"Hey babe, that pancake did nothing wrong. Alex's hand is right there on the table." James winked at me and put his hand on my thigh, calming me. Not that I needed it and honestly I was still uncomfortable with how my body responded to his touch.
Alex jerked back his hand and hid it under the table before continuing his breakfast, making me chuckle. Okay, good, the frown wasn't permanent.
After breakfast me, Amber and Lisa headed into town again. This time to shop for Christmas gifts. Another favorite of mine during Christmas time, buying people gifts. Nothing fancy or expensive but rather meaningful and personal. Something that shows that you truly know the person you're giving a gift to.
We went to five different stores. Lisa found some things for jackson, a shirt, a watch and some lingerie.
The lingerie was gorgeous. It was red lace with pin-up socks and a furry white ball above the ass. Very Christmasy and sexy.
Amber bought some new workout clothes and a watch for Alex and new shoes, a new watch and a gingerbread man for James.
When I asked her why she bought him a gingerbread man, I nearly cried.
"When we were children me and James would always bake gingerbread cookies for Christmas and decorate them. One Christmas when I was eight I got sick so I couldn't bake with the rest of my family. I was on bedrest.
James baked a gingerbread lady and decorated it and brought it up to me.
The next year he got sick and I made him a gingerbread man. After that it just became a tradition. We haven't continued it though since our parents passed. But your Christmas spirit made we want to bring the traditions back, one at a time. Baby steps. This was my favorite one."
Amber was going to decorate the cookie once we got back to the house.
I had a little harder time shopping since I didn't really know the three siblings very well. But I wanted to get them all something.
We went in to a store were they had different things in interior design. I stopped at a shelf and rolled my eyes, laughing at myself. It was a frame in the form of a pink cupcake with frosting and sprinkles on top.
' I guess someone's trying to tell me something' I said to myself. I bought the frame regardless of my feelings about the nickname and then went to get a photo printed out of me and Alex for the frame.
For James, I didn't know what to get. It needed to be special. I remembered he told me about a book that his mom read to him when he was a child and when he grew older he read it himself. He had looked for it in his parents' belongings after they passed but hadn't found it.
He got so upset that he trashed his bedroom that day and shifted inside the room, breaking the wall by the door. He said he would give anything to find that book again. It was one of the best memories he had with his mother. I knew that buying the book wouldn't be the same thing. That particular book had been passed down for generations.
He also told me about a clearing in the woods around the pack house that he and his dad used to go to when he was little.It became his safe heaven when he needed to think or just get away for a while. There was a lake nearby, and the moon lit the area brightly. The clearing was destroyed when the rogues attacked all those years ago. The trees had been broken and were lying all over and the lake couldn't bee seen anymore. He had lost so much. I wanted to give at least one of those things back. So I asked Alex to help me. He and a few of the pack warriors would go to the clearing and clean the placeup. Remove everything thing that was scattered, move the rocks and see if the lake was still there under the wreckage.And I would look around the house to see if I couldn't find the book.
When I bought Amber's gift, I told Lisa and Amber to go have a coffee so I could do it in peace without her seeing.
I found a necklace in a jewelry store. It was a pendant with a Lilly on it and an eternity sign imbedded in the flower.
Their mother's name was Lily and their father's name was Augustus. So I thought the pendant was fitting. I also bought Amber an umbrella because she always bitched about getting wet whenever it rained but never did anything about it and on the umbrella there was writing, in big letters it said; It's not rain. It's the tears of my exes"
Which I thought was just too funny.
When we had eaten lunch we decided to head back. I went straight up to my room to wrap the presents.
I had bought Christmas themed wrapping paper with a Santa Claus print and another with white snowflakes and glitter on a gray background.
I wrapped all the gifts and put a bow on them along with a little note on each gift.
I put the gifts back in the bags and decided to put them in my closet for now. It was a walk-in closet so there was plenty of space. I didn't want any of them coming in and seeing them just yet
I was about to put them in the back corner but noticed that there was a little hatch in the corner just above the floor.
I placed the bags down and traced the hatch with my fingers. I didn't mean to but the more i pressed at it, it fell off. I placed the wooden piece on the floor and saw a box which was also made of wood.
It was beautiful with the letters L.K carved on the top.
I opened it up and saw a letter. And under the letter... I gasped at the sight.
'The Velveteen Rabbit.'
I ran my fingers carefully over the cover as a tear escaped my eye. Then I opened the letter and another tear rolled down. I placed the letter back in the box and wrapped the box in the same Christmas paper. On the note I wrote
' Merry Christmas James. I hope this brings back some of the wonderful memories I know are in there.'
I didn't write my name on it because it wasn't from me. It was from her. From his mother. Lilly Knight.
L.K.