Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
“Yeah, I guess,” Amos said, also in a way that was pretty much a “hell yeah” from him.
“Do you care?” I asked Rhodes with a hopeful look on my face, fluttering my eyes at him.
The older man side-eyed me. “Quit being cute. What do you think?”
I thought he wouldn’t, and I was right to think so. We all sat around the television and watched Brightburn, and they ignored me when I closed my eyes or pretended to have something really interesting to look at beneath my fingernails. By the time the movie finished though, it was midnight, and I couldn’t wait until morning any longer. We had always celebrated Christmas at midnight—with my mom, at least. That tradition had seemed to be the only one she’d kept from her Venezuelan family.
On the couch, beside Rhodes where I’d watched the whole movie, I scooted forward and asked, “Can I give you two your presents now?”
Am said, “Okay,” at the same time Rhodes asked, “You got us something?”
I eyed Rhodes again. “You saw how much garland I had up in the garage apartment. This can’t surprise you.”
He shrugged, and I believed him. He’d looked genuinely surprised when boxes from his brothers had arrived with Christmas presents for him and Amos. The only box that he hadn’t been too surprised by was the one that had made it from Amos’s parents.
“Of course I got you something. Wait, wait, wait, let me go get it. I love giving presents on Christmas Eve, sorry if this is messing everything up, but I just get so excited. I love Christmas.”
“Your mom celebrated Christmas?” Rhodes asked as I got up.
I shot him a smile. “She probably would have hated how commercialized it is now, but she didn’t back when I was a kid, or if she did, she hid it from me.” I had a lot of fond memories with my mom on that holiday, and just thinking about it made me miss her a lot, but not in a bad or sad way. More grateful that I had those moments to look back on.
Because Christmas was about spending it with people who mattered, and even though I wasn’t with my Florida family, I was still doing that.
And truth be told, I was glad I was with Rhodes and Amos. It felt right.
It took a minute to haul the huge box out and set it in the doorway into the living room; then I had to go back and grab the two bags I’d stuffed behind all their old jackets and vacuum. They eyeballed me as I moved everything else closer in trips.
I went straight to Am and set the heavy gift on the floor in front of him. “I hope you like it, but if you don’t, too bad. All sales were final.”
He gave me a weird look that made me laugh but ripped the paper off.
He gasped.
I knew Rhodes had bought him his guitar because I’d helped get him a discount. And pick out the woods and the stain. He hadn’t asked questions about how I’d gotten the discount or how I knew so much about guitars, and I wondered, not for the first time, if he truly had no idea who Yuki was when they’d briefly met. Amos had brought her up a few times in his presence, but he hadn’t batted an eyelash.
Anyway, Am didn’t know he was getting a guitar yet.
“This is vintage,” he gasped, running his hands over the weathered orange leather around the amp.
“Yeah.”
He looked at me, gray eyes wide. “For me?”
“No, for my other favorite teenager. Don’t tell my nephews I said that.”
Am’s shoulders slumped as he ran his hands over the amp that I’d bought from a small shop in California and had shipped here, which had ended up costing as much as the amp had.
“Your other one is a little buzzy, and I thought it would be nice to have matching stuff,” I told him.
He nodded and gulped a couple of times before looking back at me. “Wait a minute,” he said, getting up and disappearing down the hall toward his room. I met Rhodes’s eyes and made mine go wide.
“I wanted to give him his gift before you give him you-know-what and he doesn’t care,” I whispered.
“You spoil him. Even Sofie said it.”
Sofie was his mom, who, as I’d learned the day of Thanksgiving, was just a lovely fucking woman who loved her child more than I could have ever imagined. She had whispered to me no less than three times that Amos had been conceived artificially and that she loved her husband very much and Rhodes was a wonderful man.
I shrugged. “He’s my little buddy.”
He smiled.
“I’m sorry for messing up your traditions . . .” I trailed off, and he shook his head.
“Billy and Sofie both celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. I’ve only gotten to spend a couple with him, but he’s seemed pretty happy to me today considering I know he’s missing his mom and dad. He’s only been trying to act like he doesn’t.”