“And you’re going to do that for me?” Nevaeh asked Dale, shocked that she was so special to him.
“Absolutely! I have to tell you something, Nevaeh,” he knelt down before her. “You and your mommy mean the world to me. You’re such a big piece of my heart and I want to help you and other children with your condition in any way that I can. Do you wish to have a party next week?”
“Next week?” I asked, surprised it would be so soon.
“Yes, I thought we’d have a New Year’s Eve benefit. I can advertise on social media sites and have my assistant get in touch with some of our close friends and family. We can have some food catered, order a band and, of course, have our star guest at the party,” he said, turning his glance to Nevaeh.
“Can we? Can we mom? Huh? Please?” Nevaeh begged. She couldn’t wait to be the star guest at the big event.
I smiled before I finally agreed that we could. As the evening wore on, the three of us laid around watching classic Christmas programs on television until Nevaeh fell asleep.
“I feel so sorry for her,” Dale said once she was conked out on the sofa.
“I know. She can hardly get around at all. I take her for more testing next week; I just hope she doesn’t end up in a wheelchair before her tenth birthday.”
“Nah, that’s not going to happen,” he reassured me.
“I hope not, and I want to tell you how thankful I am that you’re doing this benefit for her. I know I was a pain in the ass about it at first and refused to go along with your little plan. But I did a lot of thinking and I decided that this was in her best interest. Sometimes it’s not all about me, it’s about her.”
“True,” he agreed. “I was wondering if it would be all right if I spent the night over here tonight. I have a lot more presents out in the car,” he confessed.
“You what?” I asked, confused and surprised.
“I know that you wanted her to have the best Christmas and you’ve been working so hard, but things just haven’t been working in your favor. I also wanted to make sure she had an awesome Christmas so I figured what could be better than two Santa’s?” he grinned.
“Of course you can spend the night, but you didn’t have to bring presents. I feel so sorry that I wasn’t able to get you anything,” I said again.
“Don’t worry about it. Really. You two are my presents. I couldn’t think of anything else in the world that I’d want more than you two. Now come help me carry in all of them,” he laughed as he joked around with me.
We tiptoed out the front door and out to his SUV. My eyes popped out of my head as I saw the entire hatchback filled to the rim with tons of presents.
“Oh, my God, Dale! You really didn’t have to do this!” I said as he lifted the trunk open.
“I know that I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. Here, take these and I’ll grab the bigger ones. After this trip, you just stand by the front door. I’ll bring them to you so you’re not out in this cold,” he said as the cold December wind whipped and cracked across his face.
We carefully placed each present under the tree until it was completely full. It was unbelievable how bare the tree had been only hours ago and now the presents were spilling out into the living room. We dozed off on the couch watching Christmas movies until they were loudly awakened by Nevaeh shrieking at the sight of all the presents that invaded their living room.
“Momma! He came! He actually came!” she shouted.
I opened my eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them as I nudged Dale, who was lightly snoring. “Dale, Santa came,” I announced, “Nevaeh’s ready to open her presents.”
His eyes popped open and a gleaming smiled spread across his face as he saw the excitement Nevaeh was trying to contain. Present after present, she tore into the wrapping paper with the speed of a Tasmanian devil. She was almost to the end of the presents when she became discouraged.
“What’s wrong baby?” I asked her.
“Nothing.”
“No, what’s wrong? You were so excited a few minutes ago. What happened?”
“He didn’t bring me the tablet I’d asked for.”
My heart sank, feeling as though I was the worst mom in the world. “Well baby, maybe he forgot it when he left the North Pole. Maybe I can get you one for your birthday,” I offered. Hopefully, by the time May rolled around, I can scrounge up fifty bucks.
“You still have some more presents,” Dale said, handing her another package.