Page 46 of Anywhere with You
Exhausted from the long day we say a quick hello to Mr. and Mrs. Mac and turn in. I quickly change into one of Liam’s t-shirts and slide into bed. As I slide in Liam reaches for me. He draws me tight against his chest. “Goodnight, beautiful. I love you.” I manage to tell him I love him too before falling back to sleep.
Christmas morning with the MacCoys is amazing. We all sit in the living room eating pastries and drinking coffee before opening gifts. I’m nervous to give Liam the gift I made him, so I busy myself with passing out my gifts to everyone else. Mr. and Mrs. Mac love the gift card Aiden and I got them to a restaurant close to the bed and breakfast Liam and Hailey reserved for them. Aiden loves his Best Buy gift card. He wants a new stereo system for his car. Hailey squeals when she opens her Coach wristlet and matching iPhone case. I smile shyly at Liam as I hand him his gift. He smiles at me in return and hands me two more as well. He, of course, makes me go first.
I open the larger one first and grin from ear to ear when I see it’s the new Coach purse I’ve been eyeing at Macy’s. “Go on, you’ve got one more.” Liam urges me. I slowly un-wrap the last gift and open the black felt case. Nestled inside is a beautiful diamond heart necklace. I look up at Liam with tears in my eyes. “I figured since you own my heart you should have a symbol of it to wear as well,” he says while his entire family and Aiden watch us.
I don’t care who’s watching, I launch myself at him and hug him tight. “Thank you, Liam. I love it. It’s beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as you,” he whispers so only I can hear. He clasps the delicate chain around my neck, placing a soft kiss against my nape when he’s done. I grab the box that his last gift is in and hand it to him.Here goes nothing. Liam makes quick work of the wrapping paper and gently lifts the lid off of the box. He pulls out the pale blue book that represents our school colors. Liam opens thebook, and then looks back at me. “How did you?” He turns to the next page. “Where did you?” He looks through a few more pages, before setting the book aside and capturing me in a soul searing kiss. “I love it, and I love you. This is the most amazing gift ever. When did you find the time to do this?”
I sigh with relief that he likes it. “I worked on it the weekends you had away games and spent at Gran’s. She gets tired easy these days and sleeps a lot, so I worked on it while she napped.”
“What is it?” Aiden asks him. I kept the gift a secret from him.
Liam smiles as he passes it to him. “It’s a scrapbook of my entire football career,” he tells him as he reaches for me and gives me one of his bear hugs. “You’re amazing, Allison.” The book is passed around, and everyone compliments me on it. Once they’ve all looked at it, Liam sits on the floor between my legs and studies the details of every page. I explain to him that his mom and Hailey both helped me with pictures. I included his pee wee days all through college.
“Well, there’s just one more gift to give,” Mr. Mac says as he gets up and grabs four envelopes from the mantel. “We know how close all of you are, and well, we thought it might be nice if all of you were able to get away for a weekend.” He hands each of us an envelope. “All of these are the exact same, but we wanted each of you to be able to open one, so on the count of three.” On three we all tear open our envelopes, and inside is a voucher for a three-night stay at a log cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. All four of us are immediately on our feet, hugging Mr. and Mrs. Mac and thanking them for the gift. “There’s no expiration date, and it’s paid in full, so you guys can go when you can get your schedules to mesh. Of course, you’ll have to call to schedule your date with the company.”
We’re only able to stay at Liam’s parents for two days due to Liam and Aiden needing to get back for football practice. They’re playing in a bowl game on New Year’s Day.
Liam unloads all of our gifts into our room while I unload all of the leftovers Mrs. Mac sent home with us. Once I am done, I walk back to the bedroom and find Liam sitting on the bed, propped upagainst the headboard, looking through his scrapbook in his lap. “Hey.”
“This really is incredible, Allison,” he says as he continues to flip through the pages. “You managed to capture my entire football career in this book. This means so much to me. This is the most personal gift I’ve ever been given, and to know you made it for me, makes it even better.”
