At No Time || Bruno Mars

70

"Mommy, Mommy! Wake up; it's Christmas!"

Trystan was pulled from her slumber, half-induced by weariness and the other half from wine. She opened her eyes and saw her daughter's bright face staring into hers. She pulled at Trystan's blankets and would have climbed onto the bed to jump on it had she been tall enough.

"I have to see if Santa came and read my letter!" She shook her mother's hand, and with a yawn, Trystan finally sat up. The time on her phone showed it was just passed seven-thirty. Silently, she could not wait for Raina's teen years where she would not wake up until almost noon for the holiday.

"I'm up, baby, I'm up," Trystan chuckled at her bouncing child. "Merry Christmas! Let me freshen up and then we'll get Mr. B and go, okay?" She leaned down and kissed the top of her head before going into the bathroom. Raina waited impatiently outside the door and brushed her teeth with hyper-speed when Trystan made her freshen up, too, before they left the room.

Trystan quieted Raina's ebullience when they stood outside of Peter's room just in case he was still asleep. She knocked softly and called to him, but both turned swiftly toward the staircase when they heard, "What are you guys still doing up there? It's Christmas! Come on down here!"

Raina did not have to be told twice. She pulled away from Trystan's hand and went to the steps, clutching the rail and taking one at a time as quickly as she could until she reached the bottom.

Her mother followed with a smile on her face as the small girl gasped and ran passed Peter toward the overwhelm of presents in the den. "Wow! Look at all this!"

"She's gonna try to play with everything today," Trystan laughed as she and Peter took a seat on the couch and watched Raina go from gift to gift, giving equal attention and love to them all. Even Jewel had found great joy sniffing at her new bag of treats and chewed on her new toy with the wrapping paper still on it.

Raina grabbed her new baby doll and gingerly placed her on the passenger side of her new toy jeep. She stepped on the running board and climbed into it, twisting the wheel about as if she were racing. She giggled at the thought of driving by herself with Jewel in the backseat, speeding passed her mother as they took strolls through their neighborhood during the spring. So caught up in her fun, she jumped when Trystan suddenly appeared at her side, her hand outstretched. "Come out for a second, baby."

Raina looked at her mother perplexedly, but grabbed onto her hand and allowed her to help her out of the plastic vehicle. She walked her over to the couch where Peter was. The two adults looked at each other in a way she could not quite understand in her young age, but then her mother gave her hand a small squeeze before gesturing toward Peter.

"You have one more gift left," he said and motioned for her to come closer to him.

"What is it?" Raina wanted to know, excited for more toys even though the ones she had received were plenty enough. "Where is it? Is it behind your back?" she questioned when he did not show her, thinking he was playing a trick on her. She stepped to look behind him, but saw nothing. She tilted her head in befuddlement before Peter reached out to grab her hands in his own, wearing a countenance that was soft, but did not frighten her with its solemness.

"Dew . . . what do you think about having daddy?" he asked her and was met with a small shrug of her shoulders.

"I don't know—I never had one before."

"Would you like one?"

Raina squinted her eyes, still the slightest confused. She turned to look back at her mother, who heartened her to look back at him. "I don't know . . . I never had one before," she repeated.