The Survivor (Book #2)

Chapter 47

We spent Christmas Eve decorating cookies, wrapping presents in private, and then heading to a local homeless shelter to help serve food. I thought it was admirable that Charlotte had made this a tradition, and I vowed to keep it going with my family someday. Of course, then I blushed thinking about having a family and Dominic teased me until I told him what I was thinking.

I wasn't very helpful with lifting boxes or cooking, so I primarily helped by serving the food. Caleb and I spent the time scooping generous portions and dropping them onto clean plates as people walked by. We had a couple of good conversations with the visitors and a couple of weird nonsensical ones. Most of the ladies who worked at the shelter would come over and ask us to help them with something else if they could see that things were getting weird.

There were two women in charge of the place, and they fawned over me, mumbling in Spanish, and then translating in English, singing my praises.

I couldn't imagine how much heart it took for people to devote so much time to serving those who were less fortunate or struggling. Jobs serving in a homeless shelter, counseling, people who fostered children, even teachers... the amount of work and love that people put into their jobs astounded me. What would I do someday? Something where I could help people. I guess I have time to think.

We drove home in the evening and took showers, changed into pajamas, and met downstairs again.

"What do we do now?" I asked, bouncing in excitement, and squeezing my knees together. Charlotte had found us all matching Santa hats that we were decked out in currently. She and I were definitely the only two enjoying it.

"Well, now we order Chinese food and then add the last ornaments to the tree! If we have time, we'll pull out the scrapbooks and home videos!" Charlotte announced, motioning to the tissue paper-wrapped ornaments that had been sitting on the coffee table for days. "And we can keep going on those Christmas cookies too!"

"Oh! That's so cute! Yay!" I said, wiggling with excitement. Dominic put a hand on my knee and pushed it down, looking seriously at his mom.

"No more sugar for her." He reprimanded lightly, shaking his head. My mouth dropped open and I turned to Charlotte to confirm that this wasn't true.

She scoffed at him. "It's Christmas Eve! She can have cookies for dinner if she wants!"

I stuck out my tongue to Dominic who rolled his eyes until Charlotte walked into the kitchen.

"No more cookies or else you won't get a present from me tomorrow." He taunted, looking casually down at his phone. A smirk was dancing on his lips, so I knew he was teasing me.

"You got me a present?" I said, jumping up.

"We all did, silly girl," Brooks said from the other couch, with a laugh. I launched myself across the room and over to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. He gave me a hug back and tousled my hair. I looked around at everyone to confirm it was true and they all nodded and gave me grins of varying sizes. Caleb's was big and proud whereas Dominic was still pretending to peruse his phone. I turned to Brooks and hugged him once more.

"You're really nice," I announced to him with a nod. He let out a weird-sounding laugh, and my jaw dropped when I saw his dark-toned cheeks tinge slightly pink. When he realized that I noticed, he shoved me off him, and I fell on the floor.

I curled my legs under me and threw my arms up in the air.

"Let's play a game where we tell everyone their best quality!" I said with excitement, arms still up. Caleb looked at me like I was crazy, so I lowered them slowly but stood my ground. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

They shook their heads and looked at their phones, making me groan. Brothers are dumb.

I pulled my phone out and stiffened when I saw a text from Asher, delivered only a few minutes ago. I hadn't talked to him in days, and he was texting me?

I opened it reluctantly, ready to see how his anger or insecurity would manifest. I could think of the words that my uncle would throw at me when his moods changed. Boys could be... volatile.

The text was brief and alarming. It read:

"Hey, Maya! Do you think we could talk? Just for a minute."

I bit my lip and looked around to see if anyone had noticed what I was up to. Nobody was even slightly looking at me. I sighed and replied with the right answer, even though I was nervous. He didn't deserve me trying to dodge him forever.

"Of course, Asher. What's up?"

"Can I come over?"

I panicked and dropped my phone, causing Damon to shoot me a quizzical look. I smiled at him and picked it up again.

"Ummm sure? Can we just talk outside though?"

"Yep. Be there in 10."

Shit! I shoved my phone into my pocket and booked it to the kitchen where I ran into Charlotte. She was putting the home phone back in its holder and setting down a Chinese food menu she must have dug out of a junk drawer.

"Dinner is on the way!" she sang, bumping her hip against mine.

"Great! Umm... question. Do you remember that boy who came over here the other day to work on the project?" I asked, chewing on my lip anxiously.

"Yes! Asher, right? The one you kissed?" she double-checked. It took all of my willpower not to shove my hand over her mouth to prevent the boys from hearing.

"Yes. Well, he's coming over right now because he wants to talk. If I can get him to come around to the backyard, can you keep the boys from overhearing or... seeing him?" I asked hopefully, praying she wouldn't pry too much into things.

"Of course, Maya. Dinner is going to be here any minute. I'll close the shutters and tell them we're starting without you! They won't even notice." She said, giving me a smile. I was amazed that she didn't press or demand immediate answers. It felt like trust. I hoped I deserved it.

"Thank you so much! I'll be right back in." I said, running to the backdoor and heading out into the night. She slid the glass door closed behind me and I sent a text to Asher, giving him the gate code and telling him where I would be.