Nicole Carter ran into the kitchen. “Mommy, Mommy.”

Summer Carter turned from what she was cooking to her 4-year-old. “What honey?” Summer asked as she ran her hands through her daughter’s unruly light brown locks.

“It’s Christmas.” Nicole exclaimed.

Summer laughed. “Yes honey, it’s Christmas.”

“Time to open presents.”

“Why don’t we wait for Daddy?”

Nicole looked thoughtfully at her mother. “Where is Daddy?”

“Daddy is still sleeping.”

“Oh. I go wake him.”

“Nicole wait…” Before Summer could even finish the sentence, Nicole was gone and running toward her parents room.

Nicole pushed the door open and ran to the bed. She jumped on the bed and worked her way over to her father, who was not disturbed from the movement on the bed. “Daddy.” She giggled. “Wake up Daddy.” Nick Carter, mumbled something and rolled over and went back to sleep. “Daddy, it Christmas.”

Nick opened his eyes and looked at the clock. When his eyes focused on the green digital numbers he groaned and closed his eyes again. “Go back to sleep Nicole. It’s too early.”

“Not too early. It Christmas. Time for presents.”

“We’ll open presents later. Now it’s time for sleep.”

Nicole grabbed his arm and tried to pull him up. “Daddy, get up. Time for presents now.”

Nick opened his eyes and rolled onto his back, looking into the matching blue eyes of his little girl. “Ok, ok. I’m up.” He climbed out of bed and stretched. Then he picked up his daughter and carried her back into the kitchen.

Summer turned around. “I’m sorry, Nicky. I tried to keep her from waking you up.”

Nick chuckled. “I should have realized that she wouldn’t let me sleep in today.”

Summer smiled. “Of course not.” She lowered the flame on the stove and walked over to Nick and kissed him.

“Presents time.” Nicole said interrupting her parents kiss.

Nick and Summer broke apart and looked at Nicole and started laughing. Still holding Nicole, Nick nodded at Summer, who then started tickling Nicole.

Nicole’s giggles filled the kitchen. “Save me Daddy.”

“Save you?” Summer took Nicole from him and he started to tickle her. “Why would I save you?”

“Mommy, Daddy.” She squealed.

Nick and Summer were laughing. Summer placed Nicole on the floor and watched as Nicole scampered off into the living room. Nick and Summer followed her into the living room.

It took forever to finish opening the presents. After every present that Nicole unwrapped, she asked if she could play with the gift. Nick, not wanting to assemble anything at the moment kept trying to distract her by giving her another gift.

Soon all the gifts were open. Nick helped Summer finish cooking their Christmas Dinner as their family started to arrive. There was a brief exchange of gifts before everyone sat down to eat. Soon after dessert everyone left, leaving the small family alone. After cleaning up the kitchen, Nick and Summer were cuddling on the couch watching A Christmas Carol, while Nicole sat on the floor playing with her new toys.

About half way through the movie, Nicole got bored of playing with her toys and climbed onto the couch to lie on Nick’s arm. Nick smiled and kissed Nicole on the top of her head.

“Daddy?”

Nick smiled down at his daughter. “Yes?”

“How did you and Mommy meet?”

Nick’s smile faltered and quickly started to fade as he thought back to that Christmas 6 years ago when he met his wife.

Summer noticed his changed expression. She kissed him, which was a reminder that the Christmas in question had a happy ending as opposed to the bleak, depressing ending that it was heading toward.

Once the kiss was broken, Nick looked into the curious blue eyes of his little girl. “You really want to know how I met your mother?”

Nicole nodded her head eagerly. Nick nodded and started the story.

Summer was sitting behind the counter at the small Café that her Grandma Lily owned. Being Christmas Eve, the Café was empty. She wasn’t even sure why they were opened, but her grandmother had her reasons so Summer never questioned it.

She heard the bell over the door that signaled someone was entering or exiting, but seeing as how previously there was no one in the building but her and her grandmother, someone was obviously entering.

Her grandmother came up behind her and watched as a young man sat down at a table with a laptop. “Oh Nick is here.”

Summer gave her grandmother a confused look. “You know him by name?”

“Of course Summer. He comes here everyday.”

“Everyday?”

“Yep. And he sits at the same table.”

“Does he order?”

“Yeah he orders. But he gets the same thing every day, so I just prepare it and bring it to him.” She said as she prepared his order. When it was finished she turned to Summer. “Why don’t you bring it out to him? Take a break, maybe sit with him.”

Summer laughed. “What are you suggesting Grandma?”

“I’m not suggesting anything. All I’m saying is that you’re new in town and it wouldn’t hurt to make a friend here. And maybe they’ll be a certain romantic chemistry between you two.”

Summer laughed again. “I knew you had an ulterior motive.” Grabs the tray and walks out to Nick and places his food in front of him. “Do you mind if I sit down with you?”

Nick closed down what he was working on and then shut his laptop and looked up. He shrugged. “Go ahead.”

“I’m Summer.”

“Nick.”

Summer smiled. “Yeah, my grandmother told me.”

Wow, she has a beautiful smile. “You’re grandmother?”

