George - Chapter Eight: Christmas Surprises - A Christmas Eve Surprise

****Steph****

I woke up the next morning and looked around the room as I laid in bed. The sun was out but I could tell that it was still fairly early. I picked up my phone and saw that it was almost seven. If I wanted to get a run in that morning I was going to have to get moving. I sprang out of bed and went over to the dresser to get out my running clothes. I hadn’t been able to run the day before and I could tell. I felt tight and my head wasn’t as clear as it normally was, probably from the stress that I could feel building up from not running the day before.  I looked in the mirror and pulled my hair back since I couldn’t stand my hair getting in my face when I ran.

As I walked from one end of the bedroom to the other I once again marveled at how large it was. In all honesty, it wasn’t much smaller than the downstairs of the house I had grown up in. I shook my head in disbelief and opened the doors to walk into the living room. I stood still for a minute trying to hear if there were signs of anyone one else being awake. The house was completely quiet though. I wondered if I would be able to run and get back before anyone woke up. I knew Charlotte was a late sleeper and Trev didn’t seem like he would be a morning person. I wasn’t quite sure about George though.

I walked into the kitchen and filled my water bottle and I noticed that there was a tea kettle and some tea sitting out on the counter. I had figured I would have to go without having my morning tea while I was in Appaloosa, and since I didn’t drink coffee, I was sure I was going to have to go without my morning jolt of caffeine. Seeing the tea on the counter made me smile. I decided to have a quick cup before going for my run. I heated up some water in the kettle and waited to hear the whistle. I started freaking out when it started, since it seemed to echo through the whole house and I was sure I woke everyone up. I continued to prepare my tea and had just found the sugar and creamer to put in it when I was startled.

“So you’re a tea drinker.” I almost dropped the creamer and scrambled to keep it from spilling all over the place. 

“Shitfire!” I exclaimed and I heard a chuckle. I placed the creamer down and started to scold him as I swung around. “You scared the living. . .” I knew it had been George but I was shocked for a different reason when I turned around. 

He wasn’t wearing a shirt and it was all I could do to not stare at his chest. It wasn’t hard to tell when he was wearing a shirt that he was in good shape, but seeing him without his shirt showed all the evidence of his well-built physic. I really wished I’d had a better opportunity to study his torso but I didn’t want to be too obvious. 

“Do you always drink tea?” He asked.

“Hmm. . .? Oh, yeah; I’m not a coffee drinker.” I couldn’t help but sneak a glance down at his chest as he walked past me.

“Me too.” He replied. That would explain why there was tea in the house. He got out a cup and prepared his own tea which gave me an opportunity to at least study him from behind. He obviously had no idea how hypnotizing his chest was or he wouldn’t go walking around without a shirt on. 

“Hello?” His voice called me back down from daydreaming in the clouds. “I asked if you wanted sugar and creamer in your tea.”

“Oh! Ummm. . .I take both; about a teaspoon of sugar and about a half tablespoon of creamer. I watched as he mixed them into the tea and then he handed it me. I once again had to fight the urge to look at his chest and thanked him. We drank our tea for a minute in silence when I noticed him looking at me.

“What?”

“We’re you getting ready to go for a run?”

“Yeah, I usually run in the mornings and I didn’t get to yesterday. I don’t usually go more than one day without running.”

He nodded and smiled. “I remember you telling me that.” He took another sip of tea and I could tell there was something going on in that head of his. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“What? I run for a long time usually. I mean you’re more than welcome to join me but. . .”

“I think I’ll be able to keep up.” He smiled and put his cup down. “I’ll be back in a minute.” I watched as he walked out of the kitchen and I was slightly sad that I was being deprived of seeing his shirtless chest. A couple minutes later he reappeared wearing running clothes and shoes.

“You run.” I said with understanding.

“Yeah.” He smiled. “Usually about five times a week. I usually run in the evenings after work. I doubt I’ll get to run tomorrow so I figure I might as well go ahead. Plus, I can show you around town at the same time. Oh! And tell you about that surprise I was talking about last night.” I had completely forgotten about the surprise.

“Okay. I still haven’t stretched.”

