TJ - 15. Chapter 15

TJ

Chapter 15

Finally, the game began at eleven that night. Since games had been played all day, there were no specific sections or sides for either team. So, supporters for each team were all sitting next to each other. Which would have been fine; until I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“Oh, my god! Is that TJ sitting next to Scott? What the hell is that faggot doing here?”

I knew that voice. I knew it well. It tried to torment me for years. It was there encouraging Scott as he threw me out of his house and kicked me while I was down. I didn’t like that voice. That voice belonged to a certain bitch named Kim.

Scott tried to stop me from turning around to face the bitch, but it was too late. I pasted on an obvious fake smile, made eye contact with her and said, “Hey Kim! How have you been? Still being a heinous bitch?”

She narrowed her eyes and glared at me. “You’re pathetic enough to try to get back with him in front of his boyfriend?”

Before I could respond, someone else spoke from the other end of our row. “Ha! If you think TJ would even consider cheating on his boyfriend, you obviously don’t know him.”

Then, another voice from the sidelines in front of us added, “He landed the homecoming king and who would be the star quarterback for us if he hadn’t been injured. Trust me when I say he isn’t trying to get with anyone else. Besides, who the fuck do you think you are calling someone that?” Rachel added to John’s comment.

I gaped at them. I was truly at a loss for words. I wanted to say something, but my brain was not communicating with my mouth. Someone else finally added, “Young lady, I find your use of that offensive word abhorrent. Now, I don’t know what you possibly have against my young friend, TJ, but I will not sit by and have you talk down to him.” Doris was just getting started. She continued, “Even if I am still a bit miffed about him referring to me as an octogenarian on Thanksgiving, but that’s neither here nor there. I believe you owe TJ and his good friend Scott an apology.”

“Look old lady, I don’t care if you have eight genarians or whatever, but I’m not going to apologize to either of them.”

Doris smiled at her pityingly. “Bless your heart. You’re not the brightest crayon in the box, are you? Not even the prettiest. So maybe you should just shut the fuck up and try to look pretty, because even though it’s not much, it’s all that’s going for you.”

“Are you saying I’m not pretty? Who the hell do you think you are, you old bitch?”

Doris’ eyes were eerily cold when she smiled and said, “I’m the bitch you wish you could be. Now be a good girl and do as you’re told, or I can have you leave the stadium after I call Jerry and let him know I’m here and someone is bothering me.”

Kim scoffed. “Who the hell is Jerry? Am I supposed to be scared or something?”

Doris shook her head and pointed at a huge box suite just above us and said, “Jerry would be one of my late husband’s old friends and he is currently sitting in the owner’s box right there with his family. I personally can’t stand the alien-looking pompous ass who thinks he knows how to manage a football team and has had way too many facelifts, but I don’t have to like him to know him.”

Kim turned to Nick and said, “Come on, let’s find somewhere else to sit. I don’t like it here.”

Nick crossed his arms and looked at Kim and said, “Naw. I like these seats. Plus, I haven’t had a chance to talk to my friend Scott and tell him how sorry I am about not standing by him when everything happened last summer. Who knows? Maybe he’ll forgive me for choosing a hateful bitter bitch over so many years of friendship. Besides, you’re not as good as you think you are. I mean, Joey sucked my dick better last night than you ever did.”

The guy sitting next to him, who I knew was Joey, laughed loudly and responded, “You also said I was tighter, don’t forget that.”

Kim screamed, “Oh my god! Are you all fags? You disgust me. I’m leaving.” She then stood up and practically ran up the stairs to the exit.

Nick waved and said, “Fine with me. Good luck getting home since you rode here with us. I was getting tired of your nagging anyways.”

Joey side hugged Nick and said, “Thank god you finally got rid of that toxic bitch. So can we actually apologize to Scott now and beg his forgiveness and offer up our eternal gratitude if he would only grant us this one wish?”

Scott looked at them and stated, “That didn’t really happen between y’all, did it.”

Joey waggled his eyebrows and said, “You know I don’t kiss and tell.”

Nick laughed and shook his head. “Naw, it didn’t happen. Sorry to get your hopes up,’ he added with a wink. “I just knew what would piss her off. She came to me right after all that shit between you two happened. The way she made it sound, she was the victim and then she told me you used to say a bunch of shit about all of us behind our backs. She told all of us some pretty nasty shit you supposedly said. Recently though, her stories weren’t adding up. What she told me you said about Joey one time became something you said about me later. Finally, on the way here tonight, I made up something and asked her if you had said that about me or Joey. She told us this long-ass story about what you supposedly said and when. I didn’t call her out on it, but I knew she was a lying bitch. I was going to break up with her tonight on the way home and hit you up tomorrow. I didn’t expect to see you here at the game.

“Can I just say, I’m really fucking sorry I abandoned you. If I could go back and tell my past self to not think with his dick and trust you, I would. I wanted to rush to the hospital as soon as I heard about the accident, but Kim was whispering lie after lie to me and everyone else. The stuff TJ said on Facebook and shit didn’t help either. She used that as evidence against you. She told me you scared her the day you kicked him out of your house. She said she was afraid you were going to go off and hurt her too. I don’t know why I believed her. I know you.

“I know I fucked up big time. I’m just asking if it’s possible to maybe make it better.” He then turned to me and continued. “I also owe you a big apology. You might not have ever heard what was said about you directly, but I’m sorry for anything I said about you the past few years.” He looked back at Scott and said, “And I’m sorry for saying that shit period, but especially in front of you. I thought I was being funny and making everyone laugh. I’m sorry if you were uncomfortable and that’s why you never told us.”

I noticed Scott looked at Ryan before answering. When Ryan shrugged slightly and nodded once, Scott said, “It’s going to take time to get back to where we were, if it’s even possible to get back to that level of trust again. I know I should have trusted y’all more and told you the truth a while back, but I didn’t. And you hit the nail on the head when you said I didn’t tell you because of the shit that was said about other people. I didn’t want to lose my friends. The only reason I started going out with Kim was because you all kept asking when I was going to finally get me a girlfriend.

“Anyways, I want y’all to meet my boyfriend Ryan. Ryan, these guys were…are…could possibly be…my friends.” He looked back at the guys and said, “Oh, and neither of us drinks. At all. Ever. I personally don’t even want to be around it. So, if all y’all still do is hang around getting drunk, we won’t be hanging out.”

Nick smiled and shook his head. “Dude, we stopped drinking every time we could after your wreck. We all kind of decided it wasn’t worth it. We still do drink a bit, but never in a situation where we aren’t at one of our houses for the rest of the night. I’ll personally make sure there’s no trace of any alcohol around if y’all want to hang out. So, why are y’all hanging out with TJ and whoever else is with y’all?”

