Free Summer Forever by Amy Sparling Page B

I say, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Chapter 14
     
    The smell of Mom’s delicious lasagna makes my mouth water as I put the finishing touches on my family’s presents. Mom always makes a lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner. The tradition in our family is as old as I am. Dad always works Christmas day for the double overtime pay and we celebrate on Christmas Eve.
    As a kid it was awesome because I got all my presents from Mom and Dad a day early and then I woke up to even more presents from Santa Claus. Now the magic of Santa is gone, but I find more joy in seeing my parents open their gifts now that I’m old enough to afford some.
    This year I went a little overboard with the gift buying, but I couldn’t help myself since I have so much money at the moment. My paintings have been selling like crazy, probably thanks to the Christmas rush, and I have over six thousand dollars in my account. Mom almost lost her mind when I said I’d like to start paying for my cell phone and car insurance bill. It just doesn’t feel right letting my parents pay for stuff when I’m almost twenty years old and can actually afford it myself.
    I cap the pen I had used to write “from Santa” and “from Aunt Becca” on the gift tags for Jett’s presents. Then I adorn the boxes of colorfully wrapped presents with sparkly bows.
    Now I can smell the garlic bread from the kitchen, so I know dinner is almost ready. I grab Mom and Dad’s presents, which ended up being six gifts for each of them, and rush them out to put under the tree, leaving behind Jett and Bayleigh’s gifts, and of course, Park’s.
    I went a little overboard for Park, too. I got him the toaster, some silverware, a blender for those shakes he likes but never makes because he doesn’t have a blender, a motocross themed shower curtain and bathmat, and some curtains for his bedroom because the moonlight is crazy bright from where the gigantic windows that face his bed.
    And then, well, I accidently bought him more gifts. Flannel pajama pants, some button up shirts for meeting with future clients, the season DVDs of his favorite show, and a framed picture of the two of us, my favorite picture we’ve ever taken. We were at the beach with Jace and Bayleigh, it was cold outside so we were just walking along the sand. I was wearing a tan scarf I had just finished knitting and was very proud of it. Park wore a grey and white striped shirt that I picked out for him at a surf shop near the beach. He had to change clothes because a gust of wind had knocked me into him earlier, spilling half of my ice cream all over his other shirt.
    It was the first time I had completely embarrassed myself in front of a guy and that guy had made me feel like it wasn’t a big deal. He had ripped off his ice cream-soaked shirt and held my hand all the way to the nearest store to buy a new one. I still get chills when I picture how good his bare chest looked, lightly dotted with goosebumps because it was so cold outside. I had wanted to run my hand over his chest so bad, but didn’t because we were in public and we hadn’t been dating that long.
    The picture was taken by Bayleigh after Park had a new shirt and I had jumped on his back, just playing around. I barely had time to register Bayleigh’s words when she held up her phone and yelled, “Smile!”
    Maybe it was the memories that day held, or maybe it was the way Park was looking up at me, smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world. Whatever the case, it was my favorite picture of us, and I decided to make him a copy to keep in his new office.
    The excess of gifts for Park wasn’t because I suddenly have money this year. It was my way of making up for feeling so inadequate with the gift I really wanted to give him.
    Myself.
     
     
    After dinner and presents, my parents swear they don’t mind if I go to Park’s for a while, so I slip out of the house feeling only a little bit guilty about abandoning them on Christmas Eve. I think