Full Hart, page 18
This was a nightmare.
An absolute fucking nightmare.
It was a drizzly day with harsh gusts of wind that rattled his SUV. Mall workers in the various stores covered their heads and battled with their umbrellas as they parked their vehicles and ran for the entrance doors. Soon enough, that would be him too. Pulling up his collar, zipping up his coat, and beelining it for the door with the hope that not too many icy raindrops made their way into his ears or down the back of his neck.
Jewelry?
Again, Joy’s bling was pretty minimal. She wore her wedding band and small diamond stud earrings. That was it. So if he got her something else, would she ever wear it? Or only wear it when he was around just to make him happy but then immediately take it off because she hated feeling like a frosted dignitary encrusted in gemstones?
A gift certificate?
Fuck no.
That was the ultimate in laziness. He might as well just hand her a wad of cash and be like, “Merry First Christmas together, Joy. I really, really love you. Now here’s a bunch of cash. Go buy yourself something purty.”
Grant raked his fingers through his hair, then dragged his hand down his face, pulling at the two-day-old scruff.
He was going to waste his entire day in that mall. Going from shop to shop staring at shit with absolutely no idea what the fuck he should buy.
The clock on his dash said one minute to ten.
He did NOT want to be one of those eager beaver assholes who milled around outside the store before the place had even opened. No, he’d finish his coffee, then he’d go in.
The clock dash rolled over to ten o’clock, and as if she knew how stressed he was about buying her the perfect gift, his phone rang and Joy’s beautiful face popped up.
He set his coffee mug down in the cupholder and punched the green button on his screen. “Hey, gorgeous, miss me already?”
“Always, Wild Man. But that’s not why I’m calling. Do you still have your Santa costume from when you would dress up for the fire hall back when you were a volunteer firefighter?”
“I do,” he said slowly. “Why?” Oh man, did she want to role-play tonight? She’d suggested it a few times, but every time he tried, he just felt silly and broke character.
“Because the Santa who was supposed to go to the kids’ school was run off the road last night and is in the hospital in ICU. And he was wearing his Santa costume to boot. Apparently, he was at some office Christmas party as a hired-out Santa and was sideswiped by a drunk driver. A hit and run.”
Phew.
“Jesus, poor Santa.”
“Yeah, they say he’ll pull through, but it’s going to be a long road. But meanwhile, the kids at Connor and Zoe’s school are going to be without a Santa for their holiday assembly. For the past month, they’ve all been fundraising and donating for the Help Feed Families Foundation, and Santa was supposed to come and thank them and accept the donation check.”
“And you’re hoping your boyfriend can squeeze his massive beer belly into his mothball-scented Santa suit?”
“I’m hoping my extremely handsome manfriend can put a pillow over his six-pack, spray the suit with Febreze and make some elementary school kids really, really happy.”
Grinning, because how could he not when she flattered him so, he glanced at the dash clock again. “What time do I have to be there?”
“One o’clock. I’ll text you the address.”
Okay, that gave him a few hours to wander aimlessly like a lost puppy around the mall. Hopefully, in that time he would get even a sliver of an idea of what to buy her.
“You don’t happen to have like a sleigh or something stashed along with your suit, do you?” she asked.
“A sleigh? Uh, no.”
“Crap. The other guy had a whole big schtick. He parks his vehicle up the road and has this little chariot-like thing that he rides onto the school grounds and then into the gym. No reindeer, but the kids love it.” She sighed. “Oh well. At least we have a Santa. Beggars can’t be choosers at the eleventh hour. Thank you for doing this. I’ll let Krista and Stacey know that they can end their search. We have our Santa.” She blew kisses over the phone, then disconnected the call.
Moments later, an address popped up on his phone for the kids’ school.
Just as he was googling the school and punching the address into his map app, Grant got an awesome idea. Yes, Grant got a wonderful, awesome idea.
But first, he needed to call the principal and make sure it was okay and that the field was big enough.
