Chapter Thirty-Seven:
Spinelli fumbled with the key to his new apartment while trying to hold onto the many bags he was holding as well. His father had "helped" him get a new apartment. Spinelli had laughed at how close it was to Jason's. It seemed that all of the over-protectiveness wasn't an act. He had "borrowed" Kristina and Morgan for the day and was currently ushering them and the bodyguards inside. They all had lots of bags.
Some might say he was going a little overboard in the Christmas decorating this year but he didn't care. He wanted Kristina and Morgan to have fun picking it all out and he wanted to impress his new fience. Maxie had complained a little that he had waited so long to propose that she couldn't have a Christmas wedding but she had quickly decided that a Valentine's Day wedding would do. He had hardly seen her since Thanksgiving when she wasn't buried in her "plans".
Once the got everything inside Spinelli turned to the bodyguards, Max and Milo had the day off and he didn't really know these guys very well. "Why don't the Protectors of the Night" Here he winked at the kids, they had grown to like his nicknames. "watch ... wrestling or some other violent sport in the guest room. We would like to do this alone." he said. Kristina and Morgan giggled and he thought he actually saw one of the bodyguards smile. He had picked the tree out with Maxie the night before and went ahead and put everything that required wrapping around on it as he didn't think that would work to well with kids. He sat down and started opening ornaments and handing them to the over-excited children to put on the tree.
As he watched then he pondered how much more fun even the simplest things were with them. He had only known them as his siblings for a few months but he loved them with all his heart. He had certainly never gotten to do anything like this when he was there age so he wanted them to have the best time possible and he hoped that maybe he might be able to enjoy it like he would have as a child with them around. He finally got all the pagages open and he began to help hang things on higher branches, laughing to himself as Morgan tried to hang three ornaments on the same branch.
He got to the name ornaments the kids had insisted he get and handed them each their own. Even with as much fun as he was having he couldn't help but feel a little sad when he put up the one with Michael's name that Kristina had grabbed on sight. Morgan looked up at it and was quiet for a minute. "Michael loves Christmas. We had lots of fun putting our tree up last year. He was silly." he informed them. Kristina nodded, "Yeah. I miss him." she said. Spinelli knelt down in front of them. "We all miss Michael. He would want us to have fun though, not be sad. There are still more ornaments for the tree and then we have to put the rest up." he told them.
He turned on some Chrismas music for kids and laughed out loud as Kristina took random breaks to dance around the room in between decorating. Once the put all the ornaments on the tree and the children declared it perfect he got out the other decorations. He let them decided where to put everything and simply "helped" them. When they finished he got out the cookies the kids had bought earlier and let them watch some Christmas shows before their parents came to pick them up.
Author's Note: The intention was to have this up before now but, well ... life got in the way. No matter what you'll be getting two more updates this week though so I hope you like! Thanks so much for the reviews, they are love!