Aiden sat down in the chair made of snow, his arms on the armrests, sitting in it like a king sitting in his throne, then put his feet up on the little ottoman they’d made, and he leaned back and surveyed the park and everything going on in it. He reached out and put a hand on the snow dog’s head beside the chair, giving him a little pat.
Then, with an entirely satisfied look on his face, he declared, “We did good work.”
Both she and Jack smiled at the cute boy. It felt good to see him so proud of his idea come to life.
Then, just as they blew the whistle to stop, Jack pulled the phone out again and frowned at it. Then he put it back into his pocket and bent down to Aiden’s height. “Listen, buddy. I’ve got to go.”
“But we haven’t gone around to see what everyone made yet. And we haven’t gone on the train around Santa’s village.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. Do you want to stay with Noelle and do those things?”
Aiden looked up at Noelle and smiled, nodding enthusiastically as he turned back to Jack. “But I’m still sad you have to go.”
“I’m sad, too. I’ll make it up to you, okay?”
Then Jack stood up, and as the righteous indignation that had been building inside her since he’d first started taking his cell phone out built to a crescendo, he said, “Are you okay to finish up here and take Aiden home after?”
Aiden’s friend Quinton came over just then, excitedly talking about his family's creation, so she took the moment while he was distracted to pull Jack aside a bit. “So you’re only sticking around for the wintery part and then coming up with an excuse to leave for the more Christmassy part of the event? You know, you’re not the only person who is struggling with this.”
Jack just looked at her, not saying a word, the muscle at his jaw clenching. She tried to stand tall and interpret the look on his face, but it was pretty impassive, and she was wincing inside pretty hard. She wasn’t the kind of person who just stood up to her boss and told him that he was doing things wrong. She was the kind of person who got an assignment and did it cheerfully. She didn’t know what had come over her.
Jack turned and left without a word.
She was the only one of them getting paid for being there—an amount per hour that she wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else—so maybe she should quit her judging and silent complaining. And definitely quit the out loud complaining to him.
She put a smile on her face and held out a hand to Aiden. “Are you ready to go look at what everyone made?”
He put his hand in hers. “Yep. We need to start with Quinton’s. They made a robot wearing a Santa hat!”
As they walked around and saw all the snow creations that had turned out great and the ones that hadn’t turned out so great, she felt terrible. Not only from the myriad of memories of Gran-gran that caused a new wave of grief to wash over her but because she felt bad about how she’d spoken to Jack.
After Aiden had gone on the train, went with her all through the village to see all of the elves working hard to make presents and get them wrapped and loaded onto Santa’s sleigh, then went on the train another two times, they took off their gloves and headed over to the gazebo to get hot chocolate. They had just gotten their cup of sweet and warm goodness, holding on to the curved part of a candy cane while they stirred the chocolate, when her phone buzzed.
She pulled it out of her pocket and saw that it was Jack. Probably calling to say that he didn’t think it was appropriate for her to talk to him like that, which would be totally fair. Sheanswered, and before he even had a chance to say anything, she said, “Jack, I need to apologize. I—”
“Are you two still at the park?”
“Yes.”
“Good. My sister started doing a lot worse after we left, and I had to take her to the hospital. It’s probably going to be several hours before we can leave.”
Noelle’s stomach dropped, and she felt even worse.
“I’ve spoken with the mom of his friend Quinton. Do you remember meeting him?” He was back to being Boss Jack, not Playful Jack.
“I do.”
“Keep an eye out for her—they’re going to take Aiden home with them. They’ll stop by Rachel’s and grab his bag, then he’ll sleep over at their house. Can I speak to Aiden for a minute to let him know?”
She held the phone out to Aiden. He set his hot chocolate down on the ledge of the gazebo and cradled the phone in both hands as he held it to his ear. She couldn’t hear what Jack was saying and only heard a long line of “Uh-huh. Uh-huh” coming from Aiden. Then, “And mommy will be okay?” followed shortly by, “Will she call to tell me goodnight before bed?” and “When will I get to see her?”
Her heart was breaking for the poor kid.
Then Aiden said, “Okay. I love you, Uncle Jack.” Then he handed the phone back to Noelle. “He wants to talk to you.”
She put the phone up to her ear and said, “I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge you when I knew I didn’t have the full story.”
He was quiet for a long moment. She was about to pull the phone away from her ear to see if either she or Aiden had accidentally hung up when he said, “Keep calling me out whenever you think I’m not doing the right thing.”