I looked at Nick and said, “Would you believe I moved from our old high school to Port Neches. So my old high school is playing against my new school in the fucking state finals.”

We all turned our attention back to the field as soon as the game started. While we were cheering our teams on, I couldn’t get something out of my head. What was that shit earlier with John and Rachel and both of them saying something nice about me? Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I moved to the end of our group and planted my ass in a seat right in front of Rachel and next to John.

As soon as I sat down, she rolled her eyes and asked, “Is there any way we can just pretend nothing happened and not do this?”

“Hell, fuck no! What was that bullshit about?”

John spoke up first. “Fuck TGay. It’s because you’re ours the same way we’re yours. We might not like each other or get along, but I’ll be dammed if someone else is going to hate on you while I’m there. We’re the only ones allowed to fuck with you; and I know you’d do the same for me at least. I definitely won’t let some dumbass-Karen-bitch try to say anything about you.”

Rachel added, “Did I sound that fucking ignorant when I was saying that hateful shit to you at the beginning of the year?”

John and I answer simultaneously, “Yeah, you did.”

She nodded. “I figured. Oh well, can’t do shit about it now. Besides, I couldn’t bring myself to say it again after I talked with Kevin and found out how serious he is about Josh. I love my cousin too fucking much to hurt him.”

I let everything they said settle in. “Okay. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t in some alternate universe in the multiverse. You know there’s one out there where we are actually friends.” All three of us thought about that for a moment and shivered at the thought. “Okay, I’m going back to sit with my real friends. Don’t die or something awful on the way home. Oh yeah, Rachel, Kevin, Sean, Jacob, and maybe Aaron will be spending Christmas at our place. I know Kevin mentioned he’s used to seeing you on Christmas and spending the day with you, so if you wanted to come over and hang with him, and I guess the rest of us too, that would be okay. John, you could probably come too if you wanted to torment me and make my day absolutely horrid. Lori will be there too. So, yeah. There’s my generous deed of the year done. Now, fuck off and be somewhere else,” I finished with a slight laugh and a barely visible smile.

They glared at me, both were trying to not smile back and failing miserably as I turned and walked away. Just before I sat down, I looked over at them and added, “I accept gift cards as presents. That way I can buy what I want and don’t have to worry about fake liking some shitty thing you picked out for me.”

Josh wouldn’t stop looking at me and grinning his full dimple smile at me. Finally, I barked out, “What are you so fucking smug about?”

If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it was possible, but his grin got bigger. “That was probably the nicest thing I’ve seen you do, like ever. I know it will make Kevin happy.”

I played ignorant. “I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t try and pull that shit with me, Teej. You know damn well what I’m talking about. You inviting Rachel over will make Kevin’s day. I think having his family, especially his closest cousin, will normalize the day for him some. I know there’s no love lost between him and his dad, but this will be the first Christmas without him around. They used to spend all Christmas day at Coach Wilson’s. Of course he would spend it hanging out with Rachel. I know you don’t care for her much, but she does care about Kevin. And you care about him too. So, I just wanted to say thank you for trying to make his Christmas a little better.”

“If you haven’t figured out by now, I would do anything for you, Sean, or Kevin. Now, can we stop all of this heart-to-heart bullshit? Halftime’s about to start and we can go see Sean and Kevin in the locker room.” I turned to Scott and Ryan and asked, “Do y’all want to go to the locker room with us to see Kevin and Sean or are y’all going to stay up here?”

They exchanged a look before Scott said, “I think we’ll stay up here. I’m going to talk to Nick a little more and see what, if any, kind of friendship can be salvaged.”

“Okay, that sounds good to me. We shouldn’t be too long. Coach Wilson probably doesn’t want us distracting them too much.” I turned and looked at the scoreboard before turning to Josh. “Alright, let’s go. At least they should be in a good mood since we’re winning; even if it is a close game.” The score was 17-14.

Robert and Lori walked us to the steps that led to the sideline area. He showed the security guard a badge, which I later found out was mailed to him during the week, allowing us to go down and join the team just as the clock ran down to zero.

We followed the guys down the tunnel and then into the locker room. I was in awe. It was the nicest locker room I’d ever seen. Everything was made of high quality wood, the floor was a stained concrete, and further back there were some ice baths and hot tubs set up next to the showers.

The mood once we entered was energetic and happy. I could tell the team was enjoying playing tonight’s game. Some of the guys were admittedly tired since it was about twelve thirty in the middle of the night. We hung out and talked to Sean and Kevin and the rest of the gang for about ten minutes. Finally, Coach Wilson got everyone’s attention and told them to gather around him. He then gave them some generalized notes on where to focus during the second half before he handed the meeting over to Sean.

Sean stood on a bench, grinning widely at everyone. “Y’all have played an awesome first half but so have they. We can’t let out guard down now. If we do, they’ll take advantage of it and run all over us. We’re only leading by three points, and we didn’t have the lead the whole first half. This has been an amazing season. I wish things had happened differently and I had gotten the chance to be on the field with y’all for my senior year, but Patrick has stepped up and done an amazing job. He kept the winning streak going and we are undefeated. Let’s keep that up and go out there and win this one for a perfect season. Bring it in!”

After he said that, the whole team and coaches huddled around him. Kevin saw Josh and me standing there and pulled us both into the huddle too. I had Kevin on one side of me with Josh on the other side of him next to Patrick. On the other side of me, I had Pauly and Mark, with Castro just on the other side of Mark. I swore I could feel some sort of energy build up as the team stood there, arms thrown over the shoulders of the person next to him, slowly rocking side-to-side at first. There was a soft hum coming from everyone that got louder and louder the faster everyone moved. The hum eventually turned into a yell and finally ended on a roar that sounded like some ancient battle cry. We followed the team through the tunnel again and returned to our seats while they gathered in the entrance getting ready to run out for the second half.

When we got back to our seats, Scott and Ryan were still talking to Nick and Joey and looked like they were having a good conversation. We settled in to watch the final two quarters of the game and it was a show worth watching. Both teams seemed determined to win. Our defense was equally matched to their offense and vice-versa. Nobody was able to gain and hold onto the lead, so the game came down to the last play of the game.

