Page 31 of Sinful Santa
“The purse!” she exclaimed, gawking at Jed and Ophelia. Revealed from a holly covered gift bag was a sunny yellow cross-body purse Tahlia had seen in one of the boutiques in Haven. She’d admired it to Ophelia but hadn’t dreamed of hinting anyone should buy it. Tahlia was accustomed to serial window shopping. “But this is too expensive!”
All she’d gotten Jed and Ophelia was a board game she thought they would like.
Ophelia rolled her eyes. “Nonsense. It wasn’t really.”
“But-” The expression that Ophelia leveled on Tahlia was enough to tell her to simply accept the gift. “Thank you,” she said sincerely, hugging the purse to her chest. “I truly love it.”
“And it suits you so well. It will be darling in the summer!”
A summer Tahlia wouldn’t spend with the Nelsons.
“Open ours, Tahlia!” Maddy shoved a hastily wrapped, rather crumpled lump of Christmas paper at her which had far too much tape on it. They had obviously wrapped it themselves and Tahlia didn’t want to touch it because the image of the two kids working together to do anything for her was gift enough.
But they were waiting and, while loathe to ruin their hard work, Tahlia gingerly pulled the paper apart. Inside were two pieces of craft paper, decorated in marker and glitter with hearts. One had three figures on it, obviously meant to be Tahlia, Kaiden, and Maddy. They had drawn her cards.
“Ohhh,” Tahlia breathed, tears again welling in her eyes as she drew the two cards out. A pile of silver and gold glitter fell off, but most remained on the cards thanks to the piles of glue on their surfaces. “Oh, they’re wonderful, kids. Thank you so much.”
“We couldn’t think of anything to get you,” Kaiden admitted. “Grandma said you’d like it if we made you something.”
Tahlia looked at Ophelia and nodded. “I do. I love them. In fact, I’m going to get them framed!” She pulled Kaiden and Maddy into a tight hug, hiding her face in their mess of dark curls. “I love you, kids.”
"We love you,” Maddy whispered, her little hand patting Tahlia’s shoulder. “Are you crying?”
“Only because I’m happy.” Tahlia sniffed and smiled reassuringly when she released them. “They’re happy tears. Now go on, find yourselves another gift.”
“Hey, there’s another thing here for you, Tahlia.” Jed plucked a small package from within the tree’s branches. “Might be jewelry.”
“No!” Tahlia gasped. “The purse was more than I ever dreamed! You shouldn’t have-”
“It’s not from us,” Jed interrupted and placed the box in Tahlia’s palm. “It’s from Matt.”
“Matt?” Tahlia repeated woodenly. He had bought her a gift? Jewelry? Her fingers shook as she took the little box. On the tag tied to the top was, in Matt’s scrolling penmanship:To Tahlia, From Matt.
Under the red wrapping was indeed a black jewelry box, inside of which was a silver chain with a pair of little skis hanging from it.
“Oh, that’s adorable,” Ophelia said, peering over Tahlia’s shoulder. “Do you like it?”
Tahlia nodded vigorously, unable to say anything. Yes, she liked it. She liked it very much. Thankfully, the kids were ripping into something else - a drone of some kind - and took Jed and Ophelia’s attention away from the distraught nanny. She needed a moment to compose herself. Even before their argument, it hadn’t crossed Tahlia’s mind once that Matt would get her something. Certainly she’d never dreamed it would be something so lovely.
Apparently that day on the mountain had meant something to him, too.
“I’m going to go get some cocoa for us,” Tahlia announced, needing to compose herself before anyone noticed the tears. Shejumped up as Jed said they were going outside to play with the new drone. Ophelia offered to help Tahlia, but she managed to stave her off.
While the family got on their coats and traipsed outdoors, Tahlia disappeared into the kitchen. She heard the commotion, the laughter, the excited screeches from the kids, before it all faded to silence and she was alone.
Alone.
She looked at the box she still clutched in her hand and finally let the tears fall.
25
Tahlia’s tears had turned to sniffles by the time the cocoa was done. The necklace sat on the counter, still in the open box, waiting for her decision on whether or not she would keep it. Was it appropriate now? Matt was not going to be her boss for much longer, and any shot at friendship they had was blown to dust.
But she wanted to keep it.
The conundrum was no closer to being solved when she poured the cocoa into five mugs. Nor was it when she topped the mugs with marshmallows. The necklace stayed on the counter when she placed the mugs on a tray to deliver them to the living room. She’d heard quite a bit of screaming and laughter moments earlier, so Jed must have pulled quite the trick with the drone. Tahlia checked her phone for the temperature; it was in the twenties, so they would be inside soon.
She was determined that she wouldn’t think about the issues with Matt or the future anymore that day. She was going to live in the present and enjoy Christmas. After adding a box of cookies and fudge to the tray, she picked it up, fortified for more festivities.
