William's Love - 17. Chapter 17

Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas

Liam opened the front door, “Be ready in ten Babe. We have to take the truck to the mechanics this afternoon if we want it back before Christmas Day.”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t understand the urgency. All this secrecy between you and Dad is driving me crazy.” I murmur as I trudge upstairs to the bathroom.

<>-<>-<>

“Dude! Why are we stopping at Office Max?” Liam asks me.

“I want to quickly check out some laptops they have on sale. Katherine wasn’t allowed to bring hers with her and Oliver shared his with Sasha and their younger brother so he couldn’t bring his. I thought if they weren’t a piece of shit we could get them one for Christmas.” I explain as we hop out of the Mustang after taking the truck to the Mechanics.

“Well don’t worry about Oliver, his present is taken care of. But I’ll let Dad know about the laptop for him because he was struggling with what to get him.” Liam gives me a mischevious grin.

“Why?” I look to Liam as we walk toward the computer section.

“Because, and I can’t tell you. Please just trust me okay?” He put his arm around my shoulder and kissed my cheek.

“Alright then if you say so,” I sigh. “Umm… I was thinking, when we look for a house is there any chance we could find one with a shed so I can move my workshop there.”

Liam chuckled, “Babe, it’s first thing on the list.”

“Thank you,” I say sheepishly while I looked over the laptop on special. “I don’t really like this it’s not really what I would use.”

“What about this one?” Liam pulls me to one that costs way more than I wanted to spend.

“Dude, look how much it costs. We still have furniture to buy yet for the new house we can’t afford to spend this much on a computer for someone else. I wouldn’t spend that much on myself for that matter.” I whine to Liam.

“Fair enough, maybe we should go to Best Buy.”

“Sounds better, let’s go.”

“Hang on a sec Babe, there is something else I want to get before we leave. I just thought of a way to get back at Dad and Papi. Now that we have the help we can do this.” Liam says chuckling and pulling me toward the office stationary. “Ahh, here we go, here hold these,” He says grabbing bulk packets of post-it notes and handing them to me.

Geez, I dread to think what we are going to do with all of these. The lady at the checkout counter looks between us and shakes her head. I raise my eyebrow at her enquiringly. She is a cute African-American girl about eighteen.

“I hope ya’ll both know what ya doin’. This could o’ly end badly.” She chuckled.

Liam turns on his usual charm for the ladies, “Oh, I think we’ll be alright.” He winks at her. “We need to get our own back at our Dad’s they are one up on us at the moment.”

“You have two Dad’s?” She asks surprised.

Liam chuckles, “Yeah! Why?”

“Oh nothin’ that's cool, I have two Moms. It’s not offin I come across it is all, we’re kind of kin that way I guess.” She says smiling.

Liam says, “I guess so, I’m Liam, and this is Will. It’s nice to meet you,” he looks at her name badge, “Chandra, maybe we can all hang out sometime.”

“As long as I can bring my girlfriend, that’d be cool.” She grins.

“I don’t see why not, I’ll be bringing my boyfriend.” He laughs.

“You have a boyfriend?” She smiles, “We definitely are kin I guess.”

Liam grabs the bag of post-it notes while I pay for them. When she hands me the receipt, I turn it over and write down Liam’s number and give it back to her, “We’re having a family lunch on Sunday, bring your girlfriend and your Mom’s. We could always use more friends. Our family includes some friends, so you won’t be crashing an actual intimate family gathering. It will be great to have you there.”

“Thank you, we’re new to the area. We could use some lovely friends too. Ya’ll boys are sweet are you sure it’s okay?” her eyes get a bit misty even though she’s grinning.

Liam takes her hand over the counter and kisses the back, “You heard my boyfriend, of course, we’re sure. Be there, it’ll be at the very least entertaining for you.”

She slowly pulls her hand back and blushes, “I’ll call and let ya’ll know tonight.”

When we arrive home, we find Oliver and Katherine at our desks doing assignments. Liam throws the bag of post-its on the bed. Katherine swivels in her chair and looks at us and tilts her head.

“Okay, I know that look what are you two delinquents up to?” she asks warily.

Liam laughs, “It’s not really about what we’re up to,” he flicks his finger between him and me, “it’s more a case of what we’re about to do.” He finishes with waving his hand in a circle, indicating all of us.

“Oh no, I’ve heard all about these practical jokes in this house. I want no part of it.” She waved her hands out in front of her and swiveled back to the computer.

