Chapter Seventeen
Joe was proud of how well behaved Sarah had been. She’d sat there quietly and watched him work. Now they were breaking for lunch and he’d ditched his Santa costume so they could eat in peace. At the food court, he got her chicken nuggets. He didn’t know what the hell part of a chicken produced a nugget but he didn’t want anything to do with it.
“Do you always lose people you love, Joe?”
That was a profound question from someone who barely reached his knee. Joe looked down at Sarah in surprise. “Is this about your sister?”
Sarah shook her head. “Not ’sposed to say.”
It was about her sister.
“Honey, everyone will die someday. None of us know when or how that will happen. But it’s better to love someone, even if you lose them, than to be alone all the time.”
Sarah cocked her head. Her thinking pose again. After a moment, she nodded and then proceeded to dip her chicken nugget into the barbecue sauce like she was looking for something at the bottom of the little plastic cup.
The little girl suddenly looked up and blurted, “Joe, where do chickens come from?”
Surprised at the question, Joe automatically answered, “An egg?”
Sarah nodded again and then pulled her nugget out of the dipping sauce to analyze it. Then she turned those big eyes on him and he saw the trouble coming before the cub even opened her mouth. “Where do eggs come from?”
Unsure of how to proceed, Joe hesitantly said, “A chicken.”
He watched as she cocked her little head. Her eyes went back and forth between her nugget, its dipping sauce starting to go down her fingers, and him. “Where do the eggs and the chickens live?”
Joe almost sighed in relief. For half a second he thought the kid was going to ask him which came first, the chicken or the egg. That was not a debate he wanted to get into with a three-year-old. “They live on a farm. Now eat your nuggets before they get cold, sweetling. Lunch break is almost over and we have to go back soon.”
Thankfully for the next twenty minutes, Sarah ate her lunch without anymore unnerving questions. At least she hadn’t asked where babies came from. He shuddered a little bit at the thought of trying to have that conversation and prayed he would never have to find out. He’d leave all those future biology talks to Nikki when it came to Sarah and their future cubs.
They headed back to Santa’s Workshop. Joe left Sarah with the elf for a couple of minutes while he changed. By the time he came back, Sarah was already sitting next to the big throne and a line of kids were waiting to come see him. Looking down at Sarah, he asked, “You ready for this, munchkin?”
Sarah shook her head. “I’m not a munchkin, I’m an elf! Silly Santa.” She giggled.
Joe gave her a wink and then waved for the elf to let the first child in. The little boy stormed up to him and jumped in his lap.
“Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas! And what would you like for Christmas, young man?”
“I want a new bike, and a flying helicopter toy, and a robot, and—”
“Whoa, there, son.” Joe tried to put the brakes on the little boy’s demands or else they were going to be there all damn day. “How about this, what do you want most for Christmas? Just one toy, what would it be?”
The little boy’s face scrunched up in a frustrated way, and then he yelled, “But I want it all, Santa! And I’ve been a good boy so you have to give it to me!”
Joe looked up at the kid’s mother and saw her blushing in embarrassment. The poor woman looked utterly mortified at how her kid was acting. He himself could feel his irritation rising at what he realized now was a spoiled brat. He couldn’t say anything like that aloud though, so he did his best to handle it diplomatically. “I’ll have to check my list, but I’m sure you’re right and have been a good boy. That doesn’t mean you get all the toys though. We have to save some for the other kids too. Now tell me, what’s the toy you were hoping to get most of all?”
Just as fast as he had jumped on, the little boy jumped off and pointed his finger at him. “You’re just a crappy Santa! That’s why I can’t have all the toys.”
What the kid needed was a good spanking, but that wasn’t Joe’s place to say. He watched as the little boy’s mother scrambled forward to get hold of her son, but she didn’t make it before Sarah stood and marched over to point her own little finger in the boy’s face. “You hush up, you big ol’ meanie. He’s the pewfect Santa and you should say you’re sowwy!”
Joe sat there in awe of his fierce little protector while the boy’s mother tried to apologize to him profusely. Joe gave the flustered woman a friendly wave and watched as she dragged her son away kicking and screaming. Sarah, on the other hand, the little angel that she was, walked back over to Joe and put her hand on his face. With a serious expression, she quietly asked him, “You okay?”
Joe bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “You bet, sweetling. Thank you for sticking up for me. That was very brave of you. Now have a seat again and we’ll get back to work.”
He watched as Sarah sat down on the floor next to his foot, beaming at him with her pearly whites. All Joe could think as she smiled at him was that he was the luckiest bastard in the whole wide world for having her in his life now.