I looked at my phone to see that it was one forty-five in the morning and the two-minute warning just went off. The score was tied at 24-24. Thankfully, we had the ball, so all we had to do run the ball down the field getting first downs and run the clock down. We couldn’t afford to lose possession. If we did, we’d lose the game. It was third down and the ball was on the one yard line. Patrick tried to run it in for a touchdown, but their defense was a solid wall so there was no way he could get over. It all came down to a field goal. Thankfully the clock hit zero just as the ball sailed through the uprights, ending the game at 27-24.

We finally made it back to The Great Wolf Lodge at three in the morning. We were all beyond tired, but it didn’t seem like anyone was about to go to sleep. The six of us stayed up the rest of the night talking. We talked about the future and where we wanted to be. We talked about the past and what we had gone through to get to where we were. We talked about our relationships with our parents and how different they all were.

“It’s weird because it was just me and my dad for so long,” Kevin admitted to Scott and Ryan. “We never really got along. He would always tell me I wasn’t good enough, that I could be better if I tried harder. He would then get drunk and pass out on the couch and I’d have to somehow get his ass into his bed. If I didn’t, he would yell at me the next morning. I tolerated him because I had to. I had nowhere else to go. He wasn’t physically abusive. I just had to make it till I graduated.

“When Sean came out at the beginning of the year, I realized how tired I was living a lie, so I came out alongside him. I knew how homophobic my dad is, but I made the decision to come out and don’t regret it at all. Jacob and Sean were nice enough to let me stay with them while everything got sorted. After my dad showed up at TJ’s house drunk, screaming homophobic slurs, with a gun, I realized I wouldn’t be able to go home again. Jacob took care of everything and applied to get custody of me and basically told me I wasn’t going anywhere. That I was home.

“The funny thing is, I actually feel like it is my home now. I’m not just a friend who’s staying with them anymore. They’ve become my family and I love Jacob like he is my father and I love Sean like he is my brother. They tell me the same every day. And do you know who we have to blame for all of that? Mr. TJ Kennedy.

“If he hadn’t moved down to Port Neches, he would have never met Sean. Sean would have never had a reason to come out and I wouldn’t have met Josh.” He turned to look at me and continued, “I know you losing who you thought were your parents is what led to you being in our lives now; however, I’m so glad you are. My life changed the day I met you and I think it was for the better. Having said that, I feel guilty being happy you’re here now. Every time I think about it, I’m reminded of everything you lost. And even though he would never say anything to you, I know Sean feels the same. So, I just wanted to let you know, I’m glad you’re in my life now and happy I met you, but I’m sorry about how that came to be. If you ever need a friend to talk to, you know you can call me, right? I’ll be here for you anytime you need. I love you. Oh, and thanks for inviting Rachel over for Christmas. I was going to try to find a way to get over to their place at some point during the day but wasn’t sure how yet. You didn’t have to do that for me, I know y’all don’t get along, so thanks.”

I was trying to not cry and failing. “You don’t have to thank me for doing the right and decent thing. It doesn’t matter whether or not we get along, I knew you wanted to see your cousin on Christmas so you could have a little bit of normal and it was within my power to do that for you. Don’t feel guilty about being happy I’m where I’m at now. I went through that early on. Then, I realized all of the good things that happened you just pointed out. I’m happy, and know for a fact they would be too, that so many good things came from losing them. I swear they had something to do with all of us being here right now. My mom especially wouldn’t have wanted any of us to feel sad about them being gone. I’m convinced the first thing she did when they got to whatever’s next was seek out some higher power and demand they allow nothing but love to come in the aftermath of their deaths.”

Josh smiled and added, “He’s right. Mimi just wanted everyone to be happy and loved. Also, Dad and Lori got together. I didn’t think I would ever see Dad with someone else. He was so focused on work and me and then Teej I didn’t think he was ever going to take any time for himself and find happiness. Now, he’s happier than I’ve ever seen before. So am I; and so is Teej. I believe everything happens for a reason. I miss Mimi and Pops every day, but they would want everyone to focus on the positive things that have happened. Not to dwell on the sadness of their loss.”

Scott pulled Ryan closer to him and spoke up. “I’ll never forget the night they died. That was the night that changed my life forever. It was the first time I was able to admit to myself that I wanted something more. I wanted to be someone special for someone. Holding Teej while he mourned that night showed me that. Admittedly, I thought that person was going to be TJ, but I fucked everything up by drinking. Even though things didn’t work out with Teej and me, that feeling never went away. I knew I would meet someone special again and they would think I was someone special too. And I would believe them. Then I found Ryan and knew there was something there. I just had to try to convince him to ignore everything he’d heard about me and give me a chance.”

Ryan chuckled. “Before you could convince me of anything I needed to get out of my own way. At first, I let my anxiety take over and I tried to sabotage any type of friendship or relationship before we even had a chance to get to know each other. Thankfully, my boyfriend is stubborn as hell and refused to give up on me. I don’t remember a time when I was this happy in the past and I’m grateful every day that I met him and we’re together.”

Finally, Sean added his thoughts. “I agree with Teej. Even though I never met his parents, from what he’s told me about them and seeing how he and Mr. Kennedy act, I think it’s safe to say they wouldn’t have wanted us to be sad or feel guilty about being happy, no matter how that happiness came to be. Things happen in life that are beyond our control and there’s nothing we can do to stop them from happening. The only thing we can control is how we react to whatever happens. That and how to move on towards the future. But I guess that’s really just part of the reaction because how we react to something will determine where we go and what we do next. I try to focus on the good that might come out of a situation. No matter what happens or how we react there will both good and bad things that happen to everyone involved.

“I’m happy I decided to pull over in the rain and ask the guy sitting in his car if he needed help changing his flat tire. Now, I went into the situation assuming he knew the basics of how to change a tire. We all know what we get when we assume?”

I instantly replied, “It makes an ass out of you.”

Sean waited a beat before he finished and said, “And me.”

I grinned broadly and said, “Exactly what I said.”

It took everyone a few seconds to figure out what I did because hell would freeze over before I would admit to making an ass out of myself, but eventually they all laughed with me. “You’re an asshole. It’s a good thing I love you,” Sean finally said after the laughter calmed down. “Anyways, I assumed he knew to check the air pressure in the spare every so often to make sure it doesn’t go flat. Nope! Not my Teej. The spare was just as flat as the tire it was going to replace. However, when he sent me to get the spare out of the car, he must have forgotten the box he had stashed in the trunk. The open box that was full of gay mags and porn.

“I offered him a ride home and, on the way, told him I saw what was in the box. He freaked out a little and expected me to take off as soon as we got to his place. I eventually convinced him I liked what I saw and wanted to get to know him better. We ordered pizza and started making out on the couch. I spent the night that first night and I pretty much haven’t left since.”

