Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 27

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 27
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

I couldn't sleep. I was too happy to sleep. Rachel was breathing quietly, spooned against me, but I could still tell that she was smiling.

Just a few hours ago, I'd been so worried about her. The last time we'd spoken on the phone, she just sounded so… sad. And then Jeremy. Fucking asshole. I knew she'd said that he'd called to distract her, but that wasn't his job. His job was to be in her band, not be her confidant! I didn't care that they'd spent 4 years together, that wasn't his role anymore. It was mine. And I'd practically had to drag what was wrong out of her.

Okay, that wasn't really right, but … I didn't want to think about any of it. This was so much better, making love to my girl in the dark hours of the morning, feeling her in my arms as she slept. This was real and right and simple, and now Christmas would be better. I'd be here if she got sad to distract her. Me.

I leaned down, kissing her shoulder, and she sighed, moving her bottom against my hips. Even without meaning to, she was turning me on. Was I allowed to be having these kinds of thoughts on Christmas Eve? But she said we'd be spending the night tonight at her mom's so that we could be there in the morning to watch the girls open presents. Then we'd go to Sarah and Patrick's to see what Ali and Billy got. After that, we'd go see my family. I wondered if they'd still be talking to me by then or if I'd completely ruined Christmas.

Like they needed me to give them something to fight about? Mom had already been bitching about one of my uncles before we'd even gotten to the Orlando airport. I guess that's what all families did, but even when Rachel's family fought, you could tell that they loved each other underneath it all. They fought about important stuff, like where the business was going.

Kate and the boys ran the place, but Rachel had a stake in it. She'd told me that the other night they'd had a business meeting, and she was investing all her profits back into the business. It was the first time she hadn't needed the money.

I really wanted to be there tonight when they got to open their presents from her. I remembered the first Christmas I'd had money and gone completely over the top with gifts. That was her this year. I think she'd spent her entire bonus from EMI on presents for her family.

I hope all my boxes arrived with our checked luggage. I'd just taken my suitcase and kissed Mom goodbye, going to get my rental car, since no one was really speaking to me by that point. No one meaning Aaron, of course. All the boxes better have gotten in the minivan, especially Aaron's. They'd given each of us an X-Box when we were in Japan over Thanksgiving, and I'd gotten one for Aaron, too. Even brought him back some of the newest games. He'd been so pissed that I'd gotten an X-Box, and it'd taken all my willpower not to spoil his surprise. I couldn't wait to see him open it tomorrow. He'd be so excited.

And hopefully he'd be speaking to me again.

My stomach growled, and I had to stop myself from laughing. When was the last time I'd eaten anything? We'd been running to catch the flight and hadn't had time to stop for a real dinner, so I'd just had plane food. Which was gross even in first class.

Kissing Rachel's shoulder, I slid out of bed and threw on my clothes, finding my cell phone in the pocket of my jeans. Rachel sighed as I walked out of the room, but she didn't wake up.

Aaron answered on the second ring. "Are you coming back?" he asked, and I sighed, trying to be quiet as I walked downstairs.

"No. I'm with Rachel."

"Then I'm not talking to you," he grumped into the phone. Man, he was a stubborn little brat sometimes. He was making everyone's life miserable there in Albany, wasn't he?

"C'mon, bro. Don't be like that. It's only a day! Just like I told Pops, I'll be there tomorrow."

"Late. You'll miss everything," he pouted.

"Not everything. C'mon, I'll be in at the same time Rachel was gonna be. We weren't planning on having dinner and opening our presents until she got there, anyway."

"Is she still coming?"

"Of course." Right? She might not want to face them…

"Tell her to wear protective clothing."

"Uh-oh. Is Mom mad?" I fell into a chair, looking out the window. The sun was up now, and I could see a dusting of snow on the ground. It must have snowed while we slept.

"What do you think, dork? She's freaking out. You're ruining our first family Christmas in forever." Shit, I knew this was gonna happen. Pops only had so much pull with my mother.

"Not forever. We were together last year," I reminded him. I'd been doing promo and rehearsing for the tour, but it'd been my first Christmas without Mandy and I'd been home for the entire week of Christmas. "And as I recall everyone started fighting after about a day and a half."

"Well, she has a short attention span."

"Sounds familiar," I joked and he sort of laughed at that. "And Mom thinks it's all Rachel's fault, doesn't she?"

"Isn't it?"

I started to yell at him but bit my tongue. I didn't want to wake up Rachel. "No. She didn't ask me to come here. She's been telling me for days that I should be with you guys."

