Effortless (31 page)

Dad’s eyes widened as he sat back in his chair. A hand rubbed
over his jaw as he softly smiled at me. Fatherly pride stretching
over his face, he shook his head. “You always were too smart for
your own good.”

I relaxed back into Mom behind me and shook my head. “Not
really…but I’m trying to be smarter.” I bit my lip, not wanting to
let too much truth about my vast failings slip out. My parents
still didn’t know the real reason Denny and I broke up. They
assumed he had left the country for a job, and I was content to let
them think that.  “I’m in love with him, Dad. Pausing…isn’t an
option for me.”

I heard a sniff from the doorway and looked back to see Kellan
standing there, head down as he listened. He looked up and met my
eye, a genuine, peaceful smile on his face. Dad sighed, maybe
finally seeing that he really had lost his little girl. I stood up
and walked over to Kellan. Cupping his cheeks, slightly moist, like
he’d splashed water on them, I searched his unique eyes. “Not being
yours isn’t an option anymore,” I whispered.

He nodded, and leaned down to kiss me. I let him, Dad be
damned.

Twenty minutes later, you wouldn’t even know the conversation
had happened. Kellan let it slide off of him and Dad even seemed a
little chagrined that he’d brought it up. He even stopped his
sullen, disapproving looks at Kellan. He didn’t suddenly turn warm
towards him or anything, but he did stop being the brutish,
overprotective father.

Anna had forgotten about the moment the minute we stepped near
the tree. Honestly, eating breakfast first was the hardest part
about Christmas for her. We’d only started doing that in the last
couple of years, when the presents part of the holidays started
taking a back seat to the family part of the holidays. But she was
still a giddy little girl when it came time to rip open stuff.

Kellan sat beside me on the couch as she started doling out
gifts. She handed everybody a similarly wrapped, flat square and
made us all open them together. Kellan laughed as he looked around
at all of us opening Anna’s gift. I laughed when I saw what it was.
We were all now proud owners of next year’s Hooters calendar. I
blinked as I stared at the three orange and white clad vixens on
the cover.

Dropping my jaw, I looked up at her. “You got the cover?”

Anna clapped and giggled, stomping her feet in her excitement.
“Yes! I was hoping you didn’t see one in the stores, I wanted to
surprise you.”

I stood up and gave her a hug, Mom and Dad and Kellan following
suit. I knew she’d made the calendar, April, from what she’d told
me, but the cover was an even bigger deal. Sitting back down, I
flipped to her page. God, she was pretty. I immediately closed it.
Kellan set his aside and grabbed my hand, leaning into me. Smiling
over the fact that he hadn’t peeked at her picture, I kissed his
cheek.

The standard gifts went around the room—clothes, books, music,
movies and games. The merriment in the air was palpable as we all
laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. Kellan silently watched
the whole affair, his eyes soft and speculative. When it got near
the end of the pile under the tree, Anna handed him a present from
my parents. He blinked at the gift, surprised, like he hadn’t been
expecting to receive anything from them. Honestly, I was pretty
surprised, too.

My dad was wrapped up in playing with a new, techy gadget, but
Mom watched Kellan as he turned the present over and over. I
elbowed him gently. “Open it.”

He looked up at me, then at my mom. “You didn’t have to…” He
shrugged and Mom smiled.

“I know.”

Swallowing, Kellan unwrapped the present. Inside a simple, white
box, was a small scrapbook. Kellan smiled as he started to flip
through the pages. I blinked as I looked over his shoulder. It was
a book about the two of us, about our life together. There were
pictures of just me, some taken when I was pretty young. There were
pictures of Seattle—his house, the bar, the Space Needle. And then
there were pictures of the two of us.

Most of those pictures were candid, like we weren’t aware that
we were being photographed. There was one of him staring at me at
work. I had my back to him, helping a customer, and the look on his
face was nearly reverent as he secretly watched me. There were
others where we were smiling at each other, laughing at some
private moment. A few were of us softly kissing each other. And the
very last photo was a close-up of the two of us cuddling together,
sleeping on my ugly, orange sofa. Even in sleep, Kellan had a soft
smile on his face.

