Page 91 of The Sun
Shaking his head, Judah lumbered back down the hallway, and seconds later his door banged shut.
I took my keys from the counter and headed toward the door.
“How can he not like Christmas?” Sunny asked.
“Because we’ve never had one.”
The driveto Daphne takes about forty minutes. It took fifty to get to the Walmart, away from the crowds of familiar faces. The air outside was crisp and cold. Our breath made tiny clouds against the dark sky as we fell into the fold of Christmas shoppers flooding the clusterfuck of a parking lot.
As we neared the entrance, the jingle of a bell rang out over the hustle and bustle surrounding us. Sunny dropped some change into the Salvation Army bucket, and the man in the ratty Santa beard gave a swift nod followed by, “God Bless.”
Sunny wrangled a buggy from the bay while I watched the wall of people gathered by the Rollback Bin arguing in the true spirit of Christmas.
We had been in the store a total of five minutes, and it was already proving to be too much. “Christmas shit’s over there, isn’t it?” I pointed over the bobbing heads toward the garden area.
An amused expression danced on her face. “It’s not shit but yes.”
Sunny kept muttering, “Excuse me. Excuse me”while we maneuvered our squeaky-wheeled shopping cart down the walkway, around screaming toddlers and overflowing buggies until she whirled down an aisle with ornaments and tinsel strewn across the floor.
“You wanna do the traditional thing or something fancy?” She picked up a discarded box of silver, glitter-covered ornaments. Some icicles. Some orbs.
I took the package from her, studying it even though I didn’t care what we bought, just that it was what she wanted. Every single sweep she made of the decorations, her eyes always landed on the silver icicles and a tube of iridescent, white balls.
I tossed the icicle ones into the cart, then I grabbed two more boxes. “These and..” I snagged a few tubes of the white balls. “These.” I tried not to smile when I saw her face light up.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“Just did.” I kissed her forehead before picking out a strand of white lights—because you don’t put colorful lights on a fancy tree—and we headed to the check out like a couple of adults.
When we got backto my house, Sunny put on Christmas music and tore into the boxes of ornaments like they were the best thing she’d ever been bought.
Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” played in the background as we decorated the pathetic, lopsided tree in my living room. I thought it was cute. Sunny sang along to the radio while making sure each ornament was in its rightful place.
I hooked an icicle onto one of the low-hanging branches, wondering if this was how Christmas felt to everyone else, full of hope and love and promise, or if that was just because of Sunny.
“We’re gonna keep these forever, right?” she asked.
“Of course. I’m all about the sentimental crap.”
She went back to singing.
I couldn’t see her on the backside of the tree, but I took a handful of tinsel and threw it in her direction. A clump caught on the branches. She grabbed it and chucked it at me.
Before long, we were in a full-blown tinsel war. Metallic strands lay scattered across the carpet, the arm of the recliner, they hung from the fan blades. Sunny ended up pinned underneath me, out of breath and giggling with silver strands like moonbeams in her hair. I couldn’t get enough of moments like this.
I was convinced what we had was something most people looked for their entire lives, few ever finding. Because the way I loved her was completely and utterly, a way that made me feel like I had a purpose. And to be anything in life, a person always need something other than themselves. Without words, men could not be poets, and without her, I could not be whole.
“Promise me,” I said, laying my lips against hers. “We’ll always be like this.”
“I promise.”
“You’re my damn world, Sunny.” I kissed her, hard then soft.
Her hand swept over my cheek. “Let’s go to your room.”
We leftthe tree half decorated and ended up naked in my bed, sweat-slicked and panting whispered I love yous while Christmas music played in the background.
And when it was over, we laid there, Sunny’s cheek to my chest. “Can we play Have You Ever?”
