Chapter Thirteen

Conrad

Today I made breakfast. Bert was clearing paths to the cordwood and around the foundation of the house and Natalie was coloring in front of the fire. She said it was her favorite place to be in the house because the flames were dancing.

I was preparing one of Natalie’s favorite breakfast treats, a pull-apart bread made out of tube biscuits. It was far from fancy, but she loved them and, when I was packing the cooler, she’d triple-checked the tube biscuits were inside it.

I beat eggs with a splash of cream and had them ready to cook once the bread was out of the oven. Some sliced-up fruit later, breakfast was as ready as it could be for when Conrad came back in. And then I cleaned every bowl, pan, and utensil I had dirtied, knowing he was going to try and claim dish duty having spent an hour plus outside moving snow.

“Hey, can I help?” I sat next to Natalie on the floor, the cool breeze of Bert coming inside distracting me for a second.

“I’m making a Christmas tree for the wall. Maybe Santa will put the presents under it.”

“I love your picture.” Bert sat beside me. “We could put it on the wall next to the tree if you want?”

“Tree? You have a Christmas tree?”

“We can go get one.”

Natalie was up and tackle-hugging him in two-point-three seconds and, after breakfast, the three of us went down to the local tree farm. There were plenty of trees on the land, but he insisted that the tree farm was worth the trip. For a bear who stayed away from people most of the time, he really went out of his way to make sure that Natalie had the human experiences.

The farm had a small stand with hot cider and cookies, a man with an elf hat who led you to your perfect tree, and a tractor ride. If it was back home, this would’ve been considered a place to go if the “big” ones were closed, and yet it was so much better than any of them.

“When we get home, we can make decorations.” Natalie started listing all decorations she had planned, which led us to the town’s general store for supplies.

They had a remarkable variety for such a small shop. As the two of us put item after item in the cart, Bert wandered off. The next thing I knew, he had a pair of boots in his hands.

“These are your size, right? I don’t want to buy them for you and have them not fit, but you have used all of the duct tape at home.” He winked at me.

That was when I noticed the two rolls of duct tape in his other hand. The boots were my size, but he for sure didn’t need to buy them for me. I grabbed them and put them in my cart.

We finished picking out supplies and getting everything into the cart. When I went to check out, I heard Bert say, “It’s on my tab.”

We were truly in the middle of nowhere if he had a tab at the general store. I felt like I’d walked into the past.

“I got this,” I told him, not wanting him to feel like he had to buy everything.

He gave me some side-eye. “It’s on my tab already.”

I thanked him, and before we left the store, he insisted I put the new boots on. It was sweet the way he looked out for me like that.

We stopped at the diner, grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed back home for Operation Christmas Tree Decorating. Within five minutes, the entire table was covered with craft supplies as Natalie went to work, giving each of us jobs and describing the perfect shape for each and every ornament. She had a plan, and that plan required us to accept her authority as the tree elf.

It was cute and sweet, and, shortly before I needed to put dinner on, we had the tree up and decorated with our newly created ornaments as well as ones we had picked up at the Christmas fair. True to his word, Bert hung Natalie’s picture right next to the tree.

Cleaning up was far more challenging than making the mess, and I was once again grateful I hadn’t allowed glitter. With the wood floors the way they were, that glitter would’ve been stuck here forever.

“Daddy, can I go outside and play in the snow?”

“Sure, but I need to put dinner on first. Do you want to wait for me?”

“Will you help me build a snow castle?”

“I would love that.” I had no idea how to begin, but I was game.

I’d already brought the ingredients for a simple baked chicken and stuffing dish, and I was glad I’d bought the larger size of everything. It had been less expensive at the time, and I’d assumed we’d eat it twice. But it turned out to be perfect for the three of us. The three of us. I loved the sound of that.

I still wasn’t sure how everything was going to work out, but I was sure that it would—and that was enough.

While Natalie went to her room to put away her colored pencils, Bert came up behind me and kissed the back of my neck where he’d marked me.

“This was a fun day,” he murmured.

I leaned back against him. “It was. Thank you for my boots. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Except I did.”

This time, he scraped his teeth along my neck, and all I wanted to do was yank him into the bedroom and strip him naked. There would be time for that later.

“My bear insists I take care of you,” he said. “And letting you walk around in those broken boots wasn’t it.”

“Well, I’m still grateful.” I turned my head for an awkward kiss and then went back to getting the dinner together.

“Dinner’s in the oven. Let’s go build some snow castles.” I wasn’t exactly sure what they were going to look like, but I was ready.

“I have an idea,” Bert said. “Why don’t you get Natalie, and I’ll grab some pots. If we’re going to make a snow castle, it’s going to be the snow castle of all snow castles.”

I found Natalie sitting on her bed, writing away.

“I made a new list for Santa.” She quickly folded it up. “Do you have an envelope?”

“I don’t, but we can ask Bert after we go outside and play.”

“But, if we wait, then Santa might not get it in time.”

“Santa is made of magic. He’ll get it in time.” That seemed to satisfy her.

She came out as Bert carried a huge stack of pots, pans, and some plastic cooking utensils outside.

“Daddy, are we gonna have to, like, cook on the barbecue instead of playing?”

“We’re not gonna cook on the barbecue.” I ruffled her hair. “Bert is going to help us build the world’s best snow castle.”

That got her moving. She threw on her snow outfit quickly, and we played for nearly an hour. The castle, made by packing snow into pots and flipping them upside down like sand molds at the beach, turned out tall and fabulous.

According to Natalie, it needed finishing in the morning, since the sun was already starting to set, and the chicken was definitely nearly if not already done.

“I’m all wet.” Natalie pointed to her shirt. The water had seeped through her jacket and snow pants. She was soaked.

“You know what that means.”

“It means, I need to take a shower,” she grumbled. Baths were her favorite, but dinner was almost ready, and baths took a while.

“A shower. Do you need me to set it for you?”

“I’m big, Daddy.” She rolled her eyes and went to her room, coming back out less than a minute later with clean clothes and the folded letter. She handed it to Bert.

“Do you have an envelope? I need to get this to Santa before it is too late.”

“Yeah, I have one somewhere. I’ll find it.” He set it on the counter. “Now, hurry up. I want to eat this chicken. It smells delicious.”

She went to take her shower while Bert dug through a drawer to find an envelope.

“So how do we do this?” he asked.

“We address it to Santa at the North Pole. Usually, I either put it in one of the mall Santa mailboxes with her or promise her I’ll mail it on my way to work. What do we do here? There is no mall.”

“I don’t know. Do you think we should read it?”

“Probably.” As she’d gotten older, it felt more invasive, especially after she asked about the beach. “I’ll ask her.”

I went to the bathroom door, the shower no longer on. “Hey, Natalie, can we read your letter?”

“Sure, Dad. The presents are for you anyway.” That caught me off guard. I opened the letter, and Bert read over my shoulder.

Dear Santa,

Can you help Daddy and Bert have a wedding for Christmas? I don’t need to go to the beach. The snow is much more fun.

Love, Natalie.

I handed it to Bert.

“I’m clean and dry.” She came out of the bathroom, skipping. “Did you find an envelope?”

“Yeah.” His voice cracked. “I found one. Why did you write this to Santa?”

“Well, you and Daddy love each other, right?”

“Yeah, we do.” He squatted down to be eye level with her.

“Then you need to get married. And you can be my papa. I know you said you want kids, but I can be your kid. Daddy can be your husband. We’ll be the best family ever.”