SUNSHINE

forty-two

"You look wonderful, sweetheart. You don't even look like my little girl anymore, you're so grown up." He told her, and she chuckled, hugging her father.

"I'll always be your little girl, pops. You about ready to go?" She said, kissing his cheek.

"Sure thing." Patrick responded as he grabbed his wallet and phone and put them into his pockets. They both exited the guest bedroom and Alessio had his keys in his hand and his dish to pass, which consisted of shrimp pesto pasta with sauteed mushrooms and spinach. He made it last night right after their dinner so it would be ready to go.

"Do you need me to carry anything?" She asked him, and he shook his head.

"Nope, let's go." Alessio answered, and the three of them were out the door, leaving Atlas alone for the rest of the evening. He would be fine, he was trained and would not go in the house. They went down the stairs and out in front of the complex, fresh snow starting to fall. Her father was amazed, for they had been in Florida for so long he had forgotten what snow had felt like.

They got in Alessio's car, a car that Casey had only been in a handful of times. They drove around the outskirts of Chicago instead of going straight through downtown, which ended up taking more time but less traffic to deal with. Alessio's hand never left her thigh while he was driving, and her hand lay over his. He had turned on Christmas music and the three of them were all jamming out and singing along. It was the happiest she had been in a while, and she was spending it with two of her favorite people.

They arrived at his childhood home, which was a mansion out in the middle of nowhere. It was about ten miles outside of the city, which was a rural, woodsy area. As promised, there were already several cars lined up in the circle drive in front of the house. He kept going down the dirt road and went around to the side of the house where a few cars were parked, two in the garage and one out in the paved area. Alessio parked on the paved platform and shut off his car. The three of them got out and stretched their legs before Alessio grabbed his dish from the backseat, each of them grabbing a pan and following him to the front door. He did not bother knocking, able to grab the door with a free hand and holding it open for the both of them. They went inside and were greeted by Christmas music and a bunch of laughter and talking among the partygoers. She was in awe by the setup of the house. As soon as they walked in there was a grand staircase that led upstairs made of pure oak wood, then once you went around it, to the left was a large dining room that was beginning to be lined with food, and to the other side of the staircase on the right was a massive living room full of laughing people all dressed like the three of them. Good, she thought, I don't feel out of place. Alessio plugged his crockpot into an outlet in the kitchen so his dish could warm back up before dinner started in about an hour. It was still fairly warm after sitting plugged in on low power while they were getting ready, but it had cooled back down during their drive.

After he was done in the kitchen, he grabbed her hand and the three of them went towards the noisy living room full of at least ten or twelve guests, and she assumed there were more by the looks of small puffs of smoke and muffled deep laughter coming from outside the sliding patio door.

"Ah! Look who's here!" A rather tall and bulky man said when they walked in the room. Standing he appeared even taller than Alessio, which was hard to do considering Alessio was six feet and two inches. They must have not even heard them come in five minutes ago, because it was then that everyone started standing up to welcome him.

"Before we go any further, who is this gorgeous girl you brought with you?" A woman asked, standing out from the rest of the crowd. She stood out because she looked very much like Alessio.

"Everyone, this is my wonderful girlfriend Casey, and her father Patrick." Alessio introduced, and she gave a small wave while her father shook hands with some of the men in the room as he introduced himself. "Casey, Patrick, meet my family." He said with a small sigh, and Casey chuckled. His mother walked up to the both of them with a sort of stern look on her face. She looked her up and down, and although Casey was not intimidated easily, her icy glare was chilling.

"It's so amazing to finally meet you!" She finally shrieked, breaking her hard head demeanor and giving Casey a huge hug. She chuckled and hugged her back.

"Likewise, Mrs. Miller. Your home is lovely." Casey responded with a smile.

"Oh none of that. Sofia is just fine." She told her, and she nodded with a smile. "So Alessio tells me you're a world class soccer player." She said, and she chuckled, brushing her hair behind her ear.

"That's why she's so familiar!" A voice bellowed, and they all reacted.

"I was about to say the same thing!" Someone else said, and now everyone was talking about how they knew Casey.

"Did I forget to mention her last name was Radcliffe?" Alessio asked with a chuckle, getting a slap from who she assumed to be one of his aunts.

"Wait, you guys know who I am?" She questioned with a chuckle, looking at Alessio.

"Did I also forget to mention that I'm not the only one who's a big soccer fan?" He said, and now it was her turn to slap his arm. At this point her father was mingling with some of the other adults that were closer to his age while Alessio introduced her to some of his closer in age cousins. Once she had met almost everyone, she followed Alessio into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine. She was not going to get drunk of course, but she needed to mellow down a little. Meeting his family was stressful to her, but they seemed down to earth and chill people for being a family of billionaires. She had not been to a family party in a very long time since she, her mother, and her father moved to Florida. For Christmas it was usually them and Riley's families who got together.

But we know how that turned out.

Dinner came and went fairly quickly, the italians going all out for their Christmas eve feast. Since every family brought a dish to pass, there were plenty of leftovers. During dinner there were plenty of questions thrown to her and her father to tell them about the two of them. Her father had made good friends with Alessio's uncles and older cousins, and it was wonderful to see his smile back on his face.

"Hey babe I'm gonna go take a walk. I need a breather." Casey told him after another hour of being in a single room socializing with his family. She pecked his cheek and told him to stay since he had not seen a lot of his family since a birthday party back in May. He saw his mother almost every weekend but other than that there were a lot of family members from out of town he never saw. She found her coat and went out onto the back patio, the sudden rush of cold air hitting her like a truck. She shuddered but braced the cold and walked down the couple of steps that led to a path into the woods. The moon was full so she had enough light to where she could see, so she did not bother with a flashlight.

The property was beautiful, even in the dark. There was not a lot of snow on the ground due to the large, copious amounts of evergreen trees blocking the grass. However, ice coated the walkway since rain and sleet was the only thing to get through the trees. She made sure she was careful of where she stepped, for twisting her ankle was not in her itinerary for the evening.

She decided she had gone far enough and blew off enough steam to go back towards the house. His family was a bunch of loud, inappropriate italians who knew how to party, which was the exact opposite of what she was expecting. When she thought businessmen and women, she thought of more how Alessio acted - uptight with the right amount of persuasion and fun.

That was just how he acted.

She had been thinking about how the evening had been going and got sidetracked. Her foot slid on a sheet of black ice that she had not noticed on her walk out, and she felt herself slip. She tried to reach for something to prevent her fall, but there was nothing there and her arms just flailed. She hit the ground hard on the hill, and she felt herself slide down it. She tried to grab onto something on the way down, but she was going so fast her hands just got cut and scraped on anything she tried to grasp. She just kept falling until she hit a small divot in the hill, her body lifting off the ground and slamming back down at the bottom, her head hitting something hard. She felt dizzy as the trees spun above her. She closed her eyes and tried to open them again but could not muster the energy to do so.

This was definitely not on the itinerary for the evening either.