Chapter Eleven
Eleven
“So what happens now?” Kelsey’s squeals and giggles and exclamations of I knew it! and He has a crush on you! had finally tapered off.
“I have no idea.” Her sister might not have noticed, but Melody hadn’t exactly been celebrating alongside her. After emerging from her grief over Thomas’s death, she’d spent the last few years content and safe and comfortable. She wasn’t supposed to fall for her kids’ principal. Or anyone, for that matter. “I’m pretty sure Finn and Tate would never forgive me if I made any kind of move on Mr. Braxton.”
“Oh. Come. On.” Kels grabbed the lapels of her coat and shook her. “You have a crush on him too. It’s so obvious.”
Instead of denying, she redirected. “The boys are my sole focus this holiday season. We still haven’t done most of the things on our holiday traditions list—picking out their ornaments, our big ice skating night, our gingerbread house, a visit to Santa…” Although that last item would be a tough sell this year. She’d have to find a pretty epic bribe…er…reward.
“Why can’t you do all of that and have a secret romance with Jonathan?” Kels whined. “The boys would never have to know. You two could meet up in Denver for a weekend—”
“I’m getting out of the car now.” Melody pushed the door open and scrambled to stand before her sister could plant any fantasies in her head. “I need to pick up the boys at the park and cross at least one thing off our list today.”
“But you know you’ll be thinking about Jonathan while you—”
Melody slammed the door on the words and cut a path through the fresh snow to her own car, where she could redirect herself in peace.
As she climbed in, Kels drove past her, honking and waving.
She shook her head and started up the engine. Did Kels have any idea how hard it was to keep secrets from Finn and Tate? She had to store their Christmas presents at her parents’ house. Besides, if she ever did have someone special in her life again—a big if —she’d want to share that with them, not sneak around like she was doing something wrong.
Something told her they wouldn’t exactly be thrilled about sharing her with Mr. Braxton.
As if on cue, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” started playing on the radio. Melody hit the button to play her Bluetooth instead, but it happened to be cued up to “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She skipped to the next song—a nice safe version of “Deck the Halls.”
To keep her thoughts from drifting into forbidden territory, she spent the drive to the park considering how she might convince the boys to visit Santa for a picture. It wouldn’t have to be a big deal—they could snap a quick picture at the Cookie and Cocktail Crawl event since Santa would be all set up near the end of the route. Then she’d reward them each with some money to spend while they walked around. Yes, that was a good plan. She’d tell them they could eat as many cookies as they wanted along the way too.
Cars crammed the lot at the park, and colorful parkas dotted the sledding hill. Her boys weren’t hard to spot when they were with her six-foot-five father. In true Papa fashion, he wore his red plaid trapper’s hat. She got out of the car in time to see them all load up on the same toboggan she’d ridden down this same hill with her dad back in the day.
She hurried to capture the moment by snapping a few pictures and waved as the three of them sailed past her on the sled, the boys squealing and her father laughing.
They came to a stop in a poof of snow.
“These two are running me ragged.” Her dad rolled off the sled and pushed to his feet, cheeks ruddy and smile singing. He couldn’t fool her. He loved sledding every bit as much as Finn and Tate.
“Thanks for taking them, Dad.” She hugged him, this big bear of a man who’d been everything to them since they’d lost Thomas.
In those first few months, her dad had shown up every evening, usually bringing along a dinner her mom had made, and he would quietly walk the three of them through their nightly routine—getting the boys bathed, reading them a story or five—and then tucking them in.
Afterward, Melody would collapse on the couch, completely drained of both energy and emotion, and her dad would sit in the recliner thumbing through the newspaper he’d brought along. You can go home , Melody always said to him. But he’d just stay put and turn to the next page. At some point she would fall asleep and then she would wake up the next morning to find him gone and a blanket tucked in around her. His quiet and consistent presence had gotten her through those months.
“How’d that stupid cookie meeting go?” Finn had snow crusted in his eyelashes.
Ugh. She hated that word. But she let it slide since she understood his anger. “It wasn’t stupid.” She reached into her pocket and handed him a tissue for his runny nose. “Actually, Mr. Braxton shared with everyone that he thinks he made the mistake.”
Her dad snorted in blatant disbelief. “He switched out his own sugar with salt?”
