14. Bryan
14
brYAN
“ I s that gingerbread I smell?” I asked as I entered the kitchen at lunchtime.
“We’re building a house!” Amelia called out.
I crossed over to the table where they worked.
“Quick, put your hand there.” Nova indicated one wall of the house with her nose. She couldn’t use her hands to point because she was struggling holding up the other walls. “Try to get the icing between the cookie pieces,” she directed.
Amelia had what looked like a bag of white icing, and she was squirting it all over the place except for where it was needed.
“No, Amelia, like glue,” Nova said.
“But it’s frosting. Frosting goes on top,” Amelia corrected with her precise tone of voice.
“Sounds like this discussion has been going on for a while?”
“Daddy tell her, the frosting goes on top,” Amelia pleaded.
“Don’t look at me. I’ve never made a gingerbread, um, house? This is a house, right?”
“Shut up,” Nova muttered.
“It looks kind of like a bunker, or a warehouse,” I continued.
Nova shot a glare at me. “I’m this close to letting everything go, and then it will be a pile of gingerbread lumber.” Her tone was sharp.
“Amelia,” I said calmly. “Nova needs you to listen to her and put the frosting where she tells you. We can’t spend the rest of Christmas vacation holding up the walls to your gingerbread house.”
“But…” Amelia started to whine.
“Okay, that’s it. This was not a good idea,” Nova said as she gently set down the pieces she had been holding in place.
Amelia started to cry.
“We can’t do this while everyone is having hard emotions. We’re going to put the house building aside for a bit, have some lunch, and then maybe after a rest, we can come back to the house.”
“I’ll do it right this time,” Amelia whined.
“I know you want to do it right. When we come back and no one is frustrated, and our brains have had some good thinking food, you can show me that you can do it right.”
I was impressed. Nova looked like she was at a breaking point, but she spoke calmly. Firmly, but calmly, and she didn’t raise her voice at all.
She held her hand out for the messy bag of icing that Amelia clutched. Reluctantly, my daughter handed over the frosting.
“Go wash up, and I’ll clean this up so we can come back to it later.”
I watched as Amelia rounded her shoulders and stuck out her lower lip in a pout. But she followed directions and trudged over to the sink.
“Everything going okay?” I asked.
Nova shook her head. “My brilliant idea of building a gingerbread house is a near disaster. And Amelia is having a hard time listening in her excitement.”
“Sounds like it would not be a good idea if I suggested we all went out for lunch?”
“Getting out of here might be a good idea. There’s a little festival in town that might be a good idea. Food booths, and outside where Amelia can burn off some of her energy,” Nova suggested.
“That’s not rewarding bad behavior, is it?” I glanced from the pile of gingerbread back to Nova.
“I think our failed architecture is punishment enough. Redirecting her energy isn’t a reward. I need the break just as much as she does,” Nova admitted.
It took Nova no time to get Amelia ready to leave. We were in town and parked in a matter of minutes. “Daddy, Daddy, look!” Amelia danced ahead of us, pointing at everything.
I didn’t think I would call the few scattered booths a festival, more like a farmer’s market without the farm produce. There were vendors of various kinds, from local maple syrup farmers to handmade knitted gifts. And many food vendors.
Amelia ate chicken on a stick while Nova selected a meat pie. And I found a sausage pierogi and sauerkraut sandwich.
“You like German food?” Nova asked.
“Polish,” I corrected. “And yes, I do. You?”
She shook her head. “I can’t get past sauerkraut. But pierogi always sound like they should taste good.”
“Stay right there,” I told her.
I jogged back to the pierogi booth.
“Is everything okay?” the guy who fixed my sandwich asked.
“She’s never had pierogi,” I said, gesturing back toward Nova.
“What? No. I got what she needs right here.”
I handed over a few bucks and returned to Nova with a small paper tray with pierogi and a plastic fork.
“Trust me,” I said as I handed it over. “No sauerkraut. You’ll love it.”
She eyed me warily as she took a bite. Her expression went from skeptical to surprised as her eyebrows relaxed.
“This is good. What’s in it?”
“Can I try one?” Amelia asked.
“That one is potato and cheese,” I said as Nova handed Amelia a speared pierogi on the fork.
“It’s too simple. There has to be a trick,” Nova said.
“No trick. Pierogi can be simple or more complex.”
“Are you going to want me to make German, I mean Polish, food now?” Nova asked.
“I wouldn’t object if you decided to experiment.”
