Lacey's Christmas Journey

Six: Frosty the Snowman

Lacey John
A week had passed since Cameron admitted his love for me. It's been five days since Brad left town with Bailey. It's been four days since I've let go, and decided to be happy and learn to love Christmas again.
"Aunt Lacey! Look!" yelled little Boston. I turned and got a face full of cold snow. "Hahaha! I tricked you!"
I bent over and formed a ball of snow between my cold, pale hands. I laughed as I threw it at Boston. "Remember, if we go inside fighting over this, you started it!"
McCallan came out with Cam hot on her heels. "Hey, jerks! Why didn't you guys invite us out for a snowball fight?"
I stopped and smiled at her. "Boston started it," I said cheekily. "How about we build a snowman?"
Cam laughed. "Do you wanna build a snowman? It doesn't have to be a snowman..."
I flicked his nose and giggled. "You geek. We're building Frosty, not Olaf."
"I want to build Olaf," he whined.
"Frosty!" yelled McCallan and Boston in the same whiny tone.
I smirked up at the tall, raven-haired beaut. "It's three against one, Cammy. We win. It's Frosty."
He stuck his tongue out at me. He was still cute to me–even though he's thirty-four. "Fine."
I laughed and we got to work. McCallan and Boston made his head, Cam made the middle, and I made his lower body.
After twenty minutes of hard work, we stacked them on top of each other. Since the snow wasn't tainted, it was pure white. His head was a little sloppy, but he still looked good.
McCallan ran inside, yelling about needing a carrot, scarf and hat. She came back out five minutes later with a black hat, a red scarf and some carrots. She grinned as she handed Boston the clothing.
I walked over to Cam and smiled. "That's what I want."
He smiled down at me. "What's that?"
"Happy kids who get along. A happy family, the kind of parents who don't have to help their child heal when they become adults." I replied simply. I couldn't promise my kids a perfect future, but I could help in any way to make sure they wouldn't need mental fixing as adults.
"I think that's what every same person wants. But very few actually get it." He said softly. "Why don't we go inside? Callie made chocolate chip cookies."
I went over to the large gate and locked it. It was too high for either of the kids to reach it–I barely could–and I followed Cam inside.

*******

"You seem to be spending an awful lot of time with Cameron lately."
I looked up at Lisa and raised my eyebrows. "I know. Thanks for the observation."
She smiled. "Don't sass me. I'm just wondering–why did Bradley leave? Why are you spending so much time with Cameron? What's with the sudden need to do everything related to Christmas?"
I shrugged. "Brad left because he's engaged and I called him out on it, since he was making me feel a certain way on purpose while knowing he's got his own little family. Cameron kind of just happened, I just felt the need to be with him and spend time with him." I paused. "I was sick of wallowing over Pierce. I wanted to get back into holidays."
She nodded, unsure if she should believe me. "Okay... but Lace... don't...lead Cameron on. Be clear about how you feel about him. We don't need another Caroline."
I glared at her. "After Brad, Lisa, do you really think I'd do such a thing? Cam knows perfectly well how I feel. He's just being there for me so the burden doesn't fall on you."
"Whoa, okay, calm down." She sighed. "I just worry about the two of you, okay? There's an eight year age difference between you. I just want you to know he takes things–"
"I know Cameron, okay? I know how he is and how he handles things. I've known him since I was a baby. I'm twenty-six, Lisa, not some love-sick fourteen year old." I snapped.
"I know that, but–you know what? It's not my life. I'll stay out of it, if that makes you happy." She backed off. "I just worry about you, that's all. I know how many times Brad's hurt you and I don't want the same to happen with Cameron."

Cameron White
I let my parents in, waiting for them to stomp the snow off their shoes before closing the door. "I made pizza, salad and Callie baked chocolate cookies."
"That's great, son, but don't you think you could have made something... more grand? We are your parents, after all." Dad said accusingly.
"Well, forgive me, it was only supposed to be Lacey here tonight." I replied bitterly.
I'd never gotten along with my father. Brad was always the golden child, the one everyone chose over Matt, over me. If I brought home an A, it wasn't good enough. No, I needed straight A's. I needed to get into the best university in the country. Mom always made all three of us feel loved though, she didn't openly pick her favourite like Dad often does.
"And we can't all be Brad, the perfect child, the perfect son." I snapped. "Do you even know why he left? Because he left a mess that I had to clean up! Did you even know he was engaged? Did you know that he made Lacey feel loved, put her on cloud nine, and then dropped the whole 'Oh, sorry, I'm getting married' bomb on her once he knew he had her head over heels in love!"
Mom sighed and let a disappointed look fall on her face. "I know, my boy. I'm not proud of Bradley. If he was still under eighteen, he'd be grounded for a whole year. That's why we're here, actually. I wanted to thank you for what you're doing for Matthew, for what you're doing for Lacey."
"What, exactly, do you think I'm doing?" I furrowed my eyebrows. I wasn't doing anything for Matt. Or Lacey, for that matter.
"Well, we know you take Evening in the morning, and that you take Boston and McCallan on the weekends. And you're picking up Lacey's broken pieces, even if you don't realize it." She told me with a small smile on her wrinkly, pale face.
I rubbed the back of my neck. "Oh, well... it's not anything special. I get that you're proud of what I'm doing, for some reason, but why talk the old man? All he does is put me down and make me feel shitty about myself."
Dad glared at me. "Be quiet, you ungrateful–"
"I'm thirty-four years old, Dad. You haven't really done anything for me in the past sixteen years I've been on my own. I have nothing to be grateful for. Hell, getting a simple, nice greeting from you is rare." I glared back at him, and if looks could kill...
"Hey, Cam, sorry, I'm late–oh, hello, Jim, Emily." Lacey closed the door behind her and took her shoes off.
"Lacey, now is not a good time," Dad growled.
"Oh, be quiet, James," Mom shamed him. "Lacey, he's just having a bad day. We just stopped by to talk to Cameron. We're going now, we don't want to ruin your dinner with my husband's cranky attitude."
"No, Emily, it's okay. If you want time with your son, I'd be glad to come back another time and you can spend time with him tonight." Lacey smiled.
"Oh no, that's fine, dear. I'm getting tired anyway." Mom hugged Lacey and dragged my father out of my townhouse.
"That was... weird. What's up with your dad?" she asked curiously as she plopped on my couch.
"He's having a hard time accepting Brad's flaws," I replied. "I made pizza and salad, by the way. It's pepperoni, your favourite."
She grinned and ran into the kitchen like a little kid running to the tree on Christmas morning. "Dude! You even have hot sauce!" She came out with a plate with three slices of pizzas, as well as a tiny bowl with hot sauce in it to serve as a dipping sauce. She was adorably weird that way.
"It's me, Lace, of course I have hot sauce!" I exclaimed as I got my own pizza, three slices with the hot sauce spread across them.
She laughed. "Oh, so as I was telling you when I first got here–I was late because I bumped into one of my friends at Pine Centre, and he's getting married. So, he asks me to be the maid of honour, and I was going to say yes, but it turns out, his groom already asked for one of his friends to do it, and my friend was so bummed. And I tried to laugh it off with him, but then they started arguing over which was the bride and which was the groom."
I smiled as she talked animatedly about her gay friend. Maybe her not loving me back wasn't so bad, as long as she could still find things to be happy about.