Page 64 of The Santa Rules
“For being a safe space for my kid. He and his dad don’t always get along, and he doesn’t share a lot with me, but he trusted you. And you kept his trust, even if I don’t like it.”
“I did do that, didn’t I?”
These two have found a place in my heart in such a short amount of time. I’ve lived an entire lifetime without them, but suddenly I can’t imagine not having them in my life, and I’m determined to figure out a way to keep them in it beyond Christmas.
CHAPTER 21
BELLA
It means a lot that someone loves my kid the way I love my kid. I just wished his dad loved him like that too.
Wait. Did I just say love? It feels like he loves us. Does he love us? Do I love him? I think I love him.
“Miss Carlisle, can I go to the potty?” Avery asks, pulling me out of my head. Focus, Bella. You are the adult. You have responsibilities. You can’t keep daydreaming about the hot firefighter all day.
“Can you hold it for ten more minutes till we walk down to lunch?” I ask Avery.
She nods and skips back to her seat, and I get up from my desk to start corralling kids and cleaning up before we go to the cafeteria.
As we’re walking down the hall, Lucy waves at me, and I walk over and lean against the wall next to her as our kids go in and out of the bathroom.
“What’s with the face? Rough day?”
“No, just thinking about some stuff that I’m not ready to process out loud,” I admit.
“About a certain widower that needs help with Christmas?”
“Maybe,” I say right as Avery walks out of the bathroom and shuffles over to me.
“Are you coming to our house tonight?”
I can feel my cheeks turning red as I glance around. “Not tonight.”
“Don’t you need to work on the secret project?” she asks, whispering the last part.
“Actually, we are in a good spot with that. Your daddy got a lot of work done this weekend.”
“Oh,” she says, looking disappointed.
“I’m sure we’ll work on it more later in the week, though. Why?”
“I like it when you come over. My daddy smiles more. I think he likes helping with the workshop.”
“Oh, he likes something, alright,” Lucy murmurs under her breath.
I jab an elbow against her side.
“Go get in line so we can go to lunch.”
Avery skips over to her spot in line, and I do a quick count to see how many kids I’m waiting on.
“What’s really going on with you two?” Lucy asks.
“What do you mean?”
“I know you’re working on Santa’s Workshop together, but are you sure that’s it?”
I know the rumor mill is already running since we’ve been seen around town, but I suddenly feel guilty for keeping my friends in the dark. And Hardy and I haven’t discussed if we were officially telling people about us, but Amber did see us kissing. And Avery is still in earshot and I’m not sure what she knows about me and her dad.
