Colson
The next morning I woke to the smell of sausage and pancakes cooking. Casie was still asleep when I got up from under the tree and I made sure the gifts were there. Thank God, the guys didn't fall asleep this time even though I did. Lol I walked into the kitchen and there Jane was slaving over the stove again.
"Oh I'm sorry did I wake you?" She asked.
"Naw I smelled the food. You sure do cook a lot."
"I'm a single woman who use to live by herself. If I don't cook I'd strave to death." She laughted.
"To be honest we've never had someone cook like this for us, like all the time."
"Well don't get use to it."
"What does that mean?"
"Well I mean I can't stay here forever. I need to find more work soon. You know get back to my old life."
I was kinda taken aback. Her leaving was the last thing I thought about. I know its kinda stupid but I always imagined her staying. I never thought she'd actually wanna leave. Casie would be crushed if she left. She really loved her, one day when we were doing our nightly pray she prayed for Jane but not in the way she normal does. She thanked God for giving her a new mommy and she asked God to bless her. When I questioned her about it she told me she was talking about Jane. At the time I didnt know what to say. Jane was like a mom to her. Since she's been here she's done everything for her. I couldn't blame her for wanting Jane to be her mom. As much as I know Casie wouldn't want her to go I didn't either. In a way I felt like needed her too.
"What if I said you didn't have to go?" I asked.
Before I could answer the guys walked into the kitchen. "Who's going somewhere?" Dub asked grabbing a plate.
"No one. We were just talking." Jane replied.
I didnt know what that meant. I didn't know if she was planning on leaving or if what I said made her think about it.
"Santa came! Santa came!" Casie yelled from the living room.
"Yeah this time." Slim mumbled and I elbowed him.
"Yeah Santa came and we missed him again. Lets eat breakfast and then we can open all the stuff Santa brought." I said
"Ok but you don't think the Grinch will come and get them again do you daddy?"
"No way! He wouldn't dare try to take them now since we're all a wake. The Grinch only comes at night and its morning now, so we don't have anything to worry about." Jane replied.
Casie smiled and began to eat her pancakes. 15 minutes later we finished up and everyone headed into the living room to open gifts. After Casie opened all her stuff we each took turns opening our gifts we got each other. Finally we got down to our last gifts which were from Jane.
"Ok so I didn't exactly have a lot of money for gifts so I made them. So.."
"Hey don't even worry about. Its the thought that counts." I replied
We opened the box that the gift came in and pulled the gift paper out. "Oh man! These are so dope!" Slim yelled with excitement.
"This is so cool. You did not make these!" Dub replied.
"These are super cool! When did you have time to make these?" I asked.
Jane had knitted each of us matching EST toboggan hats and scarves. Each hat and scarf had our names knitted into them. They looked like she had gotten them from the store.
"I had to do it while you were sleeping. Otherwise I would've never gotten them done. Do you guys really like them?" She asked.
"Of course!" Dub yelled.
"These are so freaking cool!" Slim said
"Come on guys lets put em on and take a pic."
Jane
I took these guys picture and Colson put it on instagram. That had to be the funniest picture I had seen all morning. They all still had on their pj's. Slims and Colsons weren't that bad but Dub had on the one's with the feet in them and he looked like an over grown 4 year old. I had to laugh.
"Jane, you gotta open your gifts now. Its your turn." Casie said as she brought them over to me.
I got a pictures of Casie in a set of picture frames. Slim got me gift cards for MAC and Sephora. Dub bought be a huge cookbook and a Massage Evy gift card. Colson's gift was the last one I opened. It was a small blue box, it kinda reminded me of Tiffany and Co. I opened it and my mouth flew open. It was beautiful charm bracelet. It had 3 charms on it already. It had a makeup brush, needle and thread, and EST.
"Wow! Thank you Colson. I love it!" I said.
He was turning red and just smiled. I gave him a hug and asked him to put it on for me. "Thank you. I'm never taking it off." I said looking into his eyes. It was really quite and then someone cleared their throat which made us break eye contact.
"Soooo, lets clean up all this stuff. Casie lets get your new toys in your room." Slim said.
After that we all went our separate ways. Slim and Casie moved her toys upstairs. Dub cleaned up all the paper and I went back into the kitchen to finish preparing dinner.