When You Come to Me (51 page)

And while the ham baked, Granny Marie made her way into the living room, loosened her apron and sat down in between Natalie and Uncle Ron, signaling for one of her sons to deal her a hand.

“Granny, don’t beat me too bad,” Natalie teased, readjusting the cards in her hand. Brandon stood in the doorway between the living room and kitchen, and only watched until one of the uncles looked up at him, and said, “Boy, come sit down here…we got a hand ready for you…it’ll make things more interesting…”

He sighed and sat down next to Cory.

“Never thought you’d play against me, baby,” Natalie teased, peeking up from her hand.

He grinned, winked at her and said, “Don’t worry, Tallie…it’ll feel even worse when I beat you…”

The rest of the Chandler family made some sort of “Oohing” noise then chuckled.

“We’ll see about that,” she replied, plucking from the deck.

Ha, neither of them won. But that didn’t stop them from laughing at each of the uncles because they thought that they were winning, or hearing Uncle Marty complain constantly about how annoying he thought the musical tree lights were. Granny won, and she finished off the rest of her homemade eggnog to celebrate, before walking into the kitchen again to finish cooking.

#

If anything, he was glad that he would marry into a family that knew how to cook food and knew how to celebrate Christmas. Before anyone could eat, they stood in a circle and each grabbed hands, and Helen elected that he say a prayer for them. He discovered that the last person to pray over the family was Granddaddy Joseph, who’d succumbed to lung cancer five years prior. He couldn’t remember the last time that he prayed so formally. Could it have been at Mass a couple of Christmases ago? At least…

He knew nothing about the way that Baptists prayed, with the exception of the times that he’d overheard Natalie praying just before bed. Still, he took a deep breath anyway, felt Natalie run her thumb along his hand for comfort, and he began as the family lowered their heads and closed their eyes.

“Dear Lord [Jeez, was that even right? Evil Mother struck again]…thank you…thank you…for…thank you for allowing us to meet this Christmas Eve [phew, he didn’t think that he would get that one out]…safely…thank you for allowing us to meet this Christmas Eve safely…thank you…thank you for my fiancée…Natalie…she is perhaps the most incredible person that I have ever met…and thank you…thank you for placing her into my life…[wow, it just got easier and easier]…thank you for allowing me to spend time with the Chandler Family…and I pray that…that…we can continue to become closer and closer as each day passes…thank you…um…Amen…”

The family said a collective “Amen”, raised their heads, opened their eyes, and Granny Marie said, “Well done, Boy…couldn’t have said it better myself…”

Natalie kissed him on the cheek and reached for his arm. “You hungry, Greene?”

He nodded.

“Well, go and sit down, and I’ll fix you something…”

Good because he was starved, and maybe Natalie could distract her mother, and that way she could stop looking at him in such a way that suggested that she wanted to kill him or perform some sort of sadistic act on his testicles.

Stop it, Brandon, stop. Just relax…

He took a deep breath, and looked at Natalie, hovering over the stove, laughing with her sisters. Ah, he could breathe again. Just by looking at her, just by looking so relaxed, so in tuned with spending time with her family. God, he respected her so much for that, and he could understand why Christmas was so important to her, why she spent so much time explaining to him their traditions, and how they kept them alive. When he looked at her, he certainly wasn’t the neurotic head-case that sensed that his future mother-in-law was out to get him, he was a man who couldn’t wait for the future, a man who couldn’t wait to make that girl his wife, a man who heard “This Christmas” in his mind, and was almost certain that he felt her soul running rampant inside of him.

After everyone had eaten, the Chandler Family, traditionally gather in the living room to exchange gifts, and each of the grandchildren—which included Natalie, Maya, Sidney, Cory, Marcus, Michael and Alicia—were each allowed to open one present from Granny Marie before morning. Alicia sat on Natalie’s lap as she passed out the gifts that she’d purchased for her family, giggling, “Are you ready for Santa Claus? Are you? I bet you’ve been a good girl, haven’t you?” Alicia would nod, would smile giddily and clap her hands. Granny Marie who’d disappeared into a back room, returned with a trash bag, and dumped it out on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.

