Another Paradise | T Shelby

TWENTY NINE - SNOW

It snowed on the first of December that year, a thick covering of white as far as the eye could see excited the Shelby household when they awoke, the youngest member of the family in particular.

For what felt like once in a blue moon, Blair still felt the weight of her fiancée beside her in bed when she began to wake up.

She had grown used to an empty space next to her almost every single morning when she opened her eyes. There was sometimes a cup of hot tea on the bedside table and sometimes a bunch of flowers, but very rarely did she get to have the man she loved be the first thing she saw.

Thomas was still sleeping, his eyes peacefully closed and his chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. Blair smiled. She knew Tommy had had trouble sleeping in the past and it comforted her to know that he found it easier to switch off his mind when she was around.

Blair admired his face, envying his thick, dark lashes and the sprinkling of light freckles on his skin. His lips were chapped and rough from the cold and he had a cut on his knuckles that gripped the blanket beneath his chin. She wouldn't have changed a single thing about him, though. Blair loved Thomas for all that he was, and all he ever would be.

"Mummy! Daddy! Wake up!"

Thomas groaned loudly and pulled the duvet over his head when Charles barged into his parent's room, running over to the windows and pulling the curtains apart.

"Charlie, quiet voices! Daddy is still sleeping, shh!" Blair pushed herself up onto her elbows and held a finger to her lips, smiling warmly at the child who'd put on his pyjama top backwards.

He smiled back at her, pressing his face against the cold glass to look out at the snow. Blair could just about make out the change in weather through the break in the curtains, knowing then that it would be a special day for the family.

"Will we make a snowman, mummy?" Charlie said, climbing up into the bed and sliding beneath the duvet, crawling in between his parents.

"We can absolutely make a snowman," Blair whispered, turning to lay on her side to face the little boy, "With a carrot for his nose and buttons for eyes."

"Blue ones," Charles replied, "So he has the same colour eyes as us."

Blair smiled, in awe of the simple things the child often said that made her heart swell. Sweet innocence radiated from him and it reminded her everyday how lucky she was to be in his life, eternally grateful to have a chance at being a mother to him.

"Good idea. Have you thought about what you'll write in your letter to Father Christmas?"

Charlie pursed his lips, looking upwards in deep thought, "Not yet, will you help me? I've never written one before."

Blair placed a hand on his cheek, gently running her thumb across his soft skin with a gentle smile.

"Of course I'll help you, Charlie."

"I'm going to need help from both of you, too."

Thomas yawned, pulling the covers down from his face as he ran a hand through his hair, rubbing sleep from his eyes with his fists.

"Good morning, Dad." Charlie grinned and hugged his father tightly, "What do you need our help with?"

"Well," Tommy sighed loudly as he stretched, giving Charlie a kiss on the forehead before the child scrambled away and sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, "We need to decorate the Christmas tree, I can't do it all by myself, can I?"

"Can I put the angel on the top?"

Tommy laughed to himself quietly, pulling Charlie back towards him by the collar of his tshirt and twisting it round so it was no longer back to front.