Happily Ever Christmas

~Forty~

"So are we gonna go live in da North Pole with you, Steve?" Bradley asked at the dinner table that Christmas night.

Peter had already left and certainly no one missed him. Not even his kids, though they seemed a bit miffed that he had shown up only to simply leave a few hours later.

Everyone within earshot was staring at Bradley and Steve now.

My mother chuckled. "Awww, sweetie, now why would Steve here live all the way up in the North Pole?" She asked with an indulgent smile. "It's awful cold up there, you know. Is Santa a good friend of Steve's, perhaps?" She teased him.

Bradley looked at her as though she were greatly behind the times. "Steve is Santa Claus!"

"Oh! Oh, I see!" Maryellen winked at Steve conspiratorially to which he responded with a benign smile.

He squeezed my hand under the table and we exchanged a small smile ourselves.

Bradley - and Olivia, for that matter - were still expecting an answer, however.

"I think the living situation is something us adults need to talk about first before any decisions are made." I told them bracingly.

"What's this? So you're thinking about moving to New York with Mr. Coleman here?" My grandfather questioned rather roughly. I think he had grown rather used to me being around, but to be fair it might be more about the fact that I still indulged him by baking him all of his favorite treats that Grandma no longer spoiled him with.

"And just how long have the two of you sneaky love birds been dating, exactly?" My mother questioned, eying us suspiciously as she tore apart a dinner roll to pop pieces into her mouth.

I glanced furtively at Steve, wondering how best to start the slew of inevitable lies to my family.

Luckily my own kid stepped up with the truth. "Only a couple days really! Since Steve took us to see...where he lives." Olivia at least had the forethought to gloss over the full extent of the truth.

"Oh!" Nana's white eyebrows shot up on her round, pretty face. She had her graying auburn hair secured up in a fancy bun of braids today so she looked like a Star Wars princess. "So you kids have been in on the game right from the start! So you haven't been hiding Mr. Coleman from everyone, Embers, that's a relief!"

She had ceased calling him Steve in favor of Mr. Coleman now that she knew we were dating, which meant she was reserving judgment on him for now.

"N-no!" I stuttered. "I would never date someone my kids didn't approve of!"

Olivia gave me a little smile of appreciation for this before returning her attention solely to her plate of green bean casserole.

"I like Teve!" Bradley piped up helpfully. He was still having trouble pronouncing his "St" and "Ch" sounds so he pronounced Steve, "Teve". "I want Mama to get married so we can go live with Teve forever!"

Everyone looked at my son in surprise.

"Is that so?" Nana asked him hesitantly. "Well, that's nice that you like Mr. Coleman so much, but forever is a long time, champ. What about us? Won't you miss us?"

Bradley considered this for a few seconds as he spooned candied yams thoughtfully into his mouth via his left hand. He wasn't left handed, but he was having a new phase of insisting on using his left hand for everything. He was already smeared with candied yams.

"Yes, but we can visit, Nana. Can't we, Teve?" He finally said.

Steve and I glanced at each other. "Well...sweetie..." I faltered.

Now was hardly the time to explain all the mechanics of a magical realm that aged significantly slower than ours.

"Of course you can, Bradley Bruiser!" Steve cut in and saved me with the answer that had to at least partially be a lie.

Bradley grinned in relief and returned to his marshmallow madness.

Nana still looked like she had concerns.

Later that night when I was helping her do dishes, she commented to me with deceptive casualness, "New York sure is far away. I thought you didn't want to live in the city."

I kept my sigh to myself. "Nothing permanent has been decided yet, Grandma, don't worry yourself over nothing."

But inside I suddenly realized that the decision had already been made. My heart had made the choice for me.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!!

Happy holiday reading!

HRH