“I love it Cole. Thank you, so much.” I whimpered as I dropped down onto his lap and hugged the hell out of him. Once I calmed, I sat back enough to hold my right arm out. Cole smiled and hooked the bracelet around my wrist, fastening it in place. It was small, fitting my thin wrist just perfectly. I loved it so much, not least of which because it held reminders of my parents on it. I kissed Cole just briefly, then moved over and wiggled in between Kyle’s feet, and rested my head on Cole’s shoulder beside me.
“Ok Mom, your turn.” Matt declared, as we all turned to Keira.
“Oh Good!” Keira cried excitedly. She blindly reached for the closest gift in her pile and pulled out the picture I had made for both her and Grant. She sat it on her lap and looked over to me with a huge smile when she read the tag I had attached.
“I….I kind of gave everyone the same, so you should probably open them at the same time.” I said nervously. Suddenly, all of the excitement I had felt all week at giving out my gifts, had turned to nerves they wouldn’t like the sketches.
Everyone started going through their piles for the same shaped gift until they all sat with it on their lap, even Cole who had been passed his over by Matt, seemingly not wanting to move from my side.
Grant and Keira tore into theirs first, one from each end of the picture I had gifted to both of them. Everyone followed straight after, and I looked around nervously, biting my lip.
“Olivia, sweetheart, did you do this?” Grant asked as I looked up towards him. He and Keira were just staring at the picture, the smiles on their faces reassuring me it couldn’t be that bad. Grant looked up to me and waited for an answer. Feeling shy and nervous over the whole thing, I just nodded.
“It’s amazing, Honey. It’s going to get pride of place.” Keira stood and hurried over to me as she spoke, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and giving me a quick squeeze. “Thank you.” She whispered, then she returned to Grant.
“This was in the garden, two weeks ago. That selfie we took.” Cole said as he looked over his sketch of us together. I was in his arms, reaching up to kiss his cheek, as he just beamed, that beautiful smile on his face. He had snapped the picture and sent it to me. I had printed it and had it stuck on the mirror in my room, so sketching it had been easy. “Thank you, Beautiful.” He added as he leant in and kissed my cheek.
The others all followed, coming over to thank me, tell me how much they loved their gift, and of course, to kiss me. Even Evie, who had found her picture under the tree came over squealing about hanging it in her room, and me teaching her to draw. I was relieved the presents had been well received, but I had one more to give, and I was nervous. Kyle seemed to love his sketch of the two of us outside the city zoo, where he had taken me the week before, but I wasn’t sure how the other I had for him would be received. I looked to Kade with trepidation, but he just smiled and nodded, encouraging me.
“You’re incredibly talented Olivia, and those were very thoughtful gifts. Thank you, sweetheart.” Grant said with a smile.
“Actually I…..I have one more.” I stuttered as I crawled across the room and pulled the wrapped picture from where I had hidden it beneath the sofa, the night before. I stood with it tightly in my hands and took a breath, then looked to Kyle, who instantly sat forward in his seat.
“This one is for you too Ky.” I walked over and gave it to him in a hurry, then stepped back and stood watching with a mix of anxiety and excitement.
“Another one?” Kyle asked, confused. I just nodded, and was glad when he didn’t press further and just opened it. The paper came away first from where I had drawn Reece’s eyes. Every sketch I had done, had just been pencil drawings, with no colour, but when I finished Reece’s picture, I felt like something was missing, like it wasn’t bright enough to reflect the beaming sunshine filled girl in the photo, so I had used blues to shade her irises, and they seemed to pop from the image now, bringing life to the picture that I was sure reflected the beautiful, happy little girl she had been.
Kyle stopped when those eyes looked out from the wrapping at him, and his head shot up to me, his face a mix of emotion and confusion. I smiled shakily, trying to reassure him, and he carried on, frenziedly ripping away the last of the paper. The picture sat before him on his lap, and he just stared at it. I had put a copy of the zoomed in image Kade got, in the bottom corner, and then my sketch, much bigger sat above, in the heavy frame to match the others.
“Oh my God!” Keira gasped. “Is that….?”
“Reece.” Kyle whispered. He stared a moment longer, then looked up to me. His eyes were glassy, but his jaw was firm, and I worried I had overstepped. “How?”
“Kade helped. He got the photo. I just d-did the sketch and framed it.”
“There were no photos.” Kyle all but growled.
“Olivia wanted to talk to Rita, the neighbour who used to take care of Reece, so she could draw her for you. I chased it up, and ended up getting that photo. It was the only one, and Reece was only in