Anna giggled and I glanced up at her and Mom. As Kellan shook
his head in disbelief, Mom quietly said, “Anna helped me put that
together for you, Kellan. So you could take a piece of home with
you on the road.”

Kellan looked up at her, his eyes a little glossy. “Thank you…so
much.”

Mom nodded at him. Sniffing a little, he brightened and reached
over the back of the couch to dig through his bag. “I have
presents, too.”

I smiled and tilted my head at him. Grinning, he dispersed gifts
to Anna, a joint one for my mom and dad, and one for me. Grinning
myself, I pointed to where I’d been hiding one for him at the back
of the Christmas tree. “Don’t forget yours.”

He smirked at me, grabbed it, then sat beside me again. As my
family opened his presents, laughs and thank yous going around the
room, Kellan and I stared at each other. “Together?” he whispered,
lifting my gift in his hands.

I nodded, and we started tearing into each other’s gifts at the
same time. I watched him more than opened mine, then laughed when I
saw he was doing the same. Shaking my head, I stopped and pointed
at the gift he was halfheartedly opening. “You first.”

He frowned, then laughed. A few minutes later he was holding
what I’d purchased for him. He was hard to shop for; he didn’t
really need or want anything. But there were a few things he cared
about and I’d played on those when I’d started looking around for
presents. One, he liked to write. He was constantly scribbling
lyrics into spiral notebooks that were shoved into his dresser
drawers.  So I’d gotten him some really nice journals to write
in, maybe for the lyrics that were keepers. He was also trying to
be more involved with writing the music, so one of the journals was
just music sheets.

Second, Kellan liked the classics. Being stuck on a bus with
lots of noisy boys, I thought he might like a reprieve. I’d gotten
an outstanding deal on a Discman, and loaded up some CDs with all
of the classic rock songs that he’d occasionally sing around the
house. The technology was out of date, MP3 players being all the
rage now, but considering Kellan still had a tape player in his
car, I figured it was about as far as I could push him in that
area.

Thirdly, Kellan liked sex. Not wanting to give him something
that would embarrass me in front of my family, I’d taken a picture
of the moderately sexy outfit that was awaiting him when he got
back home. I’d picked it up right before heading out here, after
he’d jokingly mentioned buying me something. For some reason, I
knew our style levels would be completely different, and if I was
going to wear something…like that…I wanted to be the one picking it
out.

Finding the picture tucked in one of the journals, he glanced at
me with a raised eyebrow. When I pointed to the cuffs in the very
top corner of the picture, his grin turned heated. I flushed,
knowing I would have to be very, very drunk to ever, ever use them,
but the look on his face was worth it.

The last thing I’d tucked into the box I’d gotten on a whim. It
was a Hot Wheels car. And not just any Hot Wheels car, but a
classic muscle car. I wasn’t sure if it was a Chevelle, but it was
close, and it was shiny black. Kellan’s car was the last thing that
Kellan really cared about and I’d gotten the toy as a way to let
him know that I was taking care of his baby.

When Kellan spotted it, he picked it up and stared at me. His
mouth dropped open and he looked completely thrown. I bunched my
brows as I watched his eyes start to tear up again. He shook his
head and muttered something that I swear was, “How did you
know?”

I opened my mouth to ask him what he’d said, but he grabbed me,
hugging me tight. “Thank you, Kiera…you don’t know how much I love
this, all of this.” He pulled back to gaze at me, his heart in his
eyes. “How much I love you.”

I swallowed and nodded. Palming his toy, he pointed to the box
in my hands. “Your turn.”

Exhaling in a rush, I concentrated on the box in my fingertips.
Biting my lip, I wondered what he could have gotten for me as I
finished unwrapping the partially opened gift. Once I saw the shape
of the box, my heart started thudding. It was a ring box. I paused,
unsure if I should open this. Was he proposing? What did I say if
he was? Honestly, a part of me thrilled over the idea of being his
wife, but my dad had a good point. Kellan and I still had issues to
work through before we could even think about heading down that
path. I mean, we hadn’t even gotten to the point where we could
live together again. This step seemed too big.

