Chapter Sixteen

Bailey

“Come on, guys,” I tried to prod the kids from the cabin. “If we don’t get going now we’re going to be late.”

It was Christmas Eve, the day everyone should be happy and excited about Christmas tomorrow, but the kids were dragging their feet. They had both woken up in a sullen mood, and I knew they were thinking about their parents again. This was exactly the reason I was trying to get them out of the cabin, to distract them for at least a couple of hours.

“Why do we have to go see Santa anyway?” Gina argued as I closed the cabin door behind us. “He’s not even real. Everyone knows there’s no such thing as the North Pole.”

I dropped the key into my pocket and turned to her in surprise. “You don’t believe Santa’s real?”

She shook her head, her chin jutted out defiantly. I turned my attention to Reggie. “What about you, bud? You don’t believe in Santa either?”

He glanced at Gina and made a motion with his head which seemed like a cross between a nod and a shake.

“Why don’t you believe in Santa?” I asked, feeling a bit dismayed. Although I knew better than to believe in the fictitious character who brought good cheer to the season, believing in something that brought hope and faith could give one purpose in life.

“Because we were good last year,” Gina answered. “But still Mommy and Daddy went away. He can’t make them come back. Can he, Uncle Bailey?”

“Oh, honey.” Right there in the middle of the hall outside our cabin, I sat and pulled them to me. They needed a moment so I gave it to them, allowing them to cry. I had no words of comfort to offer, and that made me sad. I just didn’t think anything I could say would cheer them up. What they wanted were their parents, and I couldn’t make that happen. Nobody could.

When they had both finished crying, I lifted both their faces. “Now listen to me. Santa didn’t have anything to do with Mommy and Daddy going away,” I replied, struggling to find the right words to say.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

My head snapped up at Arthur’s voice, and I gave him a look of relief. To my horror, big fat tears rolled down my cheeks, and I couldn’t control them. I was beginning to feel the weight of the kids’ sorrow. Not knowing what to do made me feel worse. I felt like I was letting them down.

“Arthur!” Reggie cried, got to his feet and ran to him. I was still amazed at how well he had bonded with Arthur over the past two days. Gina was slowly coming out of her shell, but she wasn’t as open to him as her brother. She remained seated with me, and I didn’t even make an attempt to rise from the floor.

Arthur caught Reggie in his arms, hugging the boy as he continued over to me. He sat beside me, and when I inhaled the clean scent of him, void of liquor, I only wanted to cry more. When he had made the promise to drink less, I never thought he was being serious. He hadn’t even ordered a glass of wine for himself when we had dinner with the kids last night.

“Come here,” he said and pulled me into his arms. We all ended up on him, but he wasn’t protesting. A woman walked by us, giving us a look that translated well. We were being weird. I couldn’t give a damn. It felt comforting to be held by Arthur like this and to have him shoulder some of the burden, if even for a few minutes.

“It’s Christmas Eve,” Arthur remarked, leaning over to peck my cheek. “Why’s everyone being so sad?”

“We miss Mommy and Daddy,” Gina answered on a sniff.

“I bet you do,” Arthur murmured, brushing her hair from her face. Gina didn’t make the attempt to move away. In fact, she slid from my lap and onto Arthur’s. “I miss my mom and dad too.”

“Then you're sad too?” she asked.

Arthur nodded. “Yes, I am, but guess what? Your mommy and daddy know you’re happy with Uncle Bailey, and that makes them happy.”

“Oh,” Reggie stated, then frowned at Arthur. “If that’s true, then who do you have to make you happy, Arthur?”

I saw the pain reflected in Arthur’s eyes when he glanced at me over the kids’ head. “That’s why you guys are so lucky,” he told them. “You have the most amazing uncle in the entire universe to take care of you.”

“He’ll take care of you too,” Gina piped up, turning her attention to me. “Won’t you, Uncle Bailey? And when Reggie and I get big, we can take care of you both.”

Arthur blinked in surprise. “You want to take care of me?”

Her braid bobbed with her nod. “Yes, because you love us, and we love you too. Don’t we Uncle Bailey?”

Now it was Arthur’s time to choke up. I watched him blinking back tears, and I had never been prouder of the twins. They liked Arthur which wasn’t hard to believe. Watching him with the kids, one wouldn't have guessed he had never taken the time to spend with little ones before.

“Yes, we do,” I answered Gina.

I saw the questions in his eyes, but mouthed to him that later we would talk. He nodded. “Now who’s excited to see Santa?”

The kids’ excitement returned, and I was relieved. We picked ourselves up from the floor and went about our day as though we hadn’t just had a meltdown in the hall where anyone passing by saw us. Once we were on the deck the cabin crew had decorated to feature a sleigh and a bag of gifts inside, Arthur squeezed my hand. I glanced over at him, my heart lurching at the warmth in his eyes.

“I have to go, but I’ll be back in a bit,” he stated.

I frowned at him because he was changing our plans at the last minute. I could see the disappointed look in the kids’ eyes when they heard he was going.

“Okay,” I told him.

“Aren’t you staying?” Gina asked.

“I have a special surprise for you guys that I need to work on,” he told her. “You’ll see me again later.”