"Then why aren't you?" he yelled, and I just shook my head.

"A, you don't understand how sad Rachel was. I needed to see her. She needed me here more than you all needed me there. There are a ton of relatives there. Admit it, you're having the time of your life being the coolest Carter in the room!" He didn't bite at that, though. Damn. He was really mad at me.

"Why is she sad?"

"Her dad died a couple of years ago, I told you that, right? Well, he really, really liked Christmas. It's just… rough for her. For her whole family. Memories and stuff. I wanted to be here when she got depressed."

"Why?" he asked, completely perplexed as to why anyone would want to deal with a depressed girlfriend. I sometimes wondered it myself.

"Because… when she's sad, I want to make her happy. I can do that better when I'm with her." And I did. I made Christmas a 'million trillon thousand times better.' She'd said so.

"What about us?" Aaron whispered. "Don't we count?"

"Buddy… of course you count. I love you. You know that. But I wasn't going to be making anyone happy by being there. I was just going to be worried about her and on the phone the whole time. Hell, I'd probably end up fighting with you, and you're my favorite," I teased.

I loved my sisters, but Aaron and I had a weird brother bond that even we couldn't explain. One time, when he'd been only about seven, and I'd had to go away on tour, I hugged him and told him he was my favorite, and I'd miss him more than anyone. It was true, too. Now that was our private little joke. We never said it in front of the girls; they'd go whining to Mom and she'd tell us to love everyone equally.

Yeah, right, Mom. I was her favorite. That's why she yelled at me the most, because she loved me the hardest. Rachel was the one that had explained that to me. She was the favorite in her family, too, but they didn't push her like Mom did to me.

"Rachel and I will be there tomorrow. We'll do something special, just the three of us."

"Does she have to come?"

"You like Rachel!" I yelled. Or whined. Something like that. It had taken a while, but he liked her. She'd even flown in especially for his and Angel's birthday in early December. She'd been strung out because it meant she got no sleep, since they only had a day off. But he'd wanted Rachel's lasagna for dinner, and she'd still been trying hard to get him to like her. Okay, that had sort of pissed off Mom, but she got over it.

"I… yeah." He sighed. "I suppose. You said she makes good pie, right?"

I had to laugh at that. He was too much like me sometimes. "Yeah, bro… amazing. What kind do you want?"

She could make him a pie right? Oh hell, she probably had about a dozen in the kitchen now. Which reminded me, I was hungry, wasn't I? Maybe I'd just try one out. Make sure they were okay.

"Dude!" I exclaimed, and Aaron laughed.

"What happened?"

"There is like an entire catering company set up in Rachel's kitchen! She's got ham and turkey and…" I looked around, peeking under tin foil and looking in the refrigerator. "Dude. More food than you'd ever be able to eat."

"So she'll make me a pumpkin pie? With real whipped cream?"

I smiled at that, pulling off a bit of ham. It nearly melted in my mouth it was so sweet. I could have one sandwich, right? No one would miss it. "No problem, bro."

Hey, maybe if we showed up with food tomorrow, the family would like her. Mom and her sisters-in-law weren't exactly known for their culinary talents. Pops had told me on more than one occasion that he'd married her before he'd even tasted her cooking. Alright, not going there… I didn't want to lose my appetite.

"Hey, did all my boxes make it into the van, dude?"

"Yeah. We aren't dumb, Nick. You always give the best presents. Mom even let us open the boxes and put the presents under the tree. Mine is really big!"

He sounded excited by that. This was gonna be okay. Rachel would charm my entire family tomorrow. No one could stay mad at her.

"Yeah, just don't shake it too much, okay? Hey, someone's here, I gotta run. Love you. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Bye."

I checked out the front window and smiled, realizing our visitor was Rachel's mom.

"Hey, Kate," I called out, and she jumped, turning around to see who it was.

"Nick?" Oh, I liked that look. It was the same look Rachel had given me when she realized it was me this morning. "Sweetheart, what are you doing here?"

Stepping into my shoes, I ran out the door to help her with the stuff she was pulling out of the trunk. Tomorrow she wouldn't be driving that old clunker sitting in Rachel's driveway. Rachel was giving her a new blue VW Passat for Christmas.

Not only was VW using a Sudden Silence song in their new ad campaign, but the entire band had also gotten a nice check and their pick of any VW model car. I nearly laughed out loud as I remembered Rachel finding out about that for the first time. She was floored. That's when I knew for sure I was jaded. I was used to getting extravagant gifts from the record company and sponsors. It was just part of the business to me. Hell, I could probably still eat at Burger King for free!

