Page 24 of The Blessings of Christmas
With a parting wave, Cole led his family away. Kate and Cole were such a great couple. Sarah had told him the two had been together in Debate Club in high school.
Ryan adjusted his cap. The winter sun blazed, hotter than he’d imagined. As he welcomed the next child, Ryan kept one eye on Sarah talking to the women in front of her. She could probably win the prize as Miss Congeniality of Gull Harbor. While the other children jumped up and down and chattered with excitement, Nathan and Justin had a solemn concentration about them. He began to sweat big time. Finally, his nephewsstepped up. Showtime. “Ho, ho, ho! And what have we here? Are you two twins?”
“We’re not twins,” Nathan said dismissively. “We’re brothers. I’m the oldest.” The boys did not sit on his knee. They stood like the older kids, and that tore off a little piece of Ryan’s heart. But he had a job to do.
“And what would you like under your tree?”
Drawing closer, they looked cautiously over their shoulder at Sarah. “We don’t want our mom to hear,” Nathan whispered.
“I can fix that.” Ryan motioned to Sarah. “Can you wait over by the tree. Santa has his secrets.” He pointed to a tree at the end of the group of pines. Not looking happy, Sarah edged back.
“You see, here’s the thing,” Nathan began. “We lost our dad.” His voice broke and another chunk of Ryan’s heart ripped away.
Justin picked up. “Yeah, we need a daddy. Mommy says ours is not coming back ‘cause he’s our heavenly hero now.”
He never saw this coming. Gutted, Ryan wet his lips. “Your dad must have been a very good man. I’m sure he felt bad about leaving you, but heroes have a job to do.” What was he rambling about?
“Heroes give up their lives so that all families can be free.” Nathan rattled off. Ryan would bet a hundred bucks Sarah had used those words with the boys more than once. What a load she carried.
“....so we want Uncle Ryan.”
Wait. What?Bending, he drew closer to the boys. “You want this Uncle Ryan to do what?” If they had an expectation, then he wanted to meet it.
“We want Uncle Ryan to marry our mom so we have him for a dad,” Nathan said with maddening practicality.
“Nobody else,” Justin added, stabbing one mittened hand into the other. “He’s the one.”
The one?Was Sarah seeing other men? The waiting families were getting restless.
“Got it. I mean, Santa tries very hard to make all Christmas dreams came true.” He gulped. “Anything else you’d like?”
Both boys shook their heads. The elves waited with a little girl. Nathan and Justin walked away with their shoulders squared. They looked proud, like they’d finished the job. He remembered the year he and Jamie picked apples in their grandmother’s orchard. She wanted a bushel. They gave her three. That’s how the kids looked. Like they’d accomplished something.
He blinked furiously. “Are you okay?” One of the elves asked, leading a little girl in a green jacket toward him.
He stabbed at his damp eyes with a red mitten. “This moustache is driving Santa crazy.”
By the time two o’clock came, Ryan had lost his voice. The reindeer dragged the sleigh to storage at the North Pole. Then he had to hightail it back to the bakery. Lila had offered him her apartment to change. He had an appointment up in St. Joe at the shoemaker’s shop and they closed at four because of their own holiday walk.
Fumbling with the glossy black buttons, he wanted to rip off the Santa suit. The expressions on his nephews’ faces stayed with him. Why had they chosen him?
Sarah deserved a better man. Not a goof-off who’d spent most of high school smoking in back of old man Johnson’s farm. A guy who’d been so crazy that he’d taken a bet to race down Red Arrow and nearly killed himself.
A new heel on his boot wouldn’t matter. He was not the man for Sarah and her boys.
CHAPTER 6
Ryan spent Sunday walking. His boots felt level on the pavement and that was amazing. Since he didn’t want to bump into anyone he knew, he walked the streets of St. Joe. The extra height in the right heel made a huge difference. Striding along, he checked out Christmas windows, especially toys for Nathan and Justin. The December wind ruffled his hair and bit his ears. He couldn’t wait to see Sarah.
Monday he arrived at The Full Cup earlier than usual. After hanging up his jacket and turning on the ovens, he walked. Worn by age, this wooden floor could be tricky. Still, his boots struck the boards with confidence, and he loved the sound of his heels on the wood.
Then he got to work. The air filled with that yeasty smell he’d grown to like. When the loaves were ready, he started shoving them into the oven. Then he worked on the pastries. He’d watched Sarah enough times now that he knew what to do. The cheese crowns were the first to go in, followed by cinnamon buns. Not knowing what Sarah’s plans were for the day, he set out plenty of butter for cookies. As he worked, he listened for her car.
But when she finally arrived, she barely looked at him. “Hey, Ryan. How are you doing today?” She slammed the door shut behind her.
“Fine.” He sidled closer, pivoting a little on his boots. “Are you all right?”
“Of course. Why?” Ripping off her scarf, she hung it up.
