My Life Of Evasion

3. Food Fights Are Just A Way We Show Each Other Love

Chapter 3

Food Fights Are Just A Way We Show Each Other Love

So you know how you're supposed to wake up early on Christmas morning?  Yeah, well, this girl?  I like to wake up early Christmas Eve morning for some reason. 

It had been that way since I was little.  I think it was just because we did a lot on that day, too.  It was the day when we'd started getting everything prepared for Christmas dinner, even though it was only me and my dad then.  We still made tons of food, though, and would be eating leftovers for every meal for the rest of the week. 

But ever since Brielle's been with us, she and I would bake tons of things on Christmas Eve, mostly because everything tasted better the next day anyway.  And since we started early in the morning, we would always do it in our pajamas, which made it all the more fun. 

So on Christmas Even, I was up at four o'clock in the morning, even though I really wasn't planning on it.  But keeping to tradition, I was going to bake. 

Max was still sleeping soundly beside me as I got up.  Quietly, I walked toward the door and went out into the dark hallway.  I turned on a few lights as I went downstairs and then into the kitchen, turning on the light over the stove.  Not worrying about being loud since Max was upstairs on the other side of the house, I banged around, getting all of the bowls and ingredients to make cupcakes. 

A few minutes later, the overhead light flicked on.  I turned to see Max leaning against the doorframe in just his pajama pants. 

"You're seriously doing this at four-thirty in the morning?" he asked, smiling. 

I just shrugged and turned back around to start measuring out the ingredients.  "Sure," I said.  "I couldn't sleep, so I'd might as well get started."

I heard him walk up behind me before he wrapped an his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder.  "Mind if I help?  I plan on being a part of this family for a long time, so I might as well get in on the traditions."

I froze at those words.  Everything in my mind started to click together.  What I was thinking had to be a little crazy, I had to admit.  But with the way Dad was looking at me a few days before after Max, Addy, and I went Christmas shopping and the way Brielle was acting after Max showed her my present, something kind of weaved its way into my head. 

"Why so quiet all of a sudden?" Max asked, still holding me.  "Did I say something?"

I sat the bowl that I was holding down on the countertop and turned around in his arms, facing him.  "Did you mean that?"

"What?" he asked, looking slightly confused.  "About me planning on being a part of your family?"

I nodded, swallowing hard.  There it was again, that crazy thing that had implanted itself into my head. 

"I do, for as long as you'll have me," he said.  He smiled then.  "So will you let me help you?"

I nodded again as I turned back around and he let go of me. 

I didn't say anything unless it was to tell him what to put in and whatnot. I was a little distracted by what I had pictured in my head. 

Was it crazy for me to be thinking that Max might have gotten me a ring for Christmas?  And I don't mean the kind that was just for a present.  I was thinking one that was a symbol of something entirely different, one that meant forever.

And engagement ring. 

Yeah, it was a little farfetched, I'll admit.  But the way Dad and Brielle were acting a few nights before and the excitement in their voices anytime I spoke to then on the phone there afterward, it sounded like they were going to burst with happiness.