Callie was pale when she came down for our version of breakfast, and it worried me a little. This town was putting a wall between her and Sunny, and I wished I’d never brought them here. Who’d have thought Sunny would turn out to be a raging asshole over Christmas? I’d only ever seen him dote on her, so this was a complete turnaround for him. I hoped he’d find his way out of the funk he’d settled into.
“Do me a favour, please, Connor. Sort the teams to investigate the workshop. We each need to take a level,” Callie murmured as she leaned over to me.
I nodded and watched as she played with her food. She sipped her orange juice and spoke in a brief mutter to Jack. Jack inclined his head and tilted his head towards me. The atmosphere took a turn for the worse as Sunny entered. Cherry rose and headed to him, and I hoped Sunny’s mom would knock some sense into him.
Cherry
Sunny’s behaviour was beginning to grate on me. Liv had spoken to me last night, asking if she’d forced this attitude with her demands for Christmas as a child. I’d assured her, no, Sunny had missed a good half of her childhood Christmases, having been abroad serving. To make up for it, I often held half her presents back for when Sunny came home. We then scheduleda second Christmas Day with all the decorations and trimmings. Sunny needed a swift kick up his ass to remember that.
His behaviour was killing Callie, and I’d seen the lonely little girl she’d once been. Whether Callie realised it or not, that lost, abandoned child was staring out of her eyes right now. If my son couldn’t see that, then he was a damn fool. And I hadn’t raised an idiot.
“What the hell has got into you?” I demanded as I dragged Sunny to a spare table. He made to move away, and I speared him with my Mom look.
Sunny ground his teeth and sat down.
“Don’t even think of throwing shade at me,” I stated, and Sunny growled. “No, son. You’re gonna listen. That girl loves you so much that she didn’t let the age gap bother her. Callie stood by you when your MC turned against you and sprang you from the MC jail. Callie helped you discover who was behind everything and stopped you from killing your brother. And now you’re shitting on her dreams? Shame on you, son,” I said.
Sunny squirmed like he used to when he was a small child, but I knew he wouldn’t back down yet. Nope, he’d chew this over before deciding what to do.
“You made Liv’s childhood magical, and you’re going to deny this child the same? If you think you’re too old to celebrate like you did with Liv, why the fuck did you get Callie pregnant? You are going to make their life a misery!” I snapped.
Sunny flinched. He didn’t like what I’d just said. “I love her.”
“Not doubting that, but you’ve no right to deny Callie her dreams. Take a walk in her shoes; she didn’t have a parent who gave a fuck; she had herself. All I can say is I’m ashamed of you, Sunny, because the son I raised would swallow his feelings and ensure his woman knows she comes first. You’re putting yourself before her!”
“I can’t stand all this, and Christmas is so cliché, Mom. This is total bullshit.”
“Then lose Callie, because that’s what I see coming for you,” I retorted.
Sunny flinched, and the blood drained from his face. I hope that struck home because he was in danger of losing her.
Callie
Connor had given us the bottom floor, while he took the middle, and Jack took the top. My team would also cover the basement.
I smiled as we entered. Winding up through the three floors and down to here was a conveyor belt that held toys. The toys then moved back upstairs to the workshops where they were ‘recycled’. Although visitors wouldn’t see that as they disappeared behind a wall supposedly leading to Santa’s sleigh, but instead went back upstairs. The workshop was in keeping with the rest of the village and its decoration. Absolutely the ideal Santa’s workshop.
As we called out, I heard a clanking noise and turned around to seek the source. I frowned as I tried to locate it when Liv jumped.
“Look!” she said, pointing to a toy train set. It also wound through the three stories. The carriage was rattling back and forth.
“Hello?” I called, holding out my voice recorder. I asked several other questions before hitting rewind. Pure silence met us.
“Could they be shy?” Liv asked, and I shrugged. Her guess was as good as mine. For the next hour, we tried to engage whoever was down here, but we got nothing. Finally, I decided to move to the first floor. Hopefully, something would happen here.
Connor
I watched bemused as Cherry held a full-on conversation with the Ovilus, which kept spitting out words at her. Whoever was replying to Cherry clearly liked her.
Around us, things moved even though Harry had assured us the electricity had been turned off. Simon had baulked at doing so at first, but we had pointed out that we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between what was real and what was spirit-driven.
Now, wooden cars drove on a racetrack, and a conveyor belt that ran around the room was moving. A clock ticked back and forth while, around the ceiling, balloons moved, each carrying a wrapped gift in a basket. The animatronic elves banged on toys as ghosts enjoyed the building and the surrounding items.
“There are a lot of children here,” Cherry stated.
“Yes,” I agreed.
“Some of this is them, some is the adults entertaining them,” Cherry continued.
