Undisclosed Desires

ღFive Years Laterღ

The small pitter-patter of feet out in the hallway pulled me from my deep sleep.

Is it really morning already? I thought groggily, closing my eyes tighter as the bedroom door was opened.

I felt the comforter being weighed down by two bodies, and moments later, I felt small hands pulling my blankets back, and then I heard a voice say,

“Mommy! Daddy! Wake up! Santa brought us presents!”

I heard Seth give a groan, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Mom’s awake! She smiled! She’s getting up!”

I reluctantly opened my eyes, and came face-to-face with liquid blue eyes, which just made me smile wider.

“Mom! Get up! We need to open presents!” Lucas said anxiously, hopping off the bed and grabbing my wrist. He began to tug as hard as he could, trying to get me to move. I sighed and said,

“I’m up, kiddo, I’m up,” as I allowed myself to be pulled out of bed.

“Mommy! Make daddy get up!” Lillie begged, jumping up and down on Seth’s snoring form. I laughed and shuffled around to Seth’s side of the bed, then began to shake his shoulder gently.

“Wake up, honey, time to open presents,” I said as Seth peeled an eye open. Lillie leaned forward anxiously; she knew what was coming next.

“Did someone say presents…?” Seth asked slowly, beginning to sit up. Lillie let out a peal of laughter and said,

“Yeah, daddy! Presents!”

Seth’s eyes flew open, and he swept Lillie into his arms, then tucked her under his arm; he leapt off the bed and snatched Lucas up too, then ran out of the room yelling,

“I LOVE presents!”

I burst out laughing as I followed my family out into the living room; Seth had been doing that on Christmas since Lucas was two.

‘Santa’ had wrapped the presents in separate colors: pink for Lillie’s presents, blue for Lucas’s, yellow for Seth’s, and purple for mine. The presents from family and each other were wrapped in miscellaneous paper; it had become extremely difficult separating the presents, so I’d just given up and color coded everything.

Lucas was already pulling presents around him, and Lillie was bouncing up and down excitedly. I grabbed my camera off the kitchen table and plopped down on the couch beside Seth.

“Alright, rock paper scissors to see who goes first,” I said, snuggling into Seth’s side.

A few seconds later, as Lillie smashed Lucas’s scissors with her rock, pink paper went flying everywhere, and I just managed to snap a photo of her opening her first present.

“Mommy! Mommy! Santa brought me the Barbie I asked for!” She squealed, hugging the box to her chest and bouncing up and down.

“My turn!” Lucas announced, plowing into the biggest present he had. “YES! The hot wheels race track!”

“It’s mommy’s turn!” Lillie said, grabbing a present from the pile and running over to me.

“Let’s see,” I said, looking at the label. “To mommy from Lillie Pad. Let’s see what my little flower got me,” I said, smiling as Lillie giggled.

I opened my present a little less forcefully than the kids, and grinned as I saw the perfume set I’d told Seth I wanted.

“Do you like it mommy?” She asked, looking up at me with her bright green eyes. I pulled her into a hug, kissed her head, and said,

“Of course Lillie! I love it, thank you sweetheart!”

“Daddy gets a present from me,” Lucas announced, grabbing a lumpily wrapped present and handing it to Seth.

“Did you get me the dinosaur I asked for?” Seth teased, opening his presents.

“Even better than dinosaurs!” Lucas laughed, watching as Seth comically made his eyes widen and his jaw drop.

“You got me a dinosaur blanket! Now I’ll survive the ice age!” Seth wrapped the blanket over his head and began to roar as he tickled Lucas. I snapped a picture, and Lillie yelled,

“More presents!” Then dove back to her pile.

Opening presents took an hour. I made everyone stop and pose with their presents so I could take pictures. It was eight o’clock when the doorbell rang, and Lucas was at the door before the chime stopped.

“It’s dad and Kara!” he called, opening the door.

