Page 55 of Wishing for Love

“I think you might need to put some things together or take them out of boxes,” she said, laughing.

“You might be right, but I don’t like you doing all the work.”

“I’d say I’m just evening the score from last night,” she whispered, winking.

“That’s right,” Elsie said. “Uncle Nix cooked dinner.” The little girl had some big ears.

“Yeah,” she said. “Dinner.” She walked into the kitchen, his eyes on her ass as she sashayed out of the room.

Two hours later, he was stuffed and sitting on the couch while Elsie ran from one toy to the next when his phone rang. He reached over to see it was his mother calling.

He put it on speaker to answer knowing she’d want to say hi to Elsie too.

“Merry Christmas,” he said.

“Merry Christmas to you too,” his mother said. “We’re on speaker too. Most of your siblings are here.”

“Hi, everyone,” he shouted.

There was a chorus of shouts back. He knew all the voices. There was part of him that missed his family, but there was no way he was giving up what he experienced last night.

Nor would he have left Crystal alone, or pulled Elsie away from this fun morning.

“Santa brought me everything I asked for,” Elsie shouted.

“That is wonderful,” his mother said. “That means you were a good girl.”

“I’m always good,” Elsie said. “But I must have been even better than I thought.”

There was a lot of laughter to that. “No modesty here at all.”

“Is Crystal in the room with you?” his mother asked.

“I’m here,” she said. “Merry Christmas, Carolina.”

“You too, Crystal. I wasn’t sure if you were going to spend the day with my son and Elsie or not.”

“Yes, I am. We had a really big breakfast. All of Elsie’s requests.”

“I hope my son didn’t make you work today,” his mother said.

“Hey,” he said. “I cooked dinner last night. We take turns here.”

There was some laughter again on the other line and he wasn’t sure what that was about and couldn’t ask either.

It’s not like anyone would have any clue what he felt toward Crystal. His mother was the only one who had met Crystal and he hadn’t talked to her about much more other than what had to do with Elsie.

Maybe he was just reading more into it than he should be.

“Then I raised you well,” his mother said.

“You did,” Crystal said. “You should be very proud of your oldest.”

“I’m not sure my ego can take this,” he said.

“I think maybe your ego could use it,” his mother said, laughing.

He didn’t want to get into anything like one of those conversations. Not with what he experienced with Crystal last night.

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