Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya. Thanks everyone for all the love so far with this story. You're all amazing. :)
Christmastime again for our lovely little family. :) I really liked writing this one.
Guest 13: Thank you so much. Glad you're enjoying it. Ooh, good guesses.
Guest: Thank you very much. :) There will be a few more "on base" parts, but the focus of the story is Grant, Skye, and Jessica, so there will be more of them than anything else.
Tamara: Good guess. :)
And now, enjoy!
*December*
"Do you realize that this is the second year we're going out to the mall to take pictures with Santa?" Skye asks Grant as she straps Jessica into her car seat.
"Yes I did," Grant nods his head from his spot in the driver's seat.
Skye stands up straight and looks over at him, "Are we really becoming those people?"
He furrows his brows, "What people?"
"The people who have traditions every holiday," she tells him.
"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" he asks with a small smile.
She shakes her head, "No, not necessarily. I guess it's just making this all the more real," she bends back down and finishes strapping Jessica in.
"I think I know what you mean," Grant smiles. "But I don't mind having traditions. That's something we didn't really have growing up. I mean, I guess you could say that we had certain traditions for every single holiday, but I never really wanted to be a part of them. And I think traditions should be something that you want to participate in, that you want to hand down to the next generation."
Skye smiles at him through the window of the car, "I love you."
"I love you too," he smiles back. "Now can you get in the car please so we can go?"
"You know what I just realized?" she asks him, completely ignoring his request.
"What?"
"Last year we wore red for the pictures with Santa and this year we're wearing green." She looks over at Jessica's outfit; a short green dress with subtle beading throughout the bottom of it, and a pair of white tights and black shoes. She looks down at her own outfit; a knee length, dark green, scoop neck dress, a pair of black heels. She looks over at Grant's outfit; a pair of black slacks, black dress shoes, and a dark green button up dress shirt. "Now, I'm not saying that we don't look great, because we really do, but it just has me a little concerned."
"Concerned about what?" he asks with furrowed brows.
"About what we're going to wear next year for the pictures."
Grant sighs, "Why don't we just wear red?"
"But we wore red last year."
"Then what about green?"
"We're wearing green this year."
"There's only two colors that are so closely associated with Christmas, Skye," he tells her.
"I know. I really don't know why I didn't think about this before."
"Hey Skye?"
"Yeah?"
"Get in the car please."
Skye huffs, "Fine." She checks over Jessica's car seat straps and then closes the back door, making her way around the car to the passenger side. She opens the passenger side front door and climbs inside, clipping her seat belt into place. She lets out a breath and looks at Grant, "Ready."
"Are you sure?" he asks with a raised brow. "You don't need to have another existential crisis before we go?"
She narrows her eyes, "It wasn't an existential crisis. I was simply worrying over this family tradition that we seem to have begun without really realizing it."
"Well you could have fooled me," he smiles.
"Just drive the damn car, Grant."
He chuckles quietly, "Whatever you say, Skye." He turns forward in his seat and shifts the car into reverse, slowly backs out of the driveway and out onto the street.
...
"Well, after some struggling and fighting Jessica is now tucked into her crib with Bug tucked tightly against her body as always," Grant lets out a breath as he makes his way back into the living where Skye is sitting on the couch waiting for him. "Whether or not she actually goes to sleep anytime soon is another thing," he smiles as he sits down, letting Skye curl into his side, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his chest.
"Like mother like daughter," she smiles. "I never really liked going to sleep when I was little but I usually crashed pretty quickly anyways. When I got older though I would always stay up late any chance I could get."
Grant chuckles, "Yes, I know. Even when you were pregnant you still tried to stay up at all hours of the night even though I could tell you were completely exhausted."
She shrugs, "It's just who I am."
"And it's one of the many reasons why I love you," he presses a kiss to her lips. He leans back into the couch and takes a deep breath, "So, it's Christmas Eve. What should we do now?"
"I don't know," Skye replies. "I'm pretty comfortable right here like this."
"Didn't you say almost the exact same thing last year?" he asks her.
She shrugs, "Maybe. But it still stands true. You are way too comfortable and I do not want to get up. However, I'm pretty sure that there's something we need to be doing right now."
Grant nods, "Mm-hmm. That's why I asked you what we should do."
"Hmm," Skye thinks. "Well, we should probably get the rest of the presents under the tree, and then maybe we can watch a movie before heading to bed."
Grant smiles, "Sounds like an excellent plan to me."
"Great," she smiles up at him, leaning up to give him a quick kiss. "I'll go and grab the rest of the presents while you pick out a movie." She pulls away from him and stands from the couch, making her way down the hallway to their bedroom to get the rest of the Christmas presents.
...
Skye breathes in deeply, smiling at the familiar feeling of the strong arms wrapped comfortably and protectively around her middle. She opens her eyes and looks over her shoulder to see Grant still asleep next to her, the tiniest hint of a smile on his face.
She turns around fully in his arms, resting her own arms against his bare chest. She slides her head forward and ghosts her lips over his, smirking when she feels his arms tighten around her.
"Merry Christmas," she whispers against his lips.