“Hey kiddo, Merry Christmas!” Paul said, catching the flying hug Lucas gave him. Seth, Paul, and I had sat down with him and explained again that Paul was his real dad, but before we could even finish, he said, “I know. Paul’s my dad. But daddy’s my daddy,” and that was that.

Paul made his way into the house, still holding Lucas, and let Kara come inside, with Arabella holding tightly to her hand.

Lillie unburied herself from the pile of presents and ran over to give Arabella a hug.

“Look what Santa brought me!” Lillie bragged, holding out the Barbie. Arabella opened the purse-like bag she was carrying, presumably from Santa as well, and produced a Barbie as well.

“Now we can play!”

The girls were just about to run off to Lillie’s room as I called,

“You all have more presents to open!”

They stopped their tracks, and ran back into the living room, as we all gathered around them.

ღFour Hours Laterღ

“Aunt Bella and Uncle Edward are here!” I heard Lucas scream from the front door. I could just barely hear him over the chattering coming from the dining room. Even though Jared and Embry had brought an extra table and chairs, everyone was still packed.

Lucas opened the door and immediately assaulted Emmett as the Cullens began to come inside.

“Oh thank God, they brought their own table,” Seth said relieved, seeing as he had been trying to think of how to fit all twenty six people around the two tables.

“We have a table for the kids, too,” Alice said as Jasper carried in a smaller table. Seth looked a lot more confident now. Should’ve known that Alice would know we needed more tables.

“Now that everyone’s here, we can start eating!” I announced, pulling the ham out of the oven and setting it beside the turkey Emily had brought, and the chicken my dad had made. Esme was carrying another turkey as well. Dear God, we could feed the entire town.

This year, Nichole had brought her boyfriend, Greg, to eat with us. He’d passed all of the girls judgments, seeing as he was pretty good-looking. The boys were a little skeptical, but I’d managed to keep most of them from torturing the poor boy.

As Emmett set up the table they’d brought, everyone squeezed into a chair. With the tables put together, we could fit two people at either end, and then ten people on either side, with the four kids at the table. Embry and Quil sat on the ends, and then the rest of the seating looked like this:

Edward—Jacob
Bella—Dad
Alex—Nichole
Seth—Greg
Paul—Jared
Kara—Kim
Sam—Carlisle
Emily—Esme
Alice—Jasper
Emmett—Rosalie

I helped Bella serve the kids heaping plates of food, and then we began to carry the massive turkeys, ham and chicken to the big table, along with all the other dressings and other things.

We gathered, hands, said a prayer, and then dug into the dinner.

Two hours later, both turkeys and the ham were completely gone, and Embry and Quil were busy fighting over the last chicken leg.

Bella and I were busy cleaning the things off the table, listening to the others as they exchanged stories.

Lillie, Renesmee and Arabella were playing with their Barbie’s, and Lucas was out front with Emmett and Paul, playing with his new football.

Once Bella and I were done cleaning, I made my way to the living room, and clicked on the TV. It was dark outside from the approaching storm clouds. As I put the DVD in, I called,

“Alright, everyone! Movie time!”

Instantly, the couches were full. I sank back into the spot that Seth had saved for me. My dad, Nichole and Greg were on the love seat, Sam and Emily were in our recliner, and then, from left to right on the big couch, sat Edward, Bella, me, Seth, Paul and Kara, with Renesmee on Bella’s lap, Lillie on my lap, Lucas on Seth’s lap, and Arabella lying across Paul and Kara’s lap.

Carlisle and Esme settled down in a couple of kitchen chairs they pulled into the living room; Jared, Kim, Quil, and Embry were sitting up against the couch, and Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett were lying on the floor.

I pressed play as Edward snapped the lights off, and the movie started.

Sitting here, surrounded with friends and family, I realized how lucky I really was. I had the best friends anyone could ever imagine. I had a wonderful, loving, funny, and caring husband, and we had two beautiful children.

I was living my life, one precious moment at a time.