Page 35 of Home For Christmas

Like their ears were burning from us talking about them, Colt opened the door and a parade of people walked in: Derek, Harrison, Jasper, Greg, the kids, and finally Colt. The cold air blasted the small shop and the commotion seemed deafening.

Harrison looked around the small space and he scratched his beard. “This doesn’t seem like it would fit our house.”

“It’s very… godly,” I agreed.

“I’m halfway expecting a Happy Birthday, Jesus cake to appear.”

I snorted a laugh. “You remember my parents doing that, don’t you?”

Ty began to giggle, his blue eyes lighting up with humor. “Um, yup! Hard to forget that day.” It had been the first and last time Ty had ever come to our house after Christmas service at the church. Then again, it had also been the last time I’d gone back home after a Christmas service. After that year, Marla always seemed to come up with a reason for me to go back to their house. There had always been a pile of gifts waiting under the tree for me as well. I smiled at the memory.

A movement came from the back of the store, followed by a grunt and a “Darn it” that would have sounded cute if the voice didn’t send pricks of ice through my body. I’d know that voice anywhere, and Ty did too.

“Let’s go!” Ty said frantically as his eyes widened and he pointed to the door at the same time it opened.

Marla and Brice walked in, their eyes as wide as Ty’s, and Marla was out of breath. “Ugh, I love you all so much I ran here. Time to go, this is not the—”

But her words were cut off as my sister, Katie, exited the back room with a smile on her face. “Sorry about that. Welcome to—” Her words cut off and her smile faltered as soon as she saw us standing there. It took her a second to zero in on me. It had been over a decade since I’d seen her, and I looked nothing like the teenager who’d left here.

Ty gripped my hand and tugged, trying to get me to go toward the door, but my feet weren’t going anywhere. We stared at each other for a few long seconds, the air so thick with tension that even the kids were silent. Katie’s hair was dull and, despite being younger than me, she had more lines than someone ten years older. She looked so much older than her age. She looked like our mom had the last time I’d seen her.

Once upon a time, Katie had been a vibrant teenager, full of life and sparkle, but even her honey brown eyes lacked any twinkle. She blinked in surprise, her mouth open, but whatever it was she’d been saying was gone. I probably didn’t look much better, but all of a sudden, a piece of my soul that had been empty for years was filled. Not because she was there, but because I didn’t feel anything. Even when my mom and dad appeared behind her, their eyes showing a range of emotions from confusion to disbelief and, if I wasn’t mistaken, some anger as well.

Russ’s words came back to me. My family was all around me. They’d run from down the block, they’d stepped closer, they’d surrounded me. My family wasn’t in front of me, looking confused and disgusted.

As we all stood there, everyone too stunned to speak for a moment, I took my family in for the first time in my adult life. As Marla and Brice moved slowly to stand behind me and Ty, a smile began to tug at my lips. As a society, we placed a ton of emphasis on our family: parents, siblings, aunts, uncles. Looking at the three people standing in front of me, I didn’t see a family. I saw three people I knew for a season of my life.

The people who had moved around me—my brothers-in-law, all of whom I was closer with than most siblings, my husband, and even Marla and Brice—they had been there for me since I was a young child. Vacations, sports, a place to sleep, a shoulder to cry on. They’d been through it all with me. Even when I hadn’t thought I had a person in the world, the Scott family had accepted me in everything, without question.

My smile grew broader. My family was with me, and always had been. “Hi.”

My parents stood silently, but Katie spoke cautiously. “You’re back?”

“Only for a few weeks.”

Her eyes darted between us nervously. She didn’t look scared, simply nervous around people she didn’t know well. “I heard you got married.”

Ty stiffened beside me, probably expecting an all-out war to break out between us, but he forced words out of his mouth, despite them being clipped. “Nearly four years ago,” he said to her, his voice challenging her to say something negative.

I squeezed his shoulder, trying to rein him in before he got his feathers too ruffled.

She nodded. “Congratulations on the twins. They’re beautiful,” she mentioned as she looked at the stroller where the blanket had come off of them.

Logically, I knew I should be feeling more about seeing my biological family for the first time in so many years, but I felt nothing, at least nothing more for her or them than I did Joe at the Cuppa Joe. I had to fight a laugh as I thought about the name, having only just figured out his play on words.

Before I could even thank her for the compliment on the kids, Katie’s head tilted to the side as she studied Ty’s face. “Your eyes sparkle,” she said, then clasped her hands over her mouth as though she hadn’t meant to say what she had.

A playful smile crossed Ty’s face. “That’s not the only thing on me that sparkles.”

I didn’t do well at hiding my laugh, and it was cathartic to be able to laugh at that moment. Marla’s hand squeezed my shoulder, but her touch was too stiff. A glance back at my family—my real family—showed their jaws and muscles tense. They’d been there through everything and made me whole when I didn’t think it was possible.

I patted her hand and gave her a smile. “Thank you,” I mouthed, not letting her hand go.

My mom seemed to try to say something, but my dad reached out and tugged her away before she’d managed to form words. “Katie,” he called stiffly.

To my surprise, Katie shook her head. “I’ll be there in a few.”

My dad grumbled something and continued to walk, leaving us standing in awkward silence until Carter broke it with an innocent question. “Hey, Uncle Dec? Why’s she look so much like you?”

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