Hold On Tight (Take My Hand) Read Free Page B

could
muster.
    “Well don’t you dare go to
sleep,” Sarah ordered teasingly. I shook my head weakly, blinking repeatedly to
stop my eyes from closing – because I knew if they did, they wouldn’t
open again.
    During her first Christmas
as Dexter’s full-time guardian, Sarah set up a tradition where they had to pull
a cracker and make a wish bang on midnight Christmas Eve. Apparently it was
something her own family used to do when she and Deborah, Dexter’s mum, were
little girls. That is why I was forcing myself to stay awake, despite my
eyelids feeling like they were made from lead-weights.
    “Why’d you move to
England?” I asked through a yawn. “Why not just move states?” It was a question
I’d thought about before and now seemed like the perfect time to bring it up,
if for no other reason than talking about it would keep me awake.
    “You wishin ’
I hadn’t?” Dexter teased, feigning a hurt expression.
    “You know I don’t. It’s
just so far away… so far from Sarah.”
    “ Downton Abbey.”
    “Eh?”
    “I’d been thinking of
leaving for a while. Then Downton Abbey was playing
in the background one night,” he paused and cocked his head towards Sarah, “she
loves that shit.”
    “Um, anything with Dan
Stevens in it is not shit,” Sarah
interrupted with a firm scowl.
    “Oh please, sweet cheeks…
you’re old enough to be his mom. Anyway, I thought ‘England – why not?’
Then I remembered my mom telling me stories about the Queen when I was a boy.
After tucking the blankets up under my chin at night she would sit on the end of
the bed. She would tell me about this country we would visit one day where
there were palaces, princes and princesses and a giant clock…
    I started arranging study
permits and looking into flights the very next morning. I’d made my decision
and I stuck to it. It was the best decision
I ever made,” he said, never taking his eyes off mine. Funny how my eyes had
forgotten how tired they were all of a sudden. Too busy being captivated by
Dexter’s love-filled gaze, they didn’t want to close anymore.

 
    “Ten… nine… eight…” Sarah
began counting down along with the second hand on the pendulum clock above the
TV. Dexter and I joined in and when the hand struck midnight we all shouted out
in unison…
    “Merry Christmas!”
    Picking up our crackers,
Dexter and I went first before Dexter went again with Sarah. Obviously our
wishes had to remain a secret but I’m guessing we all wished for the same thing
– for Martin Michaels to leave us the hell alone.
    “Aww, you got a pen!” I
whined as I eyed up Dexter’s cracker prize. I got a screwdriver so small only a
Barbie doll could put it to use.
    “You jealous, doll?”
    “Yeah! A pen is useful…
what the hell am I supposed to do with this?” I complained jokingly, waving my
mini screwdriver in the air.
    “Merry Christmas, doll,”
Dexter said, placing his pen in my hand and closing my fingers around it. I
couldn’t help the delighted smile that crawled across my face. “What’d you get,
sweet cheeks?” I adored how he called his Aunt ‘sweet cheeks’ – with pure
adoration dripping from his gentle voice. Apparently she used to call him that
when he was a boy. It seems unbelievable now that not so long ago I thought he
might be cheating on me when I heard him say that to someone down the phone.
    “A tiny deck of cards,”
Sarah answered, unpicking the cellophane encompassing the little cardboard box
with her fingernail. “Wanna play poker?”
    “I wouldn’t know where to
begin,” I admitted, my words almost getting swallowed by the gigantic yawn I
produced.
    “That’s a crime,” Dexter
said. “Everyone should know how to play poker. We’ll teach you tomorrow. After
lunch,” he added. I bit my bottom lip, feeling quite sure his attempts would be
futile. I remember Chris trying to teach me with a couple of friends years ago.
The whole concept was lost on me then, and I can only