Page 83 of The Sleight Before Christmas

Wrapping paper flies as the champagne cork is popped, a litany of glasses being poured as my son’s voice sounds over it all.

“Oh my Dawd!” Peyton screeches. “Rudolph got my tickets, Daddy!” Peyton bursts with excitement from his designated unwrapping spot on the floor, where he sits next to his sister and cousins.

“Maybe if you’re a good boy, you’ll get to use them soon.”

“Yes, Sir!” he sounds up, and I can’t help but smile. His eyes linger on me for a few seconds before he suddenly pops up, running over to me full force where I sit on the couch. An “oof” escaping me as he rams into me before lifting his arms in instruction to help hoist him into my lap. I help his climb, his little elbows digging into me before he palms my jaw.

“I love you, Daddy, sooo much,” he declares. Collective ‘ahs’ sounding around us before he closes his eyes and plants a slobbery, open-mouthed kiss right on mine. Chuckling, I wipeup his aftermath, my heart stinging because I know it’s most likely one of the last of those kinds of kisses.

“I love you too, buddy, so very much.” Holding onto the moment, I glance over to see our memory keeper, Whitney, with her phone raised, and I know she’s captured it for me. I mouth a “thank you,” to which she nods before Peyton rejoins the kids on the floor.

“I guess I’m mincemeat,” Serena drawls playfully next to me, gripping my hand.

“You’re anything but, baby,” I whisper as she gives me a wink, no real offense taken.

“What’s this?” Ruby asks, plucking the long tube I set in the corner last night from behind the tree. “For Mom and Dad?” She reads the tag. “Who is this from?”

“Me,” I tell her as she beams over at me. Allen scrutinizes the tube, recognition lighting his features before a slow smile blooms on his face.

“What you up to, my boy?”

“Open it and see, Dad,” I say. In seconds, Allen pulls the blueprints out and keeps his palms down to keep them open on the coffee table. The rest of the Collins crew gathers around them as Ruby looks on earnestly, and Allen raises his eyes to mine, emotion clogging his voice. “You want to expand the cabin?”

I nod as Ruby’s eyes flick up and start to water. “Really?”

“I do, but I promise you, Mom, I will not mess up the integrity of this place. I just want to make a little more room for everyone. From what I’ve mapped, we have plenty of room to lengthen the back of the cabin. Enough for three more bedrooms and a Jack-and-Jill bath. This is only if you want it. No pressure. I just thought ...” I swallow to tamp down the threatening emotions. “This place is special, and I want our children’s children to enjoyit, too. What you’ve built. The family you, we made. It belongs here.”

“You would really do that for us?” Ruby asks, tears shimmering.

“You should know I would do anything for you, Ruby,” I tell her honestly, “but I would really love to do this.”

“There’s no deck?” Allen inquires in confusion.

“That, I thought we could redesign together and maybe build it out if I take some time off this summer?”

This time Allen’s eyes water as I find the words.

“It was the scariest and best year of my life, and I really miss it.”

“I have too,” he whispers.

“Good, then it’s a deal?”

Both of them stand, and I walk over and hug them individually. “This is incredible, Thatch. I’m so proud of you,” Ruby whispers, “so proud. Thank you. I wholeheartedly trust you with this place and accept.”

She pulls away as Allen tugs me into him, still a bear of a man. “You did good, Son. SO damned good.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, both as the terrified twenty-year-old he posed the decision to and the man that boy became. Allen gave me a chance where very few would, and for him, anything.

“What’s this?” Serena asks, taking a round, wrapped package from the tree. “Oh, it’s forme,” she giggles before untying the bow and digging in.

Eli gives me a wink and lifts his glass to me, and I lift mine back as we both take a big sip of champagne, just as Serena speaks up.

“Pledge?” Serena balks, instantly offended. “Why would someone give me Pledge? What does this mean?”

Eli sprays the entire couch full of Collins’ with the champagne in his mouth as Whitney’s jaw drops, and she looks over to Ruby. “Oh my God,Mom!”

FALL

---