Page 26 of Santa's Baby

We drive over,my truck tires crunching over the heavy amount of snow that accumulated overnight.

Inside, the residents are gathered for breakfast, so we have a few minutes before I’ll make an appearance. She leads me to her office, which is really just a desk outside of her boss’s office, but she’s proud, and I’m thrilled for her. My office is just a desk upstairs from my bedroom, after all. And when I was her age, my office was one-eighth of a tent on an Army base halfway around the world.

“You like working here?”

She pulls out an elf hat from her bottom desk drawer. “I do. Even more than usual today.”

“You gonna be Santa’s little helper today?”

“I’ll be right beside you the whole time,” she whispers back. “Daddy’s little helper.”

My balls pull tight. “Keep that up, and they’re going to ask me to leave before we even get started because I’ve bent the elf over her desk.”

She giggles.

I’m only partly joking. I won’t fuck this up for her because I know this is important to her. Not many people would care this much about having Santa show up to talk to a group of people who haven’t believed in the magic of Christmas for sixty-odd years.

Except when Neely wants something and makes it happen like a force of nature, maybe that is the real Christmas magic. It didn’t take much for her to knock down my carefully constructed walls. And I’m damn glad she did.

I catch her face in my hands. “Can I kiss you here?”

Her eyes twinkle. “Are you kidding me? I’d be grumpy if you didn’t.”

I catch her lips in mine, soft and sweet, then lick against the seam of her mouth. She parts her lips, letting me in, and I take a last thorough taste of her before we need to be on our best behavior for a few hours.

She presses her hands against mine, holding on tight as I deepen the embrace. Fuck, I love this woman.

And I really love the dazed look she gives me when I finally let her go. “Ready?”

“Mmm.” She sways on the spot. “Daddy Christmas indeed.”

I raise one eyebrow.

She straightens up. “Come on, Santa. Let’s do this.”

She gives me a hefty bag of wrapped gifts, explaining that they’re books and puzzles and that the residents may swap them after they open them, so it doesn’t matter what order I hand them out. She tucks a bunch of candy canes into my pocket. “I’ll replenish these as needed.”

“Any excuse to put your hand in Daddy’s front pocket?”

She squirms. “Maybe.”

I laugh out loud.

An older woman pops her head in the door. “Oh, Neely! Is this our Santa? I heard a hearty ho, ho, ho.”

I hope that’s all she heard. Or maybe I don’t give a fuck who knows I’m head over heels in lust and love with a very grown-up little girl.

“Diane, this is Ford.” Neely slides a glance my way. A private,you’re minekind of glance that makes my chest puff.

I hold out my hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Thanks for joining us,” the woman says as she shakes my hand.

“Of course.”

I follow them both to the dining hall, where I make the rounds, shaking hands with everyone. Then I sit near the fireplace, on a nice wide bench, to listen to every secret Christmas wish the residents might want to share.

The first few people come up, get a present, tell me how much fun Neely is—I’m not surprised—and move back to their tables.

---