18. Shined Like Her Name

18

SHINED LIKE HER NAME

T he next morning, Phoenix jumped when the bedroom door was pushed open and Elsie came running in. “Uncle Nix, Santa came. Oh my God, he left so much stuff. Get up.”

Elsie was jumping on his bed and the first thing he thought of was, oh shit, where was Crystal?

All he remembered was she was in bed with him when he fell asleep. Guess she got up and left though, but he didn’t remember when.

He grabbed his phone and saw it was only six. Elsie never got up this early. He wasn’t expecting it.

“I’m glad Santa came,” he said. “He knew you’ve been a good girl.”

“I need to see what he brought me,” Elsie said, still jumping on his bed and grabbing his arm. “Come on.”

He was covered by the blankets. He wasn’t naked, but he still wasn’t going to get up in his underwear only. “Why don’t you give me a minute to get some clothes on?”

“You’ll hurry and not shower first?” Elsie asked.

The pained look on her face said it all. “I promise I won’t. But I need to go to the bathroom too. Two minutes. I promise.”

“I’m going to get Crystal,” Elsie said.

He was going to tell her no but then decided to let Elsie have her fun. No reason he should be the only one woken up so suddenly.

When he came out of his room less than two minutes later, Crystal was coming down the stairs fully dressed and not looking as if she just rolled out of bed.

“Have you been up?” he asked.

“I was just getting dressed when Elsie ran up the stairs. I got up fifteen minutes ago and took a shower.”

“I was more exhausted than I thought I’d be. Someone got me out of bed.”

“I wonder what could have tired you out so much last night,” she said, laughing at him.

He smiled back tenderly, knowing his eyes softened too. “I wonder what that could have been.”

“Santa,” Elsie screeched and grabbed his hand with her other free one and pulled them both to the front room. “Look at those gifts.”

“Wow,” he said. “You should start opening them.”

“Can I grab any one I want?” Elsie asked.

“Why don’t you open Santa’s first?” he said.

He pulled those packages out and he and Crystal sat back while Elsie ripped open everything. He couldn’t even keep track of who gave her what and hated that. He was positive Crystal would know or at least know better than him.

“You have to open yours, Uncle Nix,” Elsie said. “I helped Crystal wrap them.”

Elsie moved the three gifts in front of him and he opened them one at a time. He got a coloring book of a mad scientist and thought that was great.

“Your idea?” he asked Elsie.

“Now we can color together. The other one is markers. Nice ones, but Crystal said I’m too little to use them.”

He opened them and saw some nice artist-style markers. “These are great,” he said.

The last box he opened had a new Atlanta Falcons sweatshirt in it. “Now you can wear it when you’re watching football on Sundays.”

“I can,” he said. His old sweatshirt might be ten years old and had seen better days. “This is great. Why don’t you give Crystal the gifts you picked out for her?”

“We got you three things too,” Elsie said.

“You didn’t need to get me anything,” she said.

“Of course I did,” Elsie said. “I picked them out too.”

Crystal opened the gifts, which of course were a coloring book and markers too and he thought that was hilarious that Elsie got them both the same thing so they could color together.

“I love it,” Crystal said. “It’s a baker.” Her coloring book was a baker character.

“Yes,” Elsie said. “Because I like making cookies with you.”

“It is fun,” she said. She opened the last box and pulled out a pretty purple sweater. “This is gorgeous.”

“You said your favorite color is purple and I liked that sweater a lot.”

He hadn’t known purple was Crystal’s favorite color and that was why Elsie had picked it out. Elsie paid more attention to things than he did.

“Purple is my favorite color,” she said. “It’s beautiful. I can’t wait to wear it.”

“What are those last two gifts?” Elsie asked.

“One is for your uncle,” she said.

“The other is from me to Crystal,” he said. “Guess we had the same idea.”

They hadn’t talked about doing anything and he was glad that he did it.

He brought the gift to her and handed it over and Elsie gave him the one Crystal bought.

“Go on,” she said. “Let’s open them together.”

They both ripped the paper off and he saw an expensive set of whiskey glasses with a W on them. “I’ve been wanting to get nice glasses for a long time and it just always slips my mind.”

