An Unexpected Holiday Gift. Martha Kennerson

table. “This is my highlight. Seeing the son and nephew I don’t see nearly enough because they chose not to come work for our family business.” Victoria picked up her glass and raised it in the air as if she had just made a toast.

      Elizabeth threw her head back and laughed. “You really can’t help yourself, can you? Well, it seems we share the same highlight, only for different reasons.”

      “Surprise...surprise.” Victoria took a drink.

      Travis raised his right hand. “I’ll go next. My highlight was seeing Romeo over there—” he pointed to Keylan “—tripping all over himself behind Mia.”

      “Mia?” his mother and aunt echoed.

      Keylan narrowed his eyes at his cousin before turning his attention back to the choir of two. “I was not tripping over Mia. I’ve never met her before and I think she has a really cool kid, is all.” Keylan picked up a glass of water and drank it down like he was a man just escaping the desert.

      Travis smirked. “Yeah, she’s fine as hell, but one hard nut to crack.”

      Keylan put down his empty glass a little harder than he intended. “What did you just say?” he demanded, feeling unexpected anger building inside him.

      Travis jumped up, started laughing and clapping. “Told you. I told you.”

      “Travis, behave yourself and stop teasing your cousin,” Elizabeth ordered, smiling. She’d always felt her and Victoria’s children were more like siblings than cousins.

      “I can’t believe you fell for that, son.” Victoria shook her head as she took another sip of her wine.

      Linda, Elizabeth’s longtime housekeeper, entered the room, rolling her service cart. She placed a plate with lamb chops, potatoes and greens in front of everyone before making her exit. Everyone bowed their head as Victoria blessed the food. “Now that the dinner has been served, can I please get back to my agenda?” Victoria asked her sister.

      “Not yet. We obviously know Travis’s highlight of the day but I don’t know Keylan’s.” Elizabeth smiled.

      Victoria sat back in her chair and raised her hands in surrender.

      Keylan, who was now cutting his meat, could see the excitement and expectation on his aunt’s face. He could even see the interest in his mother’s eyes that she was trying to hide. He looked over at his cousin, who was waiting to pounce, and placed his knife and fork down.

      “Yes, my highlight was meeting a really cool kid and his interesting mother.” Keylan turned to his cousin. “Happy?”

      “Yep,” Travis acknowledged, placing a piece of meat in his mouth.

      “Now may I continue?” Victoria asked to no one in particular.

      “Of course.” Elizabeth began to dig into her food.

      “The rest of the family already knows this, but we’re about to go to war with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the IRS!”

       Chapter 5

      Mia walked into her son’s bedroom and smiled at all the superheroes that greeted her entrance. A poster featuring all his favorite characters had been placed on the right wall where his bed sat. The round rug covered a large portion of the dark hardwood floor and a beanbag chair sat next to the window. Mia walked to the left side of the room and placed Colby’s laundry in his dresser drawers. She crossed the room to turn down the comforter when she heard her son running down the hall.

      Colby ran into the room wearing his superhero pj’s and jumped on his bed. “Teeth all clean! See, Mommy?” He opened his mouth wide.

      “I see. Good job.”

      “Story time...” Colby leaped off the bed and went to select a book from the shelf under his window.

      “Cat hat book,” he said, climbing back on the bed and handing it to Mia.

      “It’s The Cat in the Hat, Colby,” she replied, accepting the book, kissing him on the head. “Under the covers you go.”

      “Mommy, Keylan is coming tomorrow,” he said, smiling.

      Mia’s heart jumped at the thought of seeing Keylan again. She sat next to her son on the bed. “Is he, now?” she said, opening the book.

      “Yep. I can’t wait.”

      “That’s great, son. Now, let’s start the story.”

      Mia expected she’d have to read the book a few times before Colby fell asleep. He always found reasons to stay up past his bedtime. However, it seemed his excitement to see Keylan outweighed his need to stay awake. She kissed her sleeping son, put the book away and pulled his door closed, leaving it cracked open.

      She made her way back to the kitchen, where she pulled out a bottle of Stella Rosa from the refrigerator and poured herself a glass. She took a sip before she started to clean the kitchen.

      Mia had just finished loading the dinner dishes into the dishwasher when her cell phone rang. She looked at her phone and smiled. “Aunt Mavis, is everything all right?” Mia, born to a teenage mother who’d decided after few years that parenthood wasn’t for her, had been raised by her mother’s sister and her husband. She often found it ironic that she too had become a single mother; only she couldn’t imagine not raising her son.

      “Of course it is. I was just checking in to see how my favorite niece and great-nephew are doing.”

      Mia laughed. “We’re fine. Just as fine as we were when you called yesterday.”

      “Well, a lot can happen in twenty-four hours,” she said matter-of-factly.

      “You’re right. How’s Uncle Rudy?”

      “He’s good for a seventy-five-year-old man,” she said, and offered a hearty laugh. “Have you thought about our gift?”

      Mia heaved a sigh as she turned on the dishwasher. Topping off her wineglass before returning the bottle to the refrigerator, she turned off the lights and headed to her bedroom, making a brief detour to look in on her son.

      “Auntie, we discussed this already.” She sat on her bed, took a drink from her glass before setting it on her nightstand. “I really appreciate the offer, but Colby and I won’t be joining you on your cruise.”

      “I don’t understand why not. It’s not like you celebrate Christmas in a big fashion, anyway. Why not join us for an adventure on the sea? Lord knows you have the vacation days and you certainly could use an adventure.”

      Mia could hear the irritation in her aunt’s voice at her unwillingness to take time off from work and have a little fun as she was always advising her to do. “First, it’s your fiftieth wedding anniversary, and second, it’s your fiftieth wedding anniversary.”

      “It’s not like I’m asking you to share our cabin. Like you said, it is our anniversary and we need our privacy.”

      “Eww...”

      “Eww, child, you better pray you find a man where everything works at seventy-five except his hearing. He don’t have to hear to know what I need,” she said, laughing.

      “TMI, Auntie.”

      “Speaking of men...”

      “We weren’t speaking of men, Auntie.” Mia took a sip of her wine.

      “Well, we are now. You remember Curly Ellis, right? Well, he has a son that’s single—”

      “Please don’t. I’m not looking—”

      “Sometimes you don’t have a choice in the matter. Your heart makes the choice for you.”

      “Yeah, we see how well that turned out last