Page 12 of Sinful Santa
“Do what?”
He opened his mouth but hesitated. “Never mind.” He turned away and started walking again.
Tahlia looked after him for a few seconds. She thought they had reached a point of honesty, but apparently, he wasn’t ready to share. Disheartened, Tahlia shuffled after him, growing colder by the second and wishing she’d worn another layer on top of the two she put on beneath her coat. Her eyes were on the snowy ground, so she didn’t see him stop and ran straight into him. Tahlia stumbled back in surprise to find him staring down at her with his signature scowl.
“I know they love me.”
Okay. That was definitely a defensive tone.
“I didn’t say otherwise,” she pointed out. “I said youforget.”
“I don’t forget,” he insisted. Tahlia had to exert extra effort not to roll her eyes.
“Alright, alright. Never mind, I’m wrong. I’m sorry. Can we forget this?” she asked. Leave it to her incessant need to fix broken things to screw up what had become a genial relationship.
Stick to machines, Jameson.
Nelson clenched his jaw and blew air forcefully through his nose, reminding Tahlia of a bull about to charge. She would have laughed if the angry tension in his body hadn’t deflated and he ran a gloved hand through his hair.
“You’re not totally wrong,” he admitted reluctantly, with a glance over his shoulder toward his kids. “Sometimes…sometimes I wonder…” his face experienced a plethora of changes as he struggled to find words.
Tahlia remained quiet but he gave up searching for what to say and looked at her helplessly. She was viscerally reminded that he was, at his core, a lonely, single father who was trying to do his best. Perhaps he didn’t always know what the best was and maybe he got distracted along the way, but he was trying.
She placed a mittened hand on his arm. “Stop wondering,” she said gently. “They love you. They want to be around you. All the time, if they had their way. Trust me.”
“You know something strange?” he murmured after a few heavy seconds. “I do.”
As he gazed down at her, his eyes took on what Tahlia might call an affectionate gaze if she didn’t know better. There was a brief moment - or maybe it wasn’t brief at all - during whichTahlia was captured by that gaze. Deep brown, almost black, and flecked with amber, reminding her of the night sky. Infinite and wondrous.
So pretty,her brain - again beingveryunhelpful - added.
A wracking shiver broke whatever spell had fallen on her, causing her teeth to chatter, and she hugged herself again.
“Cold?”
“W-what do you think?” she snipped. Nelson pressed his lips together, hiding a grin, Tahlia thought, and he held his arm out. Tahlia eyed the proffered limb in confusion.
“Take it,” he said. When she hesitated, he rolled his eyes. "I can’t have you freezing to death. The kids’ll never forgive me.”
While she was fairly certain this was a greater breach of decorum than him calling her by her first name, Tahlia was cold enough not to bring up the irony and looped her arm through his. She stepped as close as she could into his side, making a beeline for his body heat. It wasn’t a perfect fix, but she had to admit it helped a little.
“Thank you.” She looked up at him with a relieved smile. Nelson gave her a small smile in return and for that smile to be meant for her and her alone was enough for Tahlia to blush. In that moment she was grateful for the cold, because he wouldn’t be able to tell why her face was suddenly so red.
“Daddy! Daddy, we found it!”
Kaiden and Maddy’s chorus drifted down the row of trees and pulled Tahlia and Nelson’s attention back to the task at hand. They walked quickly to where the kids, Jed, and Ophelia were gathered around a tall, fluffy tree with a slightly crooked top branch. Tahlia knew the angel the kids had brought would lean when they put it on.
“Hello, dears,” Ophelia greeted, a pointed - somewhat smug, Tahlia thought - glance at where Tahlia and Nelson were joined. Nelson must have noticed the look, too, because he gingerlyremoved Tahlia’s arm from his. Tahlia tried not to be morose about it, even though the cold returned with more force than before. Ophelia looked as if she were hiding a smile but turned toward the kids and Jed without saying anything.
“Daddy!” Maddy ran up and grabbed Nelson’s hand to drag him to the tree. “This one!”
“It’s crooked,” her father pointed out.
“It’s perfect,” Maddy responded with a pout. “Do you like it, Tahlia?”
Tahlia grinned as she considered the tree. “I like it very much, Maddy.”
“Tahlia likes it, daddy,” Kaiden said, as if her choice was the deciding factor. Nelson threw an amused look at Tahlia.