Liam goes up behind her and grabs her under the armpits and lifts her out of the chair and sets her on her feet still holding on, “Geez, you’re gettin’ heavy girly.” Katherine smacked a hand that was holding her.

“I’m getting fat,” she pouted.

“You are not getting fat, you’re pregnant, and beautiful always.” Liam bent around and kissed her cheek while he still held her so she couldn’t get away. Oliver is trying not to laugh. “Now you are going to help because whether you do or don’t, you’ll be suffering the consequences of what we do so you might as well enjoy the crime. And… if you help us, we will take you and Oliver out to dinner because you don’t want to be here after they see it. Plus we need the help, so let’s go.”

“Oooh! Chili’s,” Oliver asks rubbing his hands together.

“You got it,” Liam replies.

“I’m in,” they both answer at the same time.

<>-<>-<>

We were all in the kitchen, “Do you think we should ask Patrick and have him bring Sash, make it a date night? He’s earning money now, it would be good for him to go on a big boy date.” I ask the crowd, “Oh honey, go move the Mustang. If Dad doesn’t lend us the SUV, we don’t want to be stuck here not being able to get out.”

Liam’s eyes went big, “Oh fuck yeah! That would suck, and Oliver lay off of Pat tonight let him and Sasha enjoy the date. You always make him so nervous he doesn’t enjoy his time with her. They're not doing anything, just kissing and cuddling. Let them be and pay attention to your own beautiful woman.” He says leaving the room to move his car.

“I will,” he says sheepishly, wrapping his arms around Katherine and kissing her right and proper.

“Now that’s how you should kiss her all the time,” I say laughing.

“Shaddup!” Ollie exclaims.

“Language!” we heard coming from the front door followed by Liam laughing.

“Sorry Mrs. Sands,” Oliver apologized hanging his head.

Mom walks in the kitchen and put her bag on the table, turning to Oliver grabbing his chin between her finger and thumb, “That’s ok!” then she moved and gently slapped my cheek a couple of times, “I’m sure it was warranted.” We all chuckle and Liam slips his arm around my waist pulling me close. “You all look lovely are you on your way out?”

“Yep date night, we want to borrow Dad’s SUV. We are picking up Pat and Sasha.” Liam says, “but you ought to make yourself scarce when they get home.”

“You boys and your pranks, will it ever end?” She says rhetorically shaking her head.

The Dads walk into the kitchen just as Mom finished. Fuck! I hope they didn’t hear.

“Dad can we borrow your car for date night, we are picking up Sasha and Patrick?” Asking him before he can say anything.

“Yep, make sure you put gas in she’s almost empty.” He hands me the keys.

“Okay, thanks. We’ll see you all later,” I indicate for us all to leave – and quickly.

<>-<>-<>

“I’m kinda nervous about being home eh!” Biting my bottom lip nervously, and Liam pulls into the driveway.

“I wouldn’t worry about tonight, all the lights are off,” Liam flicks his head toward the house for us to look.

“Shit! He is going to get us bad.” I laugh.

“How bad could it be?”

Liam and I crack up, Katherine was giggling, “Umm… you should hear some of their stories.” Katherine says getting out of the SUV.

“How often do you guys do this kind of stuff?” Oliver asks worriedly.

I shrug my shoulder, “Every now and then.”

“C’mon let’s go inside and worry about it later, I’m too tired. Thanks for dinner guys and bowling. We had an excellent time.” Katherine puts her arm through Oliver’s, as we all walk inside quietly trying not to wake up our Dads.

<>-<>-<>

“Knock, Knock,” I rap on Dad’s office door on Saturday afternoon, I feel a bit nauseous after our prank yesterday, and I don’t know what mood he’ll be in.

“Yeah!” Dad calls out.

Entering his office, I smile and sit in the chair in front of his desk.

“How’s it going son?”

“Umm… Good?” I him ask sheepishly.

“Hmpf, do have any idea how long it took to get those post-it notes out of our room?” He asks sternly, “The least you could have done is join them together so we could get them off in strips, but nooo… you had to put each individual one separate. And lined the inside of our bed too, you brat.” He was thankfully laughing by the time he finished admonishing me for what we had done.

“I have no doubt you and Papi will make us pay,” I laugh.

“And you’ll never see it coming.” He points his finger at me chuckling, “Now what can I do for you?”

