Page 89 of Sexted By Santa
It was the right choice, but now it was Friday—and Tori and I had one more day of this hell to get through before we could enjoy the holiday weekend. Hopefully, all the hard work would be worth it when Tori opened her gifts Christmas morning.
And hopefully my own present would be waiting in my bed tonight, in the shape of a sweet and sexy boyfriend who said he wanted nothing more than to spend another day with us—except for the hour he’d need to be at the hospital doing one last Santa appearance.
“Tori, we’ve been through this.” I did my best to stare down my scowling child. “Shirley isn’t here to watch you, so you need to come to work with me this week.”
“But I was thereall dayyesterday, and then you made me ride around in the carall night!”
Her voice grew steadily more plaintive while her oatmeal sat uneaten in front of her. Not good. We’d already checked her glucose and administered insulin. More than usual since her sugar was a little elevated this morning. This schedulewastaking a toll on her. But she needed to eat, happy or not.
“Your breakfast is getting cold.”
Tori looked mutinous. “I don’t care.”
“Tori…” I was glad Christian was out walking Sir Elton John so that he didn’t have to witness this. He’d been really great with Tori, seeming to enjoy her company as much as mine. He’d promised me that he wouldn’t let us down, and I believed him. Didn’t mean I wouldn’t be embarrassed for him to see my daughter throwing a tantrum though.
“I’ll eat if you let me stay with Christian and Sir Elton John today.”
“No, you’ll eat because it’s the right thing to do. Donottry to use your health as a bargaining chip with me.”
“That’s not fair!” Tori exclaimed. “You use my health to control what I do all the time!”
Before I could respond, she slipped off the stool at the breakfast counter and ran for her room. The door slammed.
“Fuck.”
“Everything okay?” Christian asked from the doorway to the kitchen. Of course, I hadn’t gotten lucky enough for him to miss that stellar example of parenting.
I rubbed my eyes. “Tori isn’t happy about spending another day at Friendly Hands with me. Maybe it was too much to take on those evening food delivery shifts too.”
Christian came up behind me and dropped his hands to my shoulders. When he began kneading my muscles, I tipped my head forward with a relieved groan.
“You’re so tense,” he said. “You carry too much stress.”
I gave a ragged chuckle. “Welcome to the unglamorous life of parenting. You’re witnessing firsthand the consequences of me ignoring your advice all those years ago.”
Christian’s hands stilled. “What do you mean?”
“Working my ass off to give my daughter a decent Christmas. Not making it back to school. I tried to take classes at night, but eventually it was just too much. I couldn’t do it. You were right.”
Christian slid his arms around me, embracing me from behind. “Maybe I was right that it would be hard, butyouwere right to make Tori a priority in your life.”
“Did I do her any favors? I don’t know.”
“Of course, you did.” Christian’s voice was firm, utterly confident. “Youlovedher and made her feel secure in her life with you. Some kids never get that.”
“Yeah…”
“And you’re not alone in this anymore, Jax. I’m here. I’ll help support you both.”
I stiffened, pulling out of his arms. “I don’t need you to take care of us.” A defensive edge crept into my words. “It’s not easy, but I get by. I make sure Tori has what she needs.”
Christian stepped back, looking wounded. “I know. I didn’t mean it like that. I just…I want to help, that’s all. You’re both important to me.”
I groaned. “I’m sorry. I’m tired, and I’m upset with Tori, and I’m upset with myself.” I stepped forward to kiss Christian. “I’m not angry with you, just the situation. I should have come up with a better solution than dragging Tori to work with me.”
“Well, there is an alternative,” Christian said tentatively.
I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
