Page 16 of The Santa Surprise

“Should I get him something for Christmas? Maybe something from Dakota?” I ask Dottie, the first person to befriend me when I moved to town. She’s a nurse too, but we work on different units.

We’re taking a coffee break at Starbucks while out Christmas shopping. I was grateful when Ripley offered to pick Dakota up from daycare and keep her while I shopped after work. Alex is also working otherwise I’m sure he would’ve done it.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the other night. After the first time we made out we finished watching the movie, snuggling on the couch. When he went to leave, I kissed him again, and then he lifted me, and we made out against the wall next to the door.

“Aspen?” I blink and then turn to look at Dottie. “Girl, what were you just thinking about? Your face got all soft and dreamy.”

“Oh shut up it did not.” I feel my cheeks heat up, I’m sure they’re beet red. We stand up to leave and she quietly sings “WAP”, even doing a little dance, making me laugh, and swat at her.

“Now back to your question,” Dottie says as she threads her arm through mine. “You can do whatever you want. If you want to just get something from Kota, do it, and if you want to get him something from you, go for it.”

By the time we’re done I have the “Santa” wrapping paper, bows, tags, and all of Dakota’s gifts from Santa. She loves taking pictures, so I got her a princess polaroid camera. A toy purse with all the accessories and a bunch of books.

Dottie has boys so her cart looks different than mine.

“Aspen.” I hear my name called and spot Tyler, Alex’s brother, coming toward us. “Hey, I thought that was you?” He smiles at Dottie, giving her a chin lift.

“Hi Tyler, how are you?” He’s so cute and has a total bad boy vibe to him. Alex has more of the boy next door good looks.

“Good, gorgeous. I just had a snack with my adorable niece. She’s a goldfish thief.” He pulls out his phone and shows us a picture of him and Dakota—she’s on his lap, shoving goldfish in his mouth, and smiling like a loon.

I shake my head, grinning. “She’s definitely taking advantage of all of this new attention she’s getting. I hope she was behaving.” My daughter is such a sweet girl, but she can get a little excited.

“Of course, she was. Mom actually sent me here to grab stockings for both of you. Mara has all her arts and craft supplies out and Dakota is chomping at the bit to help decorate them.”

It warms my heart that they want to, not only include my daughter, but me too. Not having a family this time of year sucks ass. It’ll definitely be nice to have people to spend time with.

“That’s great. Will you tell your mom that I just need to run this stuff home, wrap the Santa stuff, and then hide it—then I’ll be over to get her.”

“Sure thing, gorgeous.” Tyler surprises me by leaning in, kissing my cheek. “See ya.” He heads toward the Christmas decorations and we head toward the checkout.

Dottie leans in. “If I was about ten years younger and single, I’d be all over that boy. Did you see that ass? He fills out a pair of jeans . . . just fine.”

I shake my head. “You’re terrible.” I laugh, and she’s definitely not wrong.

***

I pull up in front of Brock and Ripley’s and see the driveway full of cars, including Alex’s truck. I climb out and make my way up to the front door. My hands tremble as I reach out, pressing the doorbell.

The front door opens, and Alex’s other brother greets me. “Hey, Aspen, come on in.” I step inside and the living room is empty. “The maniacs are in the family room,” he says as he leads me through the house. Cameron seems to be more like Alex, but with a little hint of bad boy. They’re all good-looking and so sweet.

It gets noisier when we walk through the kitchen. In the family room I find Alex crawling across the floor with Dakota clinging to his back like a little spider monkey, and of course, Tiny is right by his dad and his new best friend.

Brock is the first one to greet me, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Hi, sweetheart. Did you get your shopping done?”

“I did. Thank you so much for keeping an eye on her.” He leads me further into the room. “Come meet Jonah and Jess. They’re our best friends, but more like family.”

I greet them and then catch my daughter as she launches herself at me. “Hi, baby. Were you a good girl?”

Dakota nods. “I was. I pway wif Daddy, Papa, Unka Ty, and Unka Am,” she says as she points to them. “Mommy, Tiny wuvs me bery, bery, big.”

She’s so happy right now and it makes me thrilled that we miraculously found her dad, and he was the same good guy that I remembered. Now my daughter has a huge family and God forbid, if anything ever happened to me, she’d have people who would take her in.

“I’m glad, baby.” She grabs my face and gives me a wet, smacking kiss on the lips. I smile and tell her. “Tell everyone goodbye.” I set her down.

“No, you guys have to stay. We just ordered pizza.” That’s said by Ripley.

I shake my head. “I don’t want to intrude.”

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