Page 43 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
“Christmas is always just me and Mama,” Max said. But he said it like it was a good thing, and that mollified me. I was happy with our little dynamic duo, but sometimes I felt like I wasdepriving him of so many things a kid needed. “Our presents are each other.”
“No presents?” Eva asked forlornly.
Oh, God, please let the ground swallow me whole.
It was my job as his mother to make Christmas and birthdays special.
“I got presents. Five of them, already wrapped for me. Not to mention this is the first year inforeverthat I haven’t been in the hospital!”
I loved that my son was so frank about some things—it really removed the taboo—but I worried some people would react poorly and accuse him of trauma-dumping when he was simply talking about his life. Two and a half years of cancer and three months of remission was a huge chunk of time for Max.
I should have known better than to think I had to worry about the LeBeaus, however.
“That’s amazing, Max. It sounds like an amazing Christmas,” Remy said without missing a beat. “Why don’t you and the girls say your final holiday goodbyes, and then you get your mama to bed?”
“Okay!”
My son proceeded to do just that, and Remy took a step toward me, turning his back to our kids.
“Just wanted to check, ’cause you know how kids can be. Are y’all really gonna be on your lonesome all Christmas?”
He said it with no judgment, but shame spread through me, and those nagging whispers that I was messing up became ever louder.
“It sounds a lot more dire than it is. I managed to get him some things here and there. He only knows about the ones I wrapped.”
“But it’s just the two of you?”
He seemed really stuck on that. I shrugged, not really sure what to say. “His father has never been in the picture, so yeah, it’s just the two of us. We have our own little traditions that we’re happy to get back to after celebrating with the rest of the ward in the hospital. Or having him be too sick to really celebrate.”
“Well, I understand if you want time for y’all to reconnect and have a chill Christmas, but if you’re open to it, I’d love for you to come to the Christmas shindig my whole extended family throws.”
“What?” I blurted before my brain even fully caught up with what was happening. I must have hallucinated that, right? There was no way Remy was offering to let us crash his Christmas celebrations.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to be presumptuous,” he said, and a flush crept into those regal cheekbones of his. “Every year, my family throws this huge celebration on our old ancestral lands. There are a bunch of cabins, so you’d have a space to yourself. There’s atonof kids, and food, and old people looking to spoil young ones.
“And it’s not like it’s only blood relations. We’ve got friends of the family. Church friends. Visitors from other cla—congregations,you know, pretty much everything you could expect from a good, old-fashioned Southern get-together.”
“That’s…” I swallowed. I was absolutely out of my depth here. The crazy thing was, I wanted to agree. If tonight had been borderline magical, then what would a cabin amongst a whole family of LeBeaus be like? “That’s a really big offer.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Feel free to think about it, but no pressure. It’s just I can’t help but think Max would love to play with all the kids there, make some more friends. And I’m pretty sure it’s snowed a couple of inches there, so he could have a white Christmas.” It was like Remy caught himself gettingcarried away, because suddenly all his momentum stopped, and he shook his head.
“Sorry, I really am getting ahead of myself. I guess I’m a bit anxious since this is the first time me ‘n’ the little ’uns are going since Zara passed. Last year I was too much of a wreck to make it, and the girls weren’t feeling it. So, I guess I’m kind of eager to not only spread the Christmas cheer, but to also have someone around who kind of gets it. Kinda selfish, really.”
“That’s not selfish at all,” I said, more out of instinct than anything else, but I knew it was true right down to my heart. I was well and truly touched, so I found myself nodding along.
“How long is this shindig of yours?”
His gaze grew hopeful. “Some folks are already there. The girls and I leave the day after tomorrow, and we usually stay until the day after Christmas.”
“Well… I suppose I did preload most of my work. Will there be Wi-Fi?”
“Oh yeah. One of my cousins got sick of always having to cart around physical media, so he set up a network so we can stream. It’s pretty powerful.” He chuckled. “Welcome to the twenty-first century!”
“Let’s do it, then,” I said, only to be interrupted by a cheer from three distinct voices behind Remy. Looking past his shoulder, I saw the three of them hugging and jumping, although it was more just excited shuffling on Max’s part. So much for being discreet.
“Christmas party!” They cheered like we’d just told them Santa was going to visit them personally. “Christmas party! Christmas party!”
“All right, all right, let’s not wake up the neighborhood,” I said, gently shushing them although I really just wanted to laugh. “We’ll figure out all the final details tomorrow, but Max, it’s time to head inside and get ready for bed, okay?”
