Saving Rose

Chapter Twenty Three

"Ally, wake up! It's Christmas! Santa came." Rose was bouncing up and down on the bed, excited to go open presents.

I let out a soft groan, "not yet." I mumbled.

I felt her get off the bed, I turned over to bury my head back in the pillow.

"Ally!" I heard a deeper voice shout from the hallway.

Footsteps came closer to the bedroom. I felt a heavy body on the other side of the bed.

"Get up, or I may have to tickle you." Jacob told me.

I rolled over and came face-to-face with his blue eyes and tousled blonde hair. "You wouldn't?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I will." His fingers reached for my stomach, and I tried to dodge out of the way.

Two small hands pressed onto my back, not letting me roll off the bed to escape Jacob.

"Rose, what are you doing?"

"Making you get up. I want to open presents!" I sat up in bed, and reached for my glasses on the bedside table. Sliding them on, I glanced over at Jacob. He was wearing plaid pajama pants and a plain white t-shirt.

He pulled the covers off of me. "Let's go. We all have presents to open," he grabbed my hand. I self consciously smoothed down my bun, hoping it didn't look too messy.

We made our way out into the living room where Sydney, and their parents were sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast.

Rose ran over to the tree and sat next to it. "I'm ready," she told us with a grin. Her eyes were searching through all the presents. I know that she wanted to figure out which ones were hers.

"I guess it's time to open presents then," Lauren sat on the couch with Trever next to her.

"Jacob, you can hand out the presents."

As he began to hand out all the presents, I sat on the floor, the right side of both Sydney and Rose.

Jacob sat down on my other side, our hands intertwined until it was our time to open gifts.

We took turns opening gifts until we were all through.

"I have one more gift," Jacob told us, standing up.

I looked over to see Rose bouncing up and down, a smile on her face.

He came back, rolling something with a huge sheet over it. I felt a smile break way onto my face. We all knew what it was, except for Rose. I could tell.

"Rose."

She got up and ran over, ripping the sheet off. A light pink bike was underneath. It had a small basket on the front.

"Yay! I've been wanting a bike. Ally, you and Jacob can teach me how to ride!" There was an attachable pair of training wheels.

Jacob and I made eye contact, and I mouthed out a "thank you."

Rose jumped up, wrapping her legs around Jacob's stomach. "Thank you, thank you!"

She looked so excited. I couldn't wait to teach her.

I'm not sure how he got the bike here without any of us noticing, but he did a good job.

He let her back down on the ground, and she quickly hopped on the bike. It was a bit tall for her right now, so she could barely reach the pedals.

"Can you teach me now?" She asked.

Jacob shrugged, "why not? Let's go."

"We'll clean up in here," Sydney told me, waving us off.