Page 28 of All I Want for Christmas is You

I cock my brow with interest, but feel suddenly nauseous too.

“I said she could stay on, under you as her boss or she could take a year’s pay severance.”

I don’t need to ask what happened after that. Neither of us ever saw her again.

“And to answer your other question,” Jack continues. “I like the idea of Christmas in July because it’s a perfect reminder for me of just how we met, and how much you mean to me,” he adds, kissing my ring finger and squeezing it until I’m sure I’ll cry.

“Oh, Jack. I’m sorry. I wanted everything to be just perfect for today, for your Christmas in July. Now I just feel awful. Like something’s wrong with me.”

He presses his hand across my forehead, smoothing my hair back.

“Our Christmas, Avery. For us. With you it feels like every day’s Christmas, you know that right,” he says, blushing as he looks down.

“I feel much better now, Jack,” I lie after a few more minutes, trying to get up, and even though he warns me against it, I feel myself tumbling backward all over again, almost fainting.

Jack makes a low growl, “Where’s that damned-”

Before he can finish, there’s a heavy knock at the door, which is half-open.

In moments I’ve got the scrutinizing eye and the steadiest hands of the city’s finest doctor looking me over.

Dr. Peters is unofficially retired, and the only man Jack will even let take my temperature, let alone examine me.

As long as he’s right there with me, of course.

He listens patiently as I describe how I felt when I fell as he takes my pulse and feels my neck, looks in my eyes with a light, and listens to my heart for a bit.

Looking up the doctor’s eyes narrow and his face darkens a little.

“What is it?” Jack asks, sounding more worried than I’ve ever seen him.

“Christmas in July, Jack. Really?” The doctor asks, shaking his head.

“What’s wrong with me, doc?” I plead with him, absently running my hand across my belly as I feel a sort of cramp. A kind of dull pain I’ve had for ages, but always put to the back of my mind.

“I’ll run a battery of tests, of course. But I have to ask you, Avery.”

Jack leans forward, the doctor holding his hand up. “Now, don’t go punching me in the nose Jack, I gotta ask.”

Jack makes a face but stabs a nod.

“When did you last menstruate Avery? Have you been regular the past few months?”

I can tell Jack’s annoyed, almost furious at the question, and if it was anyone else he’d probably be throwing the doctor out the window.

But I think for a moment, then have to admit.

“I… I really don’t know. Months, I guess. We’ve just been so busy…”

The old doctor smiles to himself and pats my hand. He stands up and moves over to Jack’s desk, using his phone as if it were his own, calling for a private ambulance from the hospital.

“Precautionary, but I know you wouldn’t have it any other way, Jack.”

“What is it, tell me straight doc?” Jack says hastily, the doctor giving me a sly wink.

“I think that’s something you and Avery might want to work out. Do the math from when you two last made whoopee ‘til when you stopped getting your monthly cycle like usual,” he adds with a chuckle.

“I’ll be waiting outside, give you a few minutes,” he sighs and shuffles off, scratching his head before closing the heavy oak door behind himself.

Jack looks confused until he realizes too. He sees me smiling with relief and he kisses me hard on the forehead.

“You mean?” he asks, his head shaking in disbelief.

“I think we might be having a baby, Jack. You’re gonna be a daddy!”

“We’re gonna be a mommy and a daddy,” he corrects me, gently kissing away the single tear from my cheek.Extended EpilogueChristmas Eve~Two years laterJackOnce we knew baby one was on the way, I made sure I put a different ring on that pretty finger of Avery’s.

I am old school, traditional.

No child of mine is gonna be without proper parents, legal parents.

I know Avery felt the same. The one thing we never need to discuss because our kids are part of our world.

Part of the magic that glues us together.

Jane’s cutting her teeth still, and to add to the fun, Ridley’s just started.

Avery joked that Ridley was just copying his older sister, but once she felt his nibblers when she feeds him, it was official.

Two hungry, healthy, growing babies.

And we couldn’t be happier. Even if it is hard to get them relief sometimes, but there’s no shortage of things to gnaw on and mommy or daddy always know now whether it’s wind, tooth pain, or just pain in the ass with these two.

“He’s just like you,” Avery and I always say in unison before we both start to laugh, closely followed by “Just like his mommy and daddy.” Same for little Jane.

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