Lazarus raised his hand. “I volunteer to oversee the kids’ table. Ain't got nobody to need me to sit with them anyway. Besides, the kids are great.”
“Don’t forget when they start tossing cranberries at you, that you volunteered,” Riley teased.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll toss back,” Lazarus said with a smile.
“Let’s eat! I’m starving!” Riley said.
Chapter 28
They’d just begun to serve their plates when the chime from the security gate sounded to let them know someone was at the gate.
“I’ll go check,” Lucas said. “I am, after all, the butler tonight,” he added, grinning.
“You weren’t the butler when we arrived. Riley let us in,” Travis said.
“That’s because he wanted to mess with you. Otherwise, I’d have let you in. And I’d have been nicer than he was,” Lucas said, teasing both Travis and Riley with one sentence.
Lucas hurried to the front door and pulled it open. He smiled when he saw who it was. He closed the door behind himself and waited patiently until the person parked and got out their vehicle before noticing him standing on the porch and walking toward him. “Hi.”
“Hey, Alex. I’m glad you came,” Lucas said.
“I wasn’t sure I was coming,” Alex answered truthfully.
“Can’t say I blame you. But I’m glad you did. Laz will be glad you’re here, too.”
Alex shook her head. “Haven’t seen him in a few weeks. Pretty sure unless he needs me to sew him up again, I won’t hear from him,” Alex admitted.
“Seriously?” Lucas asked, inviting her in and closing the door behind them. “Surely you didn’t miss him tailing you all over the damn place on most of the dates you’ve been on with your new man.”
Alex’s head whipped around and she looked at Lucas. “We’ve had a dinner a few times. He’s not my new man. Lazarus isn’t interested so there’s no reason I should have to sit home and wait for him to decide he wants to be with me.”
“I agree!” Lucas said. “But, what I’m trying to say is Lazarus has been around. He’s just been good at not being noticed. I know for a fact he’s followed you on several different evenings, and I’m pretty sure he’s loitering around outside your place even when you’re alone.”
“He’s stalking me?” Alex asked, with a smirk.
Lucas grimaced. “I’d rather call it watching over you.”
“Oh, I see,” Alex said, with a half-smile.
“Just keep doing what you’re doing. The threat of you moving on is getting his goat. Let him see what it’s like to have your attention on another male,” Lucas said, taking her coat from her.
“Thanks for the advice,” she said.
“Come on, we’re just sitting down to dinner.”
When Lucas walked back into the kitchen leading Alex, Lazarus jumped to his feet. “Alex!” he said, his expression telling everyone at the table exactly how important she was to him, whether he’d admit it or not.
“Merry Christmas, everyone. Sorry I’m late. I’d decided not to come then changed my mind at the last moment. I just couldn’t spend Christmas Eve without ya’ll,” Alex said, stopping behind Maia to hug her from behind.
“I’m so glad you came!” Maia said, raising her arms to hug Alex as she leaned over her.
Riley stood up and hugged her, then looked over at Lazarus and the empty chair beside him that he was very happily standing beside with it already pulled out and waiting for Alex. “There’s a seat by Laz, but if that’s a problem we can rearrange a few people.”
“No, not at all. It’s not a problem,” Alex answered, walking over toward Lazarus, kissing a few people on the cheek as she passed them. When she reached the seat Lazarus patiently stood beside, waiting for her to sit down so he could do the gentlemanly thing of scooting her chair closer to the table, she smiled at him. “Thank you, Lazarus.”
“You’re welcome. I’m really happy you’re here,” he said as she allowed him to nudge her chair closer.
“Me, too. I’ve missed everyone,” she said, looking everywhere around the table but at Lazarus.
Dishes began to be passed her way and in only a matter of moments, her plate was filled.
“Alright, if you don’t mind waiting a minute longer, Cristie’s been practicing a blessing for this evening. She wouldn’t let us hear it until tonight so we’d all be surprised. Go ahead, baby girl,” Riley said proudly.
Cristie stood from her chair, which barely changed her height at all and primly clasped her hands in front of her. “Thank you for this food, it feeds our bodies. Thank you for our family, they feed our spirit. Thank you for all we love, it feeds our hearts. All we have is a gift, and we are thankful. Amen.”
“Cristie, that’s beautiful! Thank you, baby,” Maia said. “Who taught you that?”
“You’re welcome,” she said, smiling. “Poppy taught me,” then raising her voice even louder she grinned and proclaimed to all in the room. “Past the teeth and over the gums, look out stomach, here it comes!”
When everybody laughed, she sat down and started eating.
“Of course, he did,” Maia said, chuckling.
Taking advantage of the moments of silence as everyone first dug into their meals, Lazarus produced a small unwrapped box from his shirt pocket and placed it beside Alex’s plate.
She looked down at it, but refused to look up at him. “What’s this?” she asked quietly.
“Something I saw and wanted you to have,” he answered.
Alex’s first instinct was to push the box back over toward his plate, but she didn’t want to cause a scene, and she was really curious. Alex laid her fork down on the edge of her plate and picked up the box. It was a deep blue velvet, and obviously contained some form of jewelry. She opened the box and when she saw what was inside, she couldn’t help but smile. “You shouldn’t have done this,” she said, still not looking at him.
“I shouldn’t have done a lot of things, but this is something I most certainly should have. Merry Christmas, Alex,” he said, placing his hand on the back of her chair.
Finally, she turned her head to look at him.
“It belongs to only you,” he said, not clarifying if he meant his heart, or the necklace.
“It’s beautiful,” Alex said, touching the heart-shaped ruby surrounded by little round diamonds, and set in gold.
“You want me to put your necklace on you?” he asked.
Alex nodded. “Yes, please,” she said, turning her back to him and lifting her hair.
Lazarus took the pendant from her, placed it around her neck and fastened it from behind.
Alex let her hair fall and looked down at the heart-shaped ruby falling just above her cleavage. “It’s beautiful,” she said again as she ran her fingers over it.
“I’m glad you like it,” Lazarus said.
Alex smiled at him for a moment longer, trying to figure out what exactly was happening. Lazarus had made it a point to shut her out, make her feel like all he wanted was a casual relationship, then he goes and buys her a ruby and diamond pendant, shaped like a heart no less, and Lucas said he’d been stalking her.