Knowing he was watching me intently, and not wanting him to
think I was doubting him in any way, I popped the box out and
opened the lid. Inside were two silver bands, one clearly a man’s,
one a woman’s; the woman’s was elegantly lined with small diamonds.
Confused, I scrunched my brows and looked up at him. He smiled,
peering down at me.

Reaching down, he grabbed the man’s ring. “They’re promise
rings,” he whispered. Picking up the woman’s, he lifted my right
hand. Sliding it on my finger, he softly said, “You wear one,” he
slipped the man’s on the ring finger of his right hand, “and I wear
one.” Smiling contently, he shook his head. “And we promise that no
one comes between us. That we…belong to each other, and only each
other.”

As I stared at him, amazed and warmed, a tear rolled down my
cheek. “I love it,” I whispered, leaning over to kiss him.

We tenderly kissed on that couch for a long moment. We probably
would have kissed longer, but a wadded-up piece of gift paper
smacked me in the face. Frowning, I turned to glare at my sister.
She grinned, giggling as she lifted a box of very expensive
perfume…her favorite kind. “Thanks, Kellan, I love it.”

He nodded at her, laughing lightly as he snuggled into my side.
From the other couch, my dad cleared his throat and pointed at what
Kellan had gotten for them. “Yes, thank you…Kellan.”

Mom grinned as she hugged what looked like plane tickets in her
hand. As I scrunched my face, trying to figure out where they were
going, Kellan leaned down to my ear. “I got them tickets to
Seattle, so they could see you graduate in June.”

My mouth dropped open as I looked back at him. He grinned and
laughed at the look on my face. “Kellan…you didn’t have to…”

He shrugged. “I know, but your parents should see all of your
hard work pay off, and tickets are expensive, so…” He shrugged
again.

As the relaxation of a successful Christmas morning flowed
throughout the room, I leaned into Kellan’s body. Lacing our hands
together, I watched where the rings lined up and smiled. Sighing at
the physical representation of our commitment to each other, I
noticed that Kellan was still fingering the toy car in his other
hand.

Pulling back, I looked up at him. “When I gave you that toy, you
said something. What was it?”

Kellan looked down at our hands, smiling to himself. Shaking his
head, he murmured, “It’s nothing.”

I kissed his jaw. “Tell me anyway.”

He looked over at me and then at the room full of the family
that I loved. Anna was snuggling with Mom, thanking her for a
cashmere set that had probably cost my parents a small fortune. Dad
was flipping through Anna’s calendar, telling her that she looked
very…pretty.

Absorbing the feeling in the room, Kellan shook his head. “This
is so nice…so peaceful. Kind of idyllic.” His voice low, almost
inaudible, he whispered, “I keep waiting for the yelling to start.”
He glanced over at me and then looked down at our hands again. “It
means so much to me that you let me…be a part of this.” He looked
back up at me, his face content. “I think this may be my new
favorite Christmas morning.”

I smiled, jabbing him in the ribs. “Even though you had to climb
down a trellis?” I whispered, careful to not let Dad hear me. “Even
being…interrogated?” I said more seriously.

He smiled down on me and nodded. “Yep…still the best.”

Knowing that he probably hadn’t had too many bright spots in his
childhood, I wondered what memory had been his favorite up until
this point. When I asked him, he turned his head, his eyes getting
a faraway look as he remembered. “I was five. It was Christmas Eve.
My dad was angry at…something…I don’t remember what, and he tossed
me into a wall, broke my arm.”

My eyes widened as Kellan’s contented smile grew. This was a
good memory?

Not reacting to my face, he glanced at his arm slung around me
and ran our laced together fingers over a bone under his shirt. “It
broke here.” In my horror, I realized it was the exact same spot
Denny had broken his arm.