“Now you’ve got them,” she said. She lifted the top of the small box in front of her. “These are stunning. And they are purple too.”

“Just a guess,” he said of the flower earrings he’d gotten her. He wasn’t sure why he was drawn to the studs, but they were bright and cheerful, just like Crystal was. Just like she was lightening up his life. Hadn’t Elsie asked if Crystal shined like her name? The answer was yes!

“It was a good guess too,” she said. “They are so pretty.”

Her eyes were a little glossy. Her smile was soft and gentle as she sent it his way. “Glad you like them.”

“I love them,” she said. “It’s been an awesome holiday all around. Who is ready for breakfast?”

“Me,” Elsie said. “But then I want to play.”

“Why don’t you play while I cook,” she said. “It will take me time to make all your favorites anyway.”

Elsie didn’t need to be told twice and ran to the biggest box and dollhouse she’d had on her Santa list.

“I can help you,” Phoenix said to Crystal.

“I think you might need to put some things together or take them out of boxes,” she said, laughing.

“You might be right, but I don’t like you doing all the work.”

“I’d say I’m just evening the score from last night,” she whispered, winking.

“That’s right,” Elsie said. “Uncle Nix cooked dinner.” The little girl had some big ears.

“Yeah,” she said. “Dinner.” She walked into the kitchen, his eyes on her ass as she sashayed out of the room.

Two hours later, he was stuffed and sitting on the couch while Elsie ran from one toy to the next when his phone rang. He reached over to see it was his mother calling.

He put it on speaker to answer knowing she’d want to say hi to Elsie too.

“Merry Christmas,” he said.

“Merry Christmas to you too,” his mother said. “We’re on speaker too. Most of your siblings are here.”

“Hi, everyone,” he shouted.

There was a chorus of shouts back. He knew all the voices. There was part of him that missed his family, but there was no way he was giving up what he experienced last night.

Nor would he have left Crystal alone, or pulled Elsie away from this fun morning.

“Santa brought me everything I asked for,” Elsie shouted.

“That is wonderful,” his mother said. “That means you were a good girl.”

“I’m always good,” Elsie said. “But I must have been even better than I thought.”

There was a lot of laughter to that. “No modesty here at all.”

“Is Crystal in the room with you?” his mother asked.

“I’m here,” she said. “Merry Christmas, Carolina.”

“You too, Crystal. I wasn’t sure if you were going to spend the day with my son and Elsie or not.”

“Yes, I am. We had a really big breakfast. All of Elsie’s requests.”

“I hope my son didn’t make you work today,” his mother said.

“Hey,” he said. “I cooked dinner last night. We take turns here.”

There was some laughter again on the other line and he wasn’t sure what that was about and couldn’t ask either.

It’s not like anyone would have any clue what he felt toward Crystal. His mother was the only one who had met Crystal and he hadn’t talked to her about much more other than what had to do with Elsie.

Maybe he was just reading more into it than he should be.

“Then I raised you well,” his mother said.

“You did,” Crystal said. “You should be very proud of your oldest.”

“I’m not sure my ego can take this,” he said.

“I think maybe your ego could use it,” his mother said, laughing.

He didn’t want to get into anything like one of those conversations. Not with what he experienced with Crystal last night.

They hadn’t had one chance to even talk about it other than him quickly asking her when she left his room while Elsie had gotten dressed before breakfast.

“We can change the conversation right now,” he said. “Elsie, why don’t you tell my mother what you got?”

He knew that would take up a few minutes and his mother would listen intently to it.

After five minutes, his mother said, “I wish you were here but understand. I’ll let you go and you can color with Elsie.”

“That’s on the list along with some arts and crafts fun.” He hung up with his mother after that and saw the smirk on Crystal’s face. “What?”

“You’re such a good sport,” she said. “You have no idea what a great catch you could be.”

He didn’t have a chance to reply before Elsie ran over and put his coloring book in his lap and then gave Crystal hers. “Looks like we are coloring. Want to share markers?”

“Sure,” she said. “I like to share.”

“Me too,” he said softly.