Read Season's Greetings for Free Online Page B

my salary, let alone support Cris. “Cris? You’re not really unemployed, are you?”
    More mellow chuckles. “Nah. I’m being transferred to the regional office. I’ll be working an hour from here, coordinating promotional efforts for the local stores instead of setting up new stores. The MBA paid off, like you said it would.”
     

Epilogue
     
    I was grateful that my mom hadn’t used her key. We at least had the two minutes of warning that the doorbell ringing and loud voices calling greetings gave us. Just enough time to throw on those pajama pants and a T-shirt plus get the door to the bedroom closed.
    I opened the front door to find not only my parents and brother on the doorstep, but also Cris’s parents and his brother as well. My face literally burned. Greeting my mom in Grinch pajamas was one thing, greeting my future in-laws in pajamas of any sort seemed a bad omen.
    “Umm, hi?” I stood in the doorway, blocking the entrance to the house while Cris rushed around the living area cleaning up the mess of cookies and eggnog and wrapping paper and whatever else we’d left behind the night before.
    “Merry Christmas! We were all up and thought, you know…It’s such a shame for Ben to be alone on Christmas morning, so we came right over.” Mom shoved a box at me. Dad pushed gently at the door. Cris’s parents stood with stoic expressions, though I noticed his mom’s eyes seemed a little bright and his dad’s lip twitched erratically.
    Abe rolled his eyes, and I smirked as I noticed his Big Bird pajamas under the winter coat. They hadn’t all been awake. “Well, and here’s Mr. and Mrs. Martin as well.”
    Doug Martin’s eyes sparkled, his mouth stretched in a broad grin, and he grabbed my hand, shaking it vigorously. “Ben, good to see you.”
    The door was pulled from my grasp, and I knew from the warmth at my back that Cris had succeeded in cleaning the living room. “Ben, baby, it’s freezing out. Why are you keeping everyone standing in the cold? Come in, Mr. Cavelli, Mona. Mom, Dad, nice to see you. Abe…Vince. No Jake and Becky?”
    “They wouldn’t be here this early. Their kids will be opening gifts and doing the holiday thing.” Rolling my eyes, I stepped back into the hall and the troops filed past me into the living area. That was when I noticed Cris had apparently taken the time to change his clothes and wore neat Dockers and a seasonal sweater. I punched him in the arm as I passed to let him know what I thought of that.
    “They just happened to be awake?” I hissed into Abe’s ear.
    “Dude, do I look like I was awake?” He curled into a ball on my sofa and I plopped next to him. We matched, being the only two present in our pajamas. Cris came over to sit next to me, but I glared at him.
    “What?” he asked innocently.
    “You took the time to change?” I looked pointedly at my pajamas.
    “Well, yeah. I didn’t want your parents to see me in my pajamas.”
    “Duh.” Abe snickered.
    “So, Cris, are you going to tell us what was so important you called at the ass crack of dawn this morning?” Vince, Cris’s older brother, spoke up.
    All eyes were on us, or I’d have punched him again. Of course there was no way that his family and mine would coincidentally end up on my doorstep at exactly the same time on a holiday morning they normally spent apart without a little deus ex machina .
    “You called them? And didn’t tell me?”
    He had the grace to blush.
    “You can fight later.” Abe nudged me with his toe. “I got up early. On my vacation. This better be good.”
    “Well?” I tried to scowl, but my lips didn’t want to do anything but grin stupidly and, pajamas or not, I really did want to tell my parents the news.
    “Last night,” Cris began, looking at his father and mine in turn. “I asked Ben to marry me.”
    “And I said yes.”
    Two squealing moms can drown out any number of manly congratulations, but nothing speaks louder of welcome to the family