Page 24 of Single Dad's Christmas Cookie

“When Amelia asked if she could help, the only thing I needed help with was cutting vegetables. I didn’t think handing her a sharp knife was the smartest thing to do. So instead, weworked on some math skills. I noticed while we were putting our popcorn garlands together that she needed some help with some math skills.”

“What do you mean, help with math skills?” Concern made my voice a little too stern.

“All first graders need a little encouragement and reinforcement on basic math skills. That’s all. If you want me to do an educational assessment on your daughter, in addition to being her nanny and your part-time cook, we’re going to have to have another conversation.” She laughed.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“I’m not being serious,” she said. “I’m joking. I’m joking. If I notice anything, I promise I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll count on that.” I winked before stepping out. As I left, I noticed Nova blushing harder and ducking her head down and focusing on the work in front of her.

11

NOVA

Bryan’s mother was a piece of work. I didn’t believe people like her really exist, having only seen characters like her on television and in the movies. But there she had been, standing in that kitchen, large as life and as snobby as she could be. She had no idea who I was or what my background was. All she cared about was that I was the hired help, and her granddaughter wasn’t supposed to speak to the help.

Instead of delivering dinner like some kind of waitress, I served it family style. I set the table with plates and cutlery. And then I put all of the food into serving dishes so they could plate their own food. I would probably get a talking to about my methods, but I was the cook, and now the nanny. I wasn’t some parlor maid to stand by and ladle a serving of rice for the cranky old lady.

Amelia squirmed in her seat, and from the furtive glances she kept sending my way, I got the impression that she had been told not to speak to me. As I placed the tureen with the artichoke chicken in the center of the table, Bryan murmured a soft,“Thank you.” He even caught my hand and gave it a squeeze while his mother was helping Amelia put food on her plate.

I would have been fuming if Bryan’s flirting hadn’t caught me off guard. Now my emotions waffled back and forth between outrage on Amelia’s behalf to remembering how that man had made my skin feel when he touched me. This was a dangerous house for me to be in. I was going to get into trouble one way or another by opening my big mouth to speak up and defend that child, or by saying something a little too scandalous to Bryan.

I stared at my hand for a long moment before I realized that washing it while I cleaned up would not remove the memory of his fingers hooking mine or the soft, reassuring pressure. With Amelia’s assistance earlier, I had not been cleaning as I worked, and the kitchen was a disaster. There was the cooking mess on one side of the room and the crafting mess on the other.

I staged the dishes first and cleaned off the counters. As soon as dinner was finished, I would be able to get that part of my work completed and set the dishwasher to run.

I stood with my hands on my hips and looked over the mess Amelia and I had made when it came to creating our decorations. I hadn’t had that much fun in a long time. I taught kids how to fold and cut out paper snowflakes, but this was the first time in a long time that I let myself enjoy doing it. I didn’t have to monitor every child to make sure no one was cutting someone else’s hair or to make sure that the child will demonstrate manual dexterity through use of safety scissors, while also listening to scientific facts regarding water crystals. Lesson plans and the precise language for documenting them took all the fun out of hiding the science lesson that no two snowflakes are the same in an arts and crafts project.

I decided not to clean up our little arts and crafts area. We were only going to make a big mess again tomorrow. The best I could tell is they either came in very late at night, or they swept in early in the morning and hit the kitchen first before working in the rest of the house so that I never saw them.

Assuming they came in every night, I left a little note saying,Please don’t clean up our mess. We will take care of it when we are done. Thank you. And signed my name. I also left a plate of cookies and included them on the note. I hoped six were enough. I didn’t want to seem stingy, but I also didn’t want to overburden a single person with too many treats.

In the morning, the garbage fairies had come and taken the garbage away again. I don’t know why that tickled me so much. Maybe because I spent most of my preteen and teenage years taking the garbage out from my parents’ house. It was a thankless job, a stinky job, but somebody had to do it, and so I was very grateful that it wasn’t me.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” I said as Amelia came into the kitchen.

She was still in her nightgown and had a chokehold on her stuffed animal, Humphrey. Her hair was a complete mess. Not that her hair hadn’t been messy before, but she had managed to get herself dressed, and I had a sneaking suspicion that Bryan helped her to get ready, whether or not he admitted it. He seemed like he wanted to be a good father. He also seemed very overwhelmed.

“Are you my friend, Nova?” Amelia asked. She sounded very sad.

I swept around the counter and swung her up into my arms. “Yes, of course, I’m your friend, but your grandmother barely met me last night, right?”

Amelia nodded.

“She doesn’t know me. She doesn’t know that I can be your friend and still be paid to cook for you.”

My words weren’t getting through her sadness. Her grandmother’s words had delivered a hard blow.

“I talked to your daddy last night.”

“You did?”

“I did. And you know what he said? He said that we can go ahead and decorate the rest of the house.”

Amelia’s eyes immediately lit up. “We can?” Her mood lifted with the thought of Christmas decorations.

“Yes, we can. As soon as you get dressed and come back and have breakfast, we can start working on finishing up those paper chains and popcorn garlands that we didn’t finish yesterday because I had to make a fancy dinner.” I set her down, expecting her to scamper back to her room to get dressed.

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