“Promise?” she asked.

He nodded and pinched her cheek. “Promise.”

She held out her pinky for him, and I chuckled. Arthur, in good sport, connected her pinkie with his. “Pinkie promise. I’ll see you later, guys.”

Before he left, he kissed me on the forehead and then disappeared. I tried not to show how besotted I was by staring after him. Instead, I shepherded the kids into the line where there was an empty chair where Santa was supposed to be sitting. The line hadn’t opened yet, but there were already several people ahead of us.

“Uncle Bailey?” Reggie asked hesitantly.

I glanced down at him. “Yes, Reg?”

“Are you going to marry Arthur?” he asked.

I stared at him, dumbfounded at the question. They would have seen Arthur kiss me before, but he never did more than just a peck. They had more intuition than I gave them credit for.

“I don’t know, dear,” I answered him truthfully, getting a tingling feeling in my belly at the thought of marrying Arthur. It would have solved all our problems. If I married Arthur, we would all have his luxurious home. We wouldn’t be threatened with eviction, and we would have a roof over our heads. I would get to keep the kids.

“Do you want to marry him?” Gina added to her brother’s question.

“Umm, maybe sometime in the future?” I answered. “A relationship between grownups is complicated, Gina. Sometimes things don’t go the way we want them to.”

“But you and Arthur love each other like Mommy and Daddy did,” she reasoned. “Isn’t that why people get married? When they love each other?”

This was a conversation I wasn’t prepared to have with the kids so I tried to distract them. “Hey guys, look. The elves are coming out.”

There was still no Santa, but the elves kept everyone entertained, handing out hard candy and doing silly dances in their green costumes. The kids were rightly distracted which was a relief. They even forgot they had been heartbroken earlier about their parents. It was one of the things I admired about kids, their ability to move on and adapt to circumstances.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a special guest for you,” one of the elves stated. “Put your hands together and welcome our very own Jolly Old Nick, also known as Santa Claus.”

I applauded with the kids, relieved Santa showed up. I couldn’t afford for the kids to be any more disappointed. Although it was a long wait, they were patient, chatting to a little girl in the line just ahead of them. I allowed them to have their conversation while I reminded myself I needed to call Ollie tonight and fill him in on all that was happening. We hadn’t spoken in a while, and he would be relieved I was in love with someone else. I knew it always bothered him that I remained single after he got together with Drew. Now he didn’t have to worry that I still had the hots for him.

I glanced around us, wondering where Arthur went and what he was doing. He had promised the kids a surprise, which I wished he would have talked to me about first. My thought was interrupted by the glimpse I caught of Emily. I almost called out to her before the man walking beside her registered. He had his arm around her waist while they engaged in a heated discussion. As though sensing me watching them, Emily turned, and our eyes met and held. I frowned at the miserable look on her face. Good, God, Em what are you doing to yourself? She didn’t look like the Emily I knew, and I made a mental note to bring it up the next time I saw her alone. She was avoiding our cabin, coming in when I was out. I assumed she was sleeping with the guy too because she didn’t return to the room at night.

She stalked off, the man behind her. If Arthur had been around, I would have asked him to watch the kids while I went after them. Emily seemed distressed. I didn’t like the way she looked at all.

We were next in line, so I turned my attention to Santa sitting on his seat with a little girl on his lap whispering into his ear. Santa glanced up at me then, and I startled to find warm brown eyes twinkling at me.

“Arthur?” I cried in surprise.

The twins spun, glancing all around. “Where?”

“Uh, I must have been mistaken,” I remarked. “Sorry, I thought I saw Arthur, but I must have been wrong.”

I returned my eyes to Santa who was responding to the little girl before dipping his hand into the large red and white bag to come up with a gift he handed her. The girl hugged him then hopped off his lap.

“Who’s next up to see Santa?” an elf called out.

Standing at the head of the line, Gina went first, and Reggie shifted impatiently from foot to foot as his sister climbed onto Santa’s lap. I couldn’t help my wide grin as Gina peered up at Arthur with a frown, but at the last minute she shrugged and leaned over to whisper in his ear. I could see how the beard and the getup fooled her big time. If I hadn’t been fixated on the man for months, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it was him either. She got her gift, hopped down and walked purposefully toward me with a smile on her face. I was dying to ask her what she had whispered in Arthur’s ear, but couldn’t.

“Your turn, Reggie.” He released my hand and ran toward Arthur. As he began his whispering, I glanced down at Gina.

“Everything okay now?”

She nodded. “Santa’s going to grant my Christmas wish.”

Shit. Just what had she asked for anyway? “Honey, you know Santa cannot bring back Mommy and Daddy, right?” I asked because the last thing I wanted was for her to have high hopes about that happening.

She nodded. “I know that. I asked for a different wish. I would tell you, but I can’t or it won’t come true, and I really, really, really want it to come true.”

“Okay, I understand. But will you tell me what it is after it comes true?”

“Okay.”

Reggie got through with his wish, collected his gift and ran back over to us. “I asked Santa for the bestest present ever!”

I shepherded them out of the line, glancing back at Arthur who winked at me. I observed the kids and stifled a groan, wondering just what the heck they had asked him for.