Page 30 of A DIY Christmas Miracle
“Oh no. You said a bad word. I’m afraid I’ll have to take your Christmas present back.”
“Excuse me?”
“Decaffeinated,” Jack explained. “The word triggers a similarly fatal reaction as mentioningThe Nutcrackerin Cassy and Eli’s presence. Except for the fact that my little sister and Eli get excited while my lovely wife here” — he pointed at Sophie — “goes off on a tirade.”
“Decaf coffee is not real coffee. It goes against everything coffee stands for. Besides, it’s not the caffeine but the fucking stupid heartburn that’s the problem. In theory, I’m allowed to drink up to two cups of coffee a day, but my damn body decided that no, it doesn’t want coffee at all.” She winked at me. “I’ll let you get away with saying the d-word this time because you obviously didn’t know. But next time, I won’t let you get off so lightly.”
“Understood.”
I didn’t really understand the drama, but the way Jack and Sophie looked at each other, all smiles and laughter, it was probably a joke I wasn’t in on. Or I just hadn’t gotten it; that was also a possibility.
“Oh, by the way, where’s Eli? I stopped by the living room expecting him to be there, but he wasn’t.”
Two hours later, we had the table set for a decadent breakfast. Sophie and Juliet were standing at the stove making pancakes and scrambled eggs, while Linda stood next to them and explained to Juliet why she should’ve fried the bacon first. Jack was making yet another pot of coffee, and Josh and Cassy were in the living room, supposedly taking care of making a fire. Personally, I thought they’d just taken their chance for some semi-privacy and were making out.
Marc was stuffing the turkey we wanted to have for dinner and rubbing it with something that looked weird but smelled good.
I stood a couple of feet away from everyone and felt completely redundant. They were all bustling around, knew what they had to do, and I… was standing here with no idea what I was supposed to do.
“Is the peppermint creamer still in the fridge?” Jack asked absently. I immediately jumped at the chance to help and jogged to the fridge to check.
“And Eli’s still asleep?” Marc paused in the middle of what he was doing, as if just realizing one of us was still missing. I wish he’d pulled his arm out of the turkey first because the look of surprise on his face coupled with the fact that he was elbow deep in the turkey’s butt seemed… weird.
“Yeah, he’s still sleeping.” Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m starting to think he’s just pretending to be asleep to avoid helping in the kitchen.”
Sophie cocked her head, her eyes meeting mine. “Is he sick? Usually, he’s the first one up on Christmas Day. Nothing can stop him.”
“I’ll check on him,” I said, grateful for the opportunity to get away from all the noise and chaos. A dull pain was already throbbing behind my temples, and all the different voices made it hard to focus on just one.
Was Eli really sick? I should’ve noticed sooner. We’d been here all alone till yesterday, so it had been up to me to see if something was wrong with him. But he’d acted normal up until our friends had arrived.
“That’s a great idea,” Cassy said, nodding at me with approval in her eyes, a red, blinking Santa hat on her head. When had she come in?
I hastily fled the kitchen, leaned against the wall in the hallway, and took a deep breath.Phew.Christmas with my friends was wonderful but the complete and polar opposite of what my last Christmases had looked like. Hell, even when I’d been a kid, Christmas had been a rather quiet celebration.
After having gathered myself, I walked up the stairs towards our room. I really hoped Eli wasn’t sick. It’d be cruel for him to fall ill now after he’d been the one who’d planned this entire trip. Also, being sick on Christmas Day must be hell for a Christmas lover like Eli.
“Eli?” I knocked on the door of our room. There was an artificial fir branch with two baubles hanging on the door, and the baubles… Wait a minute. Did the ornaments have our names written on them? When had they been put up — and by whom? I was at least ninety percent certain I hadn’t seen them before.
Oh shit. Whoever had hung the branch must’ve done so overnight. Which meant he — or she — would’ve had to open the door, which, again, meant they’d possibly seen me and Eli all cuddled up. I swallowed.
Maybe, hopefully, I’d just missed the branch last night.
I stopped knocking and waited for an answer, but it was in vain. There was none. For a moment, I contemplated if I should forget it and let Eli sleep. If he were sick, he probably needed his sleep.
But… if he was unwell, shouldn’t we see if there was anything we could do for him? It might be best to at least ask him about what he needed and then ask our friends if anyone had brought any cold or flu medicine. Yeah, it was probably best to at least check on him.
I quietly opened the door and peeked into the room. The sun was shining through the window, casting long rays of light onto the bed, and made the snowflakes on the windows glisten.
Almost everything looked just like it had two hours ago. The only difference was Eli was now lying on one side, buried so deeply in the thick comforter that the only thing visible was his silvery mop of hair.
“Eli?” I tried getting his attention once again while slowly stepping closer to our bed.Ourbed. Oh, how good that sounded. So right, yet it was so wrong.
“Hmm?” A low hum was my only answer. There was no movement. He didn’t even attempt to turn to face me, so I didn’t know if he’d opened his eyes or if he’d just hummed in his sleep.
So I rounded the bed, carefully taking a wide step over his sweater and the jeans he’d been wearing yesterday, and got on my knees in front of Eli to be eye-level with him.
“Are you okay?”