I heard Josh groan and then he chuckled. “God, I was such a drama queen that next morning when I walked in on you two in bed.”

Sean laughed and said, “Aww, Little Buddy, you weren’t that bad.” He paused a moment. Finally, he continued, “Actually, yeah. I guess you were a drama queen that day. Not speaking to Teej and putting him through hell making him think you hated him. But at least I got the job of distracting him. Like I said, I haven’t left yet and don’t plan on leaving anytime in the near future.”

I mocked glared at him and said, “Oh, so you plan on going somewhere later then, is that it? Well, good luck finding anyone half as great as I am.”

He put his arm around me and drew me close to him and said, “There’s nobody near as great as you and I already know that,” as he placed a gentle kiss on my lips.

“You’re damn right! And I like you too. Just thought you should know that,” I said, smiling.

He grinned. “Oh, gee thanks! I guess I like you too, asshole.”

“Shut up! You know I love you more than my luggage,” I quoted from Steel Magnolias.

His face and voice were serious when he said, “Don’t you dare quote that movie to me. You know I can’t watch or think about that movie without losing my shit and crying like a baby.” His eyes got glassy, and he choked out, “You’re an asshole. Y’all ignore me; my boyfriend is a manipulative fucker who likes to pull at my heartstrings and make me cry in front of people. I swear, just thinking about that movie gets me crying or laughing.”

Ryan looked confused when he asked, “What movie are y’all talking about?”

Kevin, Sean, Josh, Scott, and I all looked at him like he had three heads. I think we all said some variation of, “You’ve never seen Steel Magnolias?!?”

Let me explain here. My mom’s favorite movie was Steel Magnolias and she made me watch it with her starting at a very young age. By the time I was six, I had M’Lynn’s monologue after the funeral memorized and could recite the whole scene word for word with a proper southern accent in perfect sync with the movie. So, naturally I made Josh watch it with me since it quickly became one of my favorite movies. Once Josh had seen it enough times, we would watch it at least once a week during the summers when he was visiting. The two of us had our parts and we quoted almost the whole movie every time we watched it. I was always Truvy, Ousier, and Clairee while Josh did the Shelby, Annelle, and M’Lynn lines. Well, until the cemetery scene. Then I just took over and did that scene as a solo act. Once I moved down to live with Josh and Robert and we started dating Sean and Kevin, it didn’t take us long till we made them sit down and watch the movie with us. As far as Scott went, there were more than a few Saturday nights I made him watch the movie with me between our sessions in bed. I guess we all thought it was a movie everyone should’ve seen at least once in their life and if they hadn’t then something was seriously wrong with their upbringing.

Ryan thought for a few moments and asked, “What? That old movie with Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton in it? I think I saw it once when I was little with my mom. I kept asking her why she was crying and then laughing so much. I don’t remember much about it though.”

I turned to Scott and said, “You need to fix this first chance you get. Seriously! He needs to know the amazingness of the tale of five women from Chinquapin Parish, Louisiana.” I turned to Ryan and continued, “If this hasn’t been remedied by the next time we see each other, I will not be held responsible for my actions.”

Scott looked like he was about to burst out laughing when he said, “I promise I will sit him down and make him watch it.”

“Good! Now on to the next order of business. It’s currently,” I checked my phone for the time, “five in the morning. We can either try to catch a couple of hours of sleep and get breakfast then hit up the water park or we can try to push through and stay up. All in favor of trying to sleep, raise your hand.”

It was unanimous, so we all changed into our sleep shorts and crawled into our beds. While I was trying to go to sleep, I could hear Kevin and Josh whispering up in the loft. I guess they didn’t realize their voices carried down here and we were able to hear everything they said. I heard Kevin say, “I really can’t believe he did that for me. You know your brother is a good person despite the act he puts on. He wants everyone to think he only cares about himself and is some kind of narcissistic asshole, but he isn’t. I mean, yeah, he partially is, but honestly, who would go out of their way to invite someone they absolutely do not get along with just to make someone else’s day better?”

Josh chuckled. “Teej would do anything within his power to help or protect someone he considers his. He also hates seeing the people he cares about hurting either physically or emotionally. And lord have mercy on whoever hurt that person because they won’t get any from Teej. I’m glad he has Sean now. He’s spent so many years going out of his way trying to make sure everyone he cares about is good, he didn’t really take time to make himself happy.”

I couldn’t resist it anymore. Finally, I spoke loud enough for them to hear me. “I have always taken time to make myself happy. Some days I make myself happy three of four times before I have to stop. Masturbation is totally normal, and I freely admit I do it at least once a day.”

Everyone in the room groaned and started complaining and telling me to shut up and go to sleep. I told them they could all kiss my ass and go fuck themselves. Ryan piped up, “Why would I fuck myself when I have Scott right here?”

“As long as y’all are quiet about it and don’t keep me awake, have fun,” Sean replied through a yawn.

“Yeah, shut the fuck up and let us sleep. That goes for y’all up there too,” I added to help Sean get his point across.

Finally, I closed my eyes around six in the morning. At seven thirty, Robert and Lori were banging on the door. After about five minutes of Robert knocking, I got out of bed, opened the door, looked at him and said, “Go away! We just went to bed an hour and a half ago.”

“Well, who’s fault is that? Get up, get dressed, and come eat breakfast. Y’all have ten minutes to get ready,” he replied with a huge grin on his smug face.

I didn’t invite him in, but I didn’t slam the door in his face either, which was my mistake. He managed to push the door open and him and Lori followed me into the room. Just as I laid back down and pulled the covers up, Robert grabbed them from the foot of the bed and ripped them off Sean and me. I flipped him off while Sean grumbled and snuggled in closer to me and asked, “Why is Mr. Kennedy being an ass this morning? I thought he liked me. He’s your brother-dad, tell him to go away or something.”

“I tried. He won’t listen to me,” I informed my boyfriend.

About that time, I heard Lori’s voice from the loft repeating, “Get up! Get up! Get up!” while it sounded like she was jumping on the bed.

Somehow, Scott and Ryan were excluded from the torture session that morning. I couldn’t let them miss out on the fun we were all having, so I rolled out of bed and jumped onto their bed and laid across both of them. “We might as well get up and do as they say. If we don’t, they have ways to make our lives miserable,” I mumbled.

They both groaned and tried to push me off of them. Then I heard Ryan say, “TJ, umm, you might want to move your head somewhere else, please.”

I raised my head to see why he would need me to move when I heard Sean say, “Teej, why was face buried in Ryan’s crotch? I really like Scott and Ryan and I don’t want to have to kill them and then bother with trying to dispose of the bodies this early in the morning for doing inappropriate things with my man.”

