Page 17 of Single Dad's Christmas Cookie

“Are you making decorations?”

“Amelia was a little bored and didn’t seem to have anyone to play with her,” Nova said.

Her eyes were wide, and she had a very stern expression on her face. I clearly had missed something.

“She came in to introduce herself because you forgot to mention that you have custody of your daughter.”

That’s what I had forgotten to mention. In my defense, Nova turned my brain into scrambled eggs simply by being in the house.

“I was hoping to make those introductions, but you” —I tickled Amelia under her arms— “weren’t supposed to be home for a couple more hours,” I announced. “I just now received a text from my mother letting me know that she had dropped Amelia off. Nobody came by my office to let me know that Amelia was home.”

“You said not to disturb you when you work from home. If the doors are closed, I have to be bleeding or unconscious,” Amelia repeated my often said words right back at me.

“I know, sweetheart, but you are allowed to tell me that you’ve come home, and your grandmother should have come in to let me know,” I said. “Thank you for finding something for Amelia to do. You know you could have said something.”

I looked at Nova. She shook her head and pointed at Amelia. “I’m with her. You basically said, unless somebody’s bleeding, not to interrupt you. I think we’re going to have to get a little bit of clarification on what’s going to qualify as interruptible.”

She had a point.

“We’re also going to have to have a little clarification on my exact job expectations.”

With the copious amount of crafting going on in the kitchen, I was pretty sure that Nova could manage some time with Amelia.

“I’m waiting for the agency to call me back.”

“Not somebody from the agency,” Amelia whined. She had, heard the term enough to know what it meant.

“What’s that?” Nova asked.

“It’s where Daddy gets my babysitters when Sherry isn’t available.” Amelia rolled her eyes in a move that smacked of her spending a little too much time with a teenager. However, I wasn’t about to limit the work I had Sherry doing for me. She was entirely too valuable, emotionally to Amelia and financially to me. By having Sherry here, I could almost guarantee that her mother would spend more time at work than at home worrying about her wayward teenager, because her wayward teenagerwould also be here, earning money toward her future college needs.

“I take it you don’t like babysitters from the agency?”

Amelia made a face and shook her head. “They aren’t very much fun.”

“I don’t pay them to be fun,” I replied. “I pay them to mind you. Make sure you do your homework. Make sure you get to bed on time. Make sure that you don’t spend all of your food time with your eyes going crossed staring at your iPad. Which, by the way, is why your grandmother actually texted. Apparently, you left it in her car.”

“I did?” Amelia asked. “I don’t remember.”

“How many times have I told you to make sure you have your iPad with you? Your grandmother is going to have it sent over later.”

“But—” Amelia started to whine.

“But,” Nova cut in, “you haven’t missed it at all, have you?”

Amelia’s eyes went wide and she shook her head, even though her little face looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“She hasn’t needed it, so no harm, no foul, right?” Nova looked at me as if that was my cue to agree with her.

Since she was in charge of cooking and she had kept my child occupied for God knows how many hours since Mother didn’t bother to mention what time she dropped Amelia off, I conceded.

“No harm, no foul,” I repeated.

“Since Amelia is making decorations with the popcorn, is there anything I can have for an afternoon snack?”

Nova held out a messy spoon that she had been stirring with. “You have a convenience store’s worth of snacks in the pantry.”

“I can make more popcorn,” Amelia volunteered.

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