“Me either.” I nodded and we both walked outside. As we stretched I tried my hardest to not look at him. Instead, I looked across the street at what I now knew to be their grandparent’s house.

“It’s something, isn’t it?” I looked at him and he too was looking at the house.

“It’s ginormous!” 

“Yeah, Grandpa will be the first to tell you that they got a little carried away with the house when they first built it. But since they had kids, and then our parents had kids, and now us grandkids are starting to have families, there are a lot of people in our family. It’s the only house where we can all fit. Not that that happens very often but sometimes it does.” His voice trailed off a little bit and I wondered what he was thinking about. Before I could ask he stopped stretching and turned towards me. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah.” We walked to the end of the driveway and he pointed to the left.

“I usually run that way and then continue through town. It eventually comes back around back here from the other direction. Kind of like a weird circle.” I nodded. We started running to the left and I took in the scenery. I hadn’t run in such open spaces in years and it was really beautiful with the snow covering the yards. We ran for a while in silence until we approached a curve.

“That house, the one that looks like a cabin,” I nodded. “That’s our Uncle Jeff’s house.”

I nodded and noticed that someone was walking out of the house. George chuckled. “Sometimes he sees me running and comes out to say hi. Although I’m kind of surprised he saw us since, like I said earlier, I usually run in the evenings.”

We ran over to the fence and I stood there watching as a dark haired man walked up to greet us. “Hey, George! Getting a morning run in for a change?”

“Yeah, not going to have time later with going to Mom’s.”

 He nodded and then turned to me. “You must be Charlotte’s friend. Bridge was telling me that she brought a friend with her from the city.” He held his hand out and I shook it. “I’m Jeff, it’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Steph. Nice to meet you too.” I said and then watched as his uncle and him talked for a moment. I kept looking back and forth between them and was floored by how much the two looked alike. It was almost like his uncle could have been his dad.

“What is it?” George asked.

“Surely someone has told both of you that you look a lot alike. . .”

“Oh. . .” his uncle smiled. “Yes, we’ve heard that many times through the years.” I looked at Geroge and he had the same smile. I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, I won’t keep you from your run. See you both tomorrow. It was nice meeting you, Steph.”

“You too.” He turned and went into the house. George motioned for us to start running again and I was surprised as we turned onto a dirt road that ran next to his uncles. We ran a little ways before I noticed a house that seemed to be hidden behind his uncle’s house. I noticed George stopped running and started looking at the house. I stopped next to him and wondered what he was doing. After a moment of him standing there without talking he finally spoke up. 

“This is Mom’s house.”

It took me a moment to understand that in that one, short statement there was a much bigger meaning. This was the house that the three of them had grown up in; the house that we’d be going to later; the house that Charlotte was nervous about seeing for the first time in six and a half years.

“Oh. It’s really nice.” I said. I didn’t know what else to say that wouldn’t sound too awkward. He turned to start running again and I joined him. That was the first time I had ever noticed him clam up.


He was almost always inside his own head but this was different. It was like he retreated inside himself. We ran back to the main road and up a steep hill that led into town. I felt muscles in my legs that I hadn’t felt in a while.

“It’s a little different than running in the city, isn’t it?” He said as we reached the top of the hill.

“Yeah, the city’s pretty much flat so I’m definitely using muscles I haven’t in a while.” I admitted.

“Where do you run in the city?”

“I usually run from the apartment building to the indoor park, run around in there some, and then back to the apartment.”

“Wow, that’s a long way.”

“Yeah.”

We ran a little further before talking again. “What made you want to start running?” He asked.

“I started when I was in high school. It gave me an excuse to get out of the house when I needed one to escape. After I left home I kept doing it, mostly because I can tell when I don’t. My muscles start getting tight and I don’t think as well. Plus, it has a calming effect on me.” He nodded and we started running into town. It was a nice looking town. It was definitely older but it was still nice, and very quiet.

“So, why did you start running?”

“I’ll tell you when we get up here.” He pointed to a building on our right and I wondered what the building was. As we ran up to the front doors I knew instantly.

“Dr. George, Davila. I’m guessing this is your office.” I smiled at him and he smiled back.

“That it is.”