“He thinks he maybe got mixed up.” She winked at her dad so he wouldn’t blow Jonathan’s cover.
Tate gasped. “Then everyone knows we didn’t do anything wrong? No one’s gonna hate us!”
“Right. Now everyone will know we had nothing to do with the mistake.” Watching the clouds lift off the boys’ expressions, she understood even more why Jonathan had lied. And she was grateful. He’d saved the boys from having a very tough week at school.
“He’s gonna tell everyone in the whole town, right?” Finn pulled off his hat, and instantly he was five years old again with those curls sticking up all over.
“I’m sure word will get around.” Melody shared a smile with her dad. “So now we can all move on. We don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Isn’t that nice?” Her father scrubbed Finn’s hair.
Meanwhile, Tate’s eyes ruminated. “I can’t believe Mr. Braxton would switch his sugar with salt.”
“Well, he said he did.” For them. Warmth enveloped her heart. But no. She couldn’t allow any warm fuzzy feelings for Mr. Braxton. She had to redirect. “Hey, I thought we would go shopping, so you two could pick out your new ornament for this year.”
“But Papa promised us hot chocolate.” Her mission to distract Tate from analyzing the situation had worked.
“Why doesn’t Papa come with us?” Though she’d likely have to bribe her father too when it came to shopping. “We can get hot chocolate at the coffee shop and look around in Rudy’s place?”
Her father could never resist a trip to the antique store. Rudy had collected all kinds of treasures from estate sales over the years, and the two of them went way back.
Sure enough, her dad shrugged. “I guess I could be persuaded.”
“How long do we have to shop?” Finn was the only holdout.
“Until you find an ornament you’d like to add to your collection.” For their very first Christmas, she and Thomas had picked out ornaments for them, and then they’d continued the tradition every year until the boys had turned four and could pick out their own. The hope was that someday, when they grew up and started their own families—sniff, sniff—they’d have a whole bunch of ornaments to hang on their Christmas trees.
“So I can pick out an ornament in like a minute and then be done shopping if I want?” Finn put on his angelic smile.
“That would defeat the purpose of a fun tradition.” And spending time together. “You probably want to take a little more time to look for the right ornament. It’ll be fun.”
“Shopping is never fun,” her dad muttered, making the boys giggle.
“Oh, come on. You love browsing around Rudy’s place.” She elbowed him in the ribs. “And we’ll even start with the hot chocolate.”
The boys let out more grumbles, but her dad waved them to the parking lot. “Why don’t all three of you monkeys ride with me? Then I’ll drop you back here after we’re done?”
“Works for me.” She caught each boy under an arm and swept them along the sidewalk. Before long, they’d be too tall for her to capture so easily.
Whistling behind them, her dad hauled the sled and tossed it into the back of his truck. Once she was settled in the passenger seat, she changed the radio from his typical talk radio to Christmas tunes, earning a grunt from her father. But by the end of the drive to the coffee shop, he was humming along with “Jingle Bells” too.
They all piled out of the truck—the boys first, of course. Finn and Tate bolted into the coffee shop before she’d even shut her door.
Inside her coat pocket, her phone dinged. Melody paused outside the coffee shop windows and checked the screen. It was from Jonathan! Luckily no one heard her gasp.
I found my phone.
A warm pulsing sensation thrummed in her chest. She looked around, spotting her dad waiting for her by the entrance. Good news , she quickly typed.
I thought so. Because we didn’t get to finish our conversation earlier.
You disappeared. She started to move, shuffling her feet in the direction of her dad, but dragging them as much as possible while those three dots bounced.
Sorry about that. I had to pick up Ainsley from a friend’s house. Didn’t want to be late. Can you talk now?
Talk? Jonathan wanted to talk to her? Melody stopped a few feet away from her dad, fully aware he was watching her closely. I can’t, actually. Her heart deflated. Sorry. We’re out shopping.
Another time, then. I’m sure I’ll see you soon. He added a winking emoji.
Melody desperately scrolled through the emoji list and then fired back a thumbs-up. Thumbs-up? Really? At least it was better than an eggplant.
Her dad held open the door for her. “Who were you texting?” He kept his voice down. Not that the boys could hear him, they were too busy gawking at the baked goods in the glass case.
“Um.” She removed her beanie before her face got too hot. “No one important.” The blush creeping up her neck begged to differ.
