Page 46 of Sadie's Little Christmas

Her turn.

Unlike last year when she’d had so many fears and reservations, this time, Santa didn’t have to chase her down. She went to him on happy feet, bounding up onto his lap with a squeal and the biggest hug she could muster. He rocked her, chuckling as he returned every ounce of ferocity she put into that hug.

“I can’t wait to hear this,” he said, settling back into his Santa role with a twinkle in his blue eyes and a knowing grin. “Nanny J says you’ve been working on your list for months. How many Christmas wishes do you have for Santa, darlin’?”

“One,” she said proudly. Reaching into the pocket of her dress, she pulled out a thin stack of letters, tied neatly together with a length of red ribbon. She had no delusions Daddy wouldn’t be happy to hear what she had to say and in her opinion, bad news could never be completely terrible when it was wrapped in a pretty red ribbon.

“What is that?” he asked, taking the envelopes from her.

“My wish,” she said. “And my exchange of letters.”

He flipped the envelopes over to read the name and address on the top most one. She felt him stiffen and no trace of smile could be glimpsed beneath his fake beard when he cleared his throat and very carefully said, “Detective Forrester contacted you?”

“I contacted him,” she confessed, stubbornly maintaining her cheerfulness. “And my Christmas wish is for you to let him come to the Ranch for one weekend.”

“After what he said to you?” Derek countered in his best ‘have you lost your mind’ tone.

“It’s because of what he said to me, I’ve invited him to come.”

“You…” He caught himself and quickly lowered his voice. “Sadie Marie, young lady, did you just tell me you already invited the man?Beforetalking to me about it?”

“It’s important, Daddy. I just can’t stop thinking about in the hospital when he asked me what I thought was going to happen at the dungeon play party, then again at the trial when he said he didn’t understand why I would go there in the first place.”

He stared at her, storm clouds growing in his eyes.

“I love you, honey, and I love that your first instinct is show him what he’s missing, but sometimes an asshat is exactly that, regardless of how he phrases his personal intolerance.”

Running her fingers through his beard, Sadie shrugged one shoulder.

“And sometimes, what we might see as asshattery is just a guy who’s seen a lot of bad things and needs help to realize this isn’t another one of those.” She shrugged both shoulders. “That’s it. That’s my Christmas wish, and you have to give it to me because you’re Santa Claus, and that’s your job.”

“You, little girl, need one hell of a spanking.”

She grinned. “Sounds like fun.”

“Not the way I’m going to do it.”

“Please?” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I’ll be good all year.”

He snorted, not fooled for a second. When she stuck her lip out in a plaintive pout, he snorted, shook his head, then gave in.

“Fine. I’llthinkabout it.” He tucked the letters into his Santa coat. “You’re absolutely getting spanked for this when we get home, though. Don’t think for a second you’re not.”

That was then, and this was now, and there were a lot of ways a girl could get out of trouble in the meantime. She threw her arms around his neck in another tight hug.

“Thank you, Daddy! Now,”—she bent over the side of the chair to grab at his sack—“what did you get me?”

He just as quickly grabbed the sack away from her.

“I don’t know, this might be too good a present for a little girl who drops bombs like that one in Daddy’s lap.”

She grinned, once more batting her eyelashes.

“Would it help to know I have a present for you, too? And not a cheap, skimpy one like macaroni and glitter pictures or handprints in clay.”

“I happen to like your macaroni and glitter pictures,” he said, relaxing into another smile for the first time since The Bomb. “All right, sassy pants. Who gets to give who their present first?”

She brightened. “You, of course. I don’t like to wait.”

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