“It looks nice.” I peered inside and noticed that it seemed very bright and cheerful which was the complete opposite of what I would have guessed a psychologist’s office looked like. I turned around and looked at him.  “So are you going to tell me why you started running?” 

He nodded. “I sometimes ran with my Dad. He liked to run and, like you, he did it almost every day. I didn’t mind running but it wasn’t something that interested me much when I was younger. After he passed away I started remembering how we used to go for runs sometimes and how I enjoyed doing it with him. So I started running. In a way, I feel like it’s a connection I still have with him.” He said as he looked up at the sky. I hadn’t really expected that answer; I figured he ran to keep fit.

“Wow.” I said after a moment. “I guess we both started running for deeper reasons than getting in shape.”

“I guess so.” He agreed. “It’s not much further back to the house.  You ready?” I nodded and we turned the corner and ran down a hill. We got to the bottom and then turned another corner. It wasn’t long before we come to what looked like a park that was right next to his grandparent’s house. 

“What a nice park! Must be nice to live next to one.” He stopped running and I stopped too.

“It’s actually the family cemetery.” I felt the color leave my face.

“Oh my God, George. I’m so sorry.”

He smiled a little. “You didn’t know, and anyway, that’s what my grandparents wanted it to feel like when you were in it; that you were in a nice park that just happened to be a cemetery.”

“Are many of your relatives buried there?”

“Just one.” I immediately understood and wished that I would stop putting my foot in my mouth.

“Maybe I should just stop talking.”

“It’s okay. You couldn’t have known.” He tried to make me feel better but he was doing the same thing he had done outside his Mom’s house. He retreated back inside himself. He looked over at a spot in the park and I followed his gaze to a headstone that stood by itself next to a tree. There was something definitely different about the way he was acting and I knew it had to do with his dad, but I wasn’t quite sure exactly what he was thinking.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, this is just a harder day for me.” I nodded. That’s pretty much what I figured, and I kind of understood. Not that I had lost a loved one but that around holidays it was painfully obvious what was missing. . .family. In my case, my whole family. In his case, his dad.

“I can understand. It must be nice to have others around you that understand.” He nodded and then suddenly looked at me.

“That reminds me, I was going to tell you about the surprise that’s going to happen later today. . .”

****George****

While driving to Mom’s I had asked Charlotte repeatedly if she was okay and she kept telling me not to worry. I had hoped that the run Steph and I had gone on earlier that morning would help me feel less anxious but if it had, I didn’t notice. I thought back to our run and I had for the most part enjoyed it. It had been nice to run with someone else. I had just wished that it had been a different day, a day that didn’t remind me so much that Dad wasn’t there. I had felt bad that several times during our run that I had clammed up. I looked in the rear view mirror at Steph and she caught me looking at her. I smiled and nodded and turned my attention back to the road. We passed Uncle Jeff’s house and then turned down the dirt road that led to Mom’s house. As the house came into sight, I heard Charlotte in the back seat.

“Oh God. . .” She said and I heard the crack in her voice. I pulled into the driveway and turned around.

“You okay?” I asked as I reached back to grab her hand.

“Yeah, I was just. . .surprised by how emotional it was to see it again after all this time.”

I nodded. “Do you need a minute?”

She nodded and Trev and I got out of the car. We stood outside for several minutes and we both looked around in silence. At one point I looked back into the car and saw Steph with her hand on Charlotte’s arm. After another minute, Charlotte and Steph stepped out of the car.

“Are you okay?” Trev asked Charlotte.

“Yeah. I just needed a minute.” We exchanged a look and I knew that she was okay. We started walking up to the house and before we even started walking up the porch steps, Mom was opening the door.

“Merry Christmas Eve!” She exclaimed and hugged each of us. When she got to Steph she smiled. “So glad you’re here with us!”

Steph smiled back and thanked her. We all walked inside and Mom took our coats and put them in the den. "Why don’t you all give Steph a tour of the house so she knows where everything is and I’ll finish cooking lunch.”

“Do you want some help?” Trev asked her. 

“Sure! Do you think the two of you can handle the tour?” She joked.

