Best Man

A couple days later, Christmas Eve had arrived and the house in Orchard Park, New York was completely decorated from head to toe, inside and out. Every room had its own holiday flare and Tre had been made the Outdoor-Christmas-Lights-Stringer-Upper. The finishing touch was hanging the wreath on the front, between two of the upstairs windows.

Ramona and Estelle had made a snowman outside and Mike had gone about breaking the branches off the neighbor's stubby tree for Frosty's arms. Even going as far as snapping two of the three 'fingers' in half so that they were smaller than the middle one, making it look as if the snowman was giving the finger.

Real classy.

Inside everyone was snacking on an assortment of cookies and eggnog while they lit a fire for ambiance. With six stockings hung along the mantle of the fireplace and everyone sitting around talking and laughing, it looked like something out of a Hallmark card.

It seemed so peaceful and perfect.

There were even carolers walking up and down the street, going from door to door to sing for the neighborhood.

But not everything was perfect.

There was a tension -- underlying -- that surprisingly went unnoticed by all but those who were dishing it out.

From one side of the living room to the other, Tre and Caroline kept accidentally locking eyes for brief moments and then looking away. And whereas Tre tried to hold the glances a little longer only to blush slightly from what he still felt, Caroline turned away quickly and blushed from what she knew he still felt.

Sure, Tre would always have a certain place in her heart, but she couldn't return to that relationship because Mike was her life. Her love. The reason she got up every day.

If, for some reason, she couldn't sing or make music anymore, she knew the only thing that would matter would having him by her side, day in and day out. And that matter of fact feeling was what fueled her desire for the bassist even more. It's what made her suddenly get teary-eyed when she looked over at him while the guys' daughters opened their one gift for the night.

Estelle had gotten this extra fancy, Latin-looking Barbie doll Mike had noticed her eyeing in KB Toys that made her light up like the sun while Ramona opened up two new CDs she'd apparently been wanting like crazy.

Biting her bottom lip and studying Mike's smiling profile after looking away from Tre moments earlier, Caroline felt the tears stinging her eyes like salt in a wound as she pulled her legs up under her butt and reached her hand across the love seat cushion to touch her fingers to his.

Feeling the contact, as well as the eyes on him, Mike turned to look at his fiancee and raised his eyebrows in that infamous Mike Dirnt way as he locked his fingers with hers.

"What's wrong?" he questioned, then smirked a little. "Does Caroline want to open up a gift, too?"

She didn't answer right away. She simply lifted his hand up and pressed her lips against his knuckles. "All I want for Christmas is you," she whispered.

"---said Mariah Carey, circa early '90s," he added with a small chuckle.

"I mean it. All I want for Christmas is you," Caroline repeated, leaning forward to kiss the corner of his mouth, then pulling back to look at him, while he held a cup of eggnog in his lap. "And every Christmas for many, many, many years."

"Can I get the same present?"

"You want yourself every Christmas?" she questioned knowingly.

"No. We want each other. And, honestly...that's one gift that can't be bought."

Sharing a soft smile, the couple leaned against each other as Ramona stood up to go throw out the plastic wrap from her CDs while Estelle followed after her with the cardboard and other crap that held down her Barbie doll in its box.

With the two sets of giggles wafting from the kitchen, Caroline couldn't help but look back over in Tre's direction, though not at him.

At her sister, Giselle.

With a reminiscent smile, she sat up a little straighter. "Remember that Christmas we had those really pretty dresses from Sears? I had the one with the crushed, maroon velvet and cream lace underlay and you had the cream lace dress with the maroon sash across the waist? And we kept running around Grandma's house with our new Barbie dolls..."

Giselle nodded with a smile. "Oh God, yeah. My hair was so out of control then. So much that I secretly hated you for having straight hair."

Caroline simply nodded in return as she unlocked her grasp from Mike's hand and slowly stood up. "I'm gonna go get another cup of eggnog and check on what the girls are doin' in the kitchen," she announced. "They suddenly got quiet, which means they might be trying to sneak extra cookies."

"Alright," Mike muttered as she began to walk through the downstairs and turn into the kitchen where Estelle and Ramona were standing in front of the fridge with the door open.

Tilting her head in curiosity, Caroline folded her arms across her chest and took a few steps closer.

"You know, if we wanted the house to be any colder we'd open the windows and turn off the heat," she quipped.

Both girls whipped their heads around and blushed as they shut the fridge door.

"Sorry," Estelle muttered.

The looks shared between the young duo perked Caroline's interest even more. "What's got you two so secretive?"

"Nothin'," Ramona insisted a little quickly.

"Didn't look like nothing."

"We were---" Estelle began before between pushed slightly by the teen. But, being Mike's daughter, she pushed right back and rolled her eyes as she continued. "We were talkin' about you marrying my dad next year and then Ramona wondered what it'd be like if you were gonna be her stepmom instead."

"Stella, shut up," Ramona pleaded.

