Page 75 of The Marriage Rebound

The corner of her mouth lifted in a half smile as she continued scratching her nails on the rough material of my cast. “Why would you think somethin’ was up?”

“Because you about to chew your lip off as per usual.” I leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to the corner. “And I kinda like them, so I’d like you to not.”

Her half smile briefly turned into a full one. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Where else . . . oh.”

“Yeah, that makes me terrible, doesn’t it?”

I rocked my head from side to side instead of answering right away. “Maybe a little.”

She playfully swatted at my arm. “You were supposed to say no.”

“Hey,” I laughed. “You’re the one who just basically said you’re glad my wrist is broken.”

Sasha’s eyes went wide, and I had to move back as she unceremoniously scrambled over the sofa. “That’s not, well, not entirely—” She covered her face with her hands and let out a noise that was a mix of a whine and a groan. “I am terrible.”

Laughing, I pulled her to me. “I’m glad I’m here too. We can call it a lemonade-from-lemons situation.”

As soon as I registered what I’d said, it hit me how true the words were. Getting injured sucked. Being idle wasn’t my strong suit, and I still worried about not having income. But when Sasha smiled up at me, her entire face beamed with happiness. An expression, a mood I loved seeing on her. Having a broken wrist probably saved my marriage.

“Do you have any plans today?”

“Spend the rest of the day in bed with you,” I answered, leaning to place a kiss at the corner of her mouth.

“You not tired of me?” she asked with a coy smile. “I mean after all the work you put in coverin’ my body in your marks.”

“Never.” I stepped back and looked her up and down. “And it’s not covered yet, but it can be.” She giggled while swatting my hand away as I reached out to stroke the large hickie on the side of her neck.

“Good to know you’re not bored with me. And I’ll happily let you continue to use me as your canvas—” She paused to run her fingers along her inner thigh. “Later. I wanna go Christmas tree shoppin’.”

“What do you mean? Christmas tree shopping? We have one out in the garage.”

“That’s a fake one.”

“But it works, right?”

“I mean, yeah, but you’re here. This is gonna be our first Christmas in our house. Plus, Mya will be here soon as classes end, and she’s spending her whole break with us.”

Sasha was starting the hard sell on this new tree idea. It was a familiar situation where she threw out all the reasons why to cut off my objections to spending money we didn’t need to spend.

“So, we need a new tree for her? My is twenty-one, I don’t think cares that much.” I really wasn’t trying to be difficult, or fall back into old habits, but I wasn’t following Sasha’s logic.

My wife let out a long sigh. “Do you realize that I’ve never spent Christmas in our house? I put up the tree and I decorate because I want to, but every year I go to Big Mama’s on Christmas Eve. I’ve never woken up on Christmas Day here because it’s just too sad because you’re not here.”

“Oh, um, I didn’t realize.”

I knew she spent the holiday with her grandmother since I never flew home during the short break in games. I remembered the fight we had when I told her I wasn’t going to be home. I’d never put much stock in Christmas, so it hadn’t been a big deal for me, and it was less travel and readjusting to time zones.

“Right, so, but this is going to be the first Christmas I spend here, the first one we spend here, and I want us to have a real tree. I’ve always wanted one. It’s just something about havin’ the scent of pine in the house. It just makes the season.”

Sasha had a wistful expression as she talked. Holidays in general weren’t a big deal for me, but I could tell they meant a lot to her. If buying a tree would help make it more meaningful and special since I didn’t know if I’d be home next year, it’d be okay for me to revert back to the old habit of letting her get her way.

“I mean, can I just get you an air freshener? I’m joking. I’m joking,” I said quickly before she could start fussing. “You convinced me, and I want you to have your Hallmark holiday. Christmas tree shopping it is.”

Sasha squealed with excitement and threw her arms around my neck, kissing me all over my face.

An hour later, we were strolling hand-in-hand through the Christmas tree lot with Vuitton. He got a lot of looks being decked out in his winter coat and, true to his diva nature, he ate up all the attention. The scent of pine oddly mingled well with the cinnamon and sugar permeating the air from the roasted nuts stand.