“I think we can manage.” I offered and looked at Charlotte. So far, besides the moments in the car, she seemed to be handling being in the house okay. “Well, as you can see, this is the kitchen, the dining room is next to it and then the family room is next to that.”

We walked past the stairs and to a doorway. “This will be your bedroom. It has its own bathroom so you won’t have to share with anyone.” I told Steph. We walked in and she immediately walked to the windows at the back of the room. “Wow, there’s a river back there?” She turned around and looked at the room. “What is with you all and gigantic guest rooms?”

I laughed. “I don’t know.  I think Mom and Dad figured that a guest would want to be away from the other bedrooms and this was the area that was designed for it. Kind of like an oasis away from everyone else.”

She nodded and we walked back into the hallway and up the stairs. “This door leads to. . .Mom’s room. The next room was the nursery but now it’s a music room.” I opened up the door and we peaked inside. “There’s a bathroom and further down the hallway is Mom’s studio.”

“Then there’s our old bedrooms.” I showed her Trev’s, then Will’s, then mine, and last we saw Charlotte’s. As I opened the door Charlotte walked in and stopped in the middle of the room. Steph and I exchanged a look and then looked back at Charlotte.  She kept slowly turning around, looking at everything in it.

“It’s exactly the way I left it. . .” She finally said. 

“I didn’t change anything in any of your rooms.” Mom said behind Steph and I. “They’re yours and I didn’t feel like I should mess with them.”

Charlotte and Mom looked at each other and they both had tears in their eyes. I motioned to Steph and we both walked out of the room to give Mom and Charlotte some privacy.

“It’s almost time for the surprise.” I told Steph. “I hope it goes well.”

“Why wouldn’t it? From what you told me, it should be a happy surprise.” I nodded. I just hoped that it didn’t push Charlotte or Mom over the edge. I looked at my watch and saw that it was a couple of minutes till noon. 

“Better head downstairs.” She nodded and we walked downstairs. By the time we walked down the stairs and into the foyer the doorbell was ringing.

“Who in the world is that?” I heard Mom ask as she and Charlotte walked downstairs. Trev walked into the foyer and the three of them had a confused look on their faces.

I smiled and they continued to look confused. “Just a little surprise.” I said nonchalantly.

I walked over to the door and smiled at who was on the other side. I opened up the door and heard the gasps of all three of them as they saw who walked through the door.

“Will!!!” Mom screamed and ran over to hug him.  Soon Charlotte and Trev were joining her and Will was looking a little overwhelmed. 

“Wow, umm. . .it’s nice to see everyone too.” He said. Mom looked past him and noticed that he wasn’t alone.

“Oh my goodness! Emily?! How in the world did you get here?”

Emily hugged Mom. “Well, after we found out that Trev had seen Charlotte and that she was going to be here for Christmas, we started talking about at the very least Will coming. I asked my doctor if it would be okay for me to come too and she agreed to it as long as I made sure to take it easy and that I was going somewhere that had a decent hospital. So surprise!”

“George Fredrick Davila! You are a stinker!” Mom laughed. “You knew all about this and you kept it to yourself!”

“Well, that’s not entirely true, I did tell Steph this morning while we were out running. I thought it might be nice if she knew and wasn’t wondering what was happening when we got to this moment.” I caught sight of Will moving towards Charlotte and everyone turned their attention towards them. I was shocked when Will started hugging her and it was obvious that Charlotte was too.

“Hi Lottie.” He said as they hugged. Will had called Charlotte that ever since we were toddlers. He had had trouble saying her name and shortened it.  

“Hi.” They stopped hugging and both of them had tears in their eyes. “Are you going to introduce me?” She motioned toward Emily.

“Oh, yeah. This is my wife, Emily.” Emily was a hugger so I wasn’t surprised when she immediately hugged Charlotte.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you! I’ve heard a lot about you from Will, Trev, George, and of course your mom.” 

Charlotte nodded. “I can only imagine.” She embarrassingly smiled.

“Oh, no worries! Nothing too bad.” Emily said and smiled. She turned toward Steph. “Hi! I’m Emily, did I hear correctly that your name is Steph? I’m guessing that’s short for Stephanie?” She held out her hand and Steph shook it.

