Page 47 of Architect's Christmas Nanny

16

BRAD

Brad smiled as he watched Jillian and Josie walk down the halls of the Springton Valley Mall in front of him, pointing out all the beautiful Christmas decorations and the pretty things in the shop windows.

Today was the last day of school before the break, and Josie had come trudging out again when the bell rang, her head hung low, like she was in mourning. Once again, a couple of kids had waved to her, but her eyes had been fixed on the ground, like she wished she could disappear into it.

Brad kicked himself for not arranging a time to talk with Principal Tucker again. It was just that Josie had seemed like she was having such a nice weekend with Jillian and with her cousins. He had sort of expected her to snap out of it at school.

Clearly that wasn’t in the cards.

At least this trip to the mall seemed to be cheering her up. And there was a Santa Claus here, so even thoughthey had sent out Christmas cards with the funny photo from the Hometown Holiday celebration already, they would still get to have a more formal shot with Santa for the photo album.

Up ahead, Josie spotted the bookstore and started hopping up and down, turning to him and pointing several times with her eyebrows up in question. He nodded to her, and she shot forward into the bookstore without another word.

Jillian laughed and followed her. She had a strange energy today. A mischievous light danced in her eyes, and there was a playful spring in her step. Ever since he had broken the news that they were moving, she hadn’t gotten super excited about much. But something had clearly captured her imagination today.

He half jogged to catch up, and found the two of them predictably in the kids’ section, with Josie looking at yet another series with dragons on the cover.

Normally, Jillian was right beside her, but today she was consumed by an end cap with books for slightly older girls. Each one seemed to have a design with objects and a title in large, swirly font, or a girl in a colorful gown on the cover.

“I don’t think she’s into these yet,” he said without thinking, feeling glad.

One day Josie would want to read books with a romantic theme, but he figured the later that happened the better. He much preferred to talk to her about quests and dragons and riddles. He definitely didn’t have any insight into romance.

He frowned at his own thought. Did that mean he didn’t have a chance?

I don’t have a chance because I have to let her go…

But he’d been up half the night thinking about it. If Jillian was really still interested in writing something, wouldn’t she have just done it already?

“I was just… thinking she will be in a few years,” Jillian said, without looking at him. “Maybe I should start reading them now.”

She cut herself off, and he felt like someone had dumped icy cold water on his head. First of all, Jillian always looked at him when she spoke, so at first he had thought maybe she was lying. But then she had stopped in the middle of saying something that made it sound like she was planning on being active in Josie’s life a few years from now.

This is it,he told himself. Talk to her now, or at least let her know that you need to talk to her tonight.

“That’s a good idea,” he told her instead, willing to hint, but not put her on the spot in the middle of the mall bookstore. “There’s a really good bookshop in town. The girl there, Sarah, can help you pick out some good ones.”

“That sounds perfect,” she said, her eyes lighting up.

“Can I get this?” Josie asked, holding up a boxed set of expensive-looking paperbacks.

“Let’s see if Sarah has them first,” he told her. “And maybe read the first one before we buy a whole set of hardbacks?”

“Okay, fine,” Josie said. “I’m going to get a whole bunch of books at the community book sale anyway.”

Brad smiled at the memory of the sale. He had loved it as a kid. His mom would tuck a few bills in each of their hands and they would all tiptoe into the church together, looking around in amazement at how it had been changed for a single day to host the book sale. Warm light streamed in from the stained-glass windows, like always, but there were temporary tables set up throughout the space, all covered with the most wonderful books you could buy, all for a song.

They headed out of the store and back into the mall, walking along in friendly silence for a moment among the lavish Christmas decorations and glassy shop fronts with signs offering special discounts in honor of the holiday.

Josie blasted forward, eyes peeled for toys and books. Brad noticed Jillian’s eyes linger a few times, once on the storefront of a gift shop with holiday music boxes in the display, and again at the candle shop. But she showed no interest in stopping.

As a matter of fact, in all the years she had lived with them, Brad had never known her to come home with treasures for herself.

“Oh my goodness,” Jillian said suddenly, spotting the display up ahead. “Is that Santa Claus?”

“It is,” Brad said. “Now the line might be really long, because we’re so close to Christmas.”

---