Page 2 of When You're Home for the Holidays
She felt a sharp pinch on her upper arm. She desperately wanted to smack Fielding’s hand away, but she couldn’t let Jake see her reaction. He pinched her three more times before she had a chance to wiggle out of his grasp. She knew why he was freaking out. Jake would be making an additional trip to the airport in the next few days, he just didn’t know it yet.
She turned around again and was met with one of Fielding’s megawatt grins. “Stop,” she mouthed wordlessly. Rhett would be livid if he gave away their surprise.
“Fine. I’ll go to the world’s biggest Christmas store with you,” she replied out loud.
“Perfect. Let me check their hours…” Fielding muttered, phone already in hand. “Oh, nice. They’re open until nine pm tonight, so we’ll have plenty of time to do my curbside pickup then make it up that way.”
Tori craned her neck further to watch him twiddle on his phone. “What sort of curbside pickup are we doing? I think Judy already has groceries at the house.”
He lifted his head and smirked. “Tori. Did you really think I was coming up to Michigan and not stopping by my favorite dispensary? Please. It’s like you don’t even know me.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. Sometimes it was too easy to forget that Fielding Haas was a rich prick trust fund fuckboy with a penchant for booze, weed, and women. Of course he’d already placed a curbside pickup order at a marijuana dispensary.
“Hey,” he murmured just above a whisper. “I can pick up my order later if you’re not cool with that. World’s biggest Christmas store with you is my number one priority now.”
“You know I don’t mind. I’d rather go now before Rhett gets home anyway.”
It was a new unspoken rule that they didn’t drink or indulge in any recreational drugs around her husband. That wasn’t a problem for Tori—she had never been much of a drinker aside from some underage dalliances in high school. But she appreciated that Jake and Fielding reined it in without her having to ask.
“Let’s go on an adventure,” she confidently declared.
Chapter two
Tori
Fieldingstoodinfrontof a life-size manger, staring at a sign overhead, mouth agape. “Wait. Have I been saying it wrong my whole life? Christ-mas. Christtttt-mas. It’s freakin’ CHRIST-mas? Jesus Christ…”
He was high. Really, really high. Maybe stopping at the dispensary before visiting the world’s biggest Christmas store hadn’t been the best idea after all.
By the time they arrived at their destination, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. They were less than half an hour from the cabin, so Tori offered to drive home since Fielding seemed eager to sample his curbside goodies. He said he was only going to take half a gummy. She had no context for dosing on pot gummies, and she hadn’t been concerned enough to text Jake to ask. Now she knew what half a gummy looked like for Fielding Haas.
“Tori! Look at this one!” He disappeared down an aisle labeled “dogs.” She had no idea what that meant… dog-themed ornaments? Holiday decorations for dogs? The store seemed to have everything, but trying to take it all in was overwhelming. Every aisle was buzzing, filled with shoppers of all ages. Christmas music played loudly over the speakers, and either twinkle lights or fake snow adorned every surface. The place smelled like sweet Christmas spices, and a little bit like sweat, too.
She maneuvered her already-full cart around an older couple in pursuit of Fielding. She had found an amazing selection of filler ornaments for the tree, along with a sturdy storage container she could leave up at the cabin for all their future Christmases.
For as unsure as she had been about this little adventure, she was glad Fielding had insisted on it. Now she just needed to find him so they could go home.
“Field?” she called out when she turned the corner and didn’t see him right away. He must have already moved on to the next aisle. This was like chasing a kid through a candy store. A very excited, very attractive, very stoned kid. At least he was tall enough he was easy to pick out of a crowd.
“Field! Slow down!” she hollered as she caught a glimpse of the top of his blond curly hair in the next aisle. They were deep into the store now, and everything was starting to look the same.
She was about to whip her cart into the next row when a little girl with a huge red bow secured to her hair toddled in front of her. Thankfully Tori didn’t have much momentum going because of the weight of her cart. She was able to stop quickly as the mother of the toddler apologized.
“No worries,” she murmured, coming to a full stop to let them pass. She glanced to her left and practically did a doubletake.
Right there. On the endcap. Was she really seeing what she thought she was seeing? She didn’t even know they made them anymore. And she had almost rushed right past them.
A large display of brightly-colored ornaments hung side by side, shining under the fluorescent lights, with a big sign overhead displaying all the customization options. These weren’t just any ornaments, though. They weretheornaments. The ornaments from her childhood. The ornaments she so desperately wished she could ask her mom about. She had wondered for years about where these ornaments came from. And here they were. Just hanging on an endcap at the world’s largest Christmas store, less than thirty minutes from her cabin.
The bulbs glistened and reflected her open-mouthed expression back to her as clearly as a mirror. They were a traditional ornament, no frills to them really, but they were priceless in her mind because of the memories they held.
She reached out one hand and gingerly skimmed the smooth surface of a royal blue bulb as a shadow blocked out the overhead fluorescent lights.
"What’d ya find?” Fielding asked louder than necessary, bouncing up and down on his toes and crowding her space. He was wearing a Santa hat now, and he had a ridiculous string of oversized light up ornaments hanging from his neck. He had somehow transformed into a Christmas elf in the two minutes since she had seen him last.
“These ornaments… these are the same ones my mom had personalized for us when I was little. I’ve been looking for these foryears. I can’t believe they’re right here.” She glanced from the display to Fielding, then back again, almost as if confirming he could see them, too, and this was really happening.
She bit down on her bottom lip to keep her emotions in check. So many of her thoughts about her mom had to do with cancer; with genetic testing, with risk-reducing surgeries, with drastic measures and anticipatory grief. She felt a surge of warmth through her whole body as she basked in this totally unadulterated holiday memory of her mom.