Chapter 19
Chase & Stacey
Stacey nibbled on her bottom lip as she watched all the schoolchildren file into the gymnasium for the December assembly and winter celebration pageant. Once the assembly was over, parents would be free to take their children home and officially start the holidays.
Along with Krista, Stacey had joined the PAC or Parent Advisory Council, known as the PTA at some schools, and along with the Friday hot lunch program, she helped put together the Christmas—sorry, Winter—fundraiser and Santa’s visit.
Needless to say, when she got the phone call earlier that morning about the devastating accident their Santa Claus had been in, she’d called Krista immediately for advice.
This was her first year running the Winter Assembly or December Assembly. She’d called it the “Christmas Pageant” a few times and had been quickly corrected by a few parents and teachers. It was not the Christmas Pageant. It was the Winter Assembly. There was no singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, no bells jingling, and yet, they brought in Santa Claus. She couldn’t figure it out.
But it also wasn’t her place to figure it out. It was her place to organize the whole thing and make sure the third graders did their little “How the Snowy Owl Saved the Winter Solstice” skit and pass out snowflake-shaped gluten-free cookies to all the parents and grandparents who came to take part in the assembly and watch their children do skits and read poems about snow.
She’d booked the Santa Claus the school always hired back in October, thinking that that part of her job had been easy peasy lemon squeezy. But when she got the call from the school secretary at the butt-crack of dawn that their beloved Santa Claus aka Larry Grimes had been in a horrible accident, her heart had sunk to the box spring of her bed.
Not only did she feel for poor Larry, holed up in the hospital so close to Christmas and fighting for his life, but now she was on the hook to find another Santa last minute.
Her first call, of course, had been Krista.
Zoe went to the same school as Connor, but because of her shift work, Krista wasn’t able to volunteer as much as Stacey could. She did a lot for the school in other ways, though. And since Krista had also lived in Victoria longer than Stacey and worked as a public servant, Stacey figured her super resourceful sister-in-law would have no problems finding a last-minute Santa Claus.
Boy, had she been wrong.
Krista’s panic mode had gone from zero to sixty when Stacey called her. Which, of course, only escalated Stacey’s own panic.
She could not, she would not be that mom at school who failed to produce Santa for their weird sort-of-Christmas-but-mostly-not-Christmas school assembly.
Thankfully, though, Krista had said, “I know who to call,” then hung up on Stacey before Stacey even had a chance to ask who.
Roughly two hours later, Krista was calling Stacey with the good news that Grant of all people not only had a costume, but he would play the rotund immortal elf in a red jumper for all the children.
Stacey wasn’t sure how such a handsome, fit man like Grant could pull off a transformation like that, but she also no longer cared.
Someone dressed like Santa was going to be at the school at one o’clock. She wasn’t a failure. She wasn’t that mom.
But that didn’t stop her from gnawing away on her lip as the gymnasium continued to fill up.
Chase had been pretty upset that he was going to miss Connor’s performance as “Reginald the snowflake elf” in his class’s five-minute skit about global warming and climate change.
Yeah, it was a real hodgepodge kind of performance, but that had nothing to do with her. She just had to book Santa Claus, make sure the cookies were gluten-free and that they also had dairy-free and soy-free options, set up the chairs, and order the big ostentatious donation check for four selected children to present to Santa, which he would then take—in his sleigh—to the non-profit they were raising money for.
“It’s going to all work out,” said a familiar voice beside her before someone bumped her shoulder.
Stacey glanced down at her mother-in-law and wrapped her arm around Joy. “Thank you for having a boyfriend who just so happens to have a Santa suit and is willing to play Santa.”
Joy chuckled. “You’re welcome, dear. It’s really the whole reason I’m seeing him. That Santa suit …” Her smile and the twinkle of love in her dark blue eyes said otherwise.
Stacey hadn’t been a member of the Hart family for long—only a few years—but she’d never, ever seen Joy look as in love or twitterpated as she did when she thought or spoke of Grant. The woman was in full-on swoon mode, and she had no plans of getting out of it. That was easy enough to see.
