Page 37 of The Snuggle is Real
She giggled. “You do look like an elf!”
Mason shot me a pained smile. “Exactly. I better get back to the workshop.”
“Stay,” I said brusquely.
Mason hesitated. “What?”
I shrugged. “Like you keep saying, all this is for Charlie.”
He glanced at Charlie, who was nodding eagerly. “Well, I guess I could stay for a bit…”
“Unless you’ve got somewhere better to be,” I said, suddenly unsure. “Do you have family in Christmas Falls?”
“No, I moved here for the job. It’s just me and Pepper.”
“Who is that? A girlfriend?”
Mason laughed. “Uh, no. I don’t date women.”
“Oh, right.” The tips of my ears went hot, remembering that I’d seen him drooling over the male Hallmark star. “I forgot.”
“Pepper is my dog,” he said.
Charlie perked up. “You have a dog? A real one? I got one too, but it’s stuffed.”
“A real live one,” he said with a smile. “It’s just for a little while. I’m fostering.” At Charlie’s blank look, he added, “It means I’m keeping him temporarily because he needs a home.”
“Oh.” She brightened. “So just like me. Ford is fostering me.”
“You’re not a stray, Charlie,” I said, dropping my arm around her shoulders. “You’re the best gift I’ve gotten this year.”
“I’m not a gift,” she said with a giggle.
But she was damn wrong. Since I’d gotten the call to pick her up, my heart had twisted with worry, twinged with heartache, and swelled with love.
Maybe the circumstances weren’t ideal, but I loved this little girl something fierce. And I wouldn’t trade in this opportunity to be in her life again for anything.
CHAPTER 11
Mason
Ford and Charliecleared their dishes, and I laid out the cookies on the wax paper provided in the kit Joel had given me.
I hadn’t had time to pitch more than a few businesses about the Adopt-A-Family program. I knew some of them wouldn’t have the resources to give anything more this late in the season, but I’d figure out a way to make up the difference.
After all, I’d made Ford promises—and I had no intention of reneging on them, even if it meant delving into my own pocket.
No one had to know.
I set out red and green glitter—but the edible kind—along with some multi-colored confetti candy topping.
“What else do we need?” Ford asked from the doorway.
His voice rumbled through me. Damn, it was deep and stroked something inside that had been too long neglected.
I needed something, all right. But I wouldn’t be getting it from the straight dad who needed Holiday Hope’s services.
I focused on the task at hand.
