Page 28 of Holiday Surprise

“Yeah, buddy. Come on. We’ve got work to do. I was going to put some lights up on the outside of the house too. You want some on yours?” I asked him as he hopped up into my truck and we drove a couple trailers over to his.

“Yes, definitely! We should put them on all the trailers.”

I laughed. “We may need to recruit more help if we’re going to attempt that today. Let’s start with your house and see how it goes.”

“Okay,” he conceded.

I parked the truck and jumped out to run back to my place and grab a ladder. Before Nettie even came out to check on the boy, we had all the lights up on the trailer.

“Mama! Mama! Look what Luke and I did!” Tom shouted.

“Light it up, Tom,” I said.

He grinned and plugged the cord in lighting up the entire house.

“Oh my, it’s so beautiful,” Nettie said with tears in her eyes. “Thank you. We aren’t having much of a Christmas this year and you just made it a great one that Tom will likely never forget.” She hugged me and wiped her tears away.

“Well, there’s more. I sort of promised him the tree I just bought,” I told her.

“What? No, that’s too much, Luke,” she insisted.

“Sorry, Nettie, a promise is a promise. There should be everything you need here. I’m sorry I won’t be able to stick around and help you put it up. The stores will be closing soon, and I need to make another run for a few things.”

“Are you sure about this?”

I smiled. “Merry Christmas, Nettie,” I simply said.

I unloaded most of the remainder of the truck including the tree and the decorations I’d bought to dress it and left them for another run.

I drove back over to the store, first stopping to pick out another tree, then heading back in for more decorations and lights. This time I bought extra lights. I wasn’t sure we could get every house done, but what harm was there in trying?

As I passed by the toy aisles, I stopped and grinned. Soon my cart was piled high with at least one gift for every kid in my pack. I’d show Tom that the spirit of Santa was still alive and well in Larken Pack.

I made one last pass down the food aisles and filled the cart with everything that reminded me of Christmas. If Sydney was agreeable, I wanted to open my home to the pack and invite them all to stop in, eat, and meet my beautiful mate. I was a little worried that it was too fast, too soon. If she had any concerns, I just wouldn’t go through with it.

I had spent more in one day than I had ever spent in an entire month, but despite what people thought, I had been saving money since I was a child and had a small nest egg tucked away for a rainy day. I could afford to make this the best Christmas, Larken had ever seen.

Back home I unloaded my purchases and set up the new tree in the living room. I left the bags of decorations on the couch. I wanted to wait for Sydney to decorate it together. I thought she’d like that.

With the food strategically placed to fit in my refrigerator, I ventured back outside. The lights on Tom’s house had already caught the attention of a couple of teens. I flagged them down and asked if they’d like to help me decorate some more of the homes.

It took us several hours, but by the time we ran out of lights, every trailer in Larken had at least some lights on it. The snow was starting to fall harder, and it truly felt like Christmas.

“This is so awesome,” one of them said.

“I’m going to call Kenneth and tell him to come see it,” Chasity said.

“Would it be okay if we had a bonfire tonight? I used some of the lights to decorate one of the trees in the common area,” another kid informed me.

I smiled. “I think that would be a fantastic idea.”

“Thanks, Luke.”

It was nice to see the kids happy and excited about something like this. I had no idea it would mean so much to them.

Checking the time, I realized it was already after four. I still had a few presents to wrap. The older kids could wait until tomorrow, but I wanted to ensure all the little kids had their gifts under their tree for Christmas morning.

Wrapping proved harder than I expected, and they were probably the ugliest gifts ever, but I proudly delivered them to each house. When I got to Tom’s, his father was just arriving home from work.

---