Page 46 of Eye of the Hurricane (Weathering Doves Harbor #2)

Katherine

I think I’m being drowned in Christmas.

I didn’t know Christmas could be a full sensory experience until I walked into the Dawkins’ household on Christmas morning.

The air smells of cinnamon, sugar cookies, and pine.

Everything is covered in some variation of red, green, or silver.

Christmas classics are playing softly on a speaker in the kitchen.

And to top it off the second I’m in the door, a warm mug of chocolate milk with little marshmallows is placed in my hand.

“Merry Christmas, honey,” Ares greets me, kissing my temple. His lips are warm and I can tell he’s been drinking the hot chocolate too. I say it back to him and he locks his fingers with mine.

He walks me to the living room where the tallest Christmas tree I’ve ever seen inside of a house sits. What’s even more impressive than the tree is the pile of gifts sitting under it .

“Merry Christmas, everyone,” I announce when I walk into the room. Everyone is in their pajamas except me. I’m not a monster though, I dressed for the festivities.

I’m in a red dress with white fur lining the neckline and the hemline. It has a black belt across the waist too. It basically looks like a girly Santa suit.

“You look so cute!” Audra exclaims, jumping up to come hug me. Her and Roman are in matching pajamas. They’re red with snowflakes printed all over them. I thank her, wrapping my arms around her to hug her back.

Even Beck and Sebastian are here in their pajamas. I kind of feel bad for not inviting Luna. It didn’t feel like my place to invite anyone though.

Ravyn’s in full-on footie pajamas with reindeer antlers attached. Although I’m not sure she could fit the hood over her full head of curls. She’s probably got the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen.

“So, what’s on the agenda?” I ask. Ares sits on the couch and pulls me into his lap.

“Presents first, then breakfast, then Christmas movie marathon, and finally Christmas dinner. Everyone is usually in and out through the day though if they have other places to be,” Audra explains.

“My family does Christmas Eve, so I’ll be here all day,” Ravyn says.

“I’ll leave around noon to go to my parents’ house then I’ll be back for dinner,” Beck adds.

“My family couldn’t make it out here and I couldn’t make it out there. So I’ll be here all day too,” Sebastian tells us.

I notice that they all have families waiting for them somewhere, even if they’re not seeing them today. It’s salt in the wound that this is the first year I wasn’t even invited to Christmas.

I’m not even sure I’d want to go if I was. I mean, I could easily reach out to my mom and apologize for the way things happened after the wedding. But I don’t feel sorry. I feel wronged.

I think if it were up to my father and brother, I’d be there. It’s not though. She takes control of everything and bosses everyone around. She’s a bully and I’m too fucking old and smart to be bullied.

“My mom is working today,” Audra says. All eyes are on me and I realize I’m the only one who hasn’t given my agenda for the day. Roman and Ares are already with their parents.

“Oh—um…” I clear my throat, buying myself time to find the words I’m looking for.

I decide to go the transparent route because well…

This is my family. “I wasn’t invited to my family’s Christmas this year.

My mother and I had a falling out because she thinks I should give up the silly idea of being a woman in the athletics field and settle down to be a housewife.

” Okay… Maybe too transparent . Still, it feels good to get it off my chest.

“Your mom sounds like she sucks,” Sebastian remarks. A laugh tumbles out of me with ease.

“Yeah. That might be an understatement.”

“Let’s not talk about the family we aren’t seeing today. This is a family too and you were invited to this one,” Audra adds.

“Let’s do gifts!” Allison announces as she walks into the room. Ken follows closely behind her. They’re also dressed in matching pajamas. Theirs are striped with red, white, and green. They look like candy canes .

“I have to grab mine out of my car,” I say. Ares slides out from under me, leaving me in his spot on the couch.

“I’ll get them,” Ares offers and walks out of the room. A few moments later he returns with a bag full of gifts.

“Who’s opening first?” Allison asks and before I can process the question, everyone has said ‘not it’ but me. I see this is a tradition that I wasn’t prepared for.

“I guess that leaves me. I don’t mind going first.” I shrug. Allison hands me a small box that’s wrapped in red sparkling paper. It’s addressed to me and from Allison and Ken.

I pop open the wrapping paper and the tape on the box. When I move the tissue paper to the side all I can see is silver sequins shimmering in the Christmas tree light. I can’t tell what it is though.

So I pull it out of it’s box. It’s a fully sequined silver dress. One sleeve is full length and the other is sleeveless. It looks like it’ll fit me and be about mid-thigh length.

“I love it! I even have the perfect heels for this,” I gush.

“I’m sure you do,” she laughs. “I know you wear so many dresses you have to need new ones eventually. I thought it would be good for New Year’s.”

“It’ll be perfect for New Year’s. Thank you again.”

“We’re going around the room now. Ares, you’re next,” Ken tells him. Allison hands him a box that’s labeled ‘from mom and dad’. Inside of the box is a brand-new set of paint brushes. I’m sure he gets painting supplies every year.

We make a few rounds around the room before everyone has opened their gifts from Allison and Ken. I have so much respect for the love they show to the friends of their children. I think they might show more genuine love to their kids’ friends than my parents do to their real kids.

Everyone is all smiles and ‘thank you’s. Audra has pulled the shark-printed hoodie they got her over her pajamas. She doesn’t match a bit but looks so comfortable it doesn’t matter.