Kate held out her arms, and I picked her up in a hug. "I came to surprise your daughter. Merry Christmas!"

"That's wonderful!" she smiled as I put her down. "But won't your family miss you? Or are you just here for a few hours?"

"No, I'm here until tomorrow, when she'd planned on coming to Albany to join us. Can I come to the party?"

She considered me for a moment, and I could tell she wanted to quiz me about my family. Please don't. I didn't want to have to tell her everything and look like a horrible son.

"You can come if you help me with all these things," she finally relented, and I grinned, relieved. "Where is my daughter, anyway?" she asked, leaning into the car to pull out a bunch of boxes and a bag of something. Boxes? Oh, I guess all the pies and food had to get over to her Mom's house for the party somehow.

"Sleeping," I answered, grabbing the rest of the stuff from the trunk.

"We'll try to be quiet, then. She needs some sleep. Did you wake her up already?"

"Uh… yeah." Surprised her, fucked her until she screamed, and then I let her sleep again. Her mom probably didn't need all those details.

She might know, by the grin she gave me. "We'll let her sleep for a while longer. You can help me box some of the food up, and then I'll leave her a note with instructions for the rest." She slammed the trunk shut before leading me back towards the house.

"I can remember!" I tried to protest, but even I knew that was a lie. Kate teased me accordingly as we went into the kitchen. First, she had me box up the turkey so she could get it home to warm in her oven. Rachel had to warm the ham, apparently, because Kate's oven wasn't big enough for both. Then, she pointed me to the tins of Christmas cookies on the far counter. Dude! I hadn't seen these before. That would have been a much better breakfast. Opening the tin, I smiled, and Kate looked up from the note she was writing for Rachel.

"Go ahead, Nick. I'm sure we won't miss a few cookies tonight."

Cool! I took a handful of Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookies and stuffed one in my mouth as I started packing the box. Damn, these were good!

Kate must have recognized my expression because she smiled at me just like Rachel would have. "It's the orange zest."

"Huh?" I questioned through a mouthful of cookie.

"Why they're so good. Orange zest in the sugar cookie dough. She learned it in Girl Scouts when she was in the… fifth grade? And we've been using it ever since."

Hey, I remembered that! I'd been talking to Rachel the other night when she was making these. I'd sort of tuned out the recipe bit, preoccupied with the image of licking homemade icing off of my girlfriend's breasts… stomach… thighs… okay, Kate didn't need to know that, either. I had to stop having sex thoughts with her mom standing right here!

"She was a star, even in the fifth grade!" I teased, opening another tin to see if there were different cookies. A guy needed variety in his Christmas cookies. Score! These were chocolate somethings.

Kate smiled, and then I saw the 'I have an idea' look that I'd seen on Rachel's face so many times before. "Speaking of her being a star… has she shown you the 'Annie' video?"

The what? Oh! "There's video!?!" I exclaimed. And a little too loudly, apparently, because Kate leaned over, pressing her finger to her lips to remind me to be quiet. Right. We couldn't wake Rachel, could we?

Suddenly Kate was running into the living room, "Of course there's video of our baby's first leading role. Oh, John was so proud of her. I was, too… but John was just so excited. He couldn't sleep the night before. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and finding him and Rachel out on the back porch sharing a cup of hot cocoa. Neither of them could sleep, and…"

Her voice drifted off, and I recognized that sad look that came into her eyes, too. Damn. Did her Mom have "dad moods," too? Of course.

I could only imagine what it was like for Kate to have lost her husband. Hell, my parents fought all the time, but if one of them suddenly lost the other… I couldn't even think about it. As much as they were different, they just worked together. Completed each other?

"Don't mind me." Kate shrugged off her mood and rummaged around the TV cabinet for a moment, finally finding what she was looking for and handing me the tape. It said: "Rachel: 5th Grade Play" in a child's handwriting. Must be Rachel's. Wow.

"Is he in it?" I had to ask. Was I going to see her father finally? I'd seen a couple of pictures… but I felt like somehow seeing him on video would be different. Sorta like meeting him.

She smiled at me, leaning down to turn on the TV. "Yeah, John's just in it a bit at the beginning. When we're getting her ready. But it's mostly the production. That's the truly embarrassing part!"

"Cool!" Did my voice squeak? There was video of Rachel in 'Annie' at the tender age of ten? Kate giggled at the excited look on my face.

She sat down on the couch, patting the cushion next to her, and I joined her, "We'll just watch a little, before she wakes up."

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