Page 61 of Peppermint Bark

“I thought you might like this,” he held out the lumpy gift with a rare hint of uncertainty. “Mrs. Claus wasn’t home to wrap it.”

Ruby unwrapped a well-loved blue My Little Pony with rainbow hair, then threw her arms around Alex’s shoulders. “Look, Grandma, it’s Rainbow Dash!”

“I remembered that you liked unicorns,” he said. Where the heck had he found that on such short notice?

Ruby rolled her eyes. “Santa, Rainbow Dash isn’t a unicorn, she’s a pegasus.”

From my perch on the arm of Jean’s uncomfortable hospital chair, we watched as Ruby explained, in great detail, the difference based on their wings and horns. I bit my knuckle to keep from laughing as Alex kept a straight face through multiple follow-up questions about how a unicorn grew wings to transform into an alicorn. Jean wiped away a tear then squeezed my hand, and Alex’s eyes softened at the tender moment.

Since Ruby had Santa all to herself, she was in prime performance mode, reenacting My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. His applause was eager, and I imagined a younger Alex giving a similar ovation to his now-famous brother. Next she rambled about baking sugar cookies with Grandma that they planned to leave out for Santa before she’d gotten dizzy. Alex rubbed his fake belly and rumbled that he’d had enough treats, so Ruby should eat them when she got home.

Ruby said maybe they'd have them for dinner, since the doctor said that she could leave soon but her grandma hadn’t had time to cook so she said they would stop at McDonald’s on the way home.

Alex’s hopeful eyes asked me, ‘Can we?'

When I hesitated, he pursed his lips.

I sent him a look that said, ‘Your choice, it’s your house.’

His eyes rolled slightly, then he rubbed his beard. He couldn’t invite them, not as Santa.

“Do you two want to come to our Christmas dinner?” I whispered to Jean, who startled at the request. I dropped my voice lower. “At his parents’ house.”

“Oh no, we couldn’t impose."

Over Ruby’s head, Alex mouthed, ‘Please come,’ and looked relieved when she nodded. I promised to followup with the doctor about discharge plans. Alex hugged Ruby and gave Jean a shoulder squeeze, just like he’d seen me do.

At the nurses’ station, I paged the attending to request discharge. While I waited, I texted Helen for permission to bring Jean and Ruby to dinner and received a rapid reply asking if they had dietary restrictions. Then I shared that Alex would be with me too, and he'd explain when he got there.

When the doctor called, Alex shifted at the buzz of families aware of the lingering Santa in the hallway. I fidgeted with my badge, ready to take him back to my office to change, until his gaze flicked down the hall then back to me with a request in his eyes. ‘Can we? Please?’

Shocked, I tucked the phone's headset into my shoulder and made a hand gesture to remind him to wash his hands in every room.

When I tagged along as his escort, I caught details the families might not have shared with me as a social worker, but the kids let their guards down around Santa. He visited patients for almost two hours until I reluctantly pulled him out of the final room at the end of my shift.

I always work Christmas … and this year had turned into the best one ever.

Chapter 23

Alex

I crawled under the dining room table to lock the leaf in place. When I arrived with Grace, Mom shot me a ‘we’ll talk later’ face, offered appetizers to Jean and Ruby, and put me to work setting the extra places.

My head slammed against the underside at Dad’s voice. “We didn’t expect you for Christmas.”

I hadn’t expected to be here either. When I left last week, I’d swung by the house with Victoria to pack my bag without telling Mom and Dad I was leaving. I rubbed the back of my head as I crawled out. “The client signed late last night, it made more sense to come home.”

“How long are you here?”

“Flying back on January 1.” My eyes darted into the kitchen, where Mom and Grace sliced potatoes and hummed to Christmas carols. Jean knit and Ruby perched on a stool playing with the dusty old pony I’d found in my aunt’s basement.

“Why didn’t you call us to pick you up?”

“The train station is only a mile from the hospital,” I said, which was factually accurate but dodged his real question: ‘What the hell are you doing with Grace?’

I hadn’t come home one night last week. At the time, so focused on making sure she was ok, I hadn’t considered my parents' reaction, when she asked me to stay, or when I'd gone to class with her, or when I’d been called off to work.

I definitely hadn’t thought about how to respond when Dad grilled me like he was polishing his shotgun on prom night.

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