All I Want for Christmas Is You (Short Story) Read Online Free PDF Page B

who she was trying to convince, her mother or herself.
    Joanne’s eyes were big and wet and full of a sadness that was decades old. “It’s so easy for you to say that, honey. So easy. You’ve got all the hard decisions ahead ofyou. All the compromises, the real ones, the ones that wear you down day after day, the ones you never even expect … they’re all coming.”
    “I’m not you, Mom.”
    “I know, and that’s why I don’t want you to do this. You could be so much—”
    Maddy shook her head and her mother’s face got hard, all the Christmas in her extinguished.
    “When are you thinking about doing this?”
    “On my birthday.”
    She spun. “That’s two days away! What about school?”
    “I’ve got enough credits to graduate. I don’t have to attend next semester.”
    Joanne gasped, her hand at her throat. “You’re … you’re just going to leave?”
    “I was going to leave for college. How is this different?”
    “Because you’re not going to college, you’re marrying a twenty-year-old hockey player! What about a wedding?”
    Maddy swallowed, folding the towel in her hands into little accordion pleats and then letting them out. “There’s not going to be a wedding. Not a … big one.”
    “Something small, here at the house, even?”
    “You want his sisters here?”
    “No.”
    “Well, we can’t have a party without them. They’d … they’d freak out and Billy doesn’t want them to be a part of it, either. So  … we’re going to go to the courthouse. Just the two of us.”
    Joanne nearly folded in half over the sink, as if Maddy had punched her. “Give me a minute, would you? Alone,” she said.
    “Mom?” Maddy stepped toward her, but her mother put out her hand before shaking off her gloves.
    “Just go.”
    Feeling like a child sent to her room, Maddy went to the den where the Christmas tree was lit up. Oh God , she thought, if it went so badly with Mom, how awfully were things going in the garage with Dad?
    Doug’s garage wasn’t like any garage Billy had ever seen. It was warm, thanks to space heaters. There was a fridge full of beer. A TV in the corner, always magically tuned to whatever Pittsburgh team was playing, and the back wall was lined with his workbench and tools.
    If Billy ever had a garage, he wanted it to look like this.
    “Beer?” Doug asked, without looking up.
    “No, thanks,” he said. Billy wasn’t much of a drinker, and whatever drinking he might do, he didn’t like doing it in front of Doug.
    “You sure?” Doug asked over his shoulder. “You might need the courage.”
    Was he joking? Doug’s face gave away nothing and Billy shook his head, his mouth suddenly too dry to talk.
    Doug cracked open his beer and leaned against the workbench. For the first time, Billy noticed all the very sharp tools on the wall. Very. Sharp.
    “Go ahead, son,” Doug waved his hand. “Ask me what you wanted to ask me.”
    “I love your daughter,” Billy blurted. “And she loves me.”
    “This is true.”
    “I’d … like to marry her.” That didn’t come out quite the way he wanted, but he stood there, feeling foolish and young, anger brewing under all that curry he ate.
    “Does she want to marry you?” He asked.
    Billy nodded.
    “You get her a ring?”
    “I did. Tonight. She wasn’t wearing it,” he whispered. For some reason the thought made his stomach drop out.
    “Look, Billy, I know you asking me for permission is a sham. You’re gonna do what you want, no matter what I say. My approval isn’t going to change one thing for you. And I like you. I like you a lot and I really like the way you treat my daughter. She’s a princess to you and that seems about right in my eyes.”
    Billy had no idea what to say to that. He tried “Thank you,” and Dougie smiled. So, he guessed he got it right.
    “But this very minute, my wife is inside that house doing her damnedest to convince Maddy not to marry you.”
    “What?” How could that be?