I quickly got off their bed and said, “Sorry, Ryan. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was landing. Sorry if I got your hopes up, but Sean’s it for me. And besides you have Scott. He’s a good guy.” I then looked at Scott and continued, “Dude, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tease your boyfriend. I would tell you to go help him out in the shower, but I don’t think Robert and Lori would appreciate waiting for y’all to finish.”

“You don’t have time to shower right now. Hurry up and get dressed and let’s get some food,” Robert said from his position on the couch.

We finally made it out of the room and went to IHOP for breakfast. When we got back to the hotel, the six of us decided to go back to the room and take a nap. We finally woke up around twelve thirty and after eating a quick lunch went back to the water park. We rode all of the slides multiple times and spent a lot of time in both the lazy river and the wave pool. We ate dinner with Robert, Lori, Scott’s dad and his boyfriend, and Ryan’s older brother (who was Scott’s AA sponsor) at a Mexican restaurant named Chuy’s. Once we made it back to the room, we decided to call it a night, since we were all tired from little sleep the previous night and spending all day at a water park. Since we had to check out the next day, we all packed up our shit. We did leave our swimsuits out since the park passes were still technically good through Monday night and Robert let us know we could go to the park till around noon.

On Monday around noon, we told Scott and Ryan goodbye. There were hugs all around and promises to keep in touch, which I planned on keeping. Then we piled in the SUV and headed on the five-and-a-half-hour journey home. Thankfully, we passed a Buc-ee’s on the way home, so I was able to get my Hill Country Bohemian Garlic Beef Jerky and some Beaver Nuggets. YUM!!!

We made it home by six thirty and ordered pizza for dinner. Nobody wanted to bother with cooking and dishes and all that shit. Once dinner was finished, Sean and Kevin decided to head to their house since we had just spent the past three and a half days with each other, and they hadn’t seen Jacob for just as many days with the exception of dinner on Saturday. We made plans to meet up on Tuesday to go shopping for Christmas presents. Christmas was the following weekend and none of us had bought anything for anyone yet.

Right before I went to bed that night, Robert asked if he could talk to me in private. As I followed him to the home office, I racked my brain trying to figure out what I had done. When we entered the room, he closed the door behind him and told me take a seat. I sat in a cushioned chair in the corner, while he turned the desk chair my way and sat. We sat there in silence for about a minute and half. He looked like he was gathering his thoughts, trying to figure out how to say what he needed to say. I couldn’t take it any longer and finally said, “I know I’ve done and said some shitty things in the past and I’m sorry if you think I’ve done something now. But, honestly, I have no clue what I did. So, just tell me what I’ve done so I can try to make it better. Oh, and I’m sorry for whatever it is you think I might have possibly done. Okay, now it’s your turn to talk. I’ll shut up now.”

His face showed confusion as he looked at me. Finally, he laughed and said, “You’re not in any trouble and you haven’t done anything wrong. At least not that I know about.” He stopped and considered for a moment, then continued, “Is there something you need to tell me about?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I swear I haven’t done anything or said anything to anyone that you aren’t aware of. So, what is this about? You’re making me nervous. Are you doing this on purpose? Is this torture? Cruel and unusual punishment? Trying to sweat me out like you’re impersonating Gibbs from NCIS? Because, if you are, I’ll let you know now. You’re nowhere near as intimidating as Gibbs. Right now, I’d put you on about a McGee level.”

“I’m not trying to intimidate you. I’m trying to figure out how to tell you Josh is going to be getting a car for Christmas without you freaking out or feeling like I’m choosing him over you or something. Because I’m not. I had planned on getting him a car since his birthday and he got his license. I’m sorry I’m waiting till now to tell you this, but I wasn’t sure how you would take it. I couldn’t tell you when you first moved down here. We still had so many issues to work through and I knew it would’ve led to another fight. Then I just kept putting off telling you because I liked how we were getting along. I didn’t want to ruin it. Now, I feel like I’ve waited too long and I don’t want you to be upset.” He told me all of this while looking right at me with tears welling up in his eyes.

I crossed over to him and pulled him into a hug as he started crying and I said, “Robert, it’s okay. I’m okay. I promise.”

“I’m so sorry Teej. I want you to know, I’ve always loved you and regret ever letting Mel manipulate me like she did. I should’ve been there for you. You should’ve grown up with me, I wanted you to be with us. Not even Josh knows this, but I fought for you so many times throughout the years before the divorce. By the time she finally decided to leave, I thought it was too late to tell you the truth. I didn’t want you to have to go through all of the emotional bullshit while you were so young. I feel horrible I can’t give you everything you deserve,” he sobbed.

“Hey, come on. Sit back down and calm down. Besides, you know I had the two most amazing parents in the world raising me. Yes, it would’ve been nice to have been told the truth before everything exploded. Well, before I blew it all up actually. But I wouldn’t have given up Mom and Dad for anything. They were both of our parents. And, in my opinion, they raised two of the best people I know,” I replied, trying to calm him down.

“Oh really?” he replied. “Who’s the other person you know they raised besides me? I’ll admit, I can be pretty amazing,” he joked.

I gently pushed him back. “Whatever. You know I’m amazing and nobody can compare to my awesomeness. And quit acting all bougie. Leave the smugness to me. You don’t have my flair to pull it off right. As far as you getting Josh a car, I think that’s badass. He should have a car. I was surprised he didn’t get one when he turned sixteen. I don’t care if you spend more on him than me. Granted, six months ago I would’ve raised holy hell just for the fuck of it to piss you off. But I’d like to think I’m getting better at handling everything now. Now, I have a question for you.”

He sighed in relief and smiled. “Yeah, what is it?”

“What in the hell can I get Josh, Lori, Sean, Kevin, and you for Christmas? I can’t think of anything. I’ll probably just end up buying everyone gift cards so they can get whatever they want. What did you get Lori? I haven’t seen anything under the tree with her name on it yet.”

He grinned and said, “Well, I know some people might think this is too soon, but here look.”

He then crossed over to the desk and opened one of the drawers and pulled out a black velvet box and handed it to me. I can’t say I was all that surprised by what I found inside. I had a feeling this was going to happen sooner or later, and I didn’t think it was too soon at all. The ring was beautiful. There was a good-sized diamond set in the middle with diamond chips surrounding it. The ring itself was white gold. My grin was probably just as big as his when I finally handed back the box.