“Yeah, I’m Steph, Charlotte’s friend.”

“Well really, she’s become friends with all three of us. She lives in Bridgeport and works with Charlotte.” Trev added. I had to agree with him. At this point she was a friend of all three of ours, maybe to varying degrees but a friend nonetheless. “It’s good to see you, Willie.” Trev hugged Will and patted him on the back. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you!” Emily said and hugged Steph. I was relieved when Steph somewhat hugged her back. “Will, come meet Steph.”

Will walked over and quietly introduced himself to Steph and they shook hands. 

“Well, it’s a good thing that I made extra food. Honestly, George, what would we have done if there wasn’t enough food?”

“Well, Trev could always go without eating. I mean he eats a ton so he could stand to skip a meal.” I joked.

“What the hell you little shit! I’ll have you know that it takes a lot of food to fuel this football working machine.” He joked back.

“Trev! Language!” Mom said and we all laughed at him for getting scolded by Mom again.

“Sorry.” Mom walked back into the kitchen and Trev came over to me and smacked my arm.

Everyone grabbed a plate and we all walked into the dining room to eat.  We sat down and we all grew very quiet. I’m sure Steph was wondering what had happened. Just a moment ago we had all been joking and now the mood had changed to a somber one. I looked at her sitting next to me and motioned with my head to the empty chair at the end of the table. She looked and then slightly nodded. This was going to be one of the most strained moments of the day. I looked over at Charlotte sitting on the other side of Steph and she smiled weakly at me. That made me feel a little better. Mom sat down next to Trev and looked around at all of us.

“I promised myself that I wouldn’t cry today, but that went out the window when Will and Emily showed up.” We all chuckled. “I know we can’t pretend that he’s not here, and I wouldn’t want us to do that. One thing that I know for certain is that if he were here, he would be looking at this sight and would be as thrilled as I am.” She looked at each of the four of us as she spoke. “I also know that he would be thrilled to have met both of you.” She said to Steph and Emily. We all nodded in agreement. “I’m just so very thankful that each and every one of you is here.” At that point I was fighting back tears and as I looked around the table I noticed that everyone else was too. “Anyway, eat up everyone.”

We all started eating and little by little people began to talk. We learned that Will’s next book would be released in February, a month before he originally thought it would.  Emily told us about how her pregnancy had been a pretty easy one. Which led to the inevitable question from Mom.

“So, have you decided on any names?”

“We’ve gone back and forth. We’ve had a hard time agreeing on names but there’s two that both of us agree on and I think we’ve finally decided that those will be the two we use.” Emily said.

“Well, what are they?” Charlotte demanded to know.

“Brooke Rose.” Emily confessed. At the sound of the name I noticed both Mom and Steph perk up. 

“Oh, really? You chose Rose?”

Will nodded. “We threw around Bridgette but we thought Rose sounded better with Brooke.”

“Oh I completely agree! Aww, I’m sure Grandma will love that you used her Mom’s name and I’m honored that she’ll have my middle name.”

“I noticed the name got your attention.” I said to Steph.

She nodded. “My middle name is Brooke.”

“Really?! What a coincidence! Are you named after anyone in your family?” Emily asked not knowing that it could possibly be a touchy subject.

“No, I think my parents just liked the name.” Steph admitted.

****Will****

I looked around the table at everyone and I was glad that Emily had encouraged me to come. When George had first suggested that I come for Christmas I had told him that it was out of the question. With Emily due in a little over two months and the awkwardness that I was sure would occur with Charlotte coming home for the first time in years, I wasn’t very enthusiastic about coming. Soon after talking with George, Emily had gotten whiff of a possible reunion, and in her typical, loving way, she had gradually persuaded me to come. I had been pleasantly surprised when she had told me that her doctor had signed off on her coming with.

 “So, Willie, how long are you all going to be in town?” Trev asked.

“We’ll leave the day after Christmas.”

“Oh good! Maybe we’ll find time to go skinny dipping.”

“Oh God, Trev. Not this again!” George objected.

“I have to agree with George; we really don’t need to revisit that, do we?” Mom protested.

