Winter Wishes by Rowan Nash

Author:Rowan Nash [Nash, Rowan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-24T22:00:00+00:00

6

REEVE

Caleb and Molly returned to the room, laughing. Watching his sister’s change of attitude, a spasm of jealousy tightened his chest. But the way they had their arms wrapped around each other’s waists, Reeve could see the friendly nature of the moment. A broad smile filled his image reflected in a silver ornament on the tree. If Caleb could make Reeve beam like that from cheering up his sister, there was no doubt he’d look like a complete fool if he wrapped his arm around Reeve.

Sitting in the giant gold wingback chair brought in just for the occasion, Reeve adjusted the black leather belt as it chaffed along his waist. The costume was meant for a man with a little more stuff and fluff around the middle, like Uncle Teddy.

Aunt Evie entered the room, and upon seeing Reeve, cackled her way to her socialite friends, pointing and smirking, which didn’t help his uncomfortable state.

Clearly, he was not a convincing Santa. Reeve had neither the deep rumbling laugh or the bowl full of jelly and he was fine with that. But the kids seemed reticent to come near him and he wasn’t fine with that. Uncle Teddy had done the costume proud; Reeve needed to step up.

A young girl, possibly around five years old, shuffled her feet toward him and just stared.

“Ho, ho, ho. What’s your name?”

“Santa knows my name.” She played with the ribbon hanging from her ponytail.

Reeve locked eyes with Caleb and he mouthed, “Hannah.”

“Of course, I recognize you now. You’ve grown so much. You’re Hannah, right?”

Her face lit up as she nodded wildly.

He sat straight in the chair. “Would you like to sit on my lap and tell me what you want for Christmas?”

She shook her head. “Why aren’t you fat?”

Reeve’s head reared back and the velvet covering on the chair was welcome padding.

Out of the mouths of babes.

The room quieted.

“Well…” He thought of different responses. “I’ve been eating better and exercising, so I lost a little weight. I’m the new Santa.”

The adults responded in varying degrees of amusement from full-out laughter to muffled chuckles.

Her nose crinkled. “I don’t like new Santa.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future. Is there anything you’d like for Christmas?”

The tiny human started rambling a memorized list that included words he’d never heard before. Reeve glanced to Caleb and he mouthed, “You bought those today,” to him.

Caleb walked over to the tree and collected two gifts wrapped in hot pink paper with golden ribbons. He slipped the packages into the chair beside Reeve while the girl continued her adorable repetitious barrage, lifting the edge of her dress as she rattled off the list.

“Hannah, I think I have just what you’d like here.”

Her parents gathered behind her with a camera at the ready. She approached Reeve cautiously, then raised her arms to be lifted into Santa’s lap. She weighed more than he thought she would, but holding a growing child in his arms was time-travel for his brain. Kids had never crossed my mind.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.