The Magic of Christmas

Chapter Ten - Gabe

Averi's house isn't much, but it does have something that mine does not.

Something that cannot be bought with any amount of money in the world.

Something that, if it could, I would buy in a heartbeat.

It has the sense of being a home.

It has a family in it that truly love and care for each other, people that would do absolutely anything for one another.

Even staying after Ivy's basketball game and getting to know her family, I still feel like I didn't truly know them until this moment.

Know how Averi's dad cooks dinner most of the time because their mom is helping them with homework during that time.

Know how Ivy and Holly aren't twins, but might as well be because they're attached at the hip.

Know how Theo is only in kindergarten, but, thanks to Averi, already knows how to count to one-hundred forwards and backwards.

By the time dinner ends, which they'd openly showed their joy at me attending, I feel as if I've become an honorary member of their family.

I wished, in that moment, more than ever, that I had a big family.

That I had any semblance of a real family, not one that occasionally eats together on special holidays and never discusses their days at the dinner table.

Despite my offer, both of Averi's parents refuse my help to clean up after dinner, so, once I'm finished eating, I walk slowly into the living room, looking for something to bide my time until Averi is finished with the dishes.

My answer comes in the form of Theo kneeled on the carpet, a tiny, toy car clenched between his fingers as he runs it up and down the shaggy carpet.

There's about ten other, little cars surrounding him and a pretty decent-sized monster truck behind him.

Ivy is sitting on the couch, homework sprawled around her, and, to no one's surprise, Holly is right beside of her, not doing homework, but engaged in something on an old phone.

Slowly, I stand up from the couch and tip-toe over to Theo.

He doesn't react at first, possibly doesn't even notice that I've approached, but when his warm, curious, brown eyes finally meet mine, he gives me a small smile and passes over the monster truck, making a motor sound with his mouth as it glides across the carpet to me.

I roll it in circles for a moment, watching it trace lines on the floor before he says, "Follow me," without meeting my eyes, and wheels his car across the living room and to a toy set up in the corner.

It's a small, plastic table, complete with small, plastic buildings inlaid on the surface. A long, orange slide leads from the top of the table to the floor and when we reach it, Theo drops his car right into the slot and giggles as the car races down the slide and crashes onto the floor.

Shyly, about as shy as Averi was the first time we met, Theo meets my eyes and gestures for me to take a turn.

I know that the big monster truck isn't going to fit on the slide, so I hurry over to the pile of cars in the middle of the room before half-running, half-walking back over to him and putting my car in the slide.

It stops in the notch before, after a gentle nudge from Theo, racing down the slide and crashing into the other car, which the little boy hadn't bothered moving.

He giggles, clapping, and says, "Again."

It feels as if I've put about nine million cars down the slide, taking turns with Theo, of course, when Averi walks into the living room.