“Umm… has Liam ever said anything about me being able to borrow money and pay it back?”

“We’ve talked some about it, why did you want to borrow money? Are you in trouble?” he asks concerned.

“God no, nothing like that. I’ve been reading about Liam’s camera’s, and I’ve checked out his gear. If Liam is going to take his photography to the next level, he needs to have a “full-frame-camera, ” and while the gear he has is good enough, this will take him further. He’s talented enough to consider doing this for a living Dad, and I’d like to help him get there. But it is really expensive, I can’t believe he didn’t get a new camera and some lenses when he got his insurance money. Although he loves doing it, I just don’t think he thinks he is that good, but you’ve seen his work it’s amazing.

“Also, National Geographic has a competition at the moment for high school kids for wildlife photos. I thought I might enter his alligator catching the ibis as well as the nature shot of the place with the trees in the water and the lime lighting. Do you think he’ll be angry if I enter them on his behalf? I have to send it off by five pm tonight if that’s the case.”

“No, I don’t think he’ll be angry, you’re only trying to help. Now how much is this new equipment you want to get?”

“Well, if he gets a full-frame-camera, he’ll need a couple of lenses. I asked around some of the photography forums, and it’s been recommended,” I pull a piece of paper from my pocket and read, “the Nikon 5S as the camera, a 1.4:50 mil prime lens, a 2.8:70 – 200 mil and a 2.8:24-70mm lens to start out with. They assure me this should be a good start, plus he can use his old lenses. Now it’s about $15,000 in total. I have spoken with a camera place downtown, he has told me if I buy all of this together he’ll knock the price down to $11,500 and throw in an excellent tripod. He could always use an extra, he only has the one and switches his camera’s over.”

“Geez, Will that’s a lot of money.” He looks at me pointedly.

I look at my hands fidgeting, “I know, I’m not asking you to give me the money outright. You’d need to draw up like a loan agreement, and I could pay it back say over two or three years and in lump sums if I earn any from odd jobs here and there. I’ll work to pay it back Dad, I really want him to have this for himself.”

“God, you boys are going to be the death of me, why can’t you two be selfish like all other teenagers?” He says shaking his head, “I’ll think about it tonight and let you know tomorrow, is that reasonable enough?”

I frown at him for the odd first comment he made, “Yeah, of course. It’s the best I could hope for.”

“Well you better scoot and have a shower your getting sawdust all over the house, Kitt will have a fit she works hard keeping this house nice and doesn’t ask for anything in return. Plus you might want to get those photo’s off before the deadline.”

I leaped from my seat and over to Dad hugging him tightly whispering in his ear, “Thanks, Dad, I love you.”

He squeezed me tight and kissed my cheek, “I love you too, Son.”

<>-<>-<>

Sunday morning I woke before Liam, so I leaned over and start kissing him lightly until he returns my affections, “Good morning handsome,” I whisper in his ear softly while rubbing his morning wood. I am feeling a little frisky as we haven’t had much alone time with our house guests there. Not that I’m complaining I wouldn’t change a thing. “How would like to join me for a shower?”

“Oh hell yes!” he rolls on top of me kissing me passionately. He breaks the kiss and rolls to the side of the bed and flicks his legs to the floor, “What the fuck!” he almost yells.

“What?” I say moving up behind him.

“Holy shit, you weren’t kidding,” I look up, and Oliver and Katherine are looking down at the bedroom floor in amazement. “How the hell did none of us hear this happening?” He says laughing, but his face says he’s shocked.

I look over Liam’s shoulder, the entire bedroom floor is covered in red plastic cups filled with water – all the way to the door opening, “How the hell are we going to get out of here?” I ask.

“They left us a bucket,” Liam says pointing to the bucket in the furthest corner from us and the door.

Dad, Papi, and Mom appear at our door, the Dads are laughing their ass off. Mom looks in and walks away shaking her head.

“See ya boys, we are going to pick up the meat for brunch. Make sure you make the salads, and we’ll have potato bake instead of potato salad if you want to get started on that it would be a big help.” Papi says, and we can hear them laughing all the way out to the car.

It took us nearly an hour and twenty minutes to clear away all the cups and set up fans and towels to deal with the ones accidently knocked over giving a domino effect. Assholes! It was a good one though.

