"Merry Christmas Eve!! NOW WAKE UP!!" Kaylie shouts and she jumps on the bed. I laugh and sit up, pulling her down to me, wrapping my arms tightly around her so she can't move, attacking her with kisses.
"Merry Christmas Eve, my dear. Please explain to me why you are awake so early?" I say rubbing my eyes, looking at the clock, 7:00am."
"Becuase we have to get ready to go!!!" she shouts.
"Kaylie, we don't have to be at David's until 3!" Come back to bed and cuddle with me" I pout, giving her my best puppy dog eyes.
"Fine, one more hour," she says, cuddling into me, resting her head on my chest, she plays with my fingers.
"So I had a session with Dr. Matherson the other day," she begins. "We've reduced my number of sessions a lot over the past few months. She thinks I'm ready to cut back completely, just seeing her as needed, with routine 3-month check-ins."
"That's amazing, Kaylie, I'm so happy. Do you think you're ready for that? If you're not that's completely fine, I'm sure Dr. Matherson wouldn't mind a few extra sessions." I say, trying not to sound too concerned.
"I think I'm ready, she has really helped me, I've sorted through my feelings on everything that's happened, we're in a good place, aren't we?" she asks shyly.
"We are in a great place, I don't think we've ever been better," I say truthfully, placing a kiss on her forehead.
"Really?" she asks looking up at me, eyes wide a smile on her face.
"Really," I say. We fall back to sleep for another 2 hours. Kaylie makes brunch while I shower, we eat and then Kaylie gets her shower. David is having a Christmas party at his house at 3, a large Italian dinner at 5, then we're all going Christmas caroling!
I dress in black slacks, black converse, a white button down, black vest, matching jacket and a dark red tie. I do my best to tame hair, it's grown out a bit, and I've started growing some facial hair, Kaylie absolutely loves it. I sit reading until Kaylie comes out of the bathroom. She steps out wearing a beautiful dark burgundy dress, her hair curled into a fancy updo, light make-up, dangling gold earrings, and black heels. she wears a black silk shawl and carries a small black clutch purse.
"You look beautiful," I say, breathless. We head to David's house, the last to arrive.
"So why are the lovebirds so late to the party?" Shemar jokes. I ignore him and continue saying hello to our friends. Kaylie is sitting on the couch with the girls talking, I just watch as she smiles and laughs, she's so beautiful.
"Ya know kid, you might wanna pick your jaw up off the floor," Shemar says, snapping me back to reality.
"Really Shemar?" I say in a jokingly annoyed tone.
"All kidding aside, how is she doing? How are you doing? Things seem to be going well. She was happy the other day when we went out for coffee. She told me her sessions with the doc are going well." Shemar asks, as David and Thomas approach us.
"She is doing really well, the sessions have really helped, as a matter of fact, she doesn't actually need them anymore. As for me, I'm great, never been better actually. We're doing great, there's just something about what happened, it drove a wedge between us for a while, but we're stronger than ever." I say smiling, just as Paget waves us over.
"What are you fellas talking about?" Kirsten asks, clearly she's already had a few glasses of wine.
"Ohh nothing," David chimes in. We all talk for a while, and somehow we end up talking about kids, by this time I'm sitting on the arm of the couch, Kaylie, resting against me.
"So lovebirds, can we expect kids in your future?" Kirsten asks, mimicking Shemar's voice.
I gulp, I can't see Kaylie's face, we haven't actually talked about when we want to have kids, not since everything happened. I open my mouth to answer but realize Kaylie's already speaking.
"You really want Gubler children running around?" she jokes. "Soon, hopefully, I.."she cuts herself off and looks back at me. I think she realized she just told me for the first time that she wants to have kids soon..in front of all our friends. Her eyes are wide and her cheeks turn a darker shade of red.
"Soon," I say, looking her in the eyes, stroking her cheek with my thumb, she smiles, relaxes and turns back to the group. They all give us a genuine smile, they know what just happened, all of them know what's been going on in our lives, they're our best friends, well maybe they don't know about everything... Dinnertime approaches, and we feast together, we all pitch in to help clean up, and off we go to carol through the streets...not going to lie, we're not very good, most of us can't sing, but we have fun and that's all that matters.
Kaylie falls asleep on the ride home, my jacket wrapped around her shoulders. I park the car and carry her up to bed. I quickly change and trying not to wake her, I unzip her dress and put her in a pair of shorts and one of my t-shirts. She stirs and blinks her eyes, sitting up slightly as I crawl into bed.
"Go back to sleep sweetie," I whisper. She snuggles into me, resting her head on my chest.
"Do you really mean it?" she says, yawning.
"Do I mean what?" I ask, not sure what she is talking about.
"Do you really want kids soon?" she asks, she twists a loose thread from my shirt between her fingers.
"Yes, I've known for a long time that I want to start a family with you, I've been ready, but I can wait as long as I need to, we will have kids when we are both ready. We will have a family when we are meant to. So if you're ready, so am I, but it's okay if you're not." I say.
"I'm ready...not exactly this second, but all I could think about tonight while everyone was talking was having a mountain of presents under the tree for baby Gubler, first picture with Santa Clause, baby's first ornament and stocking. I want all that." Kaylie says softly.
"I think we can make that happen," I say matter-of-factly, chuckling slightly. Kaylie looks up at me.
"What's so funny?" she asks, scrunching her face at me trying not to laugh.
"Ohh nothing, I just love you... Merry Christmas my dear" I say as the clock turns to 12.
"Merry Christmas, I love you too," Kaylie says, she rests her head on my chest and falls asleep, smiling.