Sam smiled and glanced over her shoulder at the man she loved. He winked at her and her heart melted a little bit. She couldn’t wait to marry him. Sam turned back to the stone as she reached into her purse and pulled out a small frame. She bent down and added it to the collection of trinkets that stood in front of the stone. “We’re having a baby girl, big brother.” She whispered, praying he heard her. A tear trickled down her cheek. “Nick and I are going to have a daughter.” She said in awe as she traced a finger over the framed sonogram photo she was leaving her brother.
Nick bent down and placed his hands on Sam’s shoulders affectionately. “You’ll be doing a guy like me a big favor bro, if you look out for her. If she’s anything like her mother, I’m going to have my hands full.”
Sam laughed slightly. “He’s loving, the fact that you’re going to have a daughter.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt he is.” Nick said softly, then chuckled to himself. “Wherever you are brother, I bet you’re wiggling those eyebrows anticipating the teenage years and when she brings home her first boyfriend.”
Sam looked up at Nick. “I hate that she’ll never know him.”
“She’ll know him. It’s our job to tell her all about him and how much he would’ve loved her.” Nick said firmly, vowing that his daughter would know that she had an Uncle Jake, and he was always watching out for her. After all, everyone needed a guardian angel, didn’t they?
December 5
Cara sat Indian style on Luke’s back as he did pushups, completely unfazed by the rise and fall of her body as he did his workout. She had to admit though the gym set up, he had in the basement of his house was pretty impressive. It almost made her want to work out… almost. She was content eating her Snicker’s bar and badgering him on Christmas gift suggestions. Besides, sitting on top of someone as they lifted you up and down while they did pushups consisted of working out too, didn’t it? She could definitely say she participated.
“Luke! You can’t ignore me forever. There are only twenty shopping days left!” She said sucking the last of the chocolate off of her thumb as she finished the candy bar.
Luke grunted and continued his set. “Cara, she’ll love anything you give her.” He said through breaths.
“What about an Easy Bake Oven?” She asked thoughtfully.
Luke rolled his eyes and counted to five before he pushed up again. “You could give Ava a pencil and she will treasure it just because you gave it to her. She loves you Cara.” And with his last sentence he laid flat on the floor, resigning on the pushups.
“I know, but, well, I just want to get her something special.” She sighed and rolled off of him and stretched out on the floor beside him. He pushed himself up and grabbed a bottle of water, guzzling it down. “Didn’t you ever get a gift that you wanted so badly, you never forgot about it?”
She raised an eyebrow as he guzzled the bottle until it was empty. When his thirst was quenched, he looked at her. “Yes, it was a collector’s edition G.I. Joe. Does that help?” He asked, hiding his grin, knowing very well it didn’t.
“Do you still have it?” She asked, ignoring his smirk.
“No, of course not.” He said with a laugh and rose to his feet, holding out his hands to her to help her up.
“But you said it was a collector’s edition.” She said, putting her hands in his and letting him pull her to her feet.
“It was. I never even took it out of the package.” He said and pressed his lips to her forehead.
She drew her eyebrows together and looked up at him. “Then what happened to it?”
“Jake.” He said with a laugh. “I came home one day from school and he had built a fort and decided that my G.I. Joe needed to battle it out in the fort.” He laughed at the memory.
“Were you mad?” She asked as they started for the stairs.
“For about a minute, and then I jumped right in and played along.” He wrapped his arm around her as they climbed the stairs. “Toys are made to be played with anyway.”
“You were even a good-hearted kid.” She said, shaking her head in awe.
“Yeah, you struck gold Spunky.” He said with a laugh. She punched his rock hard bicep playfully catching the sarcasm in his voice and then she sighed. She still had no idea what to buy Ava for Christmas.
December 6
“Deb! Did you hide the batteries? The damn controller isn’t working!” Joe bellowed as he walked through the living room into the dining room carrying his broken remote. He spotted his wife sitting at the table with her glasses on as she filtered through a box. “Hello? Deb? Batteries? Did you hear me? The controller isn’t working.”
“They were just babies.” She said more to herself than to her husband as she stared at the photos in an old photo album.
Joe grabbed his glasses from the top of his head and slid them on. He looked over his wife’s shoulder at the photo she was talking about. It was a picture of their three children unwrapping Christmas presents. Sam was just a toddler playing with the wrapping paper. Jake was holding up drum sticks for the kit Santa had brought that morning. Luke was grinning with his hands full of baseball cards and a New York Yankee cap on his head.