Page 17 of The Scrooge Effect

I contemplated briefly what our third child would be like, but I didn’t want to bring it up to Edu since he freaked out so much about Gracie. He’d been ecstatic about James, but now we were going into five years of marriage, and he was starting to revert to his old self. It had happened little by little, but the change was obvious to me. And with every year that passed, I worried it was all becoming too much reality for him.

Edu was so good with the kids that a huge part of me wanted to believe it would all be okay. With Gracie, he’d been forced to reconcile himself that we were having a baby. James was planned, so that wasn’t an issue. A third one might push him over the edge, especially at this time of year.

Which was why I was hoping to keep my stomach hidden for as long as possible. It was still early, so I might make it through the holidays, as long as morning sickness didn’t kick in.

For just a minute, I thought about getting dressed before I headed downstairs, but if I went back into my room, I’d just plop down in bed and go to sleep. I knocked on Eden’s door.

“Eden, are you awake?”

“Yep!”

“School in an hour!”

“I’m almost ready!”

Eden was such an easy kid. Considering what she came from, she was more normal than most of us.

I moved across the hall to James’s room, but upon peeking inside, I immediately closed the door. James was a late sleeper, which I greatly appreciated. Eden was fine doing her own thing in the morning, but Gracie always woke me up with a bang.

I slogged to the stairs, still trying to wake up, when I found Gracie already on the stairs, pulling the cat by the tail.

“Gracie! Let Oreo go!”

She giggled as she tugged his tail once again. “He likes it, Momma.”

“He does not. We don’t pull the cat’s tail, remember?”

She released him and jumped down the last step, then started buzzing around the room. As for me, I trudged on to the kitchen, bypassing the living room. If Edu was still sleeping, I didn’t want to wake him up. Gracie would do that soon enough.

The coffee took forever to make, but once I had my cup, I decided to be a nice wife and bring my husband a mug. After all, he slept on the couch.

Honestly, it was a little ridiculous that I was so worried about him after the stunt he pulled last night, but I couldn’t help it. I knew how hard this time of year was for him.

It just seemed to get worse every year instead of getting better, and I didn’t know how to help him. I had hoped when Gracie got older, he would just naturally slip into the Christmas spirit, but if anything, it was like he didn’t want to give her hope.

“Edu?” I called out, carrying a mug for each of us into the living room.

“Momma!” Gracie called out, slapping Edu on the face as she laughed.

He was hanging half off the couch, his hand loosely holding a bottle of liquor that had spilled on the floor.

I heard Eden’s shoes on the stairs and quickly set down the mugs, rushing to intercept her. I didn’t want her to see her brother this way.

“Hey! Good morning!”

“Morning. Is Edu up?”

“Uh, he’s in the living room with Gracie. Why don’t we get you some breakfast?”

“Sure, I just want to say hi first.”

“Actually,” I said, stepping in front of her just before she could head in there. “Um…he’s feeling kind of bad about last night. Let’s give him a minute to pull himself together.”

She glanced over my shoulder, but thankfully, couldn’t see anything. “Sure.”

“Come on. Do you want eggs?”

“Can I have cereal today?”