“Dig in, children,” she instructed. “They’re all labeled, so I don’t want to hear any gripes. And remember…size does not matter…”

Brandon watched a Granny Marie looked in Natalie’s direction and winked.

Once the other grandchildren had retrieved their gifts, Natalie dug in the bag for hers, and after shuffling through for a moment, she came up with a white envelope with her name on it. Then, she looked at him.

“Open it, baby,” he told her, nodding in her direction.

“No, no,” Granny Marie said with the wave of her hand. “Natalie, you should wait till you get home…”

“But Granny…”

“Don’t ‘But Granny’ me,” she said. “Just do as you’re told…”

“Yes ma’am…”

Natalie felt she’d waited long enough when they sat on the couch together a couple hours after leaving Granny Marie’s, in front of a roaring fire, in the shadowed house on Green Hill Street, encircled by the whistling winter wind. Her mother and her sisters had gone to bed several minutes prior, after Helen threatened his life if he ventured into the back bedrooms where Natalie was in the middle of the night. So, Natalie opted to stay on the couch with him…well, at least until he fell asleep…or, at least until he found out what was in that envelope. She pulled a blanket over her legs, rested her head on his shoulder, and juggled the envelope between her fingers.

“So, are you going to open it?” he asked her, nudging her slightly.

She only sighed. “I suppose…it can’t be much…there’s not much that you can fit into an envelope…”

“Remember what she said, ‘Size doesn’t matter’, baby…”

“I know, I know,” she said. “But when you see Maya and Sid get these big ol’ boxes, you kind of feel…you know…”

“Shitted…”

“Not on Christmas Eve, Brandon…”

“Sorry…ripped off…”

“Yes, that’s better…”

“Just open it, Tal,” he said. “It can’t be that bad…you’re being overdramatic…”

“You’re right, you’re right…why don’t you open it?”

“Me? It doesn’t say Brandon on there,” he told her, rolling his eyes.

“Natalie, Brandon…potato, potato…”

“I like the way you think…”

Natalie huffed and spoke a little louder. “Brandy, open it…”

“Shhh, you’ll wake up your mother…”

“Open it…”

“Fine, you big baby, fine…”

He snatched the envelope from her, sighed and opened it swiftly, gliding his finger along the back. “See?” he said. “Not that hard…”

“What’s in it?”

He reached inside and pulled out a white sheet of paper. “Look, Tal, there’s a note…”

“Really? Read it to me…”

He exhaled heavily, unfolded the paper and cleared his throat. “My sweet Natalie: I love the woman that you’ve grown into. You make your mother and I so proud. May God bless you in your future endeavors, and you know that your family will be here to support you. I wish you and Brandon a lifetime of love and happiness, and to get you started, I’m giving you a little something to help…I hope that you have the wedding of your dreams…Love you always, Granny…”

“It really said that?”

“No, Natalie, I made it up…of course it said that…”

“Well, what’s inside?”

Brandon pulled out a check. Silent once he’d looked at the check, he then handed the check to her, clearing his throat again.

“Bran, what is it?’ she asked, taking the check from his hands.

He sucked in his breath as he watched her eyes widen as she looked at it. She then proceeded to cover her mouth with her hand as she sucked in her breath.

“Yea, I know,” he said to her, understanding.

“It has your name on it too,” she replied, showing the check to him.

“I can’t believe it…five thousand dollars?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Wait a minute…”

“What?”

“You sneaky little…”

“What on earth could I have possibly done…?”

“You know what you did,” she whispered to him, reaching out to poke him in the chest. “You always know…”

Of course he did. Which would explain why he smiled so grandly at her at the moment. But she shouldn’t have spoken so quickly, right? The night that they scrambled over their finances, trying to find any kind of money to pay for a wedding, he’d felt embarrassed, felt like less of a man, felt his stomach curl at the way she looked at him when he’d told her that he was plumb broke. Not only had he wasted his affections on Sophia, he’d also wasted his money on that silly girl too, with the exception of the money he’d spent on the engagement ring on Natalie’s finger. Nonetheless, he was penniless, and he knew that Natalie was disappointed. And he was so paranoid of her disappointment, that he not only thought that she wouldn’t marry him, he also went so far as to run to his father and beg him for the money.

