You for Christmas

Part 3

Lydia sat on a bench in the middle of town square as she watched Lily ice skate in the make-shift rink with two of her friends. She knew Lily was introverted and slowly approaching her teenage years, so she always made sure to say yes when she requested to do something outside of her routine activities before she began to lose interest and isolate altogether. Lily glanced over occasionally at her to see if she was watching her and when their eyes would meet, Lily would flash a sweet smile and wave before dashing around the rink again.

"Liddie," a voice shouted from behind her.

Lydia spun around to see her sister Constance helping her niece and nephew climb out of their white expedition.

"What are you doing here?" she asked standing and making her way towards them. Her niece and nephew sprinted towards her and she embraced them, planting kisses on their cold cheeks.

"Well," she said shuffling to the trunk to retrieve the kids ice skates, "we came to check out the skating rink and get snow cones since your niece and nephew were persistent and wouldn't take later for an answer," she sighed, "We were slow anyway at the café so I closed it for a few hours."

"Oh" Lydia said surprised, "Are you going to reopen later?"

"I may," she said slamming the trunk, " It honestly depends on when he that shall not be named shows up" she said between her teeth as to not to alert the kids that their father was meeting them there.

"Oh," Lydia paused, "he agreed to show up?"

"Yeah I know. Surprising right," she said as they headed to the bench to sit, "but we agreed we would try to keep this first holiday apart as normal as possible for the kids. So, we have this and then we have our cookie baking tradition."

"Cookies?!," the kids said in unison, "Yay!"

"Yes! Cookies and ice cream," Constance said sweetly as she laced up their skates, "but we have to be good listeners or mommy is going to have them bake them all by herself."

"But what about daddy?" her daughter Mia asked confusedly.

"Yea what about daddy?" a rouged voice said from behind.

"Daddy!" They beamed.

Constance's children Mia and Mason jumped up and awkwardly ran towards their father to embrace him. He knelt and showered them with love before scooping them up one in each arm and walked towards the bench. Constance stood as he approached and brushed the dirt off her pants the twins ice skates had kicked up.

"Hey Connie," he said leaning in to plant a kiss on her cheek. The twins giggled, "Hey Lydia."

"Scott," she said warmly flashing him a smile, "It's good to see you."

"You too," he reciprocated the warmth, "where's Alec and the kids?" he said looking around.

"Well Alec is home with Gaby and AJ doing god knows what. I left before they were all awake," she chuckled, "And Lily is on the rink with some friends."

"Oh okay. Man, Alec must be exhausted with the launch of Dreamknigt. I remember when it was just his brain-child."

"Yea, he's exhausted, "Lydia said, "It's been a lot of late nights. I'm just glad it will be over soon so we can get back to normal," she sighed, "It's been a lot."

"Well yea, but it will pay off," he said shrugging off her obvious discontent.

"That's what everyone keeps saying," she mumbled and rolled her eyes.

"Hey Scott," Constance chimed in, picking up on her sister's nonverbal cues "why don't you take the kids to the rink and I'll catch up with you guys in a bit, okay?"

"Sure," he said readjusting the twins in his arms and headed towards the rink.

Constance waited until Scott and the kids were completely out of sight before turning her attention to Lydia.

"Okay what's wrong?" she said sitting on the bench next to Lydia.

"What? Nothing is wrong," she said quickly.

"Come on," she paused, "I'm your big sis and I know when something is wrong. You couldn't hide that eye roll from me, now spill."

"It's nothing," she said shaking her head, "I just wish people would stop saying that this will pay off."

"what will?"

"Alec working late. The game launch."

"Oh, you have to ignore Scott. He's just excited because he thinks it means he'll have early access to cheat codes and new features," she chuckled, "pay him no mind."

"Oh, I am but its just Alec said the same thing last night. I mean obviously I know that this is a great accomplishment for my husband and I know he's doing it for our family but it's like he really doesn't see things from my perspective," she sighed, "and its not like I am not grateful or don't understand his sacrifices."

"Well have you talked to him about it?"

"Yea, we actually did last night."

"And how did that go?"

"I mean we argued a bit."

"What? Not you too," Constance said sarcastically.

"Yes. I know shocking. We had a war with our words," she said brushing off her sarcasm," Anyway, apparently he feels that I'm pressing my dreams and aspirations on the kids by having them in so many different activities but you know that's not it," she said angling her body towards Constance, "I just want them to have the life we didn't."

"Yea I get that," Constance voice trailed, "but also sometimes I do feel that maybe you have them involved in a lot," she continued hesitantly, "I mean don't get me wrong even before the game launch I felt that Alec needed to step up a lot more but I think since he was working on this project you were bored and got them into things to keep yourself busy so you're not lonely."

"I mean that may be slightly true, but they also ask to do stuff and I don't want to say no. I mean you know how much we hated hearing no growing up. It's literally all we heard."

"True," she nodded in agreement, "but you also can't always say yes either. You have to find a balance or else its just going to build resentment between you and Alec and then," she paused, "you'll end up like me and Scott where there's so much distance between the two you, that you mind as well be divorced."

"He still loves you, you know," Lydia said reassuringly.

"And I him, but that doesn't mean we were good together. We have two beautiful children and co-parenting this year has been great for us. I feel that we are finally on the same page."

"That's what I want for me and Alec," she sighed, "just to be on the same page again. I miss our family activities and just sharing the weight of managing our life together."

"I know the feeling," Constance said softly, "I mean you can always call 1800 divorce and get that feeling back," she chuckled, "I'm just kidding although if you do get divorced it does mean more time at the cafe."

"I know but I'm not getting divorced," she chuckled, "but I do wish I had time to commit to running the cafe with you like mom and dad intended."

"You will soon," she said putting her arm around her, "everything will work itself out. You'll see."

"I hope you're right.