<>-<>-<>

Oliver cranked up the volume on the radio while we got to work in the kitchen, he had taken control of things, and we’d all been assigned jobs. Dad must have been the last one listening to the radio, it was settled on the oldies station. We are all singing along while we work to, the Four Season’s ‘Walk Like a Man’,

He said walk like a man
Talk like a man
Walk like a man my son
No woman's worth
Crawling on the earth
So walk like a man my son

Ooo-Wee-Ooooooh-Wa
(Walk, walk, walk, walk)
Ooo-Wee-Ooooooh-Wa

Sasha rushes in the kitchen and into Oliver’s arms, I guess Uncle Ian is here. He came in after Sasha with Patrick in tow. Ollie kisses his sister's forehead and releases her in which she hugs Katherine and bends down and says hello to her belly.

“Hey there little one, it’s Aunty Sha. Can’t wait to meet you.” Sasha says as Katherine laughs. Sasha claps her hands together, “I’m so excited, I can’t wait.” She beams with pride.

“I have no doubt you’ll be the best Aunt there is,” Liam assures her. I didn’t know her smile could get any bigger, but there you go.

There goes the knocking on the door again, “You better go, Baby, I have my hands full here.” Liam kisses me and with a wink in my direction he makes his way to the front door. We hear Liam talking to our guests, “Come in, come in, we’re in the kitchen finishing up come through and meet everyone.”

Katherine opened the sliding door, “John, Bill the guests have arrived.”

They come bustling through the door and into the kitchen. It’s kind of crowded now.

“Okay, everyone this is, Chandra and her girlfriend, Lexi. This is Chandra’s Moms, Roxy and Tanner and their son Trey.” We all smile and say hello at once, it was kind of comical. Liam continued, “Are you ready?” Chandra giggles and her Moms smile at him. He introduced us all in family order and pointed with our names, “Okay, I’m Liam, the cutest one is my boyfriend, Will. These are our Dads, John and Bill, our Mom Kitt, Uncle Ian and his son Patrick, and over here we have Katherine and Oliver, they’re having a cute little baby. And the beautiful young lady next to Oliver is Sasha, his sister and also Patrick’s girlfriend.”

Not long after, the coaches, then Derek and Theo arrived. It’s a full house folks. Patrick and Theo helped set the two tables, adults on one and us kids on the other. Brunch was a hit, the conversation flowed between the two tables as everyone got to know each other. We found out that Lexi is a freshman in college and Chandra is taking this year off of school and would rejoin with us for our senior year. She had been pretty severely bullied to the point of being admitted to hospital for injuries at the beginning of this year. Her Mom’s decided they would move to a new district. Chandra would take the year off and work to save for college and do her senior year next year at our school.

Uncle Ian and I assured her Moms, there would not be a repeat at our school as we are about to implement an anti-bullying campaign and it would be up and running in full force by the time our senior year starts. We also encouraged her to become part of the committee once she started back at school. It was an enjoyable afternoon, and we gained new friends to our little pack.

After brunch, we all decorated the tree Dad and Papi had brought back to the house when they went to get the meat. We played Christmas carols and drank eggnog that Mom made from scratch. It was delicious, training is going to su-u-ck next week.

<>-<>-<>

Christmas morning is finally here! Yay! It’s been a hectic week. I took Patrick with me Downtown, and he stashed and wrapped Liam’s gift for me. Then there was the last minute shopping for gifts. The household slept in till eight o’clock, no one bothered getting out of their pajamas, and we all toddled downstairs. Mom and Papi are cooking breakfast for us all and Dad is setting the table.

“Geez, since when do kids, not like Christmas morning, look at these sad sacks,” Dad says watching all of us sitting at the table. Uncle Ian and Patrick joined us for the day, they are after all family.

When breakfast had been scoffed down, Mom called out “Present Time. Leave the dishes the kids can clean up later.” We all looked at her gratefully.

We are all perched around the living room on couches and the recliner, I was sitting tucked into Liam's side and Katherine on Oliver’s lap. Papi commenced handing out gifts and had a large trash bag letting us know where the paper went.

We all got the general gifts, cd’s, sweaters and gift cards for furniture and kitchen stores. We were moving out after all. Dad, Papi, Uncle Ian, and Mom had given us four gift cards to buy furniture for the living room, dining room, and an office once we buy the new house. Our day was a blast, watching all of our faces as we opened our gifts. There were a few also left under the tree. Papi held back the gifts from Liam and me until the end they were all marked from Santa. We had given smaller gifts so they wouldn't know it was from us.