He started, “Like I said, some people might think it’s too soon but we’ve talked about it already. Granted it was just in general terms, but we were both on the same page. We agreed that when you’re with the right person, the time you’ve been dating doesn’t matter. I’m about ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure she’ll say yes. I plan on doing it Christmas morning while everyone is here. I’m going to buy her some gag gifts that she’ll open while everyone else is opening their presents. Once all they’re all opened, I’ll walk over to the tree and reach into the branches, where I’m going to hide the box, and pull it out and toss it to her. I don’t plan on getting down on one knee and all that shit. That’s not us. I’ll probably ask her something like, ‘Well, what do you think? You want to get married?’”

“I think that’s perfect. She’ll appreciate that more than you going down on a knee in front of everyone and embarrassing her. So, what do you think I should get everyone?” I asked him again.

“Well, you can just give me a gift card and I’ll be happy. You don’t have to worry about me. Lori would probably like something from Bath and Bodyworks. Josh, why don’t you get him one of those car washing kits that come with the bucket, sponges, towels, soap, tire cleaner, and interior cleaner. I’ll make sure he opens it before he gets the keys to his car. You can tell him you got if for him so he can wash your car. As far as Kevin, I would say either a gift card so he can get some clothes or something similar. Jacob told me he didn’t have much when he moved in and Jacob’s been slowly buying him new clothes but I think he would appreciate the gift card. That way he can pick out what he wants. I don’t know what to tell you about Sean. You’ll have to think of something on your own,” he said.

I thought for a moment and then asked, “I thought about getting him a ring.” I saw the look on his face and quickly followed up with, “Not anything like an engagement ring. I was thinking about getting him a nice silver ring from the jewelry store. Or maybe a nice silver link bracelet. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s what I’m going to do. I saw one at the jewelry store in the mall. It looks like an ID bracelet, and you can get it engraved. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to get him. I’ll have it engraved too. Do you think he’ll like that?”

He chuckled and threw his arm across my shoulder and walked me towards the door saying, “Teej, I promise he’ll love whatever you give him. It doesn’t matter what it is, if ir’s from you, it will be the best thing ever. Now, go to bed. You’ve got plans tomorrow and I still need to get you and Sean and Kevin something. Goodnight, Teej. I love you.”

I smiled and replied, “I love you too, Dad.”

He laughed loudly. “That sounds so freaking weird coming out of your mouth. Hell, I remember when you used to call me Wobbut. That was cute and all, till you taught Josh to say it when he started talking. You would laugh every time you heard him say Wobbut. I loved it. Mel on the other hand, didn’t. That was the first time I put my foot down and told her she was full of shit. She thought you were being a bad influence on Josh and wanted me to keep y’all away from each other. As in, he wouldn’t go visit Mom and Dad and she didn’t want y’all coming down here. I told her absolutely not. I would never keep my parents away from their grandson and it was obvious even back then how much you adored Josh. If you heard him crying, you would toddle over to him and run your chubby little hand over his stomach and say, ‘It’s okay Yashi.’”

I turned towards him and threw my arms around him and held him as tightly as I could. “Thank you, Robert.”

He held me just as tightly and asked, “What are you thanking me for?”

I pulled away slightly and grinned. “For being an irresponsible teenager and not using a condom. Twice. You got two ultra-amazing sons out of the deal. I got to be born. Plus, I got Josh as best friend. Goodnight!” And with that, I left him standing outside my bedroom door looking like he couldn’t quite figure something out.

We went shopping the following day and I got the majority of mine done. I went with Robert’s suggestion for him, Kevin, and Josh (I wish I had thought of that one on my own). I got Sean the bracelet and on the inside I had it engraved with “You make me a better person every day I am with you. Love always, TJ 12/25/16.” I decided to get Lori a gift card for Bath and Bodyworks since I wasn’t sure which scents she preferred.

There was going to be one minor change to our plans for Christmas Eve. Originally we had planned for all of us to go Doris’ for a Christmas Eve ugly sweater party during lunch. On Wednesday night, Lori apologized to us and said she wouldn’t be able to go to Doris’ with us because she had spoke with her parents, and they asked her to spend Christmas Eve with them since she was going to be spending Christmas with us. She then turned to Robert with a sly smile on her face and asked, “Would you like to come with me? They invited you too. They would like to meet you and I told them I would offer the invitation to you.”

He smiled at her and said, “Yeah, I think I’m ready to meet your family. It’s only fair since you’ve met all of mine. Are we going to be spending the night there or coming back Christmas Eve night?”

“I sort of told them we had to be back that night since we planned on doing Christmas morning with the all the kids,” she stated with a laugh. “My mom asked me how many kids there were and how old they are. I told her there’s your two sons who were sixteen and seventeen and their boyfriends. She was silent for moment then let out a squeal and asked when she would get to meet them all.” She turned to us and continued, “Don’t worry guys, I told her not anytime soon. She’s a huge ally in the LBTQ+ community. She’s also an avid fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She would make all of y’all sit down and watch it with her. I’m not going to torture y’all with that. But you will have to meet them on opening night of Beauty and the Beast.”

On Friday night, Kevin and Sean came over to watch Christmas movies and spend the night so we could get to Doris’ easily the following day. We stayed up pretty late watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf, the original cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story, and some of the old clay-mation films while drinking hot chocolate. It was a nice evening, even though we stayed up way too late.

On Saturday morning, Robert and Lori headed off to Lori’s parents at eight in the morning. They were heading to The Woodlands which is right outside Houston. The four of us finally got out of bed about ten and had just enough time for all of us to grab a quick bite to eat, shower, and get ready to head to Doris’. We had gone online and ordered matching sweaters. They had reindeer stitched into the pattern randomly and in the center of each was a Christmas tree, complete with decorations and working lights. The invitation said to not bring gifts, but I’m not stupid and my mother raised me to always have a gift for the host of a party, especially during the holidays. So, I signed the card with all of our names, including Robert and Lori, and we all piled into my car for the drive.

We arrived at Doris’ and unloaded the car and went to front door and rang the bell. It was immediately answered by a grinning Hunter. He let us in and as soon as the door closed behind him, he gave each of us a hug and said, “Come on in. To quote Gramma, ‘We are gathering in the library before lunch, so please follow me good sirs.’”

I heard a voice from down the hall yell out, “Hunter, you little shit, I don’t sound that pompous. Tell TJ and them to get their skinny asses in here so I can wish them Merry Christmas.”