“Hey! It’s pretty much the only thing he ever did that he got grounded for. I have to give him a hard time about it!” Trev justified.

I sighed and shook my head. “Unlike you, where we could pick from a long list of things that you got grounded for.” I somewhat teased him and everyone laughed.

“Yeah, but I had a lot of fun. . .” Trev joked.

“Well I didn’t.” Mom admitted and everyone laughed.

“Well, I for one love hearing these stories! It’s always fun to hear what it was like when all four of you lived here.” Emily chimed in. I looked over at Emily and saw the gigantic grin that was planted on her face. She was looking at me and I couldn’t help but smile back at her, even if reminiscing meant that I was going to get teased a little.

“How about cleaning all this up before we start down memory lane.” Mom suggested.

“Mom, we can clean this up, you go relax.” George tried to convince her.

“If you’re sure. . .”

We all agreed and she went into the family room while we cleaned up. With all of us pitching in it didn’t take long and soon we were all sitting on the couches; ready to relive the past.

“So, I know we all want to tell some old stories, but I want to know how you two met and all that.” Lottie voiced to Emily and me.

“Well, you remember the last family vacation we took. . .”

“Of course I do.” She stated matter of factly.

“Do you remember how I went to the beach one day and Mom and Dad went too?” She didn’t look like she remembered. “How about Dad mentioning that I got tongue tied when a girl approached me about sharing an umbrella. . .?”

“Oh yeah!! Surely. . .you can’t be serious. . .that was you?!” Lottie looked at Emily and she nodded. “How in the world did you reunite after that many years?”

Emily picked up the story from there. “It was in a local tiki bar. He sat there watching people while typing on his laptop; because he of course was writing a book, which no one knew. I kept watching him out of the corner of my eye until I saw him look right at me.” I blushed thinking back at how nervous I was when she caught me watching her. 

“I approached him and, well, let’s just say there may have been a repeat of him being at a loss for words.” She looked over at me and smiled. “Being curious, I asked him what he was doing and when he moved there, which led to me wondering if he'd seen The Forgotten Waterfall.”

“So if he had trouble talking to you, how long was it before he was able to propose?” Lottie joked and smiled at me.

Mom, George, and Trev chuckled and Lottie looked confused. “We went on a total of five dates.” I admitted.

Charlotte’s mouth hung open and her eyes almost popped out of her head. “Five dates?! The guy who got tongue tied from a girl asking to share a shade umbrella popped the question after five dates?”

“When you know, you  know.” It was true and something that I had heard Dad and Mom say often.  I didn’t need years of dating for me to know that Emily and I were meant to be together.  Dad had always told us that whoever we ended up with, they should make us want to be an improved version of ourselves, bring out the best in us. That was what Emily did; without her, I was a socially awkward, nerdy writer. With her, I was a more confident, freer version of myself. “It’s not rocket science. People make it way more complicated than it needs to be.”

Trevor coughed and said Lottie’s name at the same time. I looked back and forth between the two of them. “What are you implying, Trev?”

“Oh, that’s right. You don’t know about Charlotte and her bartender friend, Ethan. . .”

“Trev. . .” Lottie warned.

“No, I kind of want to hear about this. . .” I conceded.

“So there’s this guy, a bartender that both Charlotte and Steph work with. Isn’t he technically your boss since he’s part owner?” I looked over and Steph was nodding. “So ever since I found Charlotte that one night. . .”

“You didn’t find me; we ran into each other.”

“A technicality. Anyway even that night I could tell you that he was interested in her. She’s just too blind, or stubborn to admit it. I personally don’t get it; he’s a good looking guy, he’s nice. . .Wouldn’t you agree, George.”

I looked over at George who had remained silent but I knew by the look on his face that he agreed. “So, what’s the deal?” I asked her.

“The deal is that he’s my boss and I’m not sure that we’re even compatible. Plus, what happens if I fall for him and it doesn’t work out? Then what? I walk around with a broken heart? I’d rather just not take any chances.” I noticed Mom shift in her seat.

“You can’t be serious, Charlotte?” Mom begged her.

“I’m completely serious. I don’t want to go through what you. . .” She stopped before she continued but it was obvious to everyone what she was going to say.

