Our Troubles Will Be Miles Away
Blame it on too much angst lately, but I wrote a little Christmas piece that's mostly fluff. Hope you enjoy.
He was about to give into the temptation of sleep, his eyelids heavy from exhaustion and not enough coffee, when the shrill ring of the telephone pierced the placid silence of the living room. His eyes immediately jerked open and he instinctively reached for the sleeping figure sprawled out on the couch beside him, relieved at the fact that she was still asleep he began his search for the still ringing phone.
He found the phone kicked haphazardly under the couch and smiled at the familiar number on the caller i.d.
"Are you checking up on me?" His words come out in a slow, tired drawl, and he can't help the sly smile that creeps across his face when he hears her voice for the first time all day.
"No, I'm just checking in on you." She puts an emphasis on the word 'in'. He knows she's holding back a silly grin.
"And you're telling me that there's a difference between the two?"
"Well obviously. How's my baby doing?"
"I'm good, a little tired and missing my wife, but other than that I'm good."
"You're just a barrel of laughs tonight, I meant my other baby. You know, blonde hair, curls, about three feet tall? Ringing any bells?"
"Oh you mean the little girl sleeping next to me on the couch? Yeah, she's great."
"She's already sleeping?" Lucas can hear the disappoint heavy in her voice. "It's still early, isn't it?"
"We had kind of a long day, I would've kept her up later so you could talk to her but she fell asleep on the couch watching Frosty. She wanted to stay awake to wait for Santa but she didn't quite make it."
"I called earlier but nobody was home. What did you guys do all day?"
"A better question would be what we didn't do. That girl had me running around since this morning. We went to the park with Nathan and Kyle, had lunch with my mom, wrapped presents, baked cookies, built a gingerbread house. I could go on and on but it makes me even more tired just thinking about all of this."
"Sounds like you guys had fun." He hears her sigh softly from the other end, and he knows this Christmas is going to be hard for them. It'll be the first they've spent apart since their senior year in high school.
"What's the matter Peyt?"
"It's Christmas Eve, and I just miss you both more than ever and I wish I could be home." He can hear the sadness in her voice, and he knows she's trying her hardest to keep it hidden from him.
"Well you say that you miss us but you were the one who had to go to some meeting three hundred miles away over Christmas." He doesn't know why he says it, he'll blame it on stress and lack of sleep and the fact that he wants nothing more than to have his wife home and he's still a little pissed that she decided to leave.
There's a long pause on her end of the call, he thinks for a moment that she might have hung up on him. "You really know how to be an ass sometimes."
"I'm sorry Peyton, I didn't mean it."
"You did mean it. I feel guilty enough as it is being away from you on Christmas, I don't need you making it any worse for me. I had to go to this meeting if I want that promotion, and we need that promotion so we can send Maddie to that private school. Money's tight right now Lucas, you know that. We all need this promotion."
"I know, I really am sorry Peyton. I know you're doing this for us, and believe me I'm feeling the same pressure you are. I shouldn't have brought it up, not when it's Christmas Eve and you're away from me."
"I'll be home in a few days, and I'll make it up to both of you, in very, very different ways of course." She lowers her voice as she finishes the sentence and even without seeing her he knows which expression she's wearing on her face. It's one of his favorites.
"Tell me more about this plan of yours."
"Remember that hotel in Raleigh, with the oversized bathtub and the really comfortable bed? I was thinking we could leave Maddie with your mom and I could spend the entire weekend making it up to you."
"Mrs. Scott, don't go making promises you can't keep."
"I already booked the room."
"See, this is the reason I spring guilt trips on you. For the promise of weekend long makeup sex." He hears her laugh on the other end, and he can picture the way her lips curl into a seductive smile and the way she tilts her head back just so.
His sleeping daughter groans loudly on the couch next to him and flops around wildly, kicking him twice in the leg before settling back down to sleep. "God your daughter sleeps just as violently as you do, she's been asleep for fifteen minutes and she's kicked me on every inch of my left side."
"Has she forgotten me yet?"
"Peyton it's only been three days."
"I know, but I'm learning that three days is a horrifically long time to be away from your kid."
"Well trust me, she hasn't forgotten about you. All I hear in the mornings is how mommy can pull her hair up better, and only mommy knows the right song to sing at bedtime. She's making me look bad."
"Blackbird." She says softly, almost whimsically.
"What?"
"Blackbird, by The Beatles. That's what I sing to her at night. I've tried other songs, you know to give her a little variety but the only song she can fall asleep to is Blackbird."
"I read her some Proust last night, and she was out like a light."
"Yeah, that always worked for me too."
"Are you mocking my taste in literature?"
"Of course not."
He was about to launch into a spiel defending his recent obsession with French novelists when he hears the doorbell chime. He climbs slowly to his feet and stretches out the kinks in his back before heading towards the door.
"What was that?" His curious wife asks from the other end.
"Just the takeout guy." He grumbles as he runs a hand through his messy hair. When he swings open the door he nearly drops the phone.
"Chinese takeout on Christmas Eve?" Peyton pulls the cell phone from her ear and beams at her husband.
"What are you doing here?" He beams like a child on Christmas morning and steps out onto the porch to pull her into a kiss that leaves them both breathless when they finally part lips.
"About halfway through my morning meeting I realized that the only place I really wanted to be was three hundred miles away with my family. So I packed up my stuff and paid a ridiculous amount of money for a plane ticket back here. Not a bad Christmas present, huh?"
"I'm so glad you're here." He continues to stare at her with total bewilderment, still unable to fully grasp the fact that she is actually standing in front of him. He grasps her face with both of his hands and kisses her again, before pulling back and tucking a loose curl behind her ear. A freezing gust of wind sneaks beneath the hem of his shirt, and goose bumps make a trail up the bare skin of his arms.
He grabs her suitcase and pulls her inside, tossing the heavy bag near the door. He realizes how excruciatingly long of a time three days without your wife can be when she sneaks her icy hands under his shirt and skims them along his back, pulling his warm body closer to hers.
"God I missed you." He says while her lips are ghosting along the top of his.
"Well I don't think we'll have to worry about anymore business trips keeping me away, since I'm pretty sure I won't be getting that promotion after this."
"I'm sorry Peyt, I know how much that meant to you."
"No, don't be sorry. You and Maddie should always come first, no matter what. We'll just have to swing her tuition by some other means, but we can manage." He nods his head at her, the wide grin still unable to leave his face. "Where is my little girl?"
He motions with his head towards the couch, where she's curled into a little ball buried underneath her favorite blanket, blonde curls splashed out across the arm of the couch. Peyton immediately walks towards the couch and scoops the sleeping girl into her arms. The motion stirs Maddie awake, and she smiles sleepily up at her mother.
"Hi Mommy." Is all she can manage before she wraps her arms around Peyton's neck and falls back asleep.
Long after Maddie's tucked into bed, and the presents from Santa are tucked under the tree in their brightly colored paper, Lucas and Peyton are curled up together on the couch eating from cartons of Chinese food.
She looks over the glittering tree filled with twinkling lights and glass ornaments that mark the milestones in their life together and she feels her chest clench tight at the sight of it all. Turning to Lucas she smiles up at him, the adoration for her glittering brightly in his eyes.
"Merry Christmas baby."