Page 55 of Single Dad's Christmas Cookie

I should have invited Nova to eat with us, especially after all her hard work. I didn’t care if she didn’t have a formal dress on. Her company was what I wanted, not her in fancy clothes. Actually, I preferred her out of clothes, but not at the table. At least not during a family dinner. Maybe another time.

Mother made it more than obvious that it wasn’t going to happen with her around. I should have stood up for Nova, but the relationship between me and my mother was a complicated one.

After dinner, Mother, well stuffed with a high-quality meal, announced that she would be leaving early.

“I need to consider tomorrow’s luncheon. You are coming to my house for the day?”

I had thought about spending the day at home, just me, Amelia, and Nova. I had enjoyed our little family time during the storm. It was comfortable and felt right. I could only imagine how wonderful it would make Christmas to have Nova curled up on the couch with me as we watched Amelia rip into all of her presents.

I didn’t have an answer.

“Can’t you stay? Did you see our tree?” Amelia dragged Mother from the dining room into the den.

Amelia started talking before I even had a chance to tell Mother I would think about it.

“Yes, dear, I saw your tree. Bryan, next year, you really should hire a professional to come in and take care of that for you. It won’t look so shabby and homemade.”

“It is homemade, Mother. Amelia did a lot of that work. I think it’s prefect,” I said. Any attempt to appease my mother was time wasted. It was better for me to stand up for my daughter. I lost the opportunity to stand up for Nova earlier.

“We got to camp out last night,” Amelia said.

“Nonsense. You did not camp out,” Mother corrected her.

“We did. We made a tent, and Daddy cooked over the fireplace.”

“You did what? Bryan, how many times have I mentioned that you need a generator? There was no need for you to do something so foolish.”

I hated generators. They were loud and noisy, and we never lost power for more than a few hours at a time. But last night’s storm could have been much worse. They had a really bad one a year earlier in the western part of the state where they had been without power for days. I should talk to Gregor, my yard guy, and see if that was something he could get set up for me. Even if I’d had a generator, I might not have turned it on so that we could have camped in the den like we had.

“It wasn’t foolish. Amelia had fun. We made memories.”

“And Nova camped out with us.”

“The cook? The cook was here and yet you did the work?” Mother glared at me.

“She’s never cooked over a campfire. All I did was heat up some soup and fry some bacon.”

“Bryan!” It was as if even hearing that I did any kind of labor had my mother in a fit.

“Mother, we were camping. I used to cook all the time when I went out. Stop being so mortified.”

“We had to rescue her from the side of the road,” Amelia said. “She was too cold to cook.”

“Her car got stuck in a ditch,” I clarified.

“Gracious. Doesn’t she have a motor club membership? And where did she stay?”

“They aren’t going to be able to get to her car for another day or two,” I said.

“She camped with us. I helped her to build the pillow fort,” Amelia finished informing Mother.

Mother narrowed her eyes at me. Clearly, she thought I had acted inappropriately in one way or another. She had no idea exactly how inappropriate I had been.

“She stayed with us for the duration of the storm.”

“And we all slept in here,” Amelia announced.

“Together? That’s very generous of you, Bryan,” my mother conceded. She still narrowed her eyes at me.

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