Page 119 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
Further proof that I was never, ever going to have to choose between Jeannie and my children. She was already the best bonus mom they could ever ask for, and I was doing my all to be a great bonus dad for Max as well.
We followed Eva to the deepest part of the wading pool, where a dozen kids were lined up, not quite sure what was happening, especially when someone cut the music.
“Ready?” Ana called. Why was Ana always involved in something?
“Ready!” came the very confident response.
“All right! Three! Two! One! Go!”
She tapped her phone, and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” began to play from the Bluetooth speaker. All of a sudden, the kids were moving, clearly having designated roles as they acted out and lip-synced the story. Of course, Max was the lead.
It was silly, but for an impromptu production, it was pretty impressive. All the kids put their best into pantomiming being bullies, or kids getting their presents, and Eva really surprised me with her Santa, holding her belly and going up and down on her toes to mimic a jolly jiggle. I fleetingly wished I was recording it, but my mother was already on it. Thank God for grandparents.
When it was done, everyone cheered and clapped, even the humans who hadn’t accepted our invite to join the party. All in all, the atmosphere was jubilant. It made me a little sad to think I had locked myself away from the world for a year and a half when I had a knack for throwing a good shindig, but hey, I needed that time to mourn and really feel the effect of a lot of my bad coping mechanisms to realize that I needed to change them.
“Did you like it?” Max asked, bounding up to us as soon as it was over. He was a little out of breath, but not concerningly so considering the number he just pulled off.
“Sho did,” I drawled, holding my hand up for a high five. “You know, between this and the whole cabin thing, I think you’ve got kind of a knack for acting.”
“I do?” His shocked expression told me he’d never really thought about it, which was kind of a surprise since Max tended to think about everything.
“Oh certainly,” my mother said, approaching from behind me, her gaze locked on her phone, which told me she was likely already sending the video to everyone on her contact list. Although Max had already been adopted by a large chunk of our clan, I had a feeling that number was about to increase exponentially. “Aren’t you in the drama club?”
“No, I’m not in school at all.”
“Why—Oh, right. Yes, I remember now.”
“But this young gentleman is about to start in the new year!” my mother-in-law said, her husband trailing close behind herand nodding gravely. While he didn’t open up quite like my father did, I always appreciated how incredibly seriously he treated all of their suggestions and hijinks. If Eva ran up to him and told him she was a unicorn, he would treat that as a fact and ask her about the specific needs of her species. Sometimes kids needed weird validation like that.
“I am! I got accepted, and my doctor gave the okay.”
“You definitely need to join drama club. You’re a natural talent,” Amara said. “You’re sending me that video, right?”
“What, do you think I’m cruel?” my mother answered before the two women shared a laugh.
But Max’s attention was already on his mother, his eyes as big as saucers. “Can I do that, Mama? Can I join drama club?”
“Big man, you can do anything you put your heart to. As long as you’re having an okay time at school and feel like you have the energy, I’m happy to getcha to whatever after-school activities you want.”
“Yeah!” Max cried, throwing his hands into the air. “I’m going to be in drama club!”
He ran off, rejoining the gaggle of kids. Jeannie and I exchanged sappy looks.
Neither of our lives have been easy, and we had our own traumas, but all of us were proof that with the right environment, community, and a willingness to heal, a true happily ever after really could happen.
Max was better, and his cancer hadn’t returned. He was almost at the year mark of remission and doing better than ever. Addy and Eva were finding more of themselves while also becoming more comfortable with who they were and the differences from those around them.
I was communicating more with my family, and making more time to interact for no reason at all. And Jeannie? Jeannie was finally getting the support she deserved. All the love,affection, and home-cooked meals she could want. She didn’t have to deal with all of it on her own anymore.
We had so much more to experience, so many more joys to go through. We kissed again, this time long and deep, before joining in the conga line that Ana had started.
Christmas in July may have been a made-up thing, but goddamn, it turned out to be one hell of a present.
“Are they asleep?” Jeannie whispered as I cracked open the door of my bedroom and slipped inside.
“Like the dead,” I said, grinning at her.
Although some people would shirk at a mixed gender sleepover, we had no problem with it. Not that long after we began dating, I’d invested in a pull-out cot for Max to use during sleepovers in Addy and Eva’s room. Once he was older, if they even wanted to still do sleepovers, he’d obviously have his own accommodations, but it worked perfectly fine for now.
