“I don’t know, Amelia. Maybe Santa will continue to take things to your grandmother’s house. Maybe he’ll surprise you.”
“Does Santa know what I want to get Daddy?”
I shook my head. “Santa doesn’t do your shopping for you. You want to get your father a present?”
She nodded. “And Grandmother, too. And Humphrey. I would like to get him a new collar.”
She really did love that stuffed animal.
“I have to get back to work,” Bryan announced as he turned the SUV off and climbed out, leaving Amelia and me to get ourselves out of the car.
I shrugged it off. Maybe we had spent a bit longer than he had wanted. I really liked the idea of thinking I was being included in the family, even for a little while. His harsh behavior felt out of character, but the reality I needed to accept was that I wasn’t part of their little family. And it had been exceptionally nice of them to have included me at all.
I got Amelia unbuckled and followed her back into the house. I assumed Bryan went back to his office while Amelia and I headed back to the kitchen. It had become our default area to hang out in. I did need to cook, and it was a good place to make a mess, plus, the big screen TV made it easy to pop a movie on when I ran out of ideas or I needed Amelia to be occupied so I could get some work done.
In the short amount of time I had been working for Amelia and her father, I set up a craft center next to the table. This way, I didn’t have to stop everything and go in search of the various supplies Amelia might want. It would all get put away before the regular cook returned.
Amelia grabbed a coloring book before climbing onto a chair and staring at the gingerbread pieces. “It didn’t fix itself,” she announced.
I helped to pull her coat from her arms. “You thought Christmas elves would come and magically fix it?”
She nodded.
“More likely, the reindeer would break in and eat the cookies,” I teased as I pulled out the basket of crayons and set them on the table next to her.
“Santa eats the cookies. The reindeer eat carrots.”
“Oh, they do?” I had been that kid who left out cookies on Christmas eve, and it had been years before I realized it was my parents who ate the cookies. I never did leave out carrots for the deer. Maybe I should have. But I seriously doubted my father would have eaten Christmas carrots to appease the Christmas magic spirit I had as a child.
I added carrots to the growing shopping list I had in my head.
“When can we build the gingerbread house?” she asked mournfully.
“I have to get dinner started. We should ask your father if he wants to help. Maybe we can do it while dinner is cooking?”
“Can we? I’ll go ask Daddy!”
Amelia abandoned the coloring book and was out of the kitchen in a flash. With a groan, I followed. I should have anticipated her eagerness to recruit Bryan back into Christmas activities.
He stood at his office door, arms folded, sternly looking down at his daughter. Amelia danced in place before stomping her foot.
“Go work on your coloring book,” I said as I reached them. I guided Amelia’s little shoulders back in the direction of the kitchen.
“Sorry about that. She got an idea in her head and ran before I could redirect her.”
“She’s still obsessed with that damned gingerbread house. Do something about it or I will.” His tone was gruff. I didn’t understand where this anger was suddenly coming from, but I wasn’t going let it get in the way. I had a job to do.
“She wants you to have fun with her. She had a good afternoon and wants that to continue. We’ll work on the gingerbread house without you, but expect her to want to show it off.” I turned to leave but turned back to him. I wasn’t certain I would get another chance to speak with him this evening, especially if he was going to close himself off in his office. “A couple of things real quick, before I forget. Amelia would like to go gift shopping.How do you want to handle that? I’m happy to go shopping with her, but I’ll need a spending budget.”
“I can take her shopping,” he snapped.
I shook my head. “She wants to get you something. So either me or your mother needs to take her. Oh, and also, Amelia was wondering if Santa will be bringing her presents here this year now that you have a tree? You need to think about how you want to handle that.”
16
BRYAN
Ifollowed Nova back into the kitchen. “If we left now, how late would dinner be?”