“I wanted to do something special for you.” I hesitate. I am afraid to tell him what I am thinking. I decide to just go for it, he loves me. “I thought it would be something you could show your kids one day.” I shrug.
He leans over and kisses me softly on the lips. “I will definitely be showing this toourkids, so they can see how amazingly talented their mom is.”
CHAPTER 32
Liam
Waking up with Allison tangled in my arms is something I’ll never get tired of. She pretty much lives here now. Well, not technically, but most of her clothes are here, as well as all of her books and laptop. It’s been weeks since she’s stayed at her dorm. Hailey’s always here too, unless she has a date, which has been less often. The four of us have become a tight knit group. Allison thinks there might be something brewing with Aiden and Hailey, but I don’t see it. Of course, I rarely pay attention to anything else when Allison is around, I’m captivated by her.
Today is New Year’s Eve Eve, and since Aiden and I have a big game New Year’s Day and we fly out to Miami tomorrow, we decide to just have a quiet night at the apartment. Hailey decides to stay in with us, as well as Blitzen and his date, Jerrica. Blitzen very seldom has dates, he’s more of a hook-up kind of guy. I can’t judge him, because I used to be the same way before Allie. Maybe Jerrica will be the one to help him change his ways.
Hailey and Allison take care of all of the food preparation while Aiden and I set up the living room to accommodate everyone. We picked up a case of beer, but that’s all since we have practice and a flight tomorrow. Tonight, we’re just going to chill, not get our drink on. Hell, all I want to do is make love to Allison, but what else is new.
When Blitzen and Jerrica arrive, you can tell she feels out of place, being the only new person to the group. Allison must sense this, because she quickly introduces herself and drags Jerrica off to the kitchen with her and Hales.
“So, you ready for the big game?” Blitzen asks us.
“We got this,” Aiden replies as he holds a fist out to each of us to bump.
“I think our chances are good, our team is strong,” I respond. We continue to talk about the game until the girls get our attention by yelling that the food’s ready, didn’t have to tell us twice. They have really outdone themselves. We have meatballs, buffalo chicken dip, finger sandwiches, chips, cookies, and brownies.
I tug Allison to my chest and kiss her just below her ear. “Thank you for doing all this.”
She smiles as she turns to Jerrica, trying to include her. “Thanks again for helping us get all of this together,” she tells her.
“This is so good,” Aiden says as he shoves a meatball in his mouth. I watch while Hailey grabs a napkin and wipes his face for him.Interesting.
After we eat, we gather in the living room for a game of battle of the sexes. The girls kick our asses. So, of course, us being the manly men that we are, we refuse to play again and demand another game. We vote for Rock Band, so we take turns, guys and girls. Of course, we’re all acting crazy and making fun of each other, which leads to cranking up the iPod and dancing around the living room. Aiden, Blitzen, and I decide it is time for more food. Once we return to the living room, the girls have cleaned up the games and are starting a movie. We’re watching Easy A, and surprisingly none of us have seen it before. I sit down in the recliner and tug Allison down on top ofme. Blitzen and Jerrica take the love seat while Aiden and Hailey take the couch. The movie is good, at least what I watch of it. It is hard to focus with Allison’s warm body snuggled up against me. The movie ends right before midnight, which works out so we’re all able to get our New Year’s kiss. I’m able to see Aiden pulling back from Hailey as I pull my lips away from Allison’s. I know he wouldn’t hurt her, and I can’t exactly tell him to keep his hands off my little sister, since Allison is just like a sister to him and I pursued her. I’ll have to at least mention it, another time though.
Blitzen and Jerrica thank us for having them and leave a short time later. Allison and I say goodnight to Hales and Aiden, and lock ourselves in our room. We go through what has now become our routine, brushing our teeth together and changing for bed. Allison crawls into her side of the bed and I follow, pulling her next to me as close as I can get her.She’s never close enough.
“I love you, beautiful girl,” I whisper in her ear.
She looks over her shoulder. “I love you too, Liam.”
