Page 2 of All I Want For Christmas

“I’m in,” Lexi said quickly.

They all laughed, but Lindsey nodded. “Yep, me too. It’s all just for fun.”

“I’mtotallyin,” Bea said. She adjusted her Christmas sweater over her ample breasts. “Studly Santa better have something good in that bag for me.”

Lindsey laughed. Like her, Bea wasn’ttechnicallya single parent. She was raising her grandkids, but her husband was an over-the-road trucker, so wasn’t around to help with the kids much. Which really did present her with a lot of the same challenges other single moms had. If nothing else, just someone to bounce ideas off of and rant to once in a while.

Lindsey was in the same boat, more or less. She and Matt were happily married, but Lindsey was raising their two boys while Matt served in the United States Army. He’d been a career soldier when she’d met him, so she’d known from the beginning this is how it would be. Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t long for him to be home for holidays.

That’s why things like Christmas parties with good friends and just having fun were so important. And yeah, sitting on Santa’s lap—hot Santa’s lap, even—and getting adult gifts, and drinking more spiked holiday punch, was part of that. It was just fun with her friends before one of her favorite holidays.

She downed her punch in one gulp and set the cup down. “Come on, Lexi. Let’s kick this off.”

Ashley, Dana, and Addison were right on their heels.

“Okay, Mr. Claus, where are we going to do this?” Lindsey asked.

The guy glanced over his shoulder but didn’t turn fully toward her. “You’re an eager one.”

Santa’s voice was very deep and she had the brief impression that he was making it deeper on purpose.

“Well, I assume that big bag of yours hastoysin it for girls like us.”

He chuckled, the sound deep and rumbling. “That it does.” He turned slightly. “You’ve been a good girl, then?”

For some reason, Lindsey shook her head and gave him a little smile that, had she not been happily married—and not had three cups of punch—might have seemed flirtatious. Slightly. But she was married. And a little tipsy. So it meant nothing.

“Oh, no, definitely not,” she heard herself say.

Which was a total lie. She was always good. Well, if “good” meant that she was organized and always on time and watched her carbs and worked out five times a week—okay, three and a half times a week—and was always there for her kids and friends and family then she was definitely good. If good meant never gossiping and never thinking about how much she’d love to see Marcy Goodwin trip in her four-inch-are-you-kidding-me-wearing-those-to-drop-your-kid-off-at-school leopard print heels then not so much.

And she drank too much coffee. And too much wine, if she was being honest. And she hid candy bars from her kids in her bedside table. And she hid her four vibrators in the drawer right under the candy bar drawer.

Again, Santa chuckled, almost as if surprised by her answer. Maybe he knew about the bad thoughts about Marcy. Or the candy bars. HewasSanta, after all. But she had a feeling Santa gave brownie points to moms who were not only able to get seven and eight-year-old boys out the door and into school ontime every single day but who then walked down the hall to enlighten the minds of twenty-three third graders from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon.

“I have just the gift for you then,” he told her.

Logan laughed. “And I was worried you girls wouldn’t get into this.”

“Presents?” Lindsey asked. “You thought we wouldn’t get into presents?”

Logan winked. “We’ve got some games too. And the I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clausphoto booth.”

Lindsey rolled her eyes but smiled. The kids would get a kick out of seeing their moms kissing Santa on the cheek. And most of the kids probably wouldn’t think much of the fact that this Santa looked a lot different than the one they’d met. “Well, then let’s get this thing going.”

“Okay,Nick,” Logan said to Santa. “Right this way.” He led him over to the big chair they’d positioned next to the fake fireplace the guys of the group had moved into the community center.

“Line forms behind me, ladies,” Lexi said.

Lindsey glanced over at Caleb Moreau, one of the group regulars, without even really thinking about it. But she wanted to see his reaction to Lexi sitting on another man’s lap. His reactions in regards to Lexi were always funny to watch. He and Lexi denied that there was anything between them other than friendship and a mutually beneficial co-parenting set-up. But the group had their doubts that it was that simple. For either of them.

Caleb was a firefighter raising his young niece and Lexi was finishing nursing school and taking care of her little guy, Jack. Both had crazy hours, so they shared childcare responsibilities. But really, they shared everything from groceries to laundryduties. And Lindsey, and some of the others in the group, thought they shared quite a few feelings as well.

Like right now. Caleb was glowering in the general direction of hot Santa and Lexi. She wasn’t perched on his knee. She was full-oninhis lap with an arm draped around his neck and she was leaning in to tell him what she wanted for Christmas right in his ear. Santa had a red-leather-clad arm around her waist and his other hand resting on her knee and was grinning about whatever she wanted under her tree.

“Okay! Mistletoe! You know what to do!” Logan pointed to the sprig of mistletoe mounted over their heads and lifted his phone to take the photo.

Lexi’s pucker was exaggerated, as was Santa’s. Their lips barely met. It was just a quick peck, but a very cute photo. Lexi bounced up off of his lap and came back to the group of women as Logan’s wife, Dana, stepped up to be the next to tell Santa her Christmas wishes.

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