Sam woke up when he heard a loud bang from downstairs. He glanced over at Ainsley but she was still asleep. Probably were hearing things. But then there was a loud curse and Sam got out of bed, then quietly headed downstairs. Gracie was standing in the middle of the living room, a cup of coffee in her hands as she tried peering around the mounds of presents to see which were hers.
"Isn't that kind of dangerous? I mean, you, about a hundred presents, and a hot cup of coffee?" Sam asked, his voice still rough from sleep. Gracie jumped slightly and turned around.
"It's not hot anymore. I was sitting out on the deck and it turned cold. It snowed by the way."
"Yeah, it was supposed too."
"I ate the cookies too." Gracie added, pointing to the plate sitting near the fireplace.
"I totally forgot they were over there. Good thing you ate them."
"Yeah. Don't want to crush anyone's dreams of a fat, jolly dude coming down the chimney with toys."
"He's four. You, along with every other child on the face of the earth that celebrates Christmas, believed the same." Sam reminded. Gracie nodded and continued to peer at the presents. "You got a lot. Don't worry. And remember, your aunt and uncle, along with your grandfather, will be over later."
"Grandma's not coming?" Gracie asked, feigning a look of sadness.
"Your grandmother decided that she wanted to take a cruise down to the Bahamas."
"And I was looking forward to a Merry Christmas. But Grandpa is coming?"
"Yep." Sam nodded and Gracie's lips curled upwards in a grin. Robert Hayes was a sucker when it came to his granddaughter and she knew that she would suck him dry this Christmas. Sam watched his daughter for a minute, frowning slightly. "Okay, what's wrong?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You're usually bouncing off the walls on Christmas and don't tell me it's because you're getting older because last Christmas you nearly broke my neck when you jumped into bed with me and Mommy."
Gracie's mouth twitched slightly and she looked at her father.
"Kyle wants to get married." she said. Sam's grin disappeared and his features hardened.
"What?"
"He hasn't told me this but I heard him on the phone with one of his friends when we were at dinner a couple weeks ago. I think he thinks that I got into Princeton on my good looks and that I'm really stupid and can't hear what's going on around me. He's proposing... today. I saw the ring. It was in the glove compartment. It's nice. Very pretty."
"So you're refraining from being happy because you know that I'll object the minute 'Will you marry me?' leaves his mouth."
"Not you. Me."
Sam's eyebrows rose slightly and he stared at Gracie.
"Really?"
"You can't get engaged to someone after dating them for six months."
"That's right, you shouldn't." Sam nodded, ignoring that voice in his head that said, 'You got engaged after dating Ainsley for six months.'
"And I don't want to get married. I'm only twenty."
"My God, you actually have a brain in that head of yours."
Gracie laughed quietly and walked over to Sam. He pulled her into a hug and they were careful not to spill the coffee.
"I want to open presents."
"Go see if your brother's awake."
"Daddy, what am I supposed to do about Kyle? I mean, I really like him but I'm not... you know."
"I'll talk to him."
"How? Say, Gracie heard you want to propose?"
"Nooooo. Don't worry, I'm a dad. I know how to deal with these things."
"If I come down and you're chasing him out of the house with a shotgun..."
"That's plan B. I have a plan A. So relax." Sam kissed Gracie's forehead and nudged her towards the stairs. Upstairs, Gracie opened Nicky's door quietly and as silently as possible, crept over to his bed.
"Nicky!"
The four year old was jolted out of his peaceful sleep and glared at his sister.
"I was sleeping!"
"Sleep is overrated."
"Hang on. How did you get here? You weren't here last night."
Gracie thought for a minute then said simply, "Santa. He brought me. The sleigh was really cool and I got to drive it."
"No."
"Would I lie to you?"
Nicky nodded and Gracie sighed, shaking her head.
"What little faith you have in me. What if I told you the sky was going to fall tomorrow? Would you believe me?" she asked.
"Nope."
"One of these days, I will tell the truth and you won't believe me and then you're gonna be in some serious trouble kiddo. Come downstairs. We're opening presents soon."
Outside of the room, Kyle was heading down the stairs and Sam saw him.
"Kyle, come here."
The younger man jumped as he heard the former President's voice and turned.
"Mr. Pres–er... hi. Morning. Merry er... Christmas."
"Same to you. Come on into the kitchen. I'll get you some coffee or something." Sam said, nodding towards the kitchen. Kyle slowly followed and sat down at the table while Sam poured him a cup of coffee. "We didn't really have much time to talk last night. Everyone was pretty tired. So I'm just going to get this out of the way to save the trouble of... well causing trouble later on today. What are your intentions with my daughter?"
