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Lily came into their bedroom, carrying Toby, and the covers were ripped off the bed as Pete and Cara got up. Pete rubbed his shoulder. ‘What’s wrong with your shoulder, Daddy?’ asked Lily.
‘Oh, it’s still a bit sore from that injury I got, that’s all.’
‘Why don’t you put your neck thingy back on?’
‘Daddy’s fine, don’t you worry. Now, let’s see what Santa brought you, huh?’ Pete slid his arms around Lily and Jacob, scooping them into the living room. Jacob rushed over to the tray of food first, smiling when he saw that Santa had eaten some of everything. His worry about receiving no presents obviously disappeared when he pulled out a new Thomas the Tank Engine train and yelled, ‘yes!’ Within minutes, he’d removed all the presents from his sack and had strewn them all over the floor, while Lily carefully folded the wrapping paper from present number two and put it neatly aside.
Cara sat with Toby while he ripped the wrapping paperfrom his presents, making an ‘Oooh’ sound when he held up a Barney puzzle.
‘Look, Mum and Dad, a pink calculator!’ Lily exclaimed. Not that she needed one, with her almost savant numeracy skills. But, itwaspink. She tapped away at the calculator. ‘Did you know that nine hundred and sixty-four plus two thousand and seventy-six equals three thousand and forty?’
Cara looked at Pete, then at Lily. ‘No, I didn’t. Wow, that’s amazing.’
Pete tapped Lily on the shoulder and winked. Lily rose quickly. ‘Oh, Mum, I almost forgot, here’s a present from all of us.’ Lily carried a large package to her mother, and Cara unwrapped it to find an art easel.
‘Thank you so much! It’s just what I need!’ Cara hugged her children, then Pete, and asked Jacob to hand a present to his father. It was a book on ‘How To Sell Your Own Food Creations’, which Pete flipped through immediately, dollar signs in his eyes.
When the children finished opening their presents, Pete pointed outside. ‘Look, what’s that?’
The gaze from five sets of eyes landed on a large box, a big red bow attached to it. The kids zoomed outside to inspect it, greeting Bobo on the way.
‘It’s a slippery slide!’ squealed Lily.
‘It sure is. This is from Mummy and Daddy.’
‘I thought so. It wouldn’t fit in Santa’s sleigh, would it?’ Lily shook her head and held out her palms, as though explaining the laws of physics to a bunch of pre-schoolers. ‘Thank you, Mum and Dad!’ She hugged them, then ripped off the red bow.
After setting up the plastic slippery slide andensuring Lily would supervise Toby and Jacob, Pete and Cara went back inside.
‘Here’s your present, honey, Merry Christmas.’ Cara handed Pete an envelope. ‘Oh, and don’t worry, I know it looks like an electricity bill, but it’s not!’
Pete slapped her gently on the arm with the envelope, then opened it, his jaw dropping. ‘A ticket to the Australian Open finals? But, Cara, how did you afford this?’
‘I sold your grandmother’s antique vase.’
Pete looked at her silently.
‘I’m kidding! I saved up some money from my art sales. I know how much you love watching the tennis every January, and I heard a couple of your friends are going, so now you’ll be able to join them.’
Pete shook his head in awe. ‘You are so thoughtful, how lucky am I to have you as my wife?’ He kissed her lips, wrapping his arms around her.
‘You deserve it. You kept things together while I was off having my premature mid-life crisis, and I got to have that amazing weekend away. You need a little time for yourself too.’
‘Thanks, honey. Here’s yours.’ He passed her a small silver package, wrapped with a metallic blue ribbon that was curly like her hair. Like a child, Cara eagerly opened her present, revealing a gorgeous pair of sapphire teardrop earrings.
‘Pete! They’re beautiful! And they’ll go perfectly with my ... wait. You didn’t peek at my dress, did you?’
‘Of course not, but you told me your dress was blue, so I figured these might match.’
‘They’re aperfectmatch, just you wait and see!’ Cara held the earrings up to her ears in front of the mirror. ‘Thankyou, I love them.’ Pete came up and hugged her from behind, kisses tickling her neck.
Squeals of delight reminded them they still had children outside, so they stood at the window, watching them climb and slide repeatedly while Bobo wagged his tail. Jacob stood in the way on purpose, at the bottom of the slide, quickly jumping away when Toby slid down. Toby kept covering his eyes, obviously afraid he’d bump into his brother, but then laughed when he saw he’d moved.
Pete chuckled and turned towards Cara. ‘Honey, I want you to know I’m more than happy now to just have three kids. Look at them – we’re so lucky! I just love them so much, and love being a father, that I wanted to do it all over again. But after that close call I had, I’ve realised: I’m already living my dream. My family is complete.’ He clasped his lips together in a satisfied smile, running the back of his fingers along Cara’s jaw line.
‘Are you sure?’ Cara looked up into his eyes.
‘I’m sure. And, I want you to pursue your dreams. You’ve got a rare talent and the world needs to see it. Besides, there are always grandkids!’ He winked.
