Page 45 of Wishing for Love

“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 outand 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.”

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