Kyle stared into the dark liquid, his face paling quite quickly.
"Well uh... well, I... I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I... I would never do anything without your knowing first and I would... uh... like to do this... properly. I... I love Gracie. I really do. She means... well, probably the world to me. I know that when I say what I'm going to say, you're going to think I'm crazy. I mean, we're young and we haven't been dating very long but... I want to... she is everything that I could ever possibly want in someone and I was told that when I saw a good thing, I should hold onto it." Kyle stopped to take a deep breath and Sam leaned against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. "I would... is she awake?"
"She's upstairs. Don't worry, nothing travels through this house. You can't hear anything unless you're in the same room."
"I would like to uh... marry her." Kyle seemed to flinch, as if Sam had telepathically punched him or thought that he would, mentally or physically.
"Oh." he uncrossed his arms and let his hands fall onto the counter, his fingers tapping lightly against the marble. "I was not expecting that." I shoulda become an actor.
"I know and I'm sorry to just throw this upon you today but I would never do anything to hurt your daughter and I will do my best to take care of her."
"No." Sam shook his head and Kyle stared at him.
"Well uh... I guessed that you'd say that."
"It's not just me saying no as a father. I know Gracie and... even though she dates, she's not really serious about anyone. I mean, she is but her school comes first and once she graduates, her job will come first as well. That's the way she always has been. She also would like to be financially stable when the time came to actually settle down and start a family. She always has been set money wise and probably always will be. The Seaborns and the Hayeses are both very wealthy families and she probably wouldn't have to work one day if she wanted to but Gracie's... Gracie is not one to sit back and let things be handed to her. She went through that when I was president and she hated it. Now that she's... free, so to speak, she's ready to work for what she wants and it'll be quite a few years before she's ready to even think about marriage."
Kyle nodded, taking the conversation in. Sam glanced over at the kid and shrugged.
"I was just telling you so that... you might want to think about putting off proposing for a few years. If you're that serious about her, then a few years will be worth the wait. Besides, you don't want to look like an idiot when she says no."
"Right. Well uh... thank you, I guess."
"Believe me. I'm really doing you a favor."
----------------------TWW---------------------
It was late when Gracie finally managed to get a few minutes alone with her parents.
"I know that I gave each of you your gifts but I have one more thing." she said.
"Honey, you didn't have to get us anything else." Ainsley said.
"It didn't cost me anything. Actually, it cost you guys some money."
Sam and Ainsley looked at each other, obviously confused, but followed Gracie up to her room. When they got there, she handed Ainsley a colorfully wrapped box.
"You can open it or Daddy can. It's for both of you." she said. Sam let Ainsley open their gift and they both stared at the box's content. They looked at each other and then Sam scratched his head as he looked at Gracie.
"You... gave us your laptop back."
"Yeah. I got a new one when school started this year."
"You don't need this for you know... reference?"
"Nope. I moved everything onto my new laptop. Anyway... so... Merry Christmas." Gracie disappeared from the room and Sam turned and looked at Ainsley.
"Good. You look as confused as I feel." he said.
"I'm sure there's some meaning behind this." Ainsley said quietly. And there was. Later on, Sam sat in bed and pulled the laptop over to himself. Ainsley was busy getting Nicky to bed so she wouldn't be in for another twenty minutes most likely. Whatever was on the laptop would still be there when she came to bed. Sam turned the computer on and waited as the mechanism got itself in order. To his surprise, there were only three icons on the desktop—Internet Explorer, a file titled READ THIS ONE FIRST, and then a file titled READ THIS ONE SECOND. Sam shook his head and clicked on the file that was telling him to read it first. Microsoft Word popped up and words quickly appeared.
Dear Mom and Daddy,
I know I wasn't the easiest person to live with over the past eight years and especially not after everything happened right before the reelection and the after effects of everything. Friedman, however much of a crackpot I thought he was, told me during one session that if I wrote things down, maybe I'd start to feel better. This is why you always saw me glued to this laptop. I know we talked about things sometimes but mostly I hid things from you guys and I would write it down. I don't even know what you guys thought of me but hopefully this will explain everything and help you understand what goes on inside this head of my a little more. In the second file, you will find a journal that begins on Election Day 2018. The idea had been told to me sometime back in the first July after everything happened. I ignored it and I refused to talk about things and when you were reelected Dad, I was ready to crack and I thought I should at least give it a shot. So, from November of 2018 to January of 2023, every, single one of my thoughts from Ryan, to my horrible sweet sixteen, to Nicky being born, to heading off to college, and more is in that file. I was kinda leery to give you guys the laptop back but I want you to know what I've thought of everything—what I've really thought.
I love you guys so much,
Gracie
the end