Page 6 of Everything I Want

“Hey Scott!” Oliver’s big toothless smile greets me at the door, Lorelei not far behind.

“Oh goodness, let me take some of that!” She says, reaching out to grab the wine and juice.

“Thanks. You look beautiful tonight,” she blushes at my compliment.

“What about me? Am I handsome tonight?” Oliver asks, showing me his Christmas pajamas.

“You sure are. I love those pajamas dude. Are you ready for some pizza and tree decorating?”

“Yup! Me and Grammy made cookies too for after dinner.”

“Oh yummy, those are my favorite,” I wink. He runs off into the dining room.

Lorelei goes to the kitchen, pulling down plates and wine glasses. “I was thinking we could bring our pizza in the living room so we can eat and decorate tonight,” she says.

“Grammy, you always say no eating in the living room!” Oliver stands with his hand on his hip.

“Well tonight is special. We’re decorating the tree. But I got a towel for you to sit on just in case.” Oliver walks away giggling, muttering about how he’s a messy kid.

I slide into the kitchen next to Lorelei.

“I’m excited to decorate this tree tonight,” I whisper in her ear. I notice the blush that spreads across her chest, and hope fills mine. Hope that if she has this reaction to me being close that she has more feelings for me than she lets on.

She grabs the plates and hurries around me into the living room with Oliver. I follow with our drinks and place them on the coffee table.

Lorelei puts on some Christmas music and goes off to grab one last box of ornaments. I stand there looking at all the boxes, opening a few of the lids, I’m not sure how all of these are going to fit on the tree but we will have our work cut out.

“Grammy has a lot of ornaments,” Oliver says through a mouth full of pizza, as if he is reading my mind.

“She sure does, and they’re all special to her I bet.” I look into one of the boxes that looks like it houses all homemade ornaments from the girls.

“The one my Grandpa Andrew made is really special. I almost broked it one time and I got in trouble,” he shrugs.

“That one must be extra special I’m sure. We’ll have to make sure we are very careful with it if we find it tonight.”

I begin searching for the lights to go on the tree. Once I find them, Oliver and I begin stringing the lights from the bottom up. Luckily, he is small enough to squeeze behind the tree and run them around to me again.

When we get done with our dance of adding lights, Lorelei is laying all the ornaments out on the table in the dining room adjacent to us.

“You have so many ornaments!” I say looking at all that she has laid out so far.

“Oh gosh, I know. It’s probably time to get rid of some but I can’t bring myself to do that,” she laughs nervously.

“I remember when the boys would bring home their ornaments from school. They were always so excited and we had to have this kind of ceremony after dinner of adding them to the tree. We all had to be together to see the new additions.” I run my hands over a popsicle stick Christmas tree that has Scarlett’s name on it.

I know the exact moment when she finds the one Andrew gave her. She clutches it close to her chest and the tears begin to well in her eyes, my heart aches for her.

I send Oliver to the kitchen with our plates and go over to her, wrapping my arms around her. “Tell me about this one,” I whisper, reaching around her and trying to rescue her from her grief.

“It was from our first Christmas together.” Her tears stream down her face silently. “He bought it for me right before our wedding.”

“I’m sure this one is really special to you. Would you like to place it on the tree now?” I ask, spinning her around to wipe the tears from her cheeks with my thumb.

“No. No. I think it’s time that we keep this one in the box.” She goes to place it back in the bubble wrap for the box.

“Lorelei. You don’t have to erase him from your life. He was your husband for a very long time, and you have built a beautiful life together. He should be celebrated,” I say, opening her hands to see the ornament presented to her so long ago. I was surprised to see a simple clear ornament with some keepsakes inside.

“We didn’t have a lot of money then. He saved little trinkets from our dates and put them all in this ornament,” she whispers to me, her eyes full of tears and memories .