12 Days of Mistletoe

48. Bonnie

FORTY-EIGHT

bonnie

“Did you hear Wayne Lloyd say he wanted to ask out our Bonnie? Our Bonnie,” Marlene says as she pours homemade eggnog into nine wine goblets. “That boy thought he was so much better than Elliot.”

“All because he could catch a football,” May says.

“Elliot did struggle with that,” Evelyn says, all while winking at her brother.

“Who needs to know how to catch a ball anyway?” May gripes.

“Wide receivers,” David says, taking a sip of his drink.

I smother a giggle.

“Well, Elliot caught the girl. So, there.” May nods towards Elliot, who doesn’t exactly look thrilled with his family’s Christmas morning discussion.

“She was kind of smoking in that red dress,” Jocelyn says, grinning my way.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure Elliot dashed all his hopes on the dance floor,” Evelyn says, gawking at her brother .

Heat floods into my cheeks. Yes, indeed he did. Elliot kissed me silly last night along with throwing our tabling rule out the window.

I’m not complaining.

I peer around the table at my newfound friends. I am the only one here with shoes on. Elliot told me I wasn’t allowed to wear anything but pajamas to Christmas morning at his mother’s house. So, I showered, straightened my hair, brushed my teeth—twice—and put on clean Grinch PJs.

I’m seeing now that everyone else climbed out of bed and drove to Marlene’s. No showering permitted. No brushing your teeth allowed. It’s tradition. At least, that’s what Elliot said.

Although, after getting my favorite holiday card ever and then a kiss from Elliot, I can tell his breath is as minty-fresh as mine—no matter the Eaton family rules.

“Here you are, dear,” Marlene says, sounding so much like her mother. She sets a goblet in front of me, and David comes up behind her with the biggest cinnamon roll my eyes have ever beheld. There is no way I’ll be able to consume the entire thing.

“Thank you.” My hands fidget beneath the table—it’s time. Bad news and breakfast go together better than bad news and presents, right? If we ruin their breakfast, hopefully, Christmas gifts will cheer them up again.

I watch, my heart rate increasing as Marlene and David pass out food to the entire family. Sweat trickles down my back and over my neck, and while it terrifies me, while this is a BIG unknown to stress Bonnie out, I can’t start our relationship with this lie. Beneath the table, Noel nudges the pocket of my PJs with her nose, and for once, I don’t wait for that second nudge. Discretely, I pull the little round pill clip from my pocket, open her up, and take one Bonnie-prescribed anxiety pill. I drink half my eggnog, downing that one pill. But Elliot seems to be the only person to notice.

His warm hand settles on my thigh, giving me a squeeze before finding my hand and entwining our fingers.

We need to get this over with and quick.

David places the last dish in front of his own space. I lick my lips and sit up straight. “So, we need to tell you something,” I say before anyone has had a chance to take even one bite.

“News?” Marlene says. She grins and whispers to David, “ Already .”

I don’t know what she thinks is coming, but it’s not this .

“It’s funny, really,” Elliot says. “Just something we wanted to set straight.”

“Funny?” Marlene says, realizing that her suspicions are not accurate.

“We needed to come clean,” I say, ready to rip that bandage right off. No fluffing up the false. Just truth.

May’s white head jerks to me, her eyes like little blue marbles. She lifts one brow, and I give her a tiny I-have-to-do-this nod . I think she understands because she sighs, her shoulders dropping in defeat.

“Come clean?” Jocelyn says, eyes squinting. She runs a hand over Parker’s back, her new diamond glittering.

“Yes,” I say, gulping down the word.

Elliot clears his throat, and I am happy to let him take the lead—this is his family after all. “So, the day of our Christmas card photo—you all remember that day? ”

“Of course,” Marlene says. “Biggest hit yet, by the way. Everyone loves that card.” She grins, so pleased with herself.

“I’m sure they do, Mom.” There’s the tiniest of tremors in Elliot’s tone, and I squeeze his hand beneath the table. “Anyway, ah, you all met Bonnie that day. But really, I had just met her too.”

“Except for the notes,” I say, chiming in. “He did write me notes.”

Marlene holds a hand to her chest. “I love a good love letter.”