I watch each person open their gifts and Ares rubs mindless circles on my hand with his thumb. It’s a constant comforting reminder that he’s here with me. Even when I don’t have his attention, I feel like I still have it.

“Okay, gifts now!” Audra announces, standing from her seat and walking over to a pile of gifts that I assume belong to her.

“You first,” she says handing me a little bag.

The bag is painted to look like penguins tobogganing down a snowy hill.

The snowy parts of the bag leave white glitter all over my hands and my dress.

I reach into the bag and inside is an envelope. When I open it, there’s a matching penguin card inside. I open the card to find a long written note inside.

Katherine,

I don’t know if I want to thank you on my behalf or Ares’ first. I suppose I’ll start with myself.

Since you helped me find the courage to file the report and get the restraining order, my life has felt the closest to normal it’s felt in years.

There’s a sense of peace and safety that I thought was lost forever.

You were another blaring reminder that everything is less heavy when you have a community to lean on.

Thank you for helping me seal that chapter of my life away.

And Ares. My very best friend (don’t tell Ravyn), and the closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have.

Thank you for taking a chance on him despite this plan that I’ve had to hear him whine about for years.

I’ve never seen him so happy and full of life.

It shows in his art. Thank you for loving him. I hope one day we’ll be sister-in-laws.

Love, Audi.

A tear slips down my cheek and I can’t quite pinpoint what part of the note causes it. I think to some extent it’s all of it.

It’s the bittersweet knowledge of knowing she had thought that sense of safety and peace was gone forever but knowing I helped restore it.

It’s the overwhelming sense that I really do have a family here with these people.

It’s knowing Ares loves me so loudly that it’s beaming out of him in a way his friends can see.

“This so sweet, Audra. Thank you so much.” I stand from the couch and hug her. It’s short-lived though before she’s shooing me away and telling me to open the actual gift.

As I reach into the bag I feel a small box. I pull it out and inside of it is a dainty golden bracelet with a single charm, a hockey skate. I thank her a million more times before she moves on to Ares.

His gift is a good break from the heart-felt and tear-jerking one I got from Audra. She got him a pair of black boxers that say ‘this cock belongs to Katherine’ but instead of the word, it’s a rooster.

We all laugh and maybe if we were talking about a different man, he’d be embarrassed. It’s Ares though. So instead he’s loud and proud about how much he loves them.

“Sorry, Allison. Couldn’t help myself,” Audra says, directing her attention to Ares’ parents.

“I’ve heard worse out of you all,” she says with a lift of one shoulder.

All of a sudden the front door pushes open and there stands Luna in Christmas pajamas with a basket of gifts.

“You invited Luna?” I ask, smiling ear to ear.

“Of course we invited Luna,” Audra assures me.

“I left your gift at home, I didn’t know you were coming,” I tell her as she makes her way over to the couch to sit next to me.

“It’s okay, don’t sweat it.”

The process of gift opening goes on for quite some time. I know because once my stomach started growling I started checking the clock. We’re pushing 10:00 A.M which wouldn’t be bad except we started at eight.

Finally, all that’s left is my gift for Ares, and his gift for me. We purposely waited to be able to do ours together.

“You open first,” he insists, placing an envelope in my lap. It’s thin enough to be holding some kind of gift certificate. I swear to God if he got me a gift card for Christmas I’m going to kill him.

I’m not evil though, so I keep a smile on my face as I open the envelope. And immediately I feel bad for ever doubting him when there are two tickets to a three-day-long music festival in California in the spring.

“You told me you felt like you were living for the first time with me. I want you to keep feeling that way. So, I got us tickets to one of the biggest music festivals in the world.”

“I’m so excited. I’ve never even been to a concert,” I exclaim.

“I know.”

“What about work?”

“I checked the schedule you put in the calendar to make sure I could get you there and back without missing any,” he assures me.

“You look at the calendar I make us? Are you talking dirty to me right now?”

“I don’t know is it working?” he asks, raising a brow. Ravyn gags loudly from the other end of the couch.

“Get a room,” she groans. Ares gives her the finger in response and his mom scolds him demanding he be nice.

“Your turn,” I say, dropping a larger box in his lap. It has some weight to it and he looks confused. He moves the box around in his hand a few times to try and get an idea of what it is.

“Quit trying to figure out what it is and just open it.”

“Okay okay,” he relents. Everyone laughs and he finally starts ripping away at the Christmas tree-covered paper.

When he finally peels back enough of the paper to see what it is, his eyes light up. There’s a visible excitement on his face.

It’s his dream camera. I know it because he told me one night when we were lying in bed just talking. Complete with a note.

I wanted you to know that I believe in your dreams as much as you believe in mine. If you can do what you’ve done with a phone camera, imagine what you’re capable of now. Don’t limit yourself to painting when your passion is in photography.

He reads the note out loud and everyone acts like it’s the most romantic thing they’ve ever read. I don’t know how they can feel that way when he said what he did about our trip.

“This is perfect, come here,” he says, yanking me into his lap. He plants a million kisses all over my face. My forehead, both cheeks, my nose, and then my lips.

“I love you,” I mumble against his lips.

“I love you,” he replies, kissing my forehead again.