The Artist

Chapter 10

The Evans house was filled with joyful noise on the cold, snowy Christmas morning. There was soft Christmas music playing in the background that could barely be heard over the squealing of the children playing with their new toys, the lively chatter of the adults and the crunching of the ripped paper that was laying on the floor that now had become Dodger's entertainment.

Mia sat on the floor next to Stella, helping her free one of her new Barbie's from the plastic while Chris was busy putting the beautiful portrait Mia had painted him of Dodger up on a shelf where it wouldn't get bumped. He then went over and joined Scott who was helping the nephews build a giant lego tower. Shanna and Carly had disappeared with Lisa but came back a moment later announcing, "It's time for stockings!"

The children cheered and the Evans took turns, giving out the stockings and watched each person open them up. They let the children go first who buzzed over the candy and toys that filled them before Lisa handed out each one to the adults in the room and they all laughed and made comments as they were opened up.

Once all the stockings had been unpacked and the children were busy playing with all their new toys, Mia grabbed a nearby garbage bag and started picking up some of the discarded wrapping paper, making Chris ask from his spot on the couch, "What are you doing?"

"Just cleaning up a little," She answered simply.

Chris gave her a look before asking, "Um I've seen your apartment Mia, since when have you ever cleaned up?"

"Shut up!" Mia laughed while wadding up some of the wrapping paper and throwing it at him.

"Don't worry about cleaning up, sweetie," Lisa waved a hand at her, "Besides, you haven't opened your stocking yet."

Hearing what she said made Mia freeze. She looked over at the family that all were spread out in the room, seeing each of their smiling faces as Lisa handed her a stocking. The Evans all watched her as she just sat on the floor staring at the stocking in her hands.

It was a red fabric and at the top, her name had been written in glitter glue with little hearts around it and lace had been sewn lovingly around the edge. On the bottom of the stocking, there were rainbow colors of glitter glue decorating it, obvious handiwork of the kids.

Chris watched her as her fingertips gently ghosted along the stocking, her eyes taking in every detail. She was silent but he could see tears gather at the corners of her eyes before the kids saw what she was looking at and all three of them raced over to her.

"Mia! Mia! Do you like your stocking?" Miles wondered.

"We drew on it," Stella happily pointed out what they had done.

"Grandma and Mommy sewed on the extra stuff," Ethan informed her. "And Uncle Scotty and Auntie Shanna helped us pick out colors and what to draw."

"And Uncle Chris wrote your name," Stella's little finger pointed to the gold glitter that spelled out 'Mia' at the top. "Do you like it?"

Mia's voice crackled from emotion as she looked at them and said, "I love it so much."

Everyone watched as Mia pulled all three kids into a giant group hug and they saw the way the tears flowed from her eyes as she closed them and savored the hug. Once she kissed them each on the cheek, Carly suggested the kids take their toys into another room for a few minutes, allowing Mia a moment alone with the adults.

"I don't even know what to say," Mia couldn't stop crying as she looked at all of them.

"Don't say anything, just open it," Chris smiled as he pushed himself off of the couch and came over to sit on the floor where she was leaning against a chair. He draped an arm around her shoulder, rubbing her arm on top of her soft sweater to comfort her before she reached her hand inside and pulled out the items one by one.

It was filled to the brim with drawings from the kids, paint brushes and paint tubes which Lisa quickly interjected that she had the gift receipt incase she got the wrong thing, and a few other little things that made Mia feel warm from the inside out.

When she got to the end, she looked at the family with weepy eyes, struggling to get a grasp on all of her emotions. She had always wondered what it would be like to have a family and and for the first time in her life, she felt like she had it.

"I just," Mia sighed, reaching up to wipe at her teary eyes. "I can't tell you all what this means to me. Thank you."

"You don't need to thank us, we're just glad you came to spend Christmas with us," Lisa assured her with a warm smile.

"Yeah, we all love you!" Shanna told her before adding, "Plus we like how you pick on Chris too."

"Hey now," Chris held up a hand. "This is getting personal! Let's lay off me for a minute because there's one more present for Mia that didn't fit in her stocking..."

She gave him a quizzical look before watching him get up and head to the other room before coming back with a medium box that had a big bow on it. Chris put it in Mia's lap before he plunked down on the floor next to her.

Mia pulled the bow off and gingerly lifted the top off the box, peeling the tissue paper back and instantly let out a groan, "This is not a gift! This is torture!"

She held up the box to show the Patriot's jersey... of course a Tom Brady jersey, to the family who all broke out in laughter while Mia rolled her eyes. Chris was cackling as Mia grabbed a pillow and gently smacked him with it saying, "I am going to burn that fucking thing! I can't believe I actually touched it, I'm contaminated now!"

"Oh stop being such a fahkin' drama queen," Chris' boston accent came through while he gave her a light shove with a laugh. "There's a real present underneath there."

Mia lifted up the jersey and saw that it was covering up a painted canvas. She saw it was a painting of a boat out on the ocean with a sunset and Chris nervously watched while she studied every line and he quickly jumped in to explain, "I know it's not your quality of art but I've spent so much time in your classes I figured I should show you what you've taught me."

She just sat there, completely dumbfounded before he went on, "Since you told me you and your grandpa would pick out boats to name and then make up stories about where you'd sail to, I figured I'd paint one of those boats."

Chris watched as Mia turned her head, her green eyes that were glossed with tears came to meet his before she tossed her arms around his neck and pulled him in tight. The family watched on with knowing smiles at one another as they looked on as Chris held Mia in his arms and she buried her face in his broad shoulder.

Eventually Mia pulled away from him so she could look into his eyes but Chris left his warm hands on her waist. Her voice was soft and gentle as she told him, "This is the best present I've ever gotten, and I mean that Chris. This just... I can't even..." Mia struggled to figure out what to say but eventually just looked at him with her warm dimpled smile and simply told him, "Thank you."

Chris wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek, making Mia feel like she'd melt. The kids came back in the room shortly after and Carly brought in the freshly baked cinnamon rolls while the Christmas music played. Everyone started boisterously chatting while the kids happily played with their toys and Dodger ran around the room trying to get bites of food from each person.

Mia just sat there observing everything for a long moment while she still held Chris' gift in her hands. She couldn't believe he not only took the time to pour into this labor of love, but that he also remembered that story about the boats she had told him. But then again, there was a lot of things about Chris she could hardly believe were real.

She had been looking forward to spending Christmas with Daniel and his family for the first time. Mia thought maybe this would help connect her and Daniel more and also give her a taste of what having a family was like, but when her flight got cancelled, she was sure this would yet another Christmas she sat home by herself. As Mia looked around the room, seeing the Evans family laughing and joking with each other before Stella came over to plop in her lap to show off one of her new toys, she realized that she ended up having the most special Christmas of her life.