“Charlotte, I want you to really think about something. If your Dad and I hadn’t taken that risk, the risk of getting our hearts broken, the risk of our friendship ending; if we hadn’t listened to our hearts, none of you would be here and I would have missed out on over twenty years of wonderful memories with your Dad.”

Charlotte nodded, and I felt, wisely kept anymore comments to herself. She eventually looked over at George and started probing him. “What about you George? Surely you have at least one past relationship worth discussing.” I wasn’t sure what was behind the question, but even to me it was obvious that it was a loaded question. She was teasing him but what she didn’t know was the answer to the question was nothing to kid about. I looked at Mom and Trev and their eyes had gotten huge. 

I noticed Lottie looked excited for a moment. “Wait! You mentioned a long distance relationship to me one time. . .didn’t you?” George bit down on his bottom lip and stared at the floor. It was usually George who saved others from situations, but this time I felt like I needed to step in and save him.

“Lottie, it’s old news. I’m sure George would rather talk to you in private. . .” I was interrupted by Geroge.

“It’s okay, Will.” He took a big breath in and sighed. “She’s going to find out eventually and it might as well be sooner rather than later.”

Lottie looked concerned and tried to backpedal. “I was just teasing, George. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”

“No, it’s okay.” He paused for a moment. “Soon after starting my third year of undergrad, I started dating a girl. . .her name is Christine. We dated through grad school and through me working on my PhD.”

“Wait, you dated her how long?” Lottie asked. I knew once George started talking about Christine that Lottie would just have more questions. I had really hoped George wouldn’t give in to her curiosity and spared himself the pain of reliving what had happened; but it was too late now.

“It was a little over four years.”

“You dated someone for over four years?!” Lottie asked in disbelief.

****George****

I looked over at her and I actually had trouble reading her face. I couldn’t tell if she was upset, shocked, irritated or some combination of all of them. I knew that this day would come, where she would find out what happened between Christine and me and I hadn’t looked forward to it.

“Yes, I did.”

“You dated someone for that long and you just didn’t bother to tell me?!”

“In all fairness, Lottie, you weren’t around. . .” Will defended me.

“Well. . .I know. . .It’s just that I figured it would have come up before now. . .” She looked back at me and I nodded.

“I should have talked to you before now; I just didn’t think the right moment had come up yet to talk to you about it. . .I guess there wasn’t ever going to be the ‘perfect’ moment.” I sighed as I thought about what I was about to admit to not only Charlotte, but also to Steph. “As I was finishing up my PhD, Christine moved away from the university and, for a period of time, we had a long distance relationship. She moved to Bridgeport, which led to Trev and I seeing each other more often. Anyway, I would go there on the weekends but it was incredibly hard trying to study for my PhD and going back and forth.”

“So you broke up? Why is that so hard to talk about?” Charlotte wondered.

I looked down at the floor and felt my heart start to beat faster. Everyone had things from their past that they were ashamed of; things that they didn’t like to admit to people. Sometimes those things were bad enough that once you told people, it forever changed the way they looked at you. I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen with Charlotte, but I figured that it was about to happen with Steph.

“We didn’t just ‘break up.’” I looked over at Mom and she smiled sadly at me. I closed my eyes as I listened to the words escape from my mouth. “Somewhere in those months of her and I being in two different places, I got scared that I would lose her and I proposed.”

“You proposed to someone?!” Charlotte about fell out of her seat.

I looked briefly at Steph who wasn’t even looking at me at that point and then looked right at Charlotte. “Holy shit, George!!! You were engaged??!!!” Charlotte exploded. She sat there stunned for several minutes before she asked the question that I knew was inevitably coming. “You were engaged. . .what happened?”

I flashbacked to the last weekend that I had gone back to Bridgeport to see Christine. “She didn’t take the commitment to our relationship. . .seriously. . .”

I noticed Charlotte look over at Will and then Trev and they both nodded. I glanced at Steph once again, and she was still looking down at the floor. I almost found it somewhat humorous that all this time I had been worried about how interactions between Mom and Charlotte would go and had given no thought that all of us catching up would be the cause of probably the most uncomfortable moment in our family reunion.

