Lay Low

Chapter Fifteen

As we walked from the car, Max threw his arm around me.

"I am so please we get to spend Christmas together."

I smiled back at him.

"Me too Max".

"Now your Aunt Lucia is here with her husband Paul and your cousins Kim and Logan. Do you remember them?"

He opened the door and let us in.

"I remember their names" I racked my brains.  No faces popped into my consciousness.

"It's okay; you were young when you used to see them.  Kim is roundabout your age and Logan is a year younger than you."

"Right."

Max seemed nervous.  "Is it OK that I invited them?  I should have asked really, what with it being our first Christmas together but your Aunt would not take no for an answer.  She has been bugging me to see you since we started seeing each other."

"Is this him?!" I looked up to see a plump lady with curly, dark brown hair coming towards me.

"Of course it is him, look at him he is the spit of you Maxie" She enveloped me into a long hug.

"Let him breathe Lucia" laughed Max.

She pulled me away from her chest and took a look at me.  Tears sparkled in her eyes. "Welcome back to the family." She said, kissing my cheeks.

She pulled me by the hand into the living room.  This woman was a force of nature.

"Here he is" she announced.

I felt my cheeks begin to colour.

A tall man with dark skin and a big smile approached. "Hi, I am your Uncle Paul"

He extended his hand and I shook it.

"I'm Jake" I said, unnecessarily.

Two teenagers came up behind him.

"Meet your cousins; this is Logan"

"Hi"

A skinny kid with baggy jeans nodded at me. "Hey"

"And this is Kim"

A beautiful girl with hazelnut colour skin embraced me in a hug.   I felt my cheeks redden further.

"Hi Jake" she said shy now, brushing her hair away from her face.

There was a moment of silent awkwardness.

"We were just about to play Monopoly.  You want to play?  Be warned, my mum steals from the bank" said Kim.

"Don't listen to them, they are sore losers" said Aunt Lucia with a big grin.

We sat down as Jane got the board.  I looked over and saw Kai curled up asleep on the couch.

"Is he alright?" I asked Max.

"Ran out of steam just before I came out to get you.  He was up at 5.30am mind; think the excitement of the day took it out of him."

Jane came back and set the board up.  I watched them as they gently argued on who was which playing piece.

They all seemed so happy together.  There didn't seem to be a tension or edge to any of the banter.  As I shifted in my seat, my body ached reminding me of my home life.  Would he be waiting for me tomorrow to use his new Christmas present?  He was unpredictable but his threats were the one thing he usually made good on.