We followed the voice to find Doris standing in a large room with shelves filled with books. In the corner of the room was the tallest, most elaborately decorated tree I had ever seen. There were presents all around it, all of them wrapped in luxurious looking paper with fancy hand tied bows on top. Doris was dressed in a matching sweater to ours, only hers looked way too big for her. Scattered throughout the room were Pauly, Hunter, Katie, Jacob and Aaron McNair, Coach Wilson, Rachel, John and his mother Robin, and a couple I knew to be Pauly’s parents who were speaking to two other couples. Pauly’s dad and one of the other guys looked enough alike to be brothers and the woman of the third couple looked like a younger Doris. I figured they were Hunter and Katie’s parents. They weren’t interacting with anyone else and looked around the room like they couldn’t believe there were peasants in their presence. They weren’t even wearing sweaters, ugly or otherwise. Doris was right, her children were snobs. I noticed Katie was silently standing off to the side of them. I was surprised her and John weren’t hanging out.

Doris ignored everyone else and mock glared at the box in my hands, “I know damn well the invitations said no presents. What in the ever-living-hell is this then?”

I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “My Mom raised me to always have a gift for the host of a party. Especially a Christmas party. Now you’re supposed to be gracious and say something like, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have. I wasn’t expecting anything. Thank you so much.’ To which I would respond with, ‘It’s no problem at all. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for having us over,’ while we air-kiss each other’s cheeks. But no! You have to be standoffish and on top of everything, you stole our sweater idea.”

She gave me an evil grin and said, “Oh, yes! I do love the new sweater Robert was nice enough to give me when he stopped by the other day with Lori, and they let me know they wouldn’t be able to come today. Don’t you love it? Now, come here and give that gift and tell me how wonderful I am.”

I smiled and handed her the gift. Once she set it down, she turned and pulled me into a tight hug and said, “Thank you for the gift and for coming today. I love spending the holidays with friends and some of my family, and you four are becoming both.” She kissed my cheek before moving on to greet Sean and Josh the same way. When she got to Kevin, she hugged him as tightly as she could and I overheard her whisper in his ear, “I’m so happy to see you, Kevin. Make sure y’all stick around after everyone leaves. I have some gifts for the four of you.”

A short time later, we headed to the dining room and ate a catered lunch. Everyone was seated around a formal table that actually sat all twenty of us. I had never seen a table that big in my life. Doris sat at the head of the table. To her left and right were her sons, then their wives, Katie’s mom and dad sat next to Pauly’s mom. Then everyone else found our names on little placards and took our seats. Doris decided to seat me at the other end of the table opposite her. Josh and Kevin sat to the left of me, and Sean sat to the right. Next to him were Jacob and Aaron. Coach Wilson and Rachel sat next to Kevin. John and Katie sat next to Rachel and Pauly and Hunter were across from them.

We all spoke to the people immediately around us. About halfway through, Aaron turned to me and said, “Teej, can you let Robert know I’m sorry I won’t be able to make tomorrow? It’s ended up that I’m going to have to work both tonight and tomorrow all day.”

“I’ll let him know,” I responded. “That sucks you have to work all night and all day tomorrow. Will you be able to get any sleep between shifts?”

He nodded and said, “I’ll be able to sleep some. There’s going to be just a few of us on this shift, so we’re going to take turns in the bunk room. We’ll each get about four hours of sleep at some point either tonight or tomorrow during the day before we get off.”

I turned to Sean and said, “Well, at least I get the pleasure of the company of two-thirds of the McNair’s.”

Jacob chuckled and said, “Aye, laddie you do. Lookin’ forward to seeing all my boys tomorrow,” in an excellent Scottish accent.

I turned to Sean and asked, “Can you talk in that accent?”

He looked at me like I was the weirdest person he had ever heard speak and nodded. “Aye, I can. What’s it to ya?”

I think I melted into a puddle of goo right then. I know my fork fell out of my hand and clanked against the plate. Jacob, Sean, and Aaron all burst out laughing and everyone turned to look at us. Doris’ voice carried nicely when she asked, “Is everything alright down there?”

Aaron answered in the same accent his brother and nephew had just used. “Aye, lassie. We’re all fine down here. Seems young TJ might have a thing for Scottish lads though.”

Doris laughed and said, “I can see and hear why. Feel free to continue using those accents if you want. I know I’ll enjoy it.” She then winked at Aaron and then winked at me.

Everyone hung around for a bit but eventually everyone except the four of us, Pauly, Hunter, Katie, and Doris left. We were all sitting around the tree in the library and Doris was handing out packages. Once we all had our presents in front of us, we started opening them. We, as a group, had gotten Doris an engraved platter that read “Thank you for everything you do. We all appreciate your generosity. Thank you, The Kennedy family, the McNair family, and the Wilson family”. We had gotten Aaron, Jacob, and Coach Wilson to pitch in on the cost. She beamed and had to get a tissue to wipe the tears when she read the inscription.

When Sean, Kevin, Josh, and I opened our packages, we were all speechless. Finally, I looked at her and asked, “You seriously paid for the four of us to fly to Florida and spend a week at Walt Disney World?”

“No, I paid for the four of you, Pauly, Hunter, Katie, Jacob, Aaron, Robert, Lori, and myself to fly on a private plane and then spend a week at Walt Disney World. And yes, Robert, Jacob, Aaron, and Lori know about the vacation. We leave after school lets out on the Friday before Spring Break. We’re not staying in the park, but I have access to a time share and I reserved two-three bedroom condos. We each have a five-day Park Hopper Pass and we’ll also go to Universal Studios so we can go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.”

My voice was a whisper when I asked, “Why? Why would you do this for us? You’ve already done so much for us already. I can’t believe this. Why?”

She smiled at me. “I wanted to, and I can. I’ve come to love all of you; and you are family.”

Hunter spoke up then. “And trust me when I say, Gramma loves to take care of her family. We accept what she wants to do for us, and we’re not allowed to refuse her gifts. She loves to spoil us, and we just go with it.”

Katie then said, “The only thing she asks of us is that we don’t ask her for anything unless it’s an emergency. In those cases, if we don’t ask for help, she will get pissed.”

Pauly added, “And when she gets pissed, she will make your life absolute hell in any way she can.”

“In other words,” Doris said, “I’m used to getting what I want, and I want to give this to y’all. And who doesn’t love Disney World? Thank you all for the platter and I’ll speak to y’all later. I’m tired and want to take a nap.”

She stood, gave everyone a hug, and headed upstairs. I turned to Sean, Kevin, and Josh and asked, “Are y’all ready to head home?”

They all nodded yes and so I turned to hug the cousins and told them we would talk to them later. We got in the car and headed to the house. It was five in the afternoon by the time we made to the house. We went in, changed our clothes, and met up in the living room to watch TV and wait for Robert and Lori to get back.

