Page 20 of Sinful Santa
“Well, your daddy saw this cuckoo clock in the window and…I think he’d like to have it.” Exactly what other emotions were pushing her to buy the fifty-dollar clock they didn’t need to know.
“Really?” They said the word as one and wrinkled their noses in identical expressions. Tahlia giggled at the stereotypical twins display.
“Yes, really.”
“Can I help you, dear?”
Tahlia and the twins jumped, and she twisted to face the boisterous voice but her eyes didn’t immediately meet the owner. Not until one of the twins tugged on her sleeve and her gaze drifted down. Then she saw the tiny, wrinkled old woman who was somehow shorter than the kids. Above a warm and friendly smile were bright eyes amplified by giant glasses.
“Um, hello. I’m interested in this clock.” Tahlia presented the cuckoo clock to the woman. “To buy it,” she clarified, as if her intention wasn’t clear already.
A twinkle came into the old lady’s dark eyes. “Ah yes, I thought you might come back for it.” Before Tahlia could ask her what she meant, the tiny woman twisted around and beckoned for Tahlia to follow. “Alright, dear, follow me!”
Tahlia exchanged perplexed looks with the twins.
What a strange little shop this was.
After purchasing the cuckoo clock and hiding it in the car, Tahlia and the twins rejoined the rest of the family in the center of town. There, along with a few restaurants, was an ice skating rink to which the kids immediately dragged everyone. Tahlia was excited to hop onto the ice and do something she’d only done a handful of times. Jed and Ophelia were also eager to join their grandchildren, enthusiastically bustling off to rent skates.
Matt, however, was less interested.
“I’ll watch.”
“Come on, daddy! It’s fun!” Maddy insisted.
“Yeah, it’s fun!” her brother chimed in. Tahlia was helping him retie the laces of his skates, one of which the little boy had managed to leave too loose and in a tangle of knots at the same time.
“I’m not good on ice, kids.”
Maddy grabbed hold of his right hand and looked up at him with the widest, most puppy-dog eyes Tahlia had ever seen.
“Please, daddy?” she implored. Tahlia had never seen a man melt into a puddle before but that’s exactly what Matt Nelson did.
“Alright,” he sighed.
“Yay!” The twins cried together.
17
“I feel like a newborn giraffe,” Matt groused.
He’d kept his promise and stepped onto the ice, but now he was more shuffling than skating. His children, the traitors that they were, had abandoned him to his sloth pace and shot off to race each other around the rink. Jed and Ophelia had elected to scout some more hot chocolate for everyone so helping their stumbling, flailing, unsteady son was left to Tahlia.
Guess I’m his nanny, now, she thought to herself with much amusement.
“You’re doing better than that,” she encouraged aloud as she escorted him around the rink. He was clinging to the rink wall for dear life because every time he let go, he wobbled and a foot slipped. “I take it you don’t skate much.”
“No,” he growled.
Tahlia nodded, unperturbed by his hostility. She was certain if he could melt the ice with his signature scowl, he would.
“It’s been years since I’ve skated,” Tahlia admitted. Matt threw her a look, eyeing her feet, which were gliding smoothly over the roughened ice. “It has!” she insisted.
“Show off,” he grumbled, just as he was forced to hug the wall more tightly because the twins zipped by.
“Give me this, Nelson. You have skiing.” She paused and drifted to his front to help him straighten up. Tahlia put her hands on his shoulders and pushed a little. “Don’t bow your legs like that; stand up normally.”
“If I do that I’m going to fall,” he bit out through gritted teeth. “This isn’t easy for me.”
