t have a table, we sit on the couch and floor in the living room, and I watch Candace struggle with a knife and fork with the plate on her lap for a good ten minutes before she gives up and uses her hands like the rest of us.

Demi hops, sticking her stickers on any surface she can without being yelled at for it. Candace makes a whoops face at me when Demi reaches out and smacks agood worksticker to my forehead. Once we’re done eating, Maddie turns on some Christmas music, and she and Demi rock out while Candace and I shuffle around each other in the kitchen.

She’s meticulous in her cookie baking process, smacking my hand any time I try for some dough. Somehow I end up with flour all over my shirt while her green sweater remains spotless.

Demi begs to frost the cookies, so she and I switch spots. I flump on the couch with Maddie and find out that Candace has offered her a job watching the horses—and my heart grows like the Grinch’s.

“Really? It pays well?” I prod.

“I don’t know. You interrupted.” She gives my knee a smack then takes a sip from her blue Gatorade from her Christmas Eve box. Candace did well on the guesswork with the tastes of my sisters’. Demi got orange soda, which is in her top five, and Gatorade was a good bet with Maddie, being as athletic as she is.

“You should get more details then.” If Mad could get a better paying job that also gives her time with her boarding that would be ideal. For both me and her.

Laughter floats in from the kitchen, the snorts from Candace mixing with the squeals of my baby sister. It’s the most real and comforting background music.

Around ten-thirty, after too many cookies, Demi starts to drift, as much as she’s fighting it.

“But Candace didn’t show me her art stuff yet,” she mumbles through tired lips as I pick her up in my arms. Damn, she’s getting heavy.

“She’ll still be here in the morning, you goof.”

“It’ll take two seconds.”

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