"But I said if we were like those people in Utah I heard my dad mention before, you could have a bunch of husbands because it was your religion. And then you'd be my stepmom and her stepmom..."

"You mean, if I was a Mormon?"

"Yeah," Estelle nodded, pointing with a smile. "That's what Dad said. Mormon."

"That wouldn't work out for a lot of reasons, honey. Mainly because it's illegal and also because Mormons believe the man has more than one wife, not the other way around."

Estelle just looked at Caroline. Then, "Oh. Okay, guess not."

Smirking, Caroline reached forward and pressed her hand on her soon-to-be stepdaughter's shoulder and gestured behind her. "Why don't you go pick up your stuff. It's almost time to hit the sack anyway so Santa can come bring you your presents."

"You know I don't believe in Santa anymore, right?" Estelle questioned as she began to walk past Caroline with a knowing smirk that looked like one her father would wear.

"Well...now I do."

As the younger girl left the kitchen, Ramona stepped forward a little shyly and folded her hands in front of her as she looked up at Caroline, almost expectantly; something of which the singer took note of almost immediately.

"What's up, Mona?"

The teen hesitated at first and tried to shrug it off but the moment she looked away and then back up at Caroline, she couldn't delay any longer. "I don't want you to marry Uncle Mike," she admitted in a hushed whisper.

"Wha--why?" Caroline tilted her head in confusion.

"Because I want you to marry my dad. I want you to be my stepmom, not Estelle's. You're supposed to be mine," Ramona practically cried. "Why did you have to fall in love with Uncle Mike and leave my dad? Wasn't he good enough for you?"

"Ramona, you're father is a good man, and I loved him for a time, but my heart has belonged to Mike before I even realized it," Caroline tried to explain. "I love that you want me to be your stepmom, but it just can't be. Can you settle for aunt?"

Ramona looked down at the floor and shrugged. "I guess. But then Giselle might end up as my stepmom."

"What's wrong with Giselle?"

"She's stricter than you or my dad. She's always got these questions and asking what I'm doing or thinking and it's so frickin' annoying. And I don't even think she loves my dad like you did."

Caroline frowned as she placed an arm around Ramona's shoulder. "I'm sure my sister loves your father. But everyone loves in different ways. She might just express her love in a different way. And her asking questions is just who she is. She's a psychiatrist. It's what she does for a living. She likes to find out things so she can understand the world around her better." When Ramona didn't remark any further, Caroline simply smiled and placed a kiss on the girl's head. "C'mon...why don't you go get ready for Santa, too?"

Ramona couldn't help but allow herself to smile this time as she looked up at Caroline. "You're gonna make a great mom someday."

And with that, Ramona walked away; leaving Caroline feeling completely happy.



Later that night, when all the adults had finished placing the gifts under the Christmas tree and around the general vicinity of the tree, Giselle was the first to retire to bed.

Sipping the last drops of eggnog from her glass, Caroline sat around the living room for about an hour longer with Mike and Tre, talking about random things here and there, but mainly about both the guys' recording sessions that would kick back up after the holidays if Mike was up to it, and how Nef and Dave would be flying back to Buffalo to work with Caroline at Robbie Takac's Chameleonwest Studios. And, finally, all three began to nod off, so they all stood up to make their way upstairs to bed.

Once Mike and Caroline had slipped into their room, they climbed up into bed and pulled the covers over their bodies.

Nestling her body into the left side of Mike's body, Caroline smiled as she inhaled the scent of his skin and the remnants of his aftershave. Brushing her nose back and forth against his neck, she finally laid still once her legs were tangled with his and her left arm was wrapped firmly around his waist.

"You done?" he questioned lightheartedly.

"Mmhmm."

"You really like to wrap around me like a fuckin' boa constrictor, don't you?"

"Got a problem with it?"

"On the contrary," he replied. "I'd have a problem if you didn't."

"Good. Better stay used to this, because this is how I plan on sleeping, every night for the next fifty years or so."

A wider smile began to plaster itself across Mike's lips as he turned his head to look up Caroline's forehead, closed eyelids and the tip of her nose.

"Fifty years is a long time."

"Deal with it."

"I'll be 86 years old in fifty years," Mike continued with a smile in his voice. "All old and wrinkly...probably bald with saggy man boobs and age spots on my skin that'll be rough like worn leather," he began to describe. "And let's not forget the farting of dust. I'll be so old."

"I can't wait to meet that man."

Happy with her response, Mike placed his lips to her forehead and brought his right arm around to rest upon her left one which laid across his chest; running his fingers on her skin.

"Mike?" came Caroline's voice which was quiet and raspy from exhaustion.

"Yeah?"

"I can't wait to have our children."

Staring up at the ceiling, Mike blinked several times as a few tears began to sting his eyes. Licking his lips, he shut his eyelids as the thoughts of him and Caroline raising their own family together flickered by his mind's eye.

"I can't wait either, babe," he replied. Then added, "Oh...and Merry Christmas, by the way."