“Um. Yeah, well, they weren’t exactly love letters.” Elliot coughs, glancing at me, but I’m not throwing him beneath the note-writing bus. We’re in this together. “Anyway, what we’re trying to say is, this thing between Bonnie and me, well, it was fake.”

Marlene’s brows knit and Evelyn tilts her head, peering at her brother.

“But it’s not anymore,” I add quickly. “We were faking—for, well, for reasons that aren’t important anymore—” We also decided not to throw Gran under the bus. Neither of us are mad at her. How could we be?

“They were good reasons at the time,” I say, stumbling over my words. But with Elliot’s hand in mine and Noel at my feet, I’m doing better than I expected to. “See, while we were pretending, we got to know each other better, we started having feelings, and now we’re together .” I swallow. “For real.”

“For real,” Marlene repeats.

“Yes, but it’s new, not three months old—” I say, getting that truth out there. They need to know.

“I thought we’d said four months,” Elliot says—which is completely beside the point .

“Either way. It’s not however old you thought it was,” I say, my breath and words a nervous huff. My heart pounds in my chest, reminding me to add, “And we’re sorry. We never meant to deceive you or upset you or?—”

“We know,” Marlene says, shaking her head, her brow wrinkling not in a furrow but in sympathy.

“What do you mean, you know?” Elliot says.

Evelyn tilts her head. “We’ve known all along,” she says in a soothing tone.

“Not all along,” Jocelyn adds. She wrinkles her nose. “But for the most part.”

“About?” I am utterly confused.

“Your relationship being fake,” Jocelyn says, and Parker nods beside her.

“Wait.” Elliot’s hand slips from mine and smacks the kitchen table. “You knew that we weren’t really together? All along?”

“Ummm… for most of the time—all except that first day. Mom told me.” Marlene taps her chin in thought. “And then I told the girls a day or two later.”

“So basically, the whole two weeks?” Elliot says, and he sounds mad—weren’t we trying to avoid anger? Aren’t we happy no one is mad at us?

“Yes, but sweetheart, it’s so sweet of you to want to tell us.” Marlene blows her son a little kiss from across the table.

“Very thoughtful,” David adds.

“Yes. And we love Bonnie,” Marlene says.

“Yeah.” Jackson wraps an arm around Evelyn and chuckles. “I wouldn’t have fessed up.”

“Very sweet of you,” Jocelyn says.

Elliot shakes his head. “What about the part where we really are together now? ”

“We kind of figured you were,” Evelyn says, shrugging one shoulder.

“Figured how?”

“Dude, you made out at your grandma’s party.” Parker laughs. “That’s either real or nuts.”

“Yeah, that couldn’t have been fake,” Jackson says, still laughing.

And while I don’t know how to feel about this new development, I’m not anxious. They knew. No one hates me. In fact, Marlene said they love me.

“Gran,” Elliot moans. “What was the purpose? Why did you tell them all and still make Bonnie and I go through the motions? Why am I always left in the dark?”

“Oh stop,” May says with the wave of her hand. “You enjoyed every single motion. Besides, I knew you were right for one another. I told you that. I just needed to help get this ball rolling. Had it been up to you, you’d have taken your sweet time, and we still wouldn’t have our Bonnie.”

Our Bonnie. In a strange way, I feel so wanted by everyone in this room. Despite Elliot’s annoyance with his family, I feel his desire for me too. It’s a new sensation, one I’ll never get used to.

He has seen me at my best and at my worst. And he’s still here.

I slink my hand back into his and peer over at him. “We’re good,” I tell him. “They know. That’s all we wanted.”

“Right,” he says, but his cheeks are flushed, and Noel has planted herself right between his legs, her head on his thigh. Still, he peers from his family to me, and every wrinkle of his scowl softens. He sighs, leaning close. He presses a kiss to my temple and pats Noel’s head.

“Well, that won’t do. All those lessons and you’re kissing her head?” Gran digs into her purse sitting on her lap and pulls out something green and plastic and— “I’ve kept this on hand since we began, just in case.” She tosses the fake garland of mistletoe to Elliot. “Kiss her like you mean it, Elliot!”

And he does.