Micah's Miracle: A Christmas Love Story

Chapter 21

Micah hardly reached the front door when it opened, and Graham grabbed his hand and drew him inside, out of the weather. "I was about to call and suggest you not drive back over here in this storm." He untucked Micah's scarf and peeled his overcoat off his shoulders, hanging it on the rack by the door. He smiled and kissed Micah on the mouth. "But I'm really glad you're here."

"I would have crawled back over here, if necessary."

Graham chuckled. "Yeah? You want to spend Christmas Eve with me that much?"

Combing his fingers into Graham's hair, Micah whispered against his lips, "I want to spend every day with you that much."

Graham pushed into the kiss. "I want that, too."

Upon entering the living room, the lights were turned down low and lit candles placed on the mantle. A bottle of wine and two glasses sat on the coffee table before the sofa. But the one thing that grabbed and held Micah's focus was the Christmas tree adjacent to the fireplace—decorated and glowing with a rainbow of lights.

"When...?" He looked at Graham, stunned. "Where did you get the tree?"

Graham smiled and slid his arm around Micah's shoulders. "From the car lot. Earlier, when I leased the car, they offered a free tree along with it. I turned them down because I didn't think I would need it. But I decided to go back and see if it was still available to me if I wanted it. It was."

"You went out in this weather to get a tree?"

"Yeah." He walked Micah to the tree and gazed at it with a distant, almost sad look on his face. "Right after you left, I was looking in my father's bedroom and in the back of his closet, I found a bunch of brand-new, unopened tree decorations. And those." He pointed to the three gifts under the tree that Micah hadn't taken notice of. "They were already wrapped and..." he swallowed thickly, "...had mine, and Seth, and Gloria's names on them." He looked at Micah with tears in his eyes. "I think he was hoping that one of these holiday seasons, a miracle would happen that would bring us back to him. I don't think he really believed it would happen, but he was prepared just in case."

Micah swallowed past the lump in his throat. "But why weren't the decorations opened?"

"Maybe he wanted to put up the tree with us. I don't know." He cleared his throat. "I did it for him," he whispered. "The tree. I want him to be able to look down from heaven and see his home filled with Christmas." He blinked and drew Micah closer, kissing him softly. "Filled with love."

Micah hugged him. "Are you going to open your gift?"

"Yeah," he murmured. "I was just waiting for you to come back."

"How long ago do you think he bought the gifts?"

"I don't know," Graham said. "The wrapping looks old, and a little worn as if they'd been moved a lot, possibly from home to home until he finally ended up here."

Retrieving the gift from under the tree, Graham and Micah sat down on the sofa. Graham held the present in his hands, just staring at it, eyes shimmering. He cleared his throat and carefully peeled off the wrapping then opened the plain white box.

Micah smiled. "It's a camera." Nothing fancy or overly expensive, but something one might buy for a young teenager.

Graham blinked and pressed his lips tight, his throat working with emotion. "For the last two Christmas' before he left us," Graham whispered, "I kept asking for a camera. I wanted to take pictures of nature and...things I thought were beautiful or wonderful. My dad...he thought it was sissy of me to want a camera. I don't know why. But it was all I wanted."