Seasons of Change

60

"Damn, they are out," Krist remarked, looking back in the rearview mirror and seeing all three of his seeds' heads slumped to the side.

"It's past their bedtimes, all of their bedtimes," Atira yawned.

Krist reached for her thigh, "Hope they stay asleep when we get them in the house, I got something for you to unwrap."

Grinning, she placed her hand on top of his, "I hope it's chocolate," Atira replied.

He clicked his tongue at her, "Man...you're lucky I love you, always shooting me down an' all."

She turned to face him in her seat, resting her face on the headrest, "You know I'm still super into you like that," she murmured, stroking the back of his hand with her thumb.

"I'm still into you, too," Krist replied, placing his right hand back on the steering wheel, "You're stuck with me for life. I'm the herpes of husbands."

Atira snorted, "Herpes of husbands?"

"Like, I am with you forever and I'm probably pretty irritating," he informed her, giving her a Rocco-esque smile.

"You've got such a way with words," Atira told him adoringly.

"Hey, at least I'm not sending you a bunch of dick pics like somebody."

"I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to that though."

They drove in silence for a few minutes, Krist occasionally glancing over at Atira. Before they'd reconnected, he'd often wondered if how he'd felt for her in high school had been genuine love or had it just been infatuation. He found himself thinking about Atira as this perfect, flawless human being and comparing her to every female he encountered. Of course, none of them measured up.

After she came back into his life and things picked up exactly how they'd left off, he knew his feelings were genuine. Now, he'd loved Lainey as well but it was different. Toxic. They were one another's trigger to relapse. Every time they would get clean, as soon as one of them relapsed-usually Krist, the other followed suit. The instant connection they'd had was undeniable though, they'd connected differently than Krist had with anyone he'd ever met, including Atira. Lainey had just understood him. His therapist said it was a trauma bond but he didn't feel so sure.

Love was a weird thing.

His love for Atira was healthy and positive, and having her in his life encouraged him to strive to be the best man he could be. Yes, he had some issues with insecurity at times and worried one day she would wake up to realize she could do better than him but was slowly learning to accept she loved him for him, not anything superficial.

"How did I get so lucky with you?" Krist asked her, something he often asked.

Atira smiled gently, "It wasn't luck, it was meant to be," she replied. Yeah, they said some corny ass shit sometimes but he lived for it.

When they arrived home, the kids were unloaded, changed into pajamas, and sent to bed. Rocco protested but was informed Santa wouldn't come until he was asleep. And no faking sleep either, real sleep because he monitored that shit.

Krist had already wrapped the kids' gifts days before that and was placing them under the tree while Atira took a bath with a glass of wine. He took a few photos of his work, proud of how nice everything looked, his gift-wrapping skills were on point.

"You wrapped all these?" Atira asked, her mouth open in pleasant surprise.

"Hell yeah, I'm basically a lil Martha Stewart now," Krist said, adding, "Minus the whole felon thing."