Chapter Twenty-Nine: Winter Wonderland
Alyssa shrieked as she dodged a snowball that was aimed at her head. She ran behind a tall oak tree and threw a snowball at Nick smacking him right in the chest.
“You’re so in for it!” He shouted chasing after her. She shrieked and laughed as she ran from him completely glad they decided to spend Christmas in Flagstaff with Alyssa’s family.
Alyssa shrieked every time Nick came close to catching her, getting closer and closer every time. Finally he caught up to her hooking his arm around her waist and tumbling them into a large bank of soft white powder. Alyssa turned laying half on top of him, “This was fun…” She said breathlessly.
He grinned and relaxed for a moment, “Yeah I haven’t felt this carefree since…well it’s been a pretty fucking long time.” He said making her chuckle at him.
She got up and held out her hand to help him up. He waved off her hand and stood of his own accord making Alyssa snort at him. “Fine I don’t want to help you either.”
He snickered at her and put an arm around her shoulders leading her back up to the cabin Mary had rented for the holidays. He was a little sad that the sisters couldn’t make the trip to spend the holidays. Leslie tried but all the flights out of Toronto were cancelled due to a major ice storm. Aaron had made the trip but spent most of his time sulking in his room. Bobbie was spending the holidays with Wes since they were on again and Angel had a modeling job for the day after Christmas.
He sighed and walked them back up to the house, once inside they shed their winter wear and warming up by the fire before Alyssa headed into the kitchen pouring her and Nick to large cups of tea. She walked out to the living room handing Nick his cup as he sat on the couch with his thermal sock covered feet resting on the coffee table. He took the mug and patted the couch cushion next to him and she smirked sitting next to him half leaning on him.
They both sat in silence just enjoying each other’s company. Alyssa set her cup down and snuggled in closer to him folding her legs underneath her and laid her head on his shoulder. He set the mug down on the end table just in his reach and wrapped his arms around her and played with the sleeve of her sweater.
About twenty minutes later Nick glanced to Alyssa’s face seeing her eyes had drifted shut. Carefully he rearranged them on the couch so that they were lying down and she was on him resting her head on his chest. He relaxed into the couch and felt her shift just slightly adjusting herself in her slumber. He grinned at the small half moan that escaped her as she moved. Feeling her fully relax he did as well closing his eyes letting exhaustion overtake him.
That night…
Alyssa awoke to odd surroundings and a very sharp kink in her neck. She moved to sit seeing that she was in the living room of the cabin. She looked back to the couch and smirked seeing that Nick was still out cold. Just then Mary came into the room.
“Well look who decided to wake up finally.” She remarked whispering a little so as not to wake Nick up.
Alyssa lifted herself up from the couch, grabbed the tea mugs and walked with her mother into the kitchen dumping out the excess tea and rinsing the cups. “So what made you decide to get a cabin this year?” Alyssa asked.
She sighed a little, “Your father loved coming up here, this was where we always came to get out of the city for a weekend.”
“Momma.” Alyssa interjected giving her mother a hug. “I know it’s been so hard on you. I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much as I should be…”
Mary shook her head, “No don’t apologize you’ve been there when it counts. You have your own life, you have Nick and…”
“But you’re so much more important than anything I’ve got going in my life.”
Mary smiled softly and rubbed her daughter’s back. “You’re so much like him. It pains me sometimes to look at you. I see my Jamie’s eyes, I see his personality. You may have tried so hard to be different but you’re exactly like him.”
Alyssa grinned as Nick walked into the room with a groggy look on his face. “Hey, had a good nap?” She asked.
He nodded and wrapped his arms around her waist hugging her from behind as he rested his jaw against her temple.
“Are you two coming to midnight mass tonight?”
Alyssa gave her mother a weird look as well as Nick. “You remember Nick’s not Catholic right?”
Mary smirked, “Yes Miss smarty pants. But he believes in God so it’s all the same to me.”
“Won’t I get struck down by the door?” Nick joked.
Alyssa and Mary laughed at his joke and Alyssa squeezed his hands that hers rested on top of. “No you should be fine, do you want to go?” Alyssa asked hoping he’d decline, she knew it was cheesy and clichéd but she wanted to spend at least a few hours having a terribly romantic Christmas Eve.
Nick thought for a moment he’d never been to a Catholic mass before, the only times he’d ever been to church were for weddings. “Actually yeah I think it might be cool to see what goes on.”
Alyssa gave him a sideways glance, “Are you sure? Catholic mass is not for the faint of heart.”
“More like it’s not for the one with weak knees.” Mary countered making them laugh.
