14 days

twenty four

"I'm tired." I groan, flopping down on Ashton's fluffy bed the following morning.

"Same here." Ashton grumbles, joining me, nearly smacking my face with his arm.

"Dude, watch yourself." I roll my eyes.

Ashton giggles, and then leans in and plants a soft kiss on my lips, and then pulls away, sighing, arms on the back of his head.

"Your mom is nice." I whisper, feeling like it would be weird if I didn't whisper in this quiet atmosphere.

He smiles, nodding slightly. "Yeah, she's the best mum I could ever ask for, really. I'm glad someone else can recognize that."

"My parents are nowhere near as sweet and understanding as she is. It's probably why I recognized it."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You'll probably meet them when I get back or something."

"I'm excited."

"I'm not."

"What time is it?" Ashton changes the subject.

I flip over to reach my phone. "Six."

"Should we go downstairs and wait for my mum to show up? Or should we go downstairs and open the presents anyway?"

I frown. "Ugh! I forgot to get your mom a Christmas present, oh my God, I feel so bad." I groan, running my fingers through my hair.

Ashton rubs my back slightly. "Don't worry, she won't mind. We were busy yesterday, remember? It's fine."

"Yeah, busy getting it on while your mom was in the room next door." I bite my lip.

Ashton laughs. "I think that's hot."

"I think you're not."

"Lies, Zara, lies."

"Okay, true, kind of."

"You're still lying."

"You got me."

"Say I'm hot." He wiggles his eyebrows.

I frown, making a face. "Uh, no thanks."

"Please?"

"No. Let's go downstairs now. I'm sure your mom is up and ready, just waiting for us to get up."

"That's probably true."

"Are Lauren and Harry up?"

Ashton's eyes widen and his smile grows. "I completely forgot! They have to be up, they're always the first ones down there. Usually by six."

Ashton jumps off the bed and I join him, chasing him downstairs.

"Ashton!" I hiss right before he reaches the bottom of the stairs. He comes to a halt and turns around.

"What?" He asks.

"I didn't get Lauren or Harry anything either." I frown.

He shrugs. "Neither of them probably got you anything either, because you didn't even really meet yesterday. You slept like the entire time, remember?"

I snort. "Oh, yeah."

The two of us run quickly to the Christmas tree up in the living room and of course, Ashton's two siblings are there, but Momma Irwin is nowhere to be seen.

"Shh!" Harry puts a finger to his lips. "Mum is still sleeping." His eyes twinkled with mischief.

My eyes dart to the bottom of the Christmas tree, expecting a huge mess of ripped wrapping paper, open boxes, and their presents scattered all over the floor. It was the complete opposite. Everything was still the way it was yesterday.