“I’m. . .sorry George.” I heard her sigh. “Maybe one day I’ll learn to listen to people when they hint to stop pushing someone for answers. . .”

“I’m afraid you get that from me.” Mom admitted and there was some uncomfortable chuckling.

“Don’t worry about it, Charlotte. I needed to tell you eventually and it’s in the past.” I tried to reassure her.

She nodded and Mom very quickly changed the subject to what was going to happen at the Hobble ranch on Christmas.

****Steph****

The rest of the afternoon I listened to them all tell stories from their childhood: how Will had gone skinny dipping after having too much to drink after his and Trev’s eighteenth birthday party, how Trev had got caught by their mom not once but twice making out with girls in the fort area of the playground that was in their backyard. . .there were even stories about their dad. I enjoyed listening to them, but my thoughts kept going back to what George had admitted earlier. I was somewhat shocked by what he admitted. Not that I knew him incredibly well, or that he would have had a reason to admit to being engaged before. But I had thought I had him figured out and being engaged once was not something I had figured.

I stayed pretty quiet the rest of the afternoon, answering questions when asked and sometimes asking some.  I was still glad I came but I was starting to get more and more of a sense that I was imposing on their family get-together. I’m sure George would have much preferred to have had that conversation with just family present; and as much as I enjoyed hearing about their childhood, it was another slight reminder that I was technically an outsider looking in.

I had walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water when I was snapped out of my thoughts by someone else entering the room.

“It’s a little intimidating, isn’t it?” I turned around and watched Emily as she got herself a glass of water. “The first time that I was in a room with George, Trev, Will, and their mom, I was overwhelmed.”

“It’s. . .different.” I admitted.

“Are you an only child?” She asked and I nodded. “Hmm. . .me too. So for me, it was a whole new experience seeing all of them together. You know? We didn’t have that. We didn’t experience that bond that the four of them have with being siblings. And then there’s the whole twin connection. . .It’s weird listening to Will and Trev talk, or sometimes not talk. It’s like they can have a whole conversation just looking at each other. . .”

“I know!” I admitted. “I’ve noticed George and Charlotte doing the same thing.”

She smiled and nodded. “One thing that I noticed very quickly though was that even though they’re all very close, they’re also very friendly and welcoming and usually try to make sure they aren’t excluding anyone. This is one of those rare cases that it’s happened and it’s because they’re all trying to catch Charlotte back up on what’s been happening, since she did miss out on six years’ worth of life events.”

I really appreciated that Emily was trying to help me feel less out of place. George had told me a little bit about her and Will before they had arrived and she was as nice as he had said she was. We chatted in the kitchen awhile longer before we returned to the family room and I noticed that Charlotte and George were off by themselves talking. I figured it was about what he had told us earlier. After a while they joined the rest of us and Trev started to complain about being hungry again. 

We all decided that their Mom didn’t need to cook anymore and agreed to eat leftovers instead. Throughout dinner I would notice George looking at me and was curious why that was. I began wondering if he had wished I wasn’t there, that he hadn’t had to admit all of those things in front of me. I knew I wouldn’t have wanted non family members hearing a confession like that.  Even after dinner when we all returned to the family room, I couldn’t help but feel more and more like I was intruding. After hearing the clock strike ten, I decided it was a good time to head to bed. I stood up and immediately George spoke up.

“You aren’t heading to bed, are you?”

“Yeah, I’m tired.” It was kind of true. I had gotten tired from all of the worrying, but more than anything, I wanted to escape from the group.

He nodded and everyone said goodnight before I left the room and headed to bed. As I got ready, I thought back to all that I had learned about all of them in just one day. It was almost overwhelming. 

I felt like I had gotten a crash course on the Davila family, one that I wasn’t sure all of them were thrilled that I was a part of. I once again thought back to George and how neither of us had said more than a few words to each other since he had talked about previously being engaged and how he had every once in a while looked at me but didn’t attempt any conversation. Everything seemed so strained after that. As I lay in bed waiting for sleep to take me away I hoped that the next day, Christmas day would end better than Christmas Eve had.