“So it would seem Mr. Braxton lied to get everyone off your back, huh?”
She raised her gaze to her father’s. He’d always been too damn perceptive. She never could pull one over on him. “He did it for the boys. He was trying to protect them.”
According to his smile, he still saw through her. “That’s a good man there. Don’t you think?”
“Mr. Braxton is a wonderful principal. He’d do anything for his students.” She walked to meet the boys before her dad could detect any of the other feelings she had for Jonathan.
“I want the white peppermint hot chocolate,” Finn was telling the cashier.
“Yeah, me too.” Tate bumped his brother out of the way. “With extra whipped cream.”
The girl behind the counter grinned at them. “And extra sprinkles?”
They both nodded, likely playing it cool because she was a teenager and she happened to be cute. At least Melody thought so.
“And I’ll take the salted caramel with no whipped cream. Dad?”
“Dark chocolate—don’t tell your mom.”
Melody laughed. Ever since he’d turned sixty, her mother kept on him about his blood sugar.
Before she could dig her credit card out, her sweet father had told the cashier to put it on his tab, and then they all gathered at the pickup station.
“Do you two have any idea what kind of ornament you’re going to look for?” she asked the boys. Last year, they’d both gone with hockey ornaments, since playing on the town pond had become their newest obsession.
Tate shrugged. “Depends what we can find in a store full of old stuff.”
“Vintage,” her father corrected. “That stuff in Rudy’s place isn’t old. It’s vintage. And, trust me, they don’t make things like that anymore. Those ornaments you pick out’ll last forever.”
“That’s true.” She’d had to glue at least half of the new ornaments in their collection back together at one point or another.
The drinks came up, and Melody grabbed a bunch of napkins to stuff in her purse on the way out of the store.
Snowflakes drifted along on the chilly breeze, twirling and glittering under the light of the streetlamps. Melody inhaled the frosty air, closing her eyes for a second to breathe it all in—the boys’ chatter ahead of them, the snow, the cold on her cheeks. Now this felt like Christmas.
And Rudy’s shop smelled like Christmas—evergreen and gingerbread.
“Hey, Artie. Melody.” Rudy sat behind the counter where one of those small box televisions was positioned. “What’re you lookin’ for today?”
“We’re looking for Christmas ornaments,” Tate answered for them.
“You’re in luck, kid. Got a whole section of ’em there in the back.” He turned the volume down on his television. “Some real neat ones too. One of a kind. You won’t find any like that in a Hallmark store.”
“Don’t I know it.” Her father leaned into the counter.
While the two older men exchanged words about how cheaply everything was made these days, Melody wandered from shelf to shelf, giving the boys some space to explore on their own. Rudy had curated the most eclectic collection of dishes and ancient appliances and beautiful crystal accents. She picked up a large milk glass bowl and found a treasure hidden behind it. The most unique copper mixing bowl she’d ever seen. She picked it up, turning it over.
“Quite the piece, huh?” Rudy called from the counter. “I had to do some cleanup on it, but now she really shines.”
“It’s lovely.” She turned it over and over in her hands. An intricate scrolled pattern lined the outside and somehow it didn’t have one dent or scratch.
“Came from an estate sale.” Rudy walked over, followed by her father. “Best I can tell, it’s from the 1960s. Pure copper, I believe.”
“Sure looks like it to me.” Her dad took it from her and examined the surface.
“The wife swears it’s the best for making eggs fluffier, whatever that means.” Rudy always took pride in his rarer finds.
“I’m sure.” Melody accepted the bowl back from her dad. It sat heavy and solid in her hands, cool to the touch. It would be the perfect gift for—
Redirect.
Such a specific gift might be too intimate and thoughtful for the boys to give to their principal. They typically stuck to the usual school themed gifts for the staff—pens, candy, gift cards…
She set the bowl back on the shelf and continued wandering, her father now ambling by her side.
“Somethin’ on your mind?”
Kels had been right. Melody could try to distract herself as much as possible, but that didn’t stop her thoughts from drifting to Jonathan. He was the first person she’d thought of when she’d seen the mixing bowl.
She hesitated, checking around them to make sure the boys were still perusing ornaments in the back. Maybe the reason her dad had been so wonderful after Thomas had died was that he’d lost his own father. He’d been fourteen, not four like her boys, but he still grasped the absolute shock of having a parent alive one moment and gone forever the next.