“Yeah. Lily.”

“I’ve never seen you here before.”

“I just came back here.”

Nick nodded. “Makes sense.” He looked down at his food and started to eat slowly.

“Are you ok?”

Nick looked up. “What? Oh, yeah. I’m ok.”

“So, what are your plans for tomorrow?”

“I have no plans.”

“Well are you going to family?”

“No.”

“Family going to you?”

“No. I’ll be alone.”

“Daddy, why were you going to be alone for Christmas?”

“Because, all my friends were busy that day, my family wasn’t going to be anywhere around, so I had no one else to spend the holiday with.”

“Oh.”

“Can I go on with the story now?”

“Yes Daddy.”

Summer and Nick talked for a few minutes while he ate. More customers came in, so Summer excused herself to go help her grandmother take the orders. Between customers, Lily approached Summer.

“So, what do you think of him?”

“He’s nice. He seems a bit depressed.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too.”

Summer stayed quiet for a few minutes, then said randomly, “He’ll be alone tomorrow.”

“What?”

“He has no plans for Christmas. He’ll be alone.”

“That won’t do.”

Minutes later, Nick approached the register to pay for his breakfast. Lily handed him his change. “Merry Christmas!” He said and then turned to leave.

“Nick wait.”

He turned around. “Yeah Lily?”

“Why don’t you come to my house tomorrow?”

He looks at her confused. “No thank you. I’m not going to impose on your family.”

“Nick, Summer told me you were going to be alone tomorrow and I just can’t let that happen, so come to my house tomorrow. I will not take no for an answer.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll be there.”

“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He nodded and then left the Café.”

“What else did you do on Christmas Eve Daddy?”

“Honestly, I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what I should bring there so I wouldn’t stand out.”

“Oh ok. Continue Daddy. I want to hear about the rest of Christmas Eve.”

“How about I just skip to Christmas Day.”

Nicole looked at her father pensively. “Ok.”

Nick got out of his car and rang the bell. He shifted his weight as he nervously waited for someone to answer the door.

Summer answered the door and smiled at Nick. “Hey, come in.”

He handed her the dessert he bought as a contribution. Nick followed her silently and nodded at the people he was introduced to.

The toddlers present at Lily’s house that day recruited Nick to play with them almost immediately. Even though he felt awkward being at someone’s house that he barely knew he seemed to fit right in amongst the younger kids.

Summer was sitting at the table talking to her cousin, whom she was closest to. “Summer, he seems like a great guy.”

“Maria, I only met him yesterday.”

“So, one day is enough to know if you like him. And he keeps starring at you.”

“Oh come on. He is not.”

“Yeah, he is.” Maria looked over at Nick playing with the kids. “And apparently he’s great with kids.”

Soon, everyone was sitting around the table enjoying their Christmas dinner. “So Nick,” Maria started. “You’re really good with kids.”

Nick shrugged. “I spend a lot of time with my sister’s daughter, and I work a lot with kids.”

“Really? What do you do?”

“Well, my job has nothing to do with kids. I’m a website designer.”

“So that’s why you had a laptop at the Café yesterday.” Summer said. Nick nodded.

“So besides spending time with you’re niece how do you work a lot with kids as you said.”

“When I have free time I visit children’s hospitals and try to cheer them up and maybe forget briefly about their illnesses.”

“Daddy this is boring.”

“Well, you wanted to hear how I met your mother.”

“But nothing fun is happening.”

“Do you want to hear the story or not?”

“I only want to hear the story if something besides conversations happen.”

Summer looked to Nick. “Why don’t you tell her about the mistletoe?”

Nick nods.

After dinner, all the adults pitched in to clean up the mess. Once the mess was cleaned up, everyone gathered by the tree and exchanged gifts. Since Nick was an unexpected visitor, he was just leaning against the door frame, knowing he wouldn’t be part of the gift giving. Summer came up to him and was talking quietly to him.

Maria looked up from where she was giving out the gifts. “You know. You two are standing under the mistletoe.”

Nick and Summer laughed and looked up. Sure enough there was mistletoe hanging above them. Nick looked at Summer, questioning whether or not he should. She looked at him and gave him a slight nod of approval. He leaned in and kissed her. The kiss started out with the intention of being short and sweet, but it turned into a kiss full of passion. Summer smiled into the kiss as her cousins cheered.

“You’re mother and I got married the following Christmas. There was an arch over the altar that we married at and hanging from the arch was mistletoe. A year after we were married, you were born.”

Nicole smiled and clapped. Nick and Summer laughed. Nicole yawned and curled up on Nick and fell asleep almost immediately. Nick and Summer carried Nicole up to her room and placed her in her bed.

Nick waited in the doorway of Nicole’s room while Summer finished tucking Nicole in. When Nicole was tucked in, Summer joined Nick in the doorway to watch Nicole sleep.

Nick smiled and looked up. “Summer, we’re under the mistletoe.”

Summer looked up and laughed. “So we are.” She looked at him coyly. “Well, what are you waiting for Mr. Carter?”

Nick smiled and leaned in, kissing her passionately. “Merry Christmas Mrs. Carter.”