15. Light And Happy

15

LIGHT AND HAPPY

T he next morning, Crystal was up at her normal time even though she didn’t have to get Elsie ready for school. But she wouldn’t stay upstairs until Phoenix left for work either. That would be wrong and make her a coward on top of it.

She promised Elsie they would make cookies for Santa tonight. She’d spent the past week wrapping most of the gifts for the little girl and helping to decorate the house.

Phoenix hadn’t had a problem with any of it. She hadn’t been part of the tree decorating and didn’t get upset over it. She put a small one up in her little apartment and had a few decorations herself.

She squared her shoulders and all but skipped down the stairs to the kitchen. Phoenix was sitting at the island with a cup of coffee in front of him, his phone in his hand as always, a frown on his face.

“Not the best way to start the day,” she said. She wanted to keep this chipper. Keep it light and happy.

There was this fear she’d overstepped last night and now could risk losing her job.

Just one more mark on her resume of shitty decisions if that happened.

He looked up quickly. “What way is that?”

“The frown. Everything okay?”

“Work,” he said, sighing. “The usual.”

“Production issues?” she asked.

“Supplies this time. Not to mention I’ve got two people who called in today. I should have expected it the day before the holiday and just shut down.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked. “Or are you on a tight timeline?”

“I give staff twelve holidays a year and more time off. I shut down on Sundays right now too. I’d like to work seven days a week.”

“But it’s hard to find staff or afford them?” she asked.

“The chicken and the egg. I can’t seem to get one in front of the other. I’ve got some good employees and I know it’s a holiday and all.”

“Today isn’t a holiday,” she said. “It never has been. It’s just that society starts time off earlier and earlier. At least I always felt that way. I’ve never had this day off.”

“I suppose if you’ve got family in town or kids, it’s different.”

“Did you normally go home?” she asked. “Before you started your business?”

“I tried to,” he said. “Most times it worked.”

“I bet your family has a really big celebration. You talked about your eight cousins, but you never said where they lived. When you were a kid, did you see them?”

“Not often,” he said. “My uncle was in the service so they traveled a lot. When he died, they were in North Carolina, so it’s not like we could just hop in a car for a quick trip.”

“I understand that,” she said. “I don’t fly often. Too expensive and driving is too far for me at times. I’m good at coming up with those excuses too.”

She saw the grin on his face. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

“What is that?” she asked. She fixed her coffee and leaned on the island across from him with it in her hands.

He’d waited to answer until she was in position. “Act like nothing happened last night.”

“Oh,” she said. “Something happened. We both know it. Not sure you’ll admit something happened after you left, but I’ll say I slept like a baby.”

His face turned pink. She enjoyed doing that to him.

“I slept fairly well,” he said.

“Good,” she said, standing up straight and sipping her coffee. “Don’t overthink this. I’m good at separating things if you haven’t noticed.”

“Guess I should learn that from you.”

Which told her maybe more could come of this. “We could teach each other.”

“We could,” he said.

“Are you working all day today?” she asked, switching it back to business mode.

“I’m going to try to get out a little after lunch. I know everything is set for the tree. Thank you again.”

“I love wrapping,” she said. “It was fun.”

He bought a lot for Elsie but not everything on the little girl’s list. He’d said he didn’t want her to think she could get it all. There were some things he couldn’t find and wasn’t going to try. Life wasn’t about getting everything you want.

She’d asked if he wanted her to try to do it. She had a credit card and turned in all receipts or had them emailed to him if she ordered online.

But he’d told her no.

“Glad you like it. I’m not so great at it,” he said. “You’re welcome to have dinner with us tonight, but I don’t expect you to cook it. I can cook. I’ll be home.”

“I think I’ll let you cook too,” she said. “But I’m doing it tomorrow. Elsie told me about the Christmas morning breakfast she wanted. I made sure I had everything.”

“You didn’t say anything about that,” he said.

“We didn’t talk much yesterday when you got home. Elsie and I went to the store to get it all. Last night didn’t seem to be the time.”

“No,” he said. “It might have cooled us down though.”

“Maybe I didn’t want us to cool down,” she said.

Crystal was having fun going back and forth between these conversations.

“What is on the menu?” he asked.

“Blueberry pancakes, bacon, hash browns and cinnamon buns.”

He laughed. “Maryn was addicted to those canned cinnamon buns.”

