Down To You (The Love On Edge Series) (10 page)

Holly laid in bed next to Brant, carefully watching his face as he stared off, deep in thought. Holly gently stroked his face, bringing his attention back to her. He smiled, but only slightly.

“Are you okay?” Holly asked with worry in her voice. Her gentle touch and caring nature was calming to Brant. He kissed her hand and replied as a tear formed in his deep blue eyes, “Never better.”

Chapter Twelve

All I Want For Christmas…

Edgemont Residence

December 25, 2013

“Mommy! Daddy! Wake up!” yelled a tiny voice from outside of Holly and Brant’s bedroom. Holly stirred, lifting her head off of Brant’s bare chest.

“What time is it?” asked Holly groggily.

“Too early,” Brant said, still half asleep.

Belle yelled again, only this time an octave louder.  “Mommy! Daddy! I think Santa came! You have to wake up!”

Brant began to groan in bed, due to the rude wake up call. He glanced at the alarm clock that sat on Holly’s night stand.

5:38 A.M.

“Go back to sleep, Belle!” Holly pleaded.

Brant and Holly heard her tiny footsteps scamper off down the hall and they thought they had the all clear to fall back asleep. Holly
cozied up to Brant again as a relaxed smile washed across his face. It would not last long though, because a moment later they could hear shouting coming from Randy’s room – the next bedroom over. Belle had clearly woken up Randy and Brant knew that there was no going back to sleep now. Holly and Brant laughed as they awaited the on-slaught.

“Christmas! Wake up, Tressa! It’s Christmas!” yelled Randy as he and his youngest sister barged into Tressa’s messy room.

“Christmas!” Tressa replied sleepily but with ample excitement. “Did Santa come?!”

“Of course, he came!” replied Belle, her voice now a high pitched shrill that caused Brant’s ear drums to hurt.

“C’mon! Let’s go wake up them up!” shouted Randy leading the calvary to Brant and Holly’s bedroom.

The peace of the early morning was broken by a ruckus that sounded remarkably like a heard of rhinos stampeding down the hallway. Suddenly, the bedroom door flew open with a bang as the kids stormed through and climbed into bed with their parents. The next thing Holly and Brant knew, they were under a dog pile of children who were very eager to open their gifts before the sun had even risen in the sky. Randy jumped up and down on their bed with excitement, as Belle belly flopped onto Brant’s chest. Meanwhile, Tressa had resorted to tickling Holly to try to wake her up.

Brant grabbed hold of Belle and tickled her as he held Randy at bay with his strong arm. Holly had escaped Tressa’s grip and ran to her en-suite bathroom and locked herself in.

“C’mon! We want to see what Santa brought us!” yelled Tressa.

“But its not even 6 A.M.!” Brant protested.

Randy yelled, “It will be in thirteen minutes!”

Brant laughed and replied, “Okay, stay here for thirteen minutes and let us check out the situation downstairs.” Brant spoke as if he had to survey a dangerous threat in the living room.

“Dad!” complained Tressa.

Holly, who had come out of her hiding place, agreed with Brant.

“Your father is right. Besides, I have to get my camera!”

Holly and Brant walked out into the hallway, leaving their over-excited children in the bedroom with disgruntled looks upon their faces. Holly watched as Brant secured a child safety gate at the top of the steps to keep the kids from coming downstairs before they were ready.

Holly and Brant quietly tip-toed down the stairs, trying not to wake anybody else up, but it immediately became apparent that their childr
en were not the only early birds in the house. They bypassed the beautifully decorated tree with the stock pile of presents waiting for the family, and they began walking towards the kitchen. They could hear a pair of voices coming from the kitchen. Brant and Holly looked at each other with confused glances and quietly approached the kitchen door. They could hear what sounded like a man and a woman singing “I Got You Babe,” the song made famous by Sonny and Cher, only the rendition coming from the kitchen had no rhythm and was sorely out of key.

Holly stood behind Brant as she tried to silence her laughter. Then, just as Brant was about to open the door, the female voice said in a playful Bostonian accent, “Marv! You’re so fresh!”

Brant and Holly quickly turned their heads towards each other, their eyes wide and mouths gaping.

“Is that who I think it is?!” Holly whispered to Brant in amazement.

“I think so…” said Brant, still laughing. He held a finger up to his mouth as he quietly opened the door to get a peek.

Marv and Gloria were dancing around the kitchen,
as they made breakfast. Their song had gone off the radio, and a new one came on: “My Boyfriend’s Back” by the Angels – a song from Marv and Gloria’s hey day. Marv held out a hand for Gloria, and she threw her dish towel onto the counter. Suddenly the pair were dancing all around the kitchen, and Gloria was saucily singing along and Marv laughed. It wasn’t until the song ended that Gloria and Marv realized that they had company. Brant and Holly were staring at them with amused expressions and awkward smiles.

“Oh, hi there!” gushed Gloria, “We’re in the middle of making breakfast! Pancakes, scrapple and eggs.”

