Page 9 of Bragg's Christmas

“Fuck,” he mumbles.

I hold out my hand. “I need your keys.”

“My keys?”

“I need to pick up the supplies for a pumpkin pie.”

“You’re going to bake a pumpkin pie?”

“No. Skye and I are.”

He opens a drawer and snatches his keys. I jiggle my hand but he nods to the door. “I’ll drive.”

I frown. Does he not trust me? Something else to contemplate in the middle of the night while I lay in a bed mere feet from him not sleeping.

“Skye!” I shout. “We’re going shopping!”

“Yippee!”

Damon groans at her shout of excitement but when his daughter flies out of my bedroom, he grins and picks her up before twirling her around.

“We’re going to the grocery store.”

“But there aren’t any dolls at the grocery store.”

He tweaks her nose. “Do you need more dolls?”

“Don’t be silly, Daddy. You can never have enough dolls.”

The trip takes longer than expected since Damon decides to buy every Thanksgiving related item available in the grocery store. When we arrive back at the hotel, we’re loaded with shopping bags. Even Skye is carrying a bag as we trudge up the stairs to the hotel suite.

Damon stops at the door. He tries to pull his keycard out of his pocket but his hands are weighed down with bags. I giggle and he glares at me.

“It’s not my fault you decided to buy the store out.”

“You’re the one who started this adventure.”

“I was planning to make a pumpkin pie. Not an entire Thanksgiving meal. You do know Thanksgiving is two weeks away?”

“Skye’s never had a Thanksgiving meal.” He shrugs and his cheeks darken.

Damn it. This is unfair! Damon is not allowed to be attractiveandnice. No man is attractive and nice. The two attributes do not go together in my experience.

“I hope you know how to prepare the turkey and the stuffing because I don’t.”

“The turkey’s already cooked and the stuffing comes in a box. How hard can it be?”

Considering my oven broke and I didn’t realize it for half a year, pretty dang hard.

“Daddy!” Skye tugs on his coat sleeve. “Need to go potty.”

I drop my bags and push my way past Damon to the door. I swipe my card and open it to allow Skye to run inside. When she makes a beeline for the toilet and slams the door behind her, I blow out a puff of air.

“Close call.”

I gather the bags and carry them into the small kitchen in the suite. While Skye’s in the bathroom, I read the directions on how to make pumpkin pie on the back of the can. Looks easy enough.

“Are you ready to make some pumpkin pie?” I ask Skye when she returns. At her nod, I point to the sink. “Wash your hands with soap first.”

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