Tethered (Book Two of The Invisible String Series)

Merry Christmas, Darling

There's a moment where the sounds of other kids' voices come through the receiver, followed quickly by the sound of a door slamming and then a tired sigh. "Sorry. Another emergency placement showed up this morning. Things are a little hectic around here. Merry Christmas, guys!"

Lizzie takes my hand in hers, giving it a small squeeze as she leans into my shoulder. "It's okay, sweetheart. Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so. It's a little cramped here. And loud, but it's okay."

My heart goes out to the teenager on the other end of the phone, wishing that I could somehow fast forward and just bring the girl back home. "It's only for a little bit though, kiddo. Things will settle eventually."

"I know. I miss you guys, though."

Geez, why don't you just rip my heart out and stomp on it, kid?

Lizzie wordlessly seems to share in my momentary sadness, her green eyes dimming down from their usual vibrant shade of dazzling emerald as she rests her head against my shoulder. "We miss you, too, honey."

The phone call ends up being a little shorter than any of us would have liked, and my mood is instantly changed as I hang up the phone, letting out a sigh as I toss the object somewhere on the couch and out of sight. "I hate that she's there and not with us. Especially on Christmas."

Honestly if the group home wasn't over two hours away I would have driven and gotten her myself today. But Nancy assured us that it was better to let Liv settle herself into the home until we've completed the necessary classes and whatever. Which we don't even get to start until mid January.

Lizzie hums, settling herself against my side, a deep frown on her face. "I know. I almost asked you to go and get her this morning, but..."

I chuckle a little knowing that we're both sharing the same train of thought concerning the teenager that has successfully inserted herself into our world. "I was honestly tempted to."

We fall into a comfortable silence after that, both of us seemingly getting a little lost in our thoughts and emotions. This whole thing has been hard on us, and I can't even imagine what Liv is feeling right now. My only saving grace is knowing that this is all temporary and soon she'll be here with us. Soon she'll be home.

Deciding that I don't want to spend Christmas sulking, and trying to retain the thoughts that things will work out in the end and that I just need to be patient, I pull myself away from my girlfriend and up off the couch. Lizzie, having apparently been pulled out of her thoughts by my sudden movements, frowns a little as she looks up at me. "What are you doing?"

I give the brunette a small smile, nodding my head towards the tree in the corner of our living room. "We still need to open presents."

The next hour is spent with us both sitting in front of the tree, opening up the gifts we'd gotten for the other. I'd been a little awkward about the whole gift thing, not really wanting Lizzie to spend money on me when I was fully content on just spending time with her, but the woman was adamant on getting me a few things. So she ended up gifting me new guitar picks (my favorite ones that I have to special order) to use on tour, more flannels which I know she'll just steal from me later on, a new pair of headphones for my home studio since mine managed to break during the move, and also a few hard copies of the pictures we'd taken over the past few six months; all framed and ready to be hung up in our new house. I almost cried opening those up, but managed to keep my cool. Oh and one of my presents is apparently coming next week sometime. Lizzie won't budge to tell me what it is, either, and I'm trying not to think too much about it.

I, on the otherhand, might have went all out on Lizzie, but whatever. I made sure she had anything and everything she'd need for her new garden, a few new cookbooks I'd seen her browsing through from time-to-time, and I'd pulled a few strings and managed to get Lizzie a personalized set of Taylor's albums on Vinyl, which prompted my girlfriend to basically tackle me to the living room floor after opening them.