“Hang on there are some in the tree,” Papi, handed Oliver a small box and then he gave one to me, and we were informed not to open them yet. He gave Dad, Mom and Uncle Ian as well as himself an envelope. He pulled a big present over to Liam. That was his new camera gear, Dad agreed to the loan and made up an agreement for me to pay over three years.

Katherine, Patrick, and Sasha were all handed large rectangle boxes.

“Liam, you first buddy,” Papi said.

He read the little card attached and smiled at me. He opened it, and his eyes went huge.

“Oh my God,” Liam says as he pulls me into a choking hug. “I know this was you, Thank you.” He whispered and kissed me right and proper in front of everyone. I had a grin from ear to ear. Dad winks at me. Liam pulls back from our kiss, and his eyes are watery.

Katherine, Patrick, and Sasha went next. The look on their faces was priceless. Liam and I had dipped into our savings and bought all three new laptops. Dad, Papi and Mom were hit all at once with a barrage of hugs, kisses and thank you's.

Liam hugs me tight to his side, “Okay, now you old farts open yours.” This is what we heard.

“Shit!” - Papi

“Fuck!” - Dad

“Holy crap!” – Uncle Ian

“Oh, my!” – Mom

In the envelopes were their tickets and itineraries for flights and a cruise down to the Keys in Florida over spring break.

“Patrick can stay with us at the other house while you’re away. You guys can organize for someone to either stay with us or check in with us whatever you decide.” Liam says to them. The others all got up and went to look at what we had given to the parents.

My phone rang, and I didn’t recognize the number, Liam urged me to pick it up.

“Hello?”

“Hi Will, it’s me,” the voice of a little boy giggled.

“Hey, there sunshine, Merry Christmas. Are you having a good day, did you get lots of presents?”

“Sanna come, and I, and I, got a horse, his name is Pomise,” I heard Tracy say something in the background and Benny corrected the horse's name, “Promise.”

“Wow, that’s a pretty awesome present from Santa, how exciting,” I say to him.

“I know, and I know what I want for my birfday, you sayed to ring after I fink about it.”

“Alright, what did you want for your birthday?”

“A bike pease, so… so… I can go to Uncle Cal’s next door.”

“I think we can manage that, did you want to say hello to Liam?”

“Nah… I put Daddy on, hang on,” I could hear him screaming for Alex, I pulled a face at Liam, and he pushed out his bottom lip. I leaned over and kissed it. He smiled at me. Alex finally got on the phone, and we had a quick chat then he spoke with Dad and hung up.

We heard horns beeping outside, one sounded like my truck. Dad and Papi look at each other, “Okay Oliver, Will you can open your boxes now.”

The card on the box said it was from Liam. I opened it, and there were a set of keys for a Ford, it wasn’t my old truck keys. These are new with the buttons on them. I look at Liam, and he’s smiling like the cat that got the canary.

I felt my eyes burn with tears, “What did you do?” I choked out.

He took my hand and stood, “Come and see,” everyone follows us out of the house.

My old truck was in the driveway, and Oliver’s older brother was hopping out of it. The truck had had body work done and a new paint job in a metallic blue with new wheels and tires. Oliver rushed over to his brother followed by Sasha.

“It’s all your’s brother,” Oliver’s brother lifted him off of the ground in a bear hug and followed by squashing Sasha in his arms, “you have some pretty generous friends there.” All three were crying.

Oliver comes over to Liam and I and pulls us into a group hug, “Thank you so much, I don’t know what to say.” He pulls back with tears still pumping from his eyes as he tries to wipe them away. I had no idea that was what Liam was planning, but I manage to grin from ear-to-ear.

Behind my old truck is a brand new Ford F-150 in a dark blue Liam points to it as Katherine’s older brother gets out of the truck, “That’s yours, Babe.” Katherine ran to her brother and jumped into his arms. Both of their brothers were back from college for the holidays.

“What? Are you serious?” I had held myself together so far, but this pushed me over the edge. I start to bawl like a baby, saying “Thank you!” over and over again.

Liam pulls me into his arms and cuddles me, “You are welcome my sweet boy,” he says as he kisses the top of my forehead.

“I love the color,” I whisper into his chest.

“It’s called ‘Blue Jeans,' and I hoped you’d like it. Come on let's go have a look inside, then go for a ride.”

And we did pyjama's and all.

CHRISTMAS ROCKS!!!!