Page 82 of Single Dad's Christmas Cookie

Nova then proceeded to show her how to light the stove. Then they ran butter over the surface.

“Do you want to be a teacher your entire career?” I asked. I was seeing something in Nova that I had missed. I already knew she was good with kids, and I had caught glimpses of her showing Amelia different things in the kitchen, but she had a great skill here that I hated to think she was wasting by being at Wentworth Academy.

Nova shrugged. “I really hadn’t thought about it until recently. It’s no secret I’m not happy at the academy. But I thought that was the academy. I don’t know what I’ll do now.”

She helped Amelia to pour a drop of batter onto the griddle.

“What were you planning on?” I asked.

“Before all of this?” Nova waved her ringed finger at me. “I was going to finish my contract and run screaming back to Atlanta. Wentworth Academy is trying to break me. I wanted to go home and teach kids with whom I have something in common. Give me working- or middle-class kids who don’t have paid servants and have to take the garbage out once a week.”

With her arms around Amelia, Nova guided her on what to look for on the top and side of the pancake and how to flip it.

“Did you see that, Daddy? I flipped it!”

“You did. Good job. So, you won’t be teaching next year? What about Atlanta?”

Nova looked at me and smiled. “Why would I go back to Atlanta? You and Amelia are here. I don’t know about teaching. Depends on whether the local school district has any openings. I won’t be working at Wentworth again.”

“What about Leeds? I have connections. I could introduce you to the headmaster,” I said.

Nova turned her attention back to Amelia and their pancake making. “Okay, let’s try to make three at a time.”

They carefully poured the batter, and Amelia cheered with each successful flip. The third did not flip quite as easily.

“That’s okay. You did a good job on the other two, and I bet it tastes just as good,” I said, and I stepped in close and looked at the messed up pancake.

Amelia scooped it up with her spatula and carefully moved it to a plate. She and Nova watched me expectantly as I picked it up with my fingers and took a bite.

“It’s good,” I declared.

Nova gave Amelia a high-five.

“If I weren’t teaching, I would have thought about being a caterer. I like to cook.”

“And you are good at it. But you don’t have to work once we get married.”

“And have your mother call me a gold-digger for the rest of my life? No sir. She doesn’t have to respect what I do for a career, but I am not going to have her think I entrapped you.”

“But you did.”

Nova’s eyes blazed at me as she glared in my direction.

“You trapped me with your smiles and beauty.” I leaned in and stole a quick kiss.

When Amelia complained, “Ew, Daddy,” I gave her a kiss on her forehead. Didn’t want to leave her out of the moment.

“Catering could be a challenge. But I am apt to like the idea. After all, that is how we met.” I gave Nova a quick wink, acknowledging our official story that left out the one-night stand that changed my life. “Have you ever thought about teaching kids how to cook?”

Nova shrugged. “To be honest, I have. I don’t know how it would work, but yeah, an after-school cooking program, I’ve thought about it. Not only would kids learn how to cook, but they would get kitchen safety, and chemistry and math. It would be great. I just… I don’t know how to make it work.”

“I bet if you really sat down and thought about it, you could figure out exactly how to make it work.”

37

NOVA

My life should have been perfect, a fairy tale come true. I was engaged to an amazing man, who as far as I was concerned was a prince and lived in a castle. I know the house wasn’t a castle, but calling it a house seemed to underscore exactly how large the place was. It might as well have been a castle. He loved me. He rescued me.

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