Stacey spotted Krista at the far end of the gym and waved her over. Her sister-in-law weaved her way through the heavily dressed guests, saying hi to various parents and staff before finally coming to stand in front of Stacey and Joy.
“Brock’s pissed he’s missing this,” Krista said.
Joy lifted her shoulder. “Brock’s pissed about everything.”
Stacey and Krista exchanged looks, and both snorted.
“I said I would videotape it for Chase, so I’ll just send a copy along to Brock, too,” Stacey said, tucking a strand of her strawberry-blonde bob behind her ear.
Things were beginning to settle down inside the gym. People had found seats and were quietly chatting among themselves.
The stage in front of them all was decorated with sparkly snowflakes, fake snow, twinkly lights, and lots of fake green trees. A few real logs and stumps were organized into a semicircle facing the audience.
This was where each class would come up onto the stage and sit before they did whatever it was their teacher planned for them to do for the performance piece.
Some classes were doing skits, others reading poems, while she was pretty sure the kindergarteners were doing some kind of interpretive dance—their teacher was a bit out there.
The commotion behind them drew their attention.
It was the sixth graders.
Stacey, Krista, and Joy shuffled out of the way to let the hormonal youths pass. They took their seats right in front of the guests.
Next came the fifth graders, and the fourth, then the third.
She waited with anticipation to see her son. And when he spotted her, boy, he did not disappoint. His wave was crazy and his smile bright and carefree. As it should be. Her son had been through enough in his first few years on Earth that the rest of his life should be nothing but smooth sailing.
She waved back, wanting desperately to step forward and brush his unruly dirty-blond locks off his forehead. But he’d probably make a face, growl, then gently swat her away.
Her little boy was growing up so fast. He didn’t need his mama nearly as much as he used to, and he seemed to be deferring to Chase a lot more than Stacey lately, which both warmed her heart and frustrated her.
Yes, Chase was Connor’s father and a man, so he could help Connor with things and in ways that Stacey wasn’t well-versed. But for a long time, she had been all her son needed—all her son had. She could answer all his questions, fix all his problems. She was mom and dad.
And not that she would give up having a father for her children or the love of her life by her side, but when Connor would clam up about things and not talk to her but then talk to Chase, she couldn’t control the tightness she experienced in her chest.
“Hi, Mummy!” came a squeaky little girl voice.
Stacey, Joy and Krista all turned around to find Zoe standing behind them with a big smile. She was also missing one of her front top teeth, which was in her hand and being held up in front of Krista’s face. “Look what happened!”
Krista’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even know that was loose.”
Zoe shrugged. “It wasn’t. Some boys were picking on my friend Kayla on the playground at recess, so I went to defend her. Nico shoved Kayla. I shoved Nico. Nico took a swing at me, missed, but I didn’t miss when I took a swing at him.” She smiled big, wide, and gap-toothy. But the frown that followed hit Stacey hard in the solar plexus. “But then Nico didn’t miss the next time he punched me. And he made my tooth fall out.”
At this point, Krista’s mouth was hanging open like a wide-mouth bass, Joy was covering her mouth with her hand, and Stacey had to blink a few times because she hadn’t been and her eyes were starting to dry out.
“Honey,” Krista said, crouching down in front of her daughter and taking the tooth, “we do not hit.”
“Yeah, but you and Daddy have taught me to stand up for myself. And to defend the weak. And Kayla is weaker than me. She’s going through chemo for her … leukemia. Nico was just being a big meanie, so I told him to stop and to just be kind, then he shoved me into the mud and told me to mind my own business. I told him taking care of my friends and standing up for what’s right is my business. Then he shoved Kayla in the mud, so I jumped up and shoved him into the mud. Then he tried to punch me, but he missed because Daddy taught me how to duck. Then I punched him and made him cry.” Her lips twisted. “I actually feel really bad about that. Then he punched me again, and my tooth fell out. It fell into the mud, and we had to go digging for it.”