The bastard cleared his throat and paused before answering, after he’d poured his heart out, explaining how much Natalie meant to him, and said, “I’m sorry son…but we’ve given you enough money these past years to last you a lifetime…and after you left graduate school, your mother and I decided to stop giving you money…unfortunately, you proved to us that you cannot manage money very well…we’re sorry…I’m sorry…”

He swore that he almost cried then and there, and in the days following, the more he heard Tallie talk about the wedding to him, the more he ached.

And with his pride nowhere in sight, he called Maya, and he asked for her Granny’s phone number.

“What for?” she’d asked.

So, he told her. She’d told him that she would help if she could.

He knew that she would. There was always something angelic about those Chandler girls…

His hands were shaking when he called Marie Chandler two weeks before Christmas. His hands were shaking so badly that he could barely breathe and he’d thought of the ways that she’d receive him, considering the fact that he hadn’t spoken with her since the cookout back in the summer.

“My boy,” she’d said. “To what do I owe this honor?”

He’d almost changed his mind, just in the moment that he heard her voice. The light and the air of it reminded him of Natalie then. He then pictured Tallie in the white dress of her dreams, surrounded by flowers, her face lit by a smile, walking toward him. He regained his footing.

“I need help, Ms. Chandler…”

“Granny, Boy…call me Granny…and what do you need help with?”

He sighed heavily, cleared his throat and told the grandmother that he only wanted to make Natalie happy, only wanted to give Natalie the world, and that he never wanted to lose her again…

“Alright, Brandon…let Granny handle it…”

So, she did. And now, quicker than he expected, Natalie had discovered their little secret.

“What in the world’s the matter with you?”

He sucked in his breath. “What are you talking about?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?’

“Do you really have to ask?”

“Brandon…”

“Don’t Brandon me,” he hissed. “You know why I did this…”

“You didn’t have to…you know that…”

He sighed and only looked at her. He wanted to. With everything he had inside of him, he wanted to, damn it. Why couldn’t she understand that? Why in the hell did she have to make everything difficult?

“Tal, I know that…”

She lowered her eyes to the check. “Why didn’t you tell me? We could have figured this out together…if you were in trouble…”

He didn’t respond. He would assume that she knew that he had to redeem himself. Yes, redeem himself for all of the dumb shit he’d done to her, for leaving something that had given his life substance, that had given him something to give a damn about.

She lifted the check back up and waved it back and forth. “Why, baby? Why do you constantly do this?”

“Don’t ask me that,” he told her, shaking his head left to right. “Please, don’t ask me that…”

She looked back down at the check. “You’re amazing…you know that, right?”

No, you are, Tal. For giving him a second chance, for putting up with all of his bullshit all of these years, for loving him in the way that he was certain he didn’t love her.

Merry Christmas…

He hoped that her crazy mother wouldn’t choke him to death the moment that she entered the living room the next morning and saw her daughter laying atop him, with the covers wrapped around them so tightly. Hell, they both couldn’t have helped it. After spending the next two hours talking about everything under the sun, the way that they used to back in college, heavy-lidded Natalie straddled him and placed her head on his chest, and soon after, she was fast asleep. The last thing that he remembered doing was rubbing her head and hearing her breathing, before he, too, fell asleep, counting his blessings in his dreams.

He looked as if he were about to ring her neck the moment that he opened his Christmas present the following morning.

“Tallie…” was all he said, through his sleepy grumble, and she watched as his cheeks slowly turned bright red.

“Do you like it,” she asked, grinning.

“You know I do…”

“And the engraving?”

“Especially that…indulge me, though…”

“I’m not telling you how much it cost…that’s between me and the Lord…”

“And us,” Sidney interjected.

Natalie lowered her eyes and giggled. “And Sid and Maya…”

“I’ll find out sooner or later…”

“I’ll never tell you,” she replied in singsong voice.

“We’ll see about that later,” he told her, winking at her subtly.

She knew that he loved the gift any way, and her only hope was that he took better care of that one than he did the last. And she hoped that he knew that that was going to be his last big gift for a while…