Love The One You're With

Chapter 35-Family Time

After placing my gifts under the tree, I took a seat in the floor in front of Jake. He began to gently rub my shoulders while Josh excitedly passed out all the presents. By the time Josh was done, I had a stack of 3 boxes in front of me. Jake opened my present first and burst into a fit of laughter when he found a new pair of brown Chelsea boots.

"I thought you could use some new ones...I mean there were holes in the bottom of your old ones," I teased and heard his family stifle a laugh. Jake leaned forward and kissed me, Spider-Man style, which made me laugh.

"Thank you, love," he purred as he ran a knuckle along my jawline. "Open yours, please," he instructed as he nudged a small, silver-wrapped box closer to me with his foot. I giggled before picking it up and carefully tearing off the shiny paper. When I flipped the box open, I held my breath as I looked at the beautiful silver necklace. I picked it up to get a closer look, and couldn't help but smile as I admired the long thin chain and the delicate crescent moon that hung from it.

"It's beautiful, Jake," I whispered as he took it and helped me put it on, clasping it behind my neck.

"I'm not going anywhere any time soon, but I like knowing that when I do...we'll always be under the same moon," he explained before kissing each of my shoulders as I leaned back against him and smiled. A collective "Awh" swept through the room, which made us both blush.

"I love it, Jake, thank you," I whispered as I glanced around the room to see everyone laughing and opening gifts. Sam was opening my gift, and I held my breath as I watched. He pulled the vintage knit sweater from the box and held it up, showing off the multicolored, overlapping, wavy stripes. I had found it at a resale store months ago and immediately thought it looked like Sammy. The different shades of blues, greens, white and burgundy just looked like him. He nodded my direction in thanks, and carefully laid it back in the box before moving to his next gift. I thought he'd like it, but I guess not..

"Open ours next, Quinn!" Ronnie squealed as she picked up the present in front of me. I laughed and took it from her, inspecting the red plaid wrapping paper for the perfect place to rip. I finally settled on a corner and tore open the small box. Inside I found a tan knit beanie with a rainbow colored pompom on the top, and 2 tickets to the local movie theater, presumably for Jake and I.

"Thank you so much!" I smiled as I spoke, looking around to make sure I made eye contact with Karen, Kelly and Ronnie.

"We have matching hats now," Jake giggled as he held up his beanie, and noticed that he had a gift card to the theater and a note that said "for snacks." He rolled his eyes but thanked his family profusely. We could use a legitimate date night.

"Thank you everyone, I'm going to Danny's...Merry Christmas," Sam announced before heading out the front door. Weird. No one seemed to mind, and I assumed this was normal for him. I noticed the gift I had left was from him, but it felt wrong opening it without him, especially when we hadn't dealt with our drama from last night. I carefully tucked it into one of my open boxes and made a mental note to open it later.

"Oh my! I didn't realize the movie was today!" I nearly shouted when I looked at the tickets again. Two tickets to the 1pm showing of It's A Wonderful Life. "Jake, we need to get ready! It's already 11:30am.." I turned to him as I explained, and he smiled.

"Let's get ready then, love," he whispered as he stood and pulled me to my feet. "Thank you guys! Merry Christmas!" He announced before dragging me upstairs despite my giggled protests. "I'm going to go shower," he winked before stripping on his way to the bathroom. I heard the shower turn on, and I stashed my presents under the bed before following him.

When I walked in to the steamy tiled room, I could hear Jake humming quietly to himself as he played the air guitar to music only he heard. I giggled as silently as I could while I took off my clothes to join him.