The Twelve Months of Christmas by Sheila Roberts

Author:Sheila Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mills & Boon Special Release
Published: 2023-08-17T13:22:22+00:00

* * *

Alden was off on Sunday. He’d gone to his parents’ house to help his dad work on his classic ’50s Dodge Wayfarer, then swung by Safeway and picked up some chips and beer for later in the evening when he had some pals coming over. Once home, it was time to take Buster for a walk.

They were just coming back down the street from Buster’s constitutional when he saw Arianna and Sophie approaching, bearing a foil-covered plate.

“Hi, Alden!” Sophie called and started skipping toward him. “Hi, Buster!”

“Hi,” Alden called in return and thought, Hello, Nurse, channeling Yakko and Wakko from Animaniacs. Arianna was wearing a pink top and matching sweater and a skirt that showed off that fine pair of legs. Her lipstick matched that sweater.

“We made deviled eggs,” Sophie told him before bending to pet Buster. “Grammy said we should give you some.”

He half wished it had been Arianna who’d suggested that. “I like deviled eggs.”

“We have way too many,” Arianna said.

“We colored eggs at our party,” Sophie informed him.

“A lot of eggs,” Arianna added with an eye roll.

“Come on in,” he offered.

“Just for a minute,” she said.

“We had a party, and we took pictures with Santa Bunny,” Sophie informed him as they followed him into the house.

“Santa Bunny?” He raised his eyebrows at Arianna.

“Christmas in April,” she explained.

He unleashed Buster, who immediately ran to grab his favorite tug-of-war toy. Sophie followed and they were instantly happily going at it.

“Still maintaining momentum,” he observed. “Except you already had Easter.”

“Yeah, but that’s a whole ’nother holiday. We have to keep the Christmas spirit alive and well.”

“I guess,” he said dubiously.

“Anyway, we’re milking every good moment we can out of this year,” she said, and he saw the dark cloud pass over her features. He also saw the shadows under her eyes.

“How’s your mom doing?”

“Good,” she said.

“And how are you doing?”

“I’m good.”

“Yeah, I can see that. You look like you’re ready to lead the zombie apocalypse.”

She looked to where her daughter was happily playing with the dog and lowered her voice. “I guess I’m not sleeping very well. I worry.”

“What you need is some R and R.”

“I’ll book that flight to Hawaii right now.”

“There you go,” he said, pretending to take her seriously.

“I don’t want to leave Mom.”

“I bet she’d be fine without you for a few hours.”

Arianna shook her head. “But I wouldn’t be fine.”

“I bet you would be if someone was with her.”

“With her feeding tube, I wouldn’t trust anyone.”

“Not even a nurse? I am one, remember? A lot of ER experience, and before that I was a navy corpsman.”

“You were?”

She looked impressed. He liked that. “I was. I’m off on Thursday, got nothing planned. You go out and do something fun, and I’ll come over and hang with your mom and Sophie.”

In spite of his qualifications, she hesitated to say yes.

“I can handle it. And besides, you need to charge your batteries. You won’t be any help to your mom or your kid if you collapse from exhaustion.

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