The Ugly Christmas Sweater... Shirt.
In this scene, the hero, Scott, finds the dreaded ugly Christmas sweater, his in shirt form, a gift from his mother.
The Christmas Sweater / Shirt
In his old room, Scott stripped out of his uniform and put on sweatpants and slippers. On his bed was the loose T-shirt with a blond-haired elf on the front that his mother had given him the year before. The elf was shirtless, wearing red boxer shorts with holly on them, and he was licking a candy cane while dangling a round ornament on one finger of his other hand. Some people got an ugly Christmas sweater. His mom gave him the T-shirt version he could wear all year. Yay. Lucky him.
Upon seeing the shirt when Scott unwrapped it, a cousin had started singing, "Don we now our gay apparel..." and had broken into riotous laughter. That didn't stop the family from insisting he wear it. He was sure he'd asked Mary to give it to Goodwill, so how it had shown up again this year he couldn't explain. Yet, there it was. It could only have come from one person.
"The things we do for our mothers." Scott slipped it on over his head and headed for the kitchen.
He leaned against the door jamb, enjoying the sight. His mother was chopping things for the stuffing and adding them to her biggest bowl. His dad sat at the end of the counter, reading a Popular Science magazine. Neither seemed to pay attention to the other, but while his mother was cooking, Dad always kept her company. She'd crochet in a wooden rocker in the garage while he worked on the boat he was building. As if they couldn't bear to be parted from one another, even though they didn't talk much. Maybe they didn't need words.
Scott had thought he and his wife would be the same, but he and Mary had shared a different lifestyle. Both were often busy, and sometimes saw each other only in passing. He'd worked nights, and she'd worked days. She'd had a downtown office, working as an architect for government housing. Time spent outdoors had given her a great tan, but exposed her to hazardous toxins no one had known were in the old buildings being demolished. When she fainted at work, the company sent her in for a check up. After the diagnosis, the project had been shut down immediately, but cancer took a quick toll. Mary was gone in six months. A government investigation into the cause was still ongoing.
Scott now had sole custody of a four-year old daughter and a job that took him into danger every day. He'd shifted to the downtown beat and day shift because it seemed safer, and he could still do what he loved doing: Helping people.
[bctt tweet="This would win the Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest #ChristmasRomance #UglyChristmasSweater https://books2read.com/sweet-christmas-romance" username="KayelleAllen"]
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My characters may be found in multiple books within this story universe.
Pietas images courtesy of Nik Nitsvetov Pietas cosplays.
Transmission complete.
The Empire remembers.
Remain. Endure. Return.
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The things we do for our moms – truer words were never spoken/written.
Yep. Soooo true. lol
This sounds great, Kayelle. You managed to set up the story so succinctly, too.
“Don we now our gay apparel…” Wonderful!
LOL I totally enjoyed writing this story. 🙂
Brilliant, loved it. Silly and profound.
What a great compliment. Thank you, Adriana.
This sounds like such a good story. Fun but also there’s an emotional side that adds depth. I bought a copy to read. Also, I’m sorry that my link doesn’t work. I don’t know what I did wrong with copying the link at Blogger. I haven’t used Blogger in a long time.
Thank you, Patricia. I fixed your link. It should be good to go now. 🙂
I like how he describes his parents’ relationship. They’re always there for each other, even if they don’t talk a lot.
Thank you! They are named after my own parents, who were much like that.
Enjoyed the description of his parent’s relationship. Wonder what about his? I think I need his elf shirt. LOL Thanks for sharing!
Thank you — that elf was drawn for me by a friend. 🙂