Page 16 of Kissed By Her Fake Fiancé

“Rehearsing?” Faith’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you in a play?”

That question stopped J.J.’s work at opening her present. A long flat box with red wrapping rested on her lap.

“I’m applying for a summer program in New York,” she said.

“J.J. is a very talented singer,” Holden said, pride clearly coming through in his voice.

“Oh wow,” Faith said.

She’d ask her to sing, but they were still getting to know each other. Besides, J.J. was back to ripping wrapping paper.

“That sounds so exciting,” Faith commented to Holden.

“Luckily, she can fill out the application online and attach a video of her audition,” he said. “But she’s working hard to prepare. We have a vocal coach that comes three days a week, and J.J. has assignments she has to complete between those times.”

“Cool!” J.J. said.

She held up the item she’d just unwrapped. A skateboard.

“There are some kneepads in there somewhere,” Holden said.

J.J. was already digging through the presents again. They sat quietly, sipping their coffee, both smiling at J.J. as she squealed over her gifts. An instant camera, an airbrush kit, a craft kit, and some sweaters. She was surprisingly excited about the sweaters.

After gift number eight, J.J. frowned. “Nobody else is opening.”

Holden looked over at Faith. “I guess we’d better jump in.”

She followed his lead as he set his coffee mug on the table next to him and waited for J.J. to hand out gifts. Should Faith offer to help? Wasn’t that what a nanny would do?

But by the time she could overthink it, the gifts were already distributed for her and Holden. There were only two for her, but it still astounded her. They’d only met yesterday. How could he possibly have gotten gifts for her?

Someone who had money could make anything happen—even same-day delivery of gifts on Christmas Eve.

“I picked this one for you myself,” J.J. said as she handed a third gift to Faith. “I hope you like it.”

J.J. stepped back and stared at it for a second before turning, seeming to realize she still had gifts to open. With a big smile, she rushed back to her original seat, where a heap of gifts still waited for her.

“Okay, this is how we do this,” Holden said as they each held a wrapped package, ready to open. “Everybody opens at once. One, two, three, go!”

Giggling, J.J. tore into hers. Faith started out slowly, delicately sliding her finger under the taped end of the square box. But soon enough, she realized she was the only one taking that sort of care. Holden was ripping open his gift with the same level of impatience as his daughter. So Faith did the same.

Only as she pulled the item out of the box did she realize father and daughter had stopped opening their gifts. The two of them were watching her, expectant smiles on their faces.

“Wow,” Faith said as she held up the present, clutching the handle. “This is exactly what I need. I had a stainless-steel tumbler over in England, but I left it. It wasn’t as pretty as this one, though.”

It readWorld’s Best Nannyand had a metallic sheen to it. Not only had they tracked down this gift for her on short notice, but it had a message on it that couldn’t have made it easy to find.

“Did you like living in England?” J.J. asked. She’d shifted her attention from her gifts to her dad’s new friend. “How long did you live there?”

“For more than a year,” Faith said. “There were plenty of great things about living there, but I missed this town and my family. I was going to move over there permanently, but, well, things changed.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” J.J. said. With that, J.J. resumed opening her gift.

“It says it keeps coffee warm for up to twelve hours,” he said. “But you can also put cold stuff in there. It has a really cool snap-shut lid and a loop you can hang from a carabiner.”

J.J. laughed. “Carabiner? That’s not a real thing.”

“It certainly is,” Holden said. “I’ll show you later.”

---