Finally, at nine thirty, we heard the garage door opening. Robert and Lori walk in and Robert handed me a plastic bag with a smile. There was no denying the iconic figure on the front of the bag. I looked inside to find a pound of Bohemian Garlic beef jerky, two bags of Beaver Nuggets, four small bags of cinnamon roasted pecans, some divinity, and a new Buc-ee’s Christmas shirt.

I gave them both a hug and thanked them for the Buc-ee’s snacks. Before I could make it to my room with the bag, Robert said, “You’re going to be sharing what’s in that bag with everyone. Well, except the shirt. That’s mine.” He held out his hand, waiting for me to give him the shirt.

“You’re just mean. Fine! Take your damn shirt. I didn’t want it anyways. Now, what’s this bullshit about us going to Walt Disney World over Spring Break? Can you believe Doris is doing this?” I asked.

Robert and Lori both chuckled and Robert said, “Yeah, I mean I was extremely surprised when she told us. A week in Orlando and a trip to all the parks at Disney World. Plus, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. All while staying in condos that have full kitchens, dining rooms, and everything else you can imagine in a nice apartment. The only things we have to pay for are souvenirs and snacks. And we get to fly out on a private plane.

“I tried telling her it was too much and we offered to pay part of our costs, but she wouldn’t hear anything about it. In fact, she told me if I offered to pay her anything for this trip ever again, she would take it as a personal insult and that’s the last thing I want to do. So, it looks like we’re going to Disney World!”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “I tried telling her she didn’t need to pay for all of this shit for us. Not with what she’s already giving us. That’s when we had the three cousins telling us the rules of being Doris’ family. One, we accept what she gives without fuss and accept she wants to do this for us. Two, never ask for anything unless it is a true life or death emergency. In case we don’t ask for help in an emergency, she will get pissed. And three, when she gets pissed, she will make our lives a living hell. How was Christmas Eve in The Woodlands with Mr. and Mrs. Simmons?”

Lori groaned and said, “Miserable but fun. My parents love to tease me, and they didn’t hold back with Robert either. My mom asked him if he knows my ring size. She then asked me when I thought I would like to start a family because she really wants to be a grandmother while she’s still able to do things with her future grandchildren. Dad told us to ignore her, she’s going through menopause. But the dinner was good. But, if you all will excuse me, I’m tired and want to go relax in a hot bath with the jets running. Then I’m going to crawl into bed and sleep till morning when we get to open presents and host a late lunch with Jacob and Aaron McNair, Rachel Wilson, John, and the six of us. Who’s going to help me cook tomorrow?”

I raised my hand and said, “Oh, this isn’t to volunteer for cooking duty. I’m just letting y’all know Aaron won’t be able to make it tomorrow. He ended up having to work all night tonight and all day tomorrow with only like a four-hour rest break. He did say he was sorry for canceling at the last minute.”

After that, we all sat around till we heard Lori call for Robert, letting him know she was going to bed. Robert immediately stood, grinned at us, and walked to his bedroom. I looked at my phone and saw it was almost eleven thirty so I suggested we should get ready and get in bed. Twenty minutes later, I was snuggled up next to Sean, both of us sound asleep.

The next morning, we were all out of bed and eating a breakfast of waffles and bacon. After that, we all took our showers and got ready for our company, who showed up just before noon. Jacob made us help him bring in the carload of presents he brought. Rachel and John showed up just in time to grab an armful of packages and followed us inside.

I will say, it was weird hanging out at the house with those two. It seemed like after our confrontation with Kim, we came to an agreement. If you were watching us, you could tell we weren’t friends in the traditional sense. Everything we said to each other had a good amount of snark. But we were actually smiling and laughing with everyone else. Lori was watching us with a knowing smile on her face, and I had to admit at least to myself, I could see how Rachel and I were going to be able to pull off playing Belle and the Beast.

We sat down and ate lunch around one thirty that afternoon. Afterwards, we gathered around the tree and Robert started passing out presents. Once we all had our gifts in front of us, we started opening them. Josh opened the one from me first. The look on his face was priceless. I looked at him trying to not laugh and said, “It’s so you can wash my car for me.”

He forced a smile and said, “Umm, thanks, Teej, I, yeah, thanks.”

“No problem!” I responded with a wide smile.

Sean opened the gift from me first also. Once he saw what it was, he smiled at me and insisted, “Oh my god, Teej! You have to open the one from me now!”

I opened the package and what was inside made me smile, cry, and laugh at the same time. It was an identical bracelet to the one I got for him. I noticed there was an engraving on the inside of the bracelet. It read, “You are my heart and my joy. Love, Sean 12/25/16.”

I laughed and asked, “Did you read the engraving on yours?” He turned it over and read the engraving and we just shared a smile, and everyone continued opening presents.

About five minutes into this, Robert said, “Hey Josh, somehow, I ended up with one of your gifts. Here you go.”

He tossed Josh a small package and Josh opened it up and couldn’t quite figure out why there was only a key fob for a car inside. He held it up and asked, “What’s this for?”

Robert said, “Why don’t you press the panic button and see.”

Josh pressed the button and from the garage we all heard the steady rhythm of a car horn going off. He got up and walked to the garage door and opened it. Inside there was a 2016 Chevy Trax. Josh turned to Robert and asked, “Are you serious? This is mine? What? How? When?” He then turned to me and asked, “You knew, didn’t you? That’s what that present was all about wasn’t it?”

I smiled at him and nodded. “Yup! Open the door, let’s see what it looks like inside.”

We spent about ten minutes looking at Josh’s new car before Robert told us to go back inside. Josh looked at him and said, “Kevin and I were going to take the car out for a test drive. Is that okay? We won’t be long.”

I could tell Robert was torn between letting Josh take his car out and wanting him to be here when he gives Lori the ring. I took pity on Robert and turned to Josh and leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Trust me. You’ll want to stick around and see what happens next. I promise it will be worth it. We’ll take your car for a ride as soon as we’re done.”

He looked at me skeptically, but finally ended up shrugging and followed me inside. We all took our seats again and started talking. After a few moments, Robert stood and crossed to the tree. He reached into the branches and asked, “What’s this? Did one of you hide a present in the tree?” He pulled the small present from the branches and said, “It’s got your name on it, Lori. Here you go,” as he tossed the package to her.

She unwrapped the present and when she saw the black velvet box, she was speechless. She slowly opened the box and just stared at the ring inside. Robert sat next to her, turned her way, and asked, “So, what do you think? You want to get married?”