“Okay I get that it’s funny but why??” He asked a little confused.
Alyssa smirked and rubbed her index finger over his knuckles. “Because…well…you’ll see…”
Two hours later…
Nick and Alyssa walked up to the church along with Olivia, Angela, Clark, Lori, baby Jamie in his carrier, Aaron, and Mary.
“Why do I have to go?” Aaron asked a little dismayed, he wanted to sulk.
Clark smacked Aaron upside the head, “Because your soul needs a savin’.” Clark proclaimed faking the haughtiest southern accent he could muster.
Alyssa busted out laughing at her brother.
Mary chuckled as well and got a somewhat horrified look on her face. “You sound exactly like my father.”
Clark looked over at his mother and raised his eyebrows. “What? I sound like Grandpa Landon?”
“That’s freaky, now that you mention it he does Momma…” Olivia remarked as they entered the church each Monroe taking a little bit of holy water from the small bowls attached to the wall at each doorway and made the sign of the cross.
Nick and Aaron exchanged a glance and just shrugged following them figuring they’d joke about the various idiosyncrasies of Catholicism.
As they took their seats towards the middle Mary and the girls all moved forward to kneel on the church pew leaving Clark holding onto baby Jamie. With a smug smirk Aaron leaned towards Nick and whispers, “This is MY kind of church.”
Nick gave him a look of indignation and swatted the back of his head. “Dude, show some respect, you’re in fucking church.” He whispered back.
Aaron rolled his eyes at the hypocrisy of Nick’s statement, “And cussing in church is not a sin?” He said as the girls sat back against the pews.
Alyssa looked at the two of them and shook her head. “I can’t take you two anywhere can I?”
Nick smirked and leaned in, “When you girls kneeled he made a sex joke about it.”
Alyssa snickered and whispered back, “Like you weren’t thinking the same thing.”
He bit the inside of his cheek for a moment to stifle the laughter threatening to spill out of him, “Nah I was thinking more along the lines of the confessional.”
Alyssa’s eyes grew large as if he’d committed some form of blasphemy. “Nick! I may be a freak but sh…crap baby not in a church!” She whisper-yelled back.
Throughout the mass Aaron and Nick exchanged a lot of glances, mostly out of complete bewilderment at the various rituals of the mass. What they found most amusing was the fact that you moved around a lot, it was always sit for a moment, stand then sit back down, kneel, sit, stand, and so on.
Afterwards everyone made their way back to the cabin and yawned since it was already 1:45 AM. Nick and Alyssa bid everyone good night and headed up to their room. Once inside Alyssa laid back on the cushy bed sighing a little.
“What’s up?” He asked recognizing that it was her sigh of frustration mainly.
She sat up and began unzipping her boots then kicked them off while she thought of an answer. “Well…” She began. “I just…feel like tonight was a total waste…”
He gave her an odd look, “Why you spent time with your family?”
“Yes but I wanted to have a romantic Christmas Eve with you.”
Nick smiled a little and moved about the room stripping down to his boxers. “And what would we have done?”
She gave him a sideways glance for a minute and then replied, “Hot tub, or just sat and watched a movie near the Christmas tree.”
“No cheesed out sex by the fireplace?”
“No that’s a bit too clichéd for me.” She replied laughing.
He came over and sat down on the bed next to her. “Yeah I know but it was too hard to resist.”
She smiled more and got up momentarily grabbing his Muhammad Ali hoodie and going into the bathroom. A moment or two later she walked out wearing nothing but the sweatshirt giggling at the fact that it skimmed the tops of her thighs.
Nick looked over at her and his jaw dropped. True the hoodie was totally unflattering to her figure, but the fact that it was his favorite article of clothing next to his camo shorts, that she was wearing it with a devilish smirk on her face that affected him so much. Alyssa walked over letting her hands be covered by the oversized sweatshirt. “What I was cold.” She said innocently but the smirk she wore on her face was a dead giveaway.
“I’m calling bullshit, you know how much I love you in my clothes.”
She pushed him to lie back on the bed and she crawled up on top of him straddling his legs. She grinned at him and replied, “You’ll love me even more for what I’m not wearing underneath…”
In response he gripped her hips and rolled them over pinning her beneath him. “I think I’m going to enjoy finding out…”
Author's Chapter Notes:
Ok this chapter is rather short, because the final chapter is going to be rather long. I know, I know I'm working on it but you've got ONE chapter left and that's chapter 30 soooooo yeah and then hopefully the sequel will start soon. Anyways as always r&r!!!!
