Chapter 17

 

“For fuck's sake! Are you kiddin’ me?”  I grumble like a bitch. I don’t care either. Standing in lollipop lane, we wait to see Santa. I have never in my life been in a goddamn line like this.

“Is there only one fuckin’ mall Santa?” Everleigh elbows me in the side. I glance down at her with an what the fuck face.

“Stop that! There are kids in this line.” Shaking my head, I look at the line once more.

“I’m surrounded by fuckin’ candy canes and cookie people, Ev. Do I look like the cookie type?” Her laughter fills my heart. Haylee isn’t paying any attention to us. She’s excitedly watching the line move.

“You are the one that decided to do this,” she reminds me. She grabs my hand in hers. It takes me by surprise that she did that. I almost jerk, but I steady myself.  Ev doesn’t usually put her hands on me first, but I fucking like it. She must notice my surprise; she tries to pull her hand away.

“Not a chance in hell, sweetheart.” I wink at her; she smiles up at me.

When it’s finally Haylee’s turn, she takes off running and jumps into Santa’s lap when I grumble, “Thank fuck!”  Ev and I stand off to the side smiling as she talks. She looks like she’s giving him a piece of her mind, too.

“Damn, she must get that from you.” Nudging Ev, she laughs.

“Yeah, she was pissed last year when she didn’t get a puppy. I’m sure she’s telling him something.” The thought floats through my head. A puppy, huh?

“Take her to get a cookie. I’m askin’ fake Santa what she said.” Everleigh squeezes my hand once before letting me go. I watch the two walk off when I step up next to the weirdo in the Santa suit.

“Hey, what did the kid say she wanted?” His face reddens when he looks up at me.

“She told me I was a fuckin’ loser for not bringing her a puppy last year. Aside from that, she wants a bunny and baby dolls.” I can’t control the laughter that comes out of me.

Yep, she’s been around me way too much. 

***

We wander through the mall letting Haylee look at everything in sight. It’s really nice to be holding onto Ev and just being together.

“What did you usually do for Christmas?” Glancing down at her, I shrug.

“Not much. We never had many kids around the club. The ones that were there had their time at home. We just did what we always do.” She doesn’t smile, and that bothers me.

“We had a small tree. Luke would buy her all kinds of things she never wanted. I don’t know why he did that when clearly, he could afford the things she asked for.” The more she talks about him, the more I hate the motherfucker.

“He liked the control.” My hand involuntarily tightens around hers.

“You’re probably right.” We let the rest go in silence.

“Can we go see the lights?” Haylee jumps up and down in front of me. I look at her like she’s an alien. Do they even have lights in California?

“They have those?” Looking over at Ev, she smiles.

“There’s a few neighborhoods that really go all out.” Lifting Haylee, I spin her around in my arms.

“Then I guess we’re goin’. Are you gonna show me, cause I never saw them before.” Haylee laughs the more I spin her.

“They have lots of them, Dragon. They have red and blue, and green.” A man could get used to this. This feeling of having a family again.

“They really are beautiful.” Shifting Haylee to one arm, I throw the other around Everleigh.

“This is gonna be a great Christmas.”