"Merry Christmas," he whispers back, closing the small space between their lips. She smiles into the kiss, running her hands down his chest and sending small vibrations through his skin.
Grant groans at the feeling, but quickly pulls away. "As much as I really want to, we can't," he tells her. "Jess is probably going to wake up soon."
She sighs, "Fine. But tonight you are all mine." She gives him one more kiss before pulling away and climbing out of the bed to go to the nursery.
She steps inside the room and smiles when she sees her daughter standing up in her crib, her stuffed ladybug, Bug, clutched in one hand while she leans against the railing. She straightens up and smiles when she sees Skye entering the room. "¡Mamá!"
Skye smiles, "Hey, baby girl." She walks up to the crib and lifts her daughter out, setting her on her hip, "You ready to go open some presents?"
Jessica nods, "¡Sí!"
"Well then let's go. I think daddy's waiting for us out in the living room."
Jessica wiggles against Skye's side, "Abajo mamá. Down."
Skye laughs quietly, "Alright." She bends down and sets the girls' feet on the floor, "Go get daddy." She quickly follows after her daughter with a smile on her face all the way out to the living room where Grant is waiting for them.
"Dad!" Jessica shouts as she enters the living room.
"Feliz Navidad, Jessie," Grant smiles at his daughter, stooping down and opening his arms up to her.
Jessica runs right up to him and leaps into his arms, hugging him tightly. Grant chuckles and then stands up with her in his arms.
"Look Jessie," Skye says to the little girl, stepping up beside Grant and pointing towards the brightly lit Christmas tree in the corner.
Jessica turns her head and her eyes go wide at the bright lights and she smiles, reaching one hand out and pointing, "Tee!"
"Yeah, baby," Skye smiles, "that's our Christmas tree. Do you want to open some presents now? Come on, let's see what you got."
She walks over towards the Christmas tree, Grant following behind her, and they sit down on the floor, setting Jessica down between them.
"Ooh, look at this one, Jessie," Skye grabs a large wrapped box and pushes it over in front of them. "This one is for you from Santa. Go ahead and open it, baby."
Jessica launches herself at the box, grabbing at the paper and pulling it down bit by bit.
Skye smiles at Jessica and helps her tear the rest of the paper off of the box. "Look what Santa got you, Jessie; it's a scooter for you to ride around on," she tells her daughter as she points to the picture of the Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Scooters on the front of the box. "I think you're going to have a lot of fun with this one, baby girl. You can ride it all over the house and even outside in the grass too." Skye looks over at Grant, "Should we take it out of the box now or wait?"
"Let's wait," he tells her. "Otherwise she probably won't want to open anything else and just play with the scooter."
"Good point," Skye nods. She pushes the box off to the side, earning a few noises in protest from Jessica. "It's okay, angel," Skye says. "You can play with it later after you finish opening all your other presents." She drops a kiss to the top of Jessica's head before reaching underneath of the tree to grab another gift.
...
Skye lets out a deep sigh as she falls down onto the couch. "Another successful Christmas has come and gone," she tells Grant.
Grant looks over his shoulder at her from where he's standing at the other end of the room, cleaning up some of the mess from earlier in the day. "Yes it was," he says.
"Just leave the mess where it is, babe, we'll clean it up tomorrow."
Grant stills and then stands up straight. He turns around to look at Skye and raises an eyebrow, "Did you just call me 'babe'?"
"What?"
"You just called me 'babe'," he smiles, walking towards her.
"Did I?" she asks, sitting up slightly on the couch.
He nods his head, standing right in front of her, "Yeah, you did."
"Hmm. Must have been a slip of the tongue," she shrugs.
He smiles and leans down, resting his hands on the couch cushion on either side of her, "No, I don't think it was. I think you meant to say that. I think you one hundred percent meant to call me 'babe'."
She rolls her eyes, "You're delusional."
He smiles, "If being in love is delusional then I am guilty as charged."
Before Grant register what's happening, Skye reaches up and grabs Grant's head in her hands, tugging him down so she can press her lips to his. Grant awkwardly falls down onto his knees in front of Skye, his hands moving from the couch to her hips, pulling her forward to the edge of the cushion.
Skye smiles into the kiss, running her hands up to tangle in his hair and pull his face closer to hers. She sucks his bottom lip between her teeth, nipping at it.
Grant pulls back reluctantly and breathes heavily, "Why don't we move this into the bedroom? After all, I distinctly remember you telling me something about how I'm all yours tonight."
Skye smirks, "I did say that." She gently pushes on his shoulders, making him move back so she can stand up from the couch. She leans down and ghosts her lips over his, "Come on, babe." She drops a single kiss to his lips before standing up straight, grabbing his hand in hers and pulling him down the hallway towards their bedroom, her lips attacking his as soon as they step foot inside the room.
So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Also, for those of you reading this that are also reading Luck of the Draw, I apologize for not updating recently. I've been stuck on this current chapter, but I've slowly been working through it. Plus, I have all these other story ideas that keep popping up. But do not worry, I have not forgotten about Luck of the Draw. It's one of my favorites to write and I have many many chapters already written up for it that I can't wait to post. So please be patient with me on that one. :)
Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!