“Maybe it’s a good memory for you both. I know it’s going to be hard. I understand if you don’t want me around for the day.”

“No,” he said. “I think we both need you.”

“Thank you for that,” she said softly. “Elsie and I are going to bake cookies for Santa today. She said sugar cookies. In our house, Santa got chocolate chip with a side of pretzels in a bowl and a can of beer.”

He smirked. “Peanut butter cookies in our house and a bottle of water. Santa needed to watch his calories and his weight with all the treats on that night. My mother insisted water was best.”

“That’s funny. I wonder what Santa wants tonight,” she said.

“Not milk,” he said. He leaned closer to her and lowered her voice. “Or it gets dumped.”

“Then I think I’ll talk Elsie into something else. Maybe the whiskey that was in the cabinet over there.”

“That might work if you can spin it well.”

“I’ll come up with something,” she said. “Do you think Mrs. Clause sits home and has some spirits while her hubby is out cruising the world with his magical best friends?”

“I’d like to think that maybe some of the women elves stop over and have a girls' night,” he said. “At least my mother would like that.”

“You’re a good guy,” she said.

He finished his coffee and rinsed it before he put it in the dishwasher. “I’m glad you think that.” Rather than walk past her, he moved over and got in her space, then leaned down and gave her a soft quick kiss on the lips.

“You’re not the only one that can make a move when they know it will be received.”

She winked and let out a sigh of relief that maybe she didn’t ruin things after all. “See you later.”

“Bye,” he said and walked past the stairs to the garage.

She grabbed some bread and popped two pieces in the toaster and got the peanut butter out. While they were toasting, she pulled her phone out and started to scroll through social media looking at some of her friends while she had her breakfast.

There were a lot of posts on where people were going and what they were doing. She hadn’t posted much and rarely did.

All she’d done was update her profile to a nanny as her career.

She wouldn’t even say she was just a nanny at this point. She wasn’t a personal assistant to Phoenix either, but sometimes it felt that way.

She’d gotten everything taken care of at Maryn’s house for him in two days. Clothes and personal items were cleaned out and donated. Toys of Elsie’s, she’d done the same. She even cleaned out all the food so the cleaning company didn’t have to do it.

The house sold before it was even listed on the market and Phoenix had told her the closing would be in a few weeks. The people buying it were from out of the area and moving with three kids made it so much easier to not have to pack all the furniture they had.

Elsie had been told the house sold and the little girl didn’t appear to be upset over it.

She wasn’t sure if Elsie was just holding things in or if she was adapting well with Phoenix. She liked to think it was the second but knew that might not be the case.

She was going through more posts from her friends and family and trying not to feel any jealousy. She commented on her family’s posts like she normally did, but didn’t post any of her own.

When she heard a door shut, she realized Elsie must be up and noticed it was almost eight. She thought Elsie would sleep in more.

Elsie was in the kitchen rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Morning,” she said. “How come you’re up when you’ve got no school?”

“I wanted to bake cookies,” Elsie said. “Can we do it this morning?”

“We can,” she said. “But how about breakfast? What do you want?”

“Just milk and cereal,” Elsie said. “But we have to save milk for Santa, right?”

“Well,” she said. “We can talk about that too. Remember I need some for the pancakes tomorrow too.”

“Oh,” Elsie said. “My mom always left wine for Santa.”

Crystal laughed. “I think it’s a nice change of pace from milk, don’t you?”

“What can we leave Santa if not milk?” Elsie asked. “And I don’t think Uncle Nix has wine here.”

“I don’t think so either,” she said. Bummer since she could use a glass. Maybe she’d send him a text and let him know about this conversation.

“We’ve got time,” Elsie said. “Though Santa is already out there delivering in some parts of the world, right?”

“He might be,” she said. “Working up a big appetite.”

She put the bowl on the island with the cereal that Elsie liked. She let the little girl fill her own bowl but then got the milk out.

“Can I have orange juice too?”

“You sure can,” she said. “While you were sleeping, I was looking at cookie art. Do you want to see?”

“Yes, please,” Elsie said.

She showed Elsie the pictures, and the two of them picked out the designs they were going to make, then when Elsie went to her room to change, she shot off a text to Phoenix with a picture of a bottle of wine and a question mark stating Elsie mentioned this, and maybe it’d go well with dinner or after...

He replied he’d take care of it but no mention of anything else.

Oh well, she tried.