I didn’t give a shit if Elle thought I was rude for bailing on her and leaving her damn kid stranded without a fucking Christmas tree. That wasn’t up to me, and I didn’t need the goddamn headache. I wasn’t Faith’s daddy because she already had an old man. I’d be nothing to the kid except an old grumpy guy next door she had decided to call...
The door flew open.
“Mr. Timber!” Faith cried out as she threw tiny arms around my leg and hugged me tight. “You came!”
“I did, kid.” I sighed.
You are fucking lucky.
I was about to haul ass down the street and not turn back, speed away as fast as I could, as quickly as my heart beat for an innocent girl who needed my help.
Well, shit. I wasn’t about to go anywhere except out into the forest. Solo. With your mommy, kiddo. I’d try with everything in me to keep my damn hands to myself too.
I didn’t want Gabriel to strangle me for Christmas. All I wanted was a nice, relaxing holiday, by myself with no one to bother me, but I had signed myself up for fucking babysitting duty. The good deed had landed me on little Elle’s doorstep with an axe in hand and gloves in my pocket for dragging a damn evergreen through the woods.
Faith peered up at me with her twinkling eyes. “Can you get me the biggest tree ever?”
“How big were you thinking, kid?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Hmm.” Faith let go of me and tapped her chin. “Is it a tree with a bunch of pine needles on it?”
“Yep.” I popped thePwith a curt nod of my head.
“I’d want the tree to be...” Faith stretched her arms out as far as they’d go. “This big.”
Considering Faith was an eight-year-old, and over four feet, she wasn’t too big. The damn tree would be a puny piece of shit, but to her tiny size it would bring a sparkle of wonder to those beautiful eyes. She deserved the grandest evergreen there ever was, and I’d do my best to get her one.
“That’s a pretty dang pun—” Footsteps caught my attention.
“It’s the perfect size.” Noelle intruded and whacked me on the shoulder. “Right, Jack?”
“Right,” I mumbled.
Way to lie to the poor kid, Elle. I bet she’d keep the secret about Santa going until Faith was fucking sixteen, for God’s sake. Embarrass the damn girl in front of all her teenage friends when she found out the big fat man wasn’t real. She’d cry her heart out alone in a bathroom stall at school.
“I wish I could come too,” Faith pouted and placed her arms at her sides.
“I want that too, sweetheart, but Daddy is coming.” Noelle glanced down at her cell phone. “He’s running late.”
“Again.” Faith sighed.
Goddamn asshole. The inconsiderate prick didn’t deserve a daughter as precious as Faith. She already had a disconnect with her father at an impressionable age.
“Daddy will take you to do something fun.” Noelle plastered on a smile I knew was 100 percent fake as fuck. “I know it.”
Faith beamed. “Then I can come home to see the tree?”
“Of course.” Noelle assured her daughter and tucked strands of hair behind her ears. “Maybe we can decorate the tree too. What do you think?”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Faith bounced up and down but stopped to peer up at me. “Will you help us?”
Fuck. Faith was talking to me.Shit, kid. Put me on the spot, why don’t ya?
“Uh...” I fumbled for the right words, but heard a car pull into the driveway behind me.
Saved by the damn bell.
I turned around to hear a vehicle tooting the horn twice. He stopped in front of the garage as if he lived there.Dickhead only wished he woke up next to Elle every day. He blew his chance when he got into bed with someone else.
