Unwrap My Heart

Capítulo 13

Ruelle would sit and chat with my mother, both of them watching the boy with the same expression my sister had.

It wasn’t the same, of course.

Ruelle and Andrés weren’t my family and, no matter how much we enjoyed each other’s company, Ruelle wasn’t looking to settle down with a man like me.

But looking forward to seeing them in the morning gave me hope I might have this someday. My heart had been battered, but maybe it wasn’t as badly and permanently broken as I’d feared.

“Do you want some more coffee?” my mother asked, and I realized with a start she was standing next to me, holding out her hand for my empty mug.

“I’m good, thanks Ma.”

“You were smiling,” she said as if it was a strange occurrence, which I supposed in a way it was. “And a thousand miles away.”

“Just watching the girls play. And wondering if Andrés will like his trucks.”

She stroked my hair, pushing it back from my forehead like she had when I was little.

“He’s going to love them. I just hope you’re prepared to spend time playing trucks in the snow with him.”

“Doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend Christmas.”

Even as I said the words, I realized how true they were. When the presents were all unwrapped, the kid and I could play outside for a while, and then Rue would make us hot cocoa. Maybe Andrés would do the puzzle his Grandma Rosa had bought him and we’d all sit and watch him.

With a sigh, I looked down into my empty coffee cup. Then Ruelle and Andrés would go home and I’d go upstairs to my apartment and life would go on.

It was the holidays.

This strange sentimental phase I seemed to be going through would pass, Ruelle and I wouldn’t spend as much time together, and I could get back to living my life the way I had been before.

A man didn’t have to fear losing what he didn’t have.

***

RUE

On Christmas morning, I was jolted awake by a flying bundle of five-year-old joy landing on the mattress next to me.

“Merry Christmas!” he yelled so loudly there was a good chance everybody on the street heard him.

There was absolutely no chance of getting five more minutes, so I rolled off the bed and shoved my feet into my slippers.

“Let’s go see if Santa came.”

I managed to hold him off long enough to make coffee by letting him open everything in his stocking. It was mostly toy cars and candy and some other small things, but I’d individually wrapped each item to prolong the fun.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor next to him, my mug cradled in my hands, I watched Andrés open his gifts. He didn’t rip and tear, plowing through the pile, but savored the opening of each one.

Then he handed me an awkwardly wrapped package in Rapunzel paper and I set my coffee aside to take it.

“It’s your favorite princess, Mommy!”

“It is.”

I gave him a bright smile, wondering who had helped him get the wrapping paper.

I broke through the tape, taking my time because the longer I took, the more he squirmed in excitement. Finally, I peeled the paper away to reveal a box for frozen pepperoni pizza and I laughed.