Page 25 of All I Want For Christmas

Damn, he’d have to remember to text Kyle.

“Tomorrow?” Liam said, clearly in awe over the entire thing.

Exactly as Matt wanted them to be.

“Yep,” he said. “This is something that just cannotwait until Christmas.” Which was true, even if Matt wasn’t leaving. He’d planned to give the boys the gift this weekend anyway.

“Okay,” Liam breathed.

“Yay!” Aidan said again, bouncing up and down. “Yay!” He turned to look up at Lindsey. “This is going to be thebestChristmas, Mom!”

Matt felt Lindsey’s arm tighten around him as she nodded at their youngest. “It really is, baby.”

They retrieved the car and headed for the convention center. Lindsey knew something was going on with Matt but now was clearly not the time to talk about whatever had put the tightness around his eyes.

She could tell he was hell-bent on doing everything Christmas-y he could possibly think of, all at once, and soon enough she’d find out what was going on.

He was leaving.

That much she knew.

Sooner than he’d expected. She could read it in him. But it was fine. She’d make sure it was fine.

She hadn’t asked how long he was home. Because it didn’t really matter. It would never be long enough, no matter how much time he had. And she wanted to be in the moment too. For him. For the boys. For herself. There were not enough of these moments where they were just a family of four, all together, playing and laughing.

His phone buzzed with a text just as they were parking at the convention center. She watched him pull it out, look at it, frown, and then tuck it away.

Okay. She was just going to make the most of the moments up until he told her the date they were saying goodbye.

Over the next few hours, they slid, they skated, they ate—they did nearly every activity in the entire convention center. And most of all they laughed. She got photos of Matt with the boys doing a host of activities, all with huge smiles on their faces.

They ate an amazing dinner at Vacherie. The four courses consisted of seafood gumbo with jasmine rice, sweet potato and andouille soup, boudin-stuffed game hen, and the best pecan pie Lindsey had ever had. But more than the amazing food, Lindsey soaked up the sights and sounds of Matt with his parents. She loved her in-laws and she made sure that she and the boys saw them often. But there was something so wonderful about seeing Matt with his mom and dad. The way Kate looked at Matt was heartwarming and all Lindsey had to do was imagine going months without seeing Liam or Aidan to understand everything Kate was feeling. Matt was good about staying in touch with them as well. They’d taught Kate and Neil how to use Skype just for the purpose of talking to Matt. But online and on the phone was never the same.

And it was when Matt was with his mom and dad that Lindsey really thought about the fact that he was in danger when he was away. Maybe not constantly, but she also didn’t know much about what he did. He couldn’t share a lot of details. So alot of the time she didn’t let herself think about the possible risks he was taking. It was easier to sleep that way. But it had been more in the forefront of her awareness since Dana’s husband Chad had been killed. And she prayed for Matt every single night.

They lingered over dessert, but soon enough the boys were antsy to go see the Christmas lights in the park. They strolled through the trees and displays, drank more hot chocolate, took a train ride, and soaked up the Christmas spirit.

And by the time they said good night to Kate and Neil and pulled into their driveway, the boys were barely keeping their eyes open.

Matt looked into the backseat and sighed. “Maybe no movie tonight, huh?”

He sounded completely disappointed and Lindsey had the prickling awareness that it was possible that his time home was going to be up even sooner than she was guessing.

“We can still do it,” she told him. “We’ll do baths and put on pjs first and if they fall asleep, they can camp out on the couches tonight.”

She almost laughed over how much he brightened at that. “Yeah? Okay, that sounds good.”

“What are we watching?” she asked as she reached for the door handle.

“It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Lindsey stopped and looked back at him. He was leaving tomorrow or the next day. She could feel it. They were going to watch the movie he’d never seen until he met her? The movie that he knew she always watched with the boys on Christmas Eve? Yeah, he was leaving really soon.

She swallowed. “You have marshmallow popcorn?”

“Dana said she’d bring some over.”

Lindsey pivoted back to face him. “You asked Dana to get us popcorn?”

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