Page 5 of The Santa Surprise

“Well, I think she did an excellent job.” Ripley stands up and smiles at me. “My son says he knows you. He’s asked you to wait. He’ll be right out.”

That’s weird, but maybe it’s someone that’s come through the recovery room. It doesn’t happen often, but only because they’re usually out of it. “Oh, okay sure.”

The girl dressed as the elf comes over. “Hi.” She says in a bubbly voice. “I love your dress.” The elf says to my daughter.

“Aspen?” I turn toward the male voice behind me. The room is suddenly hot, my chest is tight, and it feels like there’s a knot in my throat. “Oh my god, it is you.”

A strange buzzing sound drowns out his words. I grab onto Dakota and try to get myself under control. Jesus, I can’t believe Alex is in front of me again, after all this time.

“Aspen, are you okay?” He steps closer, concern etched all over his face.

I force the knot down in my throat and take a deep breath, letting it out slowly. The woman, Ripley, gets close and puts her hand on my back. “Nice and slow, sweetheart. You’re okay.”

“T-Thank you.” I whisper. “Y-You live here?” I ask, turning to Alex.

“Yeah, born and raised. You lived in Chicago, right?” I nod, “When did you move here?”

“Ahem . . . two months ago. I work at the—at the hospital.” I don’t really want to tell him right here, right now, that Dakota is his daughter.

“Hi. I’m Dakota. Was youw name?” My daughter smiles up at him and my heart beats rapidly in my chest.

Alex gets down on one knee in front of her. “I’m Alex.” He holds out his hand to her and she takes it. My eyes burn, watching them.

“Oh my god.” I hear whispered behind me. I know it’s Ripley, and I know she figured it out.

Alex stands up and looks between me and his mom. “What’s going on?” Neither of us speaks. “Seriously guys what’s going on?”

“Why don’t we go outside,” Ripley says and then takes Dakota’s coat from my hands and puts it on her. We all head out to the parking lot. Thankfully, it’s cold, but not unbearable. “Mara, honey. Why don’t you take Miss Dakota here to our car?” Ripley turns back to me. “Is that okay? I’m not trying to take over.” The younger girl disappears with my daughter.

“Please tell me what’s going on.” Alex says looking between us.

Ripley excuses herself, leaving us alone. “I-I never thought I’d see you again.” I tell him. “I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye. I’d never had a one-night stand before.”

“Okay, I know that. I never thought bad of you if that’s what you’re thinking.”

I need to just blurt this out, like ripping a band-aid off. “If I was ever face to face with you again, I had this whole speech prepared, but now I can’t remember one single thing I would say.” My mouth opens and closes a few times before I spit it out. “Dakota’s your daughter.”

Alex doesn’t say anything, just stares at me. Before I can even say anything else, he’s walking away from me. He hops into a truck and is pulling out of the parking lot before my feet finally become unstuck.

With tears burning my eyes, I quickly go to my daughter, and pick her up. “L-Lets go home, baby.”

“Aspen, please don’t leave. He’s just in shock.” Ripley says as she walks beside me, but I look straight ahead, trying and failing to ignore the other woman. “I’ll talk to him.”

I quickly load Dakota into her booster seat and after I close the door, I finally turn to face her. “No, please don’t. If he doesn’t want to know her, then he doesn’t know her. We’ve been fine on our own.”

“Oh, sweetheart I can see that b-but please, he’s just in shock.”

“Rip, what’s going on?” An older man with brown hair and eyes comes walking toward us. “Everything okay?”

“Brock this is Aspen. Aspen this is my husband and Alex’s father, Brock.” I shake the man’s hand. “We’re fine honey. I’ll be back in, in a minute.”

The girl, Alex’s sister, jumps on Brock’s back and he carries her back into the building. “If you’d like to get to know Dakota, I’m okay with that.” I tell Ripley.

We exchange phone numbers. “Great, I’ll call you and we can meet for lunch.” She knocks on the window. “Bye, Dakota, I can’t wait to see you again.”

“Bye wady!” She waves wildly from the backseat, making me smile. “Les go, Mommy.”

Ripley backs away and I climb in. Luckily, I wait until Dakota is tucked into her bed later before I cry, because yeah, it was a one-night stand, but we made a pretty incredible little girl and he doesn’t care.

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