Fulfillment by Golland, M. (best large ebook reader .txt) 📕

holdingfamily, and surprisingly, it had not felt weird sitting in betweenhim and Bryce.

Bryce wasfaced the other way, chatting to Lucy, and I had not yet crackedopen my Christmas cracker, so I turned to Rick—my cracker pointingdirectly at him—and offered the challenge.

“Don’t cheatlike you always do.”

“I don’tcheat,” he said with a wicked grin.

“You do. Lookyou’re holding it wrong. That’s cheating.”

“How am Isupposed to hold the bloody thing?”

I shook myhead at him. “You’re such a liar,” I blurted out.

Noticing thatthe room had gone a little silent at my choice of words, I quicklycontinued our harmless argument to reassure the eavesdroppers thatwere our family. “You know exactly how to hold it, Rick. Likethis.” I rearranged his hand into the correct position. “Ready?” Ismiled, “Go.”

We bothwrenched our ends of the cracker, creating a loud snap and tearingthe giant foil lolly-shaped novelty apart. The content’s—thewinner’s prize—went hurling into the air and across the table,smacking Jake right in the middle of the face. Everyone held theirbreath, except for Olivia who pointed at her uncle, saying‘ouch’.

I bit down onmy lip in order to supress an outburst of hysterics while Rickraised his hands in surrender.

“Accident,Mate.”

Jake was stillstone faced, and for once I couldn’t tell if he was about to losehis shit or laugh at the funny side.

It wasn’tuntil Scarlet-Johanna snorted a laugh at him, that everyone elsefollowed suit, including Jake. Nate picked up the bundled prizethat had rolled in his direction after bouncing off Jake’s nose. Heunfolded the paper hat and fitted it to Jake’s head then read outthe festive joke.

“What do youcall a dog in the dessert?” Nate announced slowly.

Most of usshrugged our shoulders.

Jakedeadpanned “A hot dog.”

Johannasnorted.

“No,” Nategroaned.

Charlilaughed.

And Oliviathrew something and said ‘ouch’ again.

Nate waiteduntil we were all quiet then happily announced, “Sandy Claws.”

We allgroaned.

***

You knowyou’ve had a good Christmas feed when your stomach is full to thebrim with seafood cocktail, roasted turkey, glazed ham, goldencrisp potatoes, pumpkin, and steamed greens. If that wasn’t enoughto satisfy your hunger, you would then indulge in Christmas puddingand custard, Pavlova and trifle, and every few seconds you’d popchocolate-coated nuts and lollies into your mouth. Once youeventually stopped eating, you’d have that increasing urge to undoyour pants, followed by a developed waddle, and a hand lightlyplaced on your bulging gut together with a screwed up look on yourface that said ‘urgh! I won’t ever eat again.’

Most of uswere showing those signs as we all moved back into the lounge areato exchange our gifts.

“BestChristmas meal, ever!” Jake exclaimed as he rubbed his gut and letout a belch. “Excuse me. See what I mean?”

Scarlet-Johanna was the only who found that funny.

“So myChristmas dinners have been shit, have they?” Mum askeddefensively.

“Na, Mum, notat all. This one was just better,” Jake winked at her.

“Can we openpresents now”? Charli asked anxiously.

“Yes,” Isighed in surrender, sending the kids haywire with the ripping andshredding of Christmas paper.

Jen and Lucyspent the next few minutes removing bits of that paper from theirbabies’ mouths and clenched hands, while everyone else was deep indiscussion of some kind or another.

I sat back andwatched the excitement and rejoicing, and as crazy as it was, thescene before me was one of the reasons I loved Christmas so much;everyone just seemed happy. All resentment, bitterness, and dislikewere checked at the door, replaced by contentment, laughter, joyand cheerfulness—it was bliss.

Bryce hadplaced envelopes under the tree for my brother, sister, and mum anddad. He’d even put one under there for Rick. I was curious as totheir contents, hoping to God it wasn’t money. Instead, he’dorganised Clark Incorporated Hotel Family Cards, so that my familycould stay at any of his hotels around the world on any day, at anytime. I was completely stunned.

“Mum, there’sa big present right at the back. It says ‘Hunny’,” Charli struggledto say while on her knees with her bum in the air and her head deepin the depths of the Christmas tree reaching for the present.

“Oooh,” Ibeamed, finding Bryce’s knowing smile as I quickly got up from thesofa.

“It’s big,”she whined as she dragged it out.

Once it wasfree from the confines of the tree, the odd shape of the box kindof gave its’ contents away. My face lit up as I lifted it andcarried it back to the couch, sitting down next to Bryce. Icouldn’t help but happy-dance as I opened it, while letting out myown high-pitched squeal.

I lifted andopened the box to find a guitar case, and turning to Bryce with asmile so bright that the muscles in my face stretched under thestrain, I mouthed thank you.

Running myhands over the case, I unlatched it and took hold of my guitar,my very first guitar. As I lifted it out of thebox, I noticed a pretty design on the front with a bird and someflowers—it was gorgeous.

“Nice!” Lucycommended. “Is that a Hummingbird?”

I studied thebird a little more closely. “Oh, so it is. The bird is ahummingbird, how sweet.”

Lucy and Brycelaughed at my discovery, exchanging expressions of a privatejoke.

“Yeah,” Bryceanswered, “True Vintage.”

“Of course itis,” she acknowledged.

“What?” Iasked. “Am I supposed to understand what the two of you arereferring to?”

“Nope,” Brycereplied and pulled me in for a quick kiss.

“Well, thankyou anyway. I love it, it’s perfect.”

“I’ve gotsomething for you too,” I said sneakily, then whispering into hisear I added. “This is a decoy. You’ll get your real presentlater.”

He eyed mesuspiciously as I handed him the box.

“No pressure,”I said as he opened it.

He laughed andlifted out the motorcycle helmet.

“I couldn’tsee that you had one, so I figured that if you were going to takethe plunge, you’d need a helmet.”

“Thanks, andyou’re right, I don’t have one.” He leaned closer to me. “Whatabout you? You’ll need a helmet too.”

I raised myeyebrows. “I’m one step ahead of you.”

***

Later thatnight in bed, I asked Bryce why he gave Rick a Hotel FamilyCard.

“You didn’thave to give Rick one, you know. You already gave him five milliondollars.”

He sighed.“Hunny, can we not talk about my paying Rick? I might not regretoffering him the money and having a hand in forcing the truth outof him, but I do regret bribing him with something I had a