“How long did Grandma wait to go out with Jimmy after your dad died?” Strange that she’d never asked him that question before.
“She met Jimmy a few years after, if I remember right,” he answered after a long pause.
“And you were okay with her dating again? As a kid?” If her grandmother had met Jimmy two years later, that would’ve made him sixteen when his stepfather had come into his life.
“I wouldn’t say I was okay with her dating.” Her dad picked up an old hammer and examined the handle. “I liked Jimmy. And I wanted her to be happy. But I had my moments of hating the whole thing. Why d’you ask?” He set down the hammer and glanced at her.
Yes, why was she asking? “Just curious.”
His chin tilted up as he studied her, those wise eyes seeming to take it all in. He knew why she was asking. Or at least he had an inkling, but he didn’t push. “There was this one time when I told your grandma I didn’t like her dating. I was mad that Jimmy had come over for dinner on my birthday, and I told her all about it.” He chuckled softly. “I’ll never forget what she said back to me.”
Melody picked up a music box and let it play while she waited. Dad talked about his mom frequently enough that she knew what a wise woman her grandmother had been. She wished she had gotten to know her better, but she’d had a stroke when Melody was six years old and had deteriorated rapidly after that.
“She said, ‘Arthur, I know you’re spittin’ mad about losin’ your daddy, but I only have two choices here.’?” The way he made his voice higher to mimic his mother made Melody smile. “?‘One choice is to stay where I’m at for the rest of my life. And where I’m at right now is sad and lonely. And the second choice is to take a risk so I can get out of this rut I’m stuck in.’?”
“That’s a good way to put it for a kid.” It had been a few years since she’d felt sad and lonely, but she could relate to being stuck in a rut.
“After she said that, I got it.” Her father stopped at a shelf crowded with old leather wallets. “I didn’t want her to be sad and lonely. And she told me she couldn’t grow without letting new people into her life. That made sense.”
Melody let the words sit. Growth wasn’t quite the wisdom she’d been expecting to glean from her grandmother’s experience. She’d thought her father was going to say something about his mom telling him she needed to find her own happiness again. And that was the thing…Melody was happy. She missed Thomas and what they’d had, but she’d worked through the grief and she had a full life.
But she couldn’t say she’d grown much in the last few years. She’d kept her circle small, her life simple. She worked and she took care of the boys and she spent time with her family. That was all. And it had been enough. But now…
“Jimmy was real different than my dad.” Her father opened up a worn black leather wallet and studied the inside. “But my mom was different too after losing him. And they were happy. Every bit as happy as my parents had been, if not more.” He set the wallet back on the shelf. “He’d lost his wife too, so I think they appreciated what they’d found together more than most people.”
The nostalgic smile on her dad’s face warmed her. She linked her arm through his as they continued shopping. “The boys and I are so lucky to have you.”
He squeezed her against his side. “I think I’m the one who’s lucky.”
“Look, Mom.” Finn raced to them holding up a snowy owl made from feathers. “Isn’t this the coolest ornament ever?”
“Very cool.” She refrained from saying I told you so . “Is that the one you’re going to choose?”
“I don’t know yet.” He was already en route to the back of the store. “We can’t decide. There’s a lot to look at.”
“Take your time.” It seemed shopping in a store full of old stuff wasn’t so boring after all.
“You know…” Her father changed directions, heading back the way they’d come. “Mom and Jimmy were friends before they were anything else. No harm in being friends with someone.” He stopped her in front of the copper mixing bowl.
Shaking her head at him, Melody picked it up again, her heart beating the way it only seemed to for Jonathan. He would like it. He’d use it, most likely. Maybe it would remind him of baking with his grandma. “I suppose having friends is a good thing.” She and Jonathan had become friends. And she kind of owed him one for taking the blame for the salt. “Hey, Rudy, how much do you want for this?”
The man behind the counter turned down his television again. “You can take it for twenty dollars.”
“That’s not enough.” He’d probably paid more than that at the estate sale he bought it from.
“Merry Christmas.” He waved her off and turned up the television again.
“Thanks, Rudy. It’ll make the perfect gift.” She couldn’t wait to see Jonathan’s face when she gave it to him.