“Snow!” Amelia announced. She began dancing around with her tongue sticking out.
“Too bad there isn’t enough for sledding,” Nova said. “I had expected there to be a lot more snow up here around Christmas.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get plenty of snow. By February, you’ll be so sick of it, you’ll deny ever having said you wanted more.”
“Is that Santa?” Amelia stopped when the sound of sleigh bells could be heard.
I glanced around. “Not Santa, and not a sleigh, but look.” I grabbed Amelia and spun her until she was facing the direction of a horse drawn carriage.
“That’s so pretty,” Nova said. “Like the front of a Christmas card.”
“Come on,” I said as I scooped up Amelia. “Let’s go for a ride.”
I strode off in the direction that looked like a stand for the carriages. Nova scurried after me. “Are you serious?”
She kept asking if I was serious the entire time until we were stepping up into a carriage.
“I can’t believe this. It’s like a fairy tale.”
“The little miss needs to sit or be on her knees. I can’t have her standing,” the carriage driver said.
Nova wrapped her arms around Amelia. “You heard the man. On your knees or on your booty.”
Amelia immediately climbed to her knees and looked out the side of the open top carriage.
The carriage swayed and was not smooth as it bumped over the trail. I sat back and smiled and laughed as both Nova and Amelia could not stop gasping and smiling. It was a simple ride around the small downtown area, but somehow, the scattered snow made it all the more special. And I swear if I looked into Nova’s eyes, I could see the magic she was seeing.
The ride didn’t take long, just around the big block and through the park.
“Can we go again?” Amelia asked as the horses came to a stop.
I jumped down from the carriage and held my hands out for her. She jumped and I caught her in midair. I set her on her feet.
“Not today,” Nova said. “Maybe next time there’s a little festival like this.”
I turned and looked up at her. The light framed her face perfectly, highlighting her hair almost like a halo. I reached out to help her down. She placed her hands on my shoulders, and I let my hands slide over her hips to her waist. “I’ve got you.”
She was so beautiful. Whatever choices I had made that brought us here this afternoon had been the right ones. Time slowed as I held her. She slid down my chest until her feet were finally on the ground.
Our eyes locked for a long moment, and then I was staring at her lips.
“Come on, Daddy!” Amelia grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Nova, away from getting lost in her.
We strolled around the square. Amelia’s hand was in mine. She swung our arms back and forth. Nova was almost close enough that we could brush shoulders. I liked this. It felt comfortable.
“We should probably head home so you can get back to work,” Nova said.
“Nonsense. We haven’t seen the ice sculpting contest yet,” I said as I pointed ahead.
The truth was, I would much rather spend my time doing this than chasing down projections and anticipating the behaviors of certain investments.
“Bryan!” I turned at the sound of my name.
Ned waved. He had his kids with him. One had her knee resting on a scooter, the lower half of her leg wrapped in a purple cast.
“I see you managed to find something to do for your holiday,” I said as we got closer.
“I thought you’d be in the office,” Ned said.
Amelia tugged on my arm. I grabbed Nova’s hand. She shot me a panicked look before she realized what I was doing. I placed Amelia’s hand into hers. “Why don’t you take Nova and go look at the ice sculptures?”
I didn’t have to tell her twice. Amelia dragged Nova away.
“Who’s the new girl?” Ned said. “Is she why you aren’t getting those reports back to me?”
“She’s filling in as Amelia’s nanny while the regular one is on vacation.”
“Oh, is that what you call it? Filling in?”
“Don’t be crass, Ned. Nova is an elementary school teacher who needed some extra income over the holidays. And I haven’t gotten those reports back to you because I’m doing stuff like this with my kid. Just like you are.”
“She looks like that woman from the hotel bar the other week.”
“What woman?” I lied. I hadn’t thought he had seen her.
He shrugged. “We got kicked out of the house. My wife said we were wearing on her nerves.”
“Too bad she’s missing this,” I said. I glanced over at his kids. From the bored expressions on their faces and the way they stared at their phones, they were missing all of this too.
“I don’t think this is something she’d enjoy,” Ned said.
“Well, if you’ll excuse me, my kid is loving this. I guess it helps to be young.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets and headed to where Amelia and Nova stood looking at one of the sculptures.
I kept my distance as they oohed and ahhed over the various sculptures. So what if Ned had seen Nova? What did it matter if he had even seen me with her? We were both single, consenting adults. And the situation that had her in my house was not what he was thinking it was. He needed to keep his nose out of where it wasn’t welcome.