Other plans?He raised an eyebrow. He was curious but didn’t want to say anything, afraid it might make her stop talking.
“I need to know why you don’t want to do this yourself. You clearly love your nephew.”
He gave his standard answer. “I don’t have time.”
“And?”
He should’ve known that she’d see right through him. And that she’d be okay crossing the line to push for a deeper answer. But he wasn’t about to share the whole tale of his childhood, so he was going to keep his response short. He cleared his throat. “Growing up, Christmas wasn’t a happy time of the year at my house. I don’t know how to make it different for Aiden.”
Noelle studied him for a long moment, and he wondered what she was seeing. She didn’t seem to be judging him, though. She just seemed curious. He thought he was keeping his face relatively impassive, but judging by her expression, she was seeing more than he meant to show.
She stepped forward and placed the paper on his desk. He didn’t dare take his eyes off her to look at it.
“Okay, I’ll do this under one condition. I decide what we’re going to do. It’ll be stuff Aiden will love, of course. And I’ll be all ‘Happy, happy Christmas’ around Aiden, even if I’m not feeling it, but you need to be that way, too, even if you’re not feeling it. I’ll plan everything and get anything we’ll need, which will ease the time commitment on your part and take away your worries that you don’t know what to do to give him a good Christmas.” She pointed at the paper. “That’s the schedule, and I expect you to be present for at least half of the events.”
He liked this commanding side of her. He kind of wished that she was like this all the time. He picked up the paper and glanced at it. There were half a dozen things listed, along with specific dates of when they would happen.
His eyes flew back to hers. “Some of these things are in Mountain Springs. Is that where you live?”
She nodded.
“That’s where my sister and my nephew live.”
She smiled—the first one he’d seen from her since she walked in. He looked back down at the list, his brow crinkling.
“There are family things on this list.Yourfamily things.” He wasn’t sure what he thought of that. Would it be awkward for Aiden to be with a family he didn’t know? Would it be awkward for Jack, as well, since he would be required to attend most of these outings, too?
“My family is big and welcoming and crazy about Christmas. In the extreme. My dad, in particular, would keep Christmas decorations up year-round if he could. And they like to celebratebig. It’ll be the perfect place for Aiden to experience Christmas.” She nodded at the list. “Those are my conditions, and the things on the list aren’t negotiable.”
He glanced through the list again. “The final say is up to my sister, Rachel, since Aiden is her kid, but as far as I’m concerned, we have a deal.”
Noelle smiled big and held out a hand, so he shook it.
“Okay, but get an answer soon because the first one on the list happens tomorrow at two.”
He managed to hold off the smile threatening to overtake his face until she turned on her heel and walked out his door.
five
NOELLE
Noelle went backto her desk, let out a huge breath of relief, and collapsed into her chair, sinking into the backrest. She wasn’t confrontational or demanding, so she was pretty proud of herself for pulling that off with her boss. But it had been exhausting.
Bridget was just setting her things down on her desk for the day and looked down at her watch. “It’s nine oh one. It’s way too early to be that tired. Especially on a day when we’ve got to make something likeLump of Coal Breath Mintssound like a good stocking stuffer.”
Noelle laughed and sat up in her chair like normal. “It’s days like today where we really get to prove how good we are at our jobs.” And that was one of the reasons why she loved her job. How boring would it be to work at a big ad agency where they only had to make things like jewelry and sweaters sound like good gifts?
She opened her bag and pulled out the metal box she’d gotten from Gran-gran, placing it on her desk, right in front of her keyboard. Then she took off the lid and pulled out the card she’d already placed on top of the stack—the one with the littlepainting of the two of them making a snowman in Downtown Park.
And, really, today wasn’t abadday. For starters, it was Friday. She put the card, snowman painting facing forward, leaned against her monitor. As long as Jack’s sister was on board with her’s and Jack’s Christmas pact—and the expression on his face told her that he thought she would be—she was going to get Elfie fixed, and she was going to honor Gran-gran’s wishes. It might not be the easiest way to do either, but she at least had a plan and having a plan felt good.
On Saturday afternoon,she pulled up to the address that Jack had texted her—the address to his sister Rachel’s house. He’d kept his word. She was driving a rental car, and he’d told the shop to charge him for the repairs.
As she walked up to the small home, she decided that the Grinch-ness that Jack had must not be a family thing, because it looked like Rachel had quite a few Christmas decorations and lights outside her house.
Jack answered the door, wearing a dark gray t-shirt and jeans. For the record, he looked every bit as amazing in jeans and a t-shirt as he did in a suit. But it was so strange seeing him not dressed up for work. It was a peek into his personal life that she hadn’t seen before, and it felt wrong. Like looking through the pictures on someone’s phone without permission or going trick-or-treating as a kid and knocking on the door of a house that you didn’t realize belonged to your teacher.
A young boy wearing socks but no shoes came racing down the hall—Aiden, she assumed—with a golden retriever at his side. He skidded to a stop on the hardwood floor and held outa hand, beaming, like he was proud of himself for knowing how to greet someone for the first time. “Hi. I’m Aiden. And this is Bailey.”