Krista was quiet for a very long moment.
Stacey would have been, too.
They were all so freaking proud of Zoe for standing up for her friend, defending herself and doing what was right. Buuuuttt … hitting wasn’t right, no matter how warranted it might be in some cases.
Any physical violence on school grounds was call for suspension. Which on the last day of school before winter break was kind of silly. But still, Stacey could tell by Krista’s reaction that she most certainly had not received a call from the school about this incident.
Stacey’s sister-in-law took a deep breath before speaking. “How come I didn’t get a phone call about this from the office, Mrs. Goyer, or one of the recess duty teachers?”
Zoe grinned again. “Because we decided to keep it all a secret. Nico said sorry, I said sorry, then he helped me look for my tooth in the mud. I told him picking on sick kids, or any kid, isn’t nice and that Santa would skip his house if he continued to be a bully. He found my tooth in the mud, and we shook hands, agreeing not to tell the duties so that nobody got in trouble. But I also told him that if he picks on Kayla again, I’ll call my dad and he’ll come to have a little chat with Nico.”
Joy snorted, covered her mouth even more and turned her head so Zoe couldn’t see her laughing. But her small frame shook with amusement at her precocious and strong-willed granddaughter.
“So no teachers know about this?” Krista asked.
Zoe shook her head and placed the tooth in Krista’s palm. “Nope. I just told them I ran into something and it fell out. Nico and I both said we slipped in the mud. I’m wearing my backup clothes.”
“ZoZo, we don’t lie,” Krista warned.
“But it wasn’t really a lie, Mama. It was just a … truth stretch. I kind of sort of ran into Nico’s fist … right?” Zoe’s blue gaze bounced between her mother, aunt, and grandmother. “And we did both slip into the mud when we got hit with the other person’s fist.” She nibbled awkwardly on her lip. “You’re not going to get me in trouble with Mrs. Goyer, are you? It’s the last day of school. Nico says he’ll be better. And Daddy told me I could use that promise on people. That if they were meanies, he would come and have a little chat with them.”
“Oh lord,” Krista said on a groan. “He can’t say that kind of stuff.”
Zoe seemed confused. “Can I tell them my mom is a cop and will come and arrest them if they’re mean?”
“No!” Krista exclaimed. “You need to tell your teacher or one of the recess duty teachers.”
Zoe rolled her eyes.
Krista’s brows rose, and Zoe immediately apologized.
Krista’s expression softened, and she pulled her daughter in for a hug. “I’m glad you defended your friend and that you’re not hurt. But you know that violence is not the answer. Please, no more hitting. And no more threatening your friends with a chat from your father.”
Zoe nodded and pulled free of her mother’s arms. “I need to go find my class.”
Krista nodded.
But before Zoe walked away, Joy piped up. “Any idea what the big front teeth are going for these days with the tooth fairy?”
Zoe’s holey smile was back. “Mila Richards got a whole five bucks for each of her top front teeth.”
Krista groaned. “Mila Richards’ parents must have ticked the box at the hospital for the deluxe tooth fairy. Your dad and I just ticked the box for the basic tooth fairy. I think that means she brings a buck a tooth, no matter the size.”
Zoe’s face scrunched up, and she made an adorably perturbed face. “I hope you ticked the basic box for Zane, too, then.”
Krista smiled at her daughter and ran her hand over her head. “We definitely did. Now go find your class.”
“Don’t lose that tooth,” Zoe instructed as she headed off to go and sit with the rest of the second graders.
When she was out of earshot, Krista blew out a big breath and turned to face Stacey and Joy. “That’s a lot to unpack.”
“And you handled it perfectly, darling,” Joy said, still chuckling. “I’ve said it before, that little girl came into this world fighting for her life, and she hasn’t stopped. She defends the weak because she was once weak. And now that she’s not, she feels it is a sense of duty to defend those who cannot defend themselves.” Joy wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, and Stacey felt herself getting emotional as well. “She gets those traits from both her parents. Gets her stubbornness, too.”
