Page 32 of Puck the Halls
The five thousand dollar donation I offered to their club made everyone a fan, though.
I think I also won a couple of the moms over, and even if a few of the girls, when I showed them the video of Isabel in her first pair of skates.
Of course my daughter has already been on ice skates. And the video of me holding her arms and skating at the Racekteers arena with her little skates between my skates is fucking adorable.
I go to get Nathan out of the RV. Rhonda and Dave graciously agreed to wait until we had a ride secured.
I brace myself for convincing him this is a great idea.
Truth be told, Nathan is amazing with our children. But he hasn’t really been around kids before and Isabel and Oliver are the only ones he spends any significant time with.
Still, he is a huge teddy bear where they’re concerned.
When I climb into the RV, I find Nathan awake and nursing a cup of coffee at the table with Rhonda and Dave.
“So we have to go on to Omaha.”
He nods. “Rhonda and Dave filled me in a little and then I called Val.”
I grimace. “I was trying to handle this, so Val didn’t have to deal with you.”
He tips his cup back and drains the rest of the contents, then hands it to Rhonda. “Thank you so much for everything.”
“Of course. It was a pleasure to meet you both,” Rhonda says.
I already took the Christmas sweater off, not sure if the hilarity of it would be appreciated by everyone inside the McDonald’s. But Nathan is still in his and Rhonda hands me the sweater folded up.
“Oh, I can’t,” I start. But I really want to keep it.
“Please. We have a ton of these for different ugly sweater events. We’d love for you to have them and remember our little trip.”
I take it, happily. “Thanks Rhonda. You’re the best.”
She gives me a hug, and I peer at Nathan. “How do you feel?”
“Great actually. Headache is gone and I think another cup of coffee and maybe some hashbrowns and I’ll be like a new man.”
I look at him with surprise. He actually seems chipper. For Nathan anyway.
And I never imagined he would willingly agree to eat anything at McDonald’s.
“Coffee and hashbrowns can be done. I got us a ride to Omaha.”
“Yeah, Val said that it was hard to get a car or something,” he says, stretching to his feet. “Whatever is fine. We’ve come this far.”
Huh, so Val backed me up with a little white lie. I probably need to pay for a couple of her pedicures.
“Well, there is something you need to know about this ride,” I say, turning and descending the steps of the RV. He’s right behind me.
The school bus is parked about ten yards away.
He stops, looks at the bus then looks at me. “The school bus?” he guesses.
“Yes. And it’s full of?—”
“Hurry!”
“We don’t wanna miss our show!”