Marv,
with an embarrassed smile, said, “Hi guys… Uh… how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” Holly admitted.

“Nice dance moves, old man,” quipped Brant.

Marv could do nothing but laugh.

*****

“Alright, guys… You can come down now!” Holly yelled up the steps to her three children who were not-so-patiently waiting at the top of the steps behind the child safety gate.

“Finally!” yelled Randy as he unlocked the gate and began running down the steps with Tressa and Belle on his heels. Holly snapped a few pictures as they rushed to the Christmas tree.

As wrapping paper flew in the air, the kids rejoiced at all the treasures they received. While Holly continuously snapped pictures of the kids with a smile, Brant watched her with an intense look on his face.

She put her camera down for a second and realized that she was being stared at. She glanced over at him with a self-conscious look on her face.

“What?”

Brant smiled. “I have something for you.”

“You’ve already given me too much.”

Brant shook his head.

“I haven’t give you enough, but I hope I can change that.”

Brant reached into the top of Holly’s stocking where he had placed a small wrapped present the night before. He pulled the small package that he had wrapped himself out of the stocking and handed it to Ho
lly.

“You didn’t have to get me anything…”

“Are you kidding? Look at my gift pile over there…” said Brant referring to the things that Holly had purchased him at Cabela’s last night, plus one small box on top.

“That’s nothing.”

“Open it.”

Holly smiled as she began to tear the giftwrap off of the Horschman jewelry box. She couldn’t believe how thoughtful everyone was being this year, especially Brant. Slowly, she lifted the lid of the box as the contents within stole her breath away.

“It’s a journey necklace. The diamond at the top is small, that represents our beginning. Each diamond gets a little bigger as the journey progresses. The fifth diamond, the largest, is meant to represent our future - the biggest and brightest of them all.”

Holly looked down at the beautiful white gold necklace with five diamonds curved in a row.

“I thought it was neat because the diamonds don’t go straight in a line, but on a curve, like a road. Our road hasn’t been easy, but that doesn’t mean our love is any less strong or beautiful.”

Holly looked as if she was on the verge of tears.

“Oh, Brant… It’s so beautiful!”

She put her camera down, and kissed Brant in front of everyone. This time the kids didn’t notice because they were too busy unwrapping their presents.
Slowly, Holly removed her hand from Brant’s cheek.

“You’re entirely too good to me. I’ll give you your presents after the kids are done,” Holly said with a smile.

“Sounds good.
I have more for you over there,” said Brant pointing to another ridiculously large pile of presents in the corner next to the sofa.

“Good God, Brant!”

“I got a good Christmas bonus this year,” Brant said matter-of-factly, as if it was no big deal, and effectively closed the conversation as Brant began to pick crumpled up bits of wrapping paper off of the floor. He spotted a red bow on the floor and plopped it on top of Belle’s head, the sticky back clinging to her blonde hair. Holly snapped her camera just in time to catch Belle looking up at her father with a sweet smile, and Brant smiled back, some his former pride returning to his face.

*****

“Hand me that present over there,” said Brant to Marv who was sitting on the couch opening a present of his own. Marv grabbed the small box on top of Brant’s pile and tossed it as Holly eyed it nervously. It was a simple black box, flat and light. Brant shook it by his ear to hear what sound it made.

“Hmm… I can’t guess this one,” said Brant with a perplexed look on his face. He had correctly guessed the last ten of his presents that he had opened from his parents.

On top of the present there was a bright red tag that read:

My Dearest Brant,

Key to my heart.
Key to our house. Welcome home. Love Always, Holly

Brant’s heart quickened as he opened the box and found the silver key that unlocked the front door of 56 Wallace Road. He was blown away. It was official. Brant was moving back in.
As Brant took the key out of the box and reached for his key chain from his back pocket, he held it up and smiled at Holly. No words could possibly express how happy he was. He was already planning in his head when he could get his stuff from his cramped bachelor pad.

Suddenly, a crash coming from the direction of the basement door caught everyone’s attention. It sounded like someone was dragging something incredibly heavy up the basement steps. Sloane appeared at the top of the basement steps and she was yelling directions at her lackies, Luke and Greg.

“Be careful, now! Don’t drop it!” she demanded.

Finally, after several moments of
stern direction from Sloane, who was still dressed in her candy-striped Christmas pajamas, Greg and Luke appeared in the living room carrying a huge red fabric sack. With Sloane dressed in her festive pajamas, she looked like a little English elf who had stolen Santa’s sack of presents.

“Oh, children!” Sloane yelled in a high pitched, sing-song voice, “Auntie Sloane brought you some goodies!” Randy and Tressa’s eyes immediately broadened. Sloane was another one responsible for spoiling the Edgemont children during the holidays. Randy and Tressa came running towards their mother’s best friend, with Belle toddling close behind. Sloane had Luke pass Randy a big, heavy package. Tressa received a pink and black leopard print gift bag that was overflowing with Tissue paper. Meanwhile Belle